Nothing Can Resist Persistence

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water,
yet nothing can resist it.
- Lao Tzu

Choose your battles wisely.
While your core principles and your life goals are important,
most of what you let upset you is not worth an argument or lost sleep.
Take Lao Tzu's advice and become softer and more flexible.

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions,
do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.
- Saint Francis de Sales

The key to everything is patience.
You get the chicken by hatching the egg,
not by smashing it open.
- Arnold H. Glasgow

Patience can't be acquired overnight.
It is just like building up a muscle.
Every day you need to work on it.
- Eknath Easwaran

Patience, persistence, and perseverance.
A little more each day, a little better each day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Be Gentle with Yourself

The Oak and the Reeds - a fable by Aesop

Tread Lightly

Aesop: Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail
    

Harmony Leads to Happiness

Happiness is not something ready made.
It comes from your own actions.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

The key to happiness is not to have what you want
but to want what you have.
- Anonymous

Happiness is when what you think, what you say,
and what you do are in harmony.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you
shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
- Helen Keller

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
- Zhuangzi

You can not find happiness by chasing after it.
Happiness comes from doing what you love to do,
and from being who you truly are.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Simple Pleasures

The Secret of Happiness

How to be Happy in Life by Breaking the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

Choose To Be Happy
      

Inner Guidance

Trust your own inner guidance.
Have faith that your steps are
carrying you toward your dreams.
Keep your eyes on the heavens
and believe that your feet will carry you well.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When I let go of what I am,
I become what I might be.
- Lao Tzu

Follow what you are genuinely passionate about
and let that guide you to your destination.
- Diane Sawyer

Fear is the cheapest room in the house.
I would like to see you living
In better conditions.
- Hafiz

Further reading: 7 Secrets of Happy Couples

How to Gain Self Confidence

How to be Successful in Business
       

YOU make a Difference

YOU make a difference to the world.
Act on your dreams today.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is not the easy or convenient life for which I search,
but life lived to the edge of all that I may be.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

The most difficult thing is the decision to act,
the rest is merely tenacity.
The fears are paper tigers.
You can do anything you decide to do.
You can act to change and control your life;
and the procedure, the process is its own reward.
- Amelia Earhart

Further reading: Your Legacy - Making a Difference

Fulfilling Your Dreams

Follow Your Bliss

Only Today
      

Enforce Your Personal Boundaries

Set and enforce your personal boundaries.
You and only YOU get to choose how much influence
you allow others to exert over your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater
than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please,
or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

"No" is a complete sentence, and so often we forget that.
When we don't want to do something, we can simply smile and say "No."
We don't have to explain ourselves, we can just say "No."
Love yourself enough to be able to say "Yes" or "No."
- Susan Gregg

Never be bullied into silence.
Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
Accept no one's definition of your life;
define yourself.
- Harvey Fierstein

Further reading: The Power of Saying NO to the Demands of Others

Appreciate Yourself

To Thine Own Self Be True
    

Miracles Are Love

Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.
The real miracle is the love that inspires them.
In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.
- A Course in Miracles

Love is what we were born with.
Fear is what we learned here.
- Marianne Williamson

Miracles are a retelling in small letters
of the very same story which is written across the whole world
in letters too large for some of us to see.
- C.S. Lewis

Those of true faith don't require guaranteed security.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: There are Only Fear and Love

The Darkness of the Unknown

True Faith Needs No Guarantees

Trust in the Light
    

Acknowledging Your Fears

We all have a fear of the unknown.
What one does with that fear makes all the difference in the world.
- Lillian Russell

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past
have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.
- George S. Patton

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
- Joseph Campbell

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.
- Roberto Assagioli

Ask yourself: How is fear (fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of the unknown, etc.) holding you back in life?

Recognizing your natural fear of the unknown is key to overcoming that fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choose To Be Fearless

Life's Daring Adventure

A Life Without Fear
   

Yourself as a Gift

Your greatest gift to your family and friends is yourself -
your relaxed, happy, and fully-present self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

As we let our light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence actually liberates others.
- Marianne Williamson

In my own deepening understanding of myself
I find my capacity to serve others is deepened as well.
The better I am at self-care
the more genuinely nurturing of others I am able to be.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Every time you smile at someone,
it is an action of love,
a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
- Mother Teresa

Nurturing is not complex.
It's simply being tuned in to the thing or person before you
and offering small gestures toward what it needs at that time.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Watering

How to Be Yourself

Creating a Dream for Your Life

Pleasing Everyone
      

Plan, Act, Achieve

Life expands to fill your dreams.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined.
- Henry David Thoreau

Believe in yourself. Dream big dreams.
Set important goals. Take action on those goals.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
- Anais Nin

To live a great life requires two steps...
1. Plan your life goals.
2. Act on your plan - every day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

How To Not Care What Others Think

Follow Your Bliss

Later is Never
    

Step Up To the Plate

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
- Babe Ruth

The Babe, as well as being the Home Run King,
led the American League in Strike Outs in 1918, 1923, 1924, 1927 and 1928.

You are certain never to be a winner if you don't take your time at bat.
Do your best, and accept with gratitude whatever result you get.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Defeat is not the worst of failures.
Not to have tried is the true failure.
- George Edward Woodberry

How you think when you lose
determines how long it will be until you win.
- Gilbert (G. K.) Chesterton

Remember you will not always win.
Some days, the most resourceful individual will taste defeat.
But there is, in this case, always tomorrow -
after you have done your best to achieve success today.
- Maxwell Maltz

Further reading: How to Feel Better About Yourself

Simply Do Your Best

How to Deal with Rejection
     

The Battle for Your Mind

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles,
but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
- Norman Vincent Peale

We carry our worst enemies within us.
- Charles Spurgeon

Life is way too short to spend another day at war with yourself.
- Anonymous

It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe,
that lures him to evil ways.
- The Buddha

Today's affirmation:
I lay aside the battles within my own mind,
and grant myself peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Our Own Worst Enemy

Creating Peace Within Yourself

Stilling Your Mind

Managing Your Wayward Mind
     

Happiness from Simplicity

Life is really simple,
but we insist on making it complicated.
- Confucius

As you simplify your life,
the laws of the universe will be simpler;
solitude will not be solitude,
poverty will not be poverty,
nor weakness weakness.
- Henry David Thoreau

To live a pure unselfish life,
one must count nothing as one's own
in the midst of abundance.
- The Buddha

If thou wilt make a man happy,
add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
- Epicurus

What if happiness were found in the serenity of simple pleasures.
What if we didn't need the newest gizmo... the highest high?
What if happiness is in the air we breathe...
slowly, deeply, and consciously?
What if happiness is one fresh grape, savored with gratitude?
What if happiness is in our oneness with all creation?
What if happiness is about enjoying life exactly as it comes to us -
without chasing after it?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Bounty of the Earth

Simple Life

Giving of Yourself
    

Faith is Trust

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.
When you swim you don't grab hold of the water,
because if you do you will sink and drown.
Instead you relax, and float.
- Alan Watts

There are no guarantees.
From the viewpoint of fear, none are strong enough.
From the viewpoint of love, none are necessary.
- Emmanuel (Pat Rodegast)

Honor your being,
Release each and every struggle,
Gather strength from life's storms,
Relax into the arms of Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If you have to have it, it's ego.
If you have to not have it, it's ego.
Hold life lightly and it will deliver what you need
and release what you don't.
- Alan Cohen

Further reading: Faith Plus Action

Give Thanks for the Small Miracles

Everything is a Miracle

Unanswered Prayers

    

Take Time to Renew Yourself

Every day, take some time for yourself.
Love yourself. Honor yourself.
Give priority to your physical, mental, and emotional wellness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If you've lost focus, just sit down and be still.
Take the idea and rock it to and fro.
Keep some of it and throw some away,
and it will renew itself.
You need do no more.
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The successful and happy ones dance lightly with life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's Affirmation:
I will not be governed by the tyranny of immediacy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Make Time For Yourself

How to Stay Young

No Need to Hurry
      

New Times Require New Ways of Thinking and Doing

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again,
but expecting different results.
- Rita Mae Brown (also attributed to Einstein)

Be resolute in your goals, but flexible in your tactics.
There are times that call for repetition and perseverance;
and there are times that require new ways of thinking and doing.
The challenge is knowing one from the other.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Only when we realize that there is no eternal,
unchanging truth or absolute truth, can we arouse in
ourselves a sense of intellectual responsibility.
- Hu Shih

New Times Require New Ways of Thinking and Doing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.
- Tony Robbins

Whatever you want in life, start today. Not tomorrow - today.
Let it be a small beginning - a tiny beginning.
Your happiness depends on starting today - every day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: It's Never Too Late

How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions

A Better Plan
     

Humility is Spiritual

Humility is not thinking less of yourself,
it's thinking of yourself less.
- Rick Warren

It's all about humanity, humility, and integrity.
- Debra Wilson

Humility is not cowardice.
Meekness is not weakness.
Humility and meekness are indeed spiritual powers.
- Swami Sivananda

Pride makes us artificial, and humility makes us real.
- Thomas Merton

Further reading: Respect

Humble Places

Love Your Neighbor

Value Honor, Not Ego

Self-Importance
     

Expand Your Toolkit

If the only tool you have is a hammer,
you tend to see every problem as a nail.
- Abraham Maslow
Read my thoughts about this... 

Little men with little minds and little imaginations
go through life in little ruts,
smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.
- Zig Ziglar

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful
than Thor with his hammer.
The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.
- Henry David Thoreau

If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer.
- Alan Lewis
[Sometimes a bigger hammer works, but it isn't a very creative approach.]

If your only tool is a bomb,
you tend to see every problem as a target.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Focus and Flexibility

Our Habits

Being Present in the Moment

Adaptability

9 Secrets For Getting Un-Stuck
     

Your World Expands with Your Generosity, Compassion, Service

One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy
are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer

A hero is somebody who is selfless,
who is generous in spirit,
who just tries to give back
as much as possible and help people.
A hero to me is someone who saves people
and who really deeply cares.
- Debi Mazar

It's a privilege to serve the poor.
- Bono

Life is unlimited.
Your world expands with the generosity, compassion,
inventiveness, and service that you contribute.
Money that is spent or given away returns multiplied.
The more love that is given, the more love returns.
The more a helping hand is given, the more hands
are strengthened and empowered to help.
We can help each other to all be winners.
We can all have food, and jobs, and love, and happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Create Light for Others

Basic Kindness

Making a Difference

True Measure of a Successful Life
     

Take Time for Yourself

Take time to laugh.
It is the music of the soul.
Take time to think.
It is the source of power.
Take time to play.
It is the source of perpetual youth.
Take time to read.
It is the fountain of wisdom.
Take time to pray.
It is the greatest power on Earth.
Take time to love and be loved.
It is a God-given privilege.
Take time to be friendly.
It is the road to happiness.
Take time to give.
It is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to work.
It is the price of success.
- Anonymous

Take time to play!
Ask for what you want.
Laugh.
Live loudly.
Be avid.
Learn a new thing.
Be Yourself!
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: How to Stay Young

Don't Fight Against Time

Time is What We Make of It
   

Universal Substance

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
- Albert Einstein

Once you accept the existence of God -
however you define him,
however you explain your relationship to him -
then you are caught forever with his presence in the center of all things.
- Morris West

God is the universal substance in existing things.
He comprises all things.
He is the fountain of all being.
In Him exists everything that is.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

You can create miracles in your own life,
and in the lives of those around you -
because you are a miracle,
and you are connected to the source of all miracles.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Go With the Flow - Six Ways to Live a Happier Life

Trust in the Light

Feel Overwhelmed?

Unanswered Prayers
     

Inner Peace Conquers Depression and Fear

Inner peace is a choice -
make that choice today.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is a criterion by which you can judge
whether the thoughts you are thinking
and the things you are doing
are right for you.
The criterion is: Have they brought you inner peace?
- Peace Pilgrim

Freedom from desire leads to inner peace.
- Lao-Tzu

If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
- Lao Tzu

Inner Peace Conquers Depression and Fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: God Grant Me The Wisdom

Appreciate Today

Choose to Live in Peace

Find Peace in Forgiveness
    

Forgiving Others Grants You Peace

Forgiving Others Grants You Peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Forgiveness does not change the past,
but it does enlarge the future.
- Paul Boese

Forgiveness is the key to happiness.
- A Course In Miracles

I rest in the light of forgiveness.
I forgive myself and others for that
which is done (and better left undone)
and also that which is not done (and better if done).
I give myself permission to enjoy this moment without guilt.
I freely release all uncertainty, regret, and fear.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Burning Away Old Regrets and Resentments

Forgive All From Your Heart

Helping is what Life is About

Forgiving Sets You Free
     

Gratitude for the Commonplace

The enlightened give thanks for what most people take for granted.
- Michael Beckwith

The invariable mark of wisdom is to
see the miraculous in the common.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today's affirmation:
I find joy and inspiration in the commonplace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Simple Pleasures

Beauty is Everywhere

The Commonplace
    

A Belief is Not a Truth

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion
is not assurance of its truth.
- Pierre Bayle

There is no truth, only human opinion.
- Anonymous

If you wish to see the truth,
then hold no opinion for or against.
- Osho

Even the truth, when believed, is a lie.
You must experience the truth, not believe it.
- Werner Erhard

Having a personal opinion is great.
Believing that one's personal opinion is absolute truth
leads to most of the world's troubles.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Not As It Appears

What is "The Truth?"

Art of Seeing
   

Love Overcomes All

Love is stronger than justice.
- Sting

Do you prefer that you be right or happy?
- A Course In Miracles

We cling to our own point of view,
as though everything depended on it.
Yet our opinions have no permanence;
like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
- Zhuangzi

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
- Dale Carnegie

You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.
- George Clooney

You prove your worth with your actions,
not with your mouth.
- Jean Paul

Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions.
- Booth Tarkington

The greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:13

What we have to do...
is to find a way to celebrate our diversity
and debate our differences
without fracturing our communities.
- Hillary Clinton

One of the surest ways to cause
yourself great suffering
is to insist upon being right -
to demand that all others view life
exactly as you view it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Why should it impede your happiness for others to have differing views on politics or religion?
for others to paint their houses purple or grow asparagus in place of a grassy lawn?
for others to dress, mingle, celebrate, or dine in their own manner?

The path to happiness is to live your life joyfully in your own way
and to support and encourage others to do likewise.

Further reading: Arguing

Opinions

Listen, Really Listen

Disagreement
   

Count Your Blessings and Rejoice

Count your blessings.
Once you realize how valuable you are
and how much you have going for you,
the smiles will return, the sun will break out,
the music will play, and you will finally
be able to move forward the life that God intended
for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.
- Og Mandino

Be content with what you have,
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
- Lao Tzu

If you want to feel rich,
just count all of the things you have that money can't buy.
- Anonymous

He is a wise man who does not grieve
for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for those which he has.
- Epictetus

Further reading: Becoming Conscious of Our Wealth

Thankful and Content

A Life of Abundance

A Simple Life
     

Faith No Matter How Dark

Faith is the bird that feels the light
and sings when the dawn is still dark.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Faith has to do with things that are not seen
and hope with things that are not at hand.
- Saint Thomas Aquinas

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry,
and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed
to worry about anything whatsoever.
- Mohandas Gandhi

The antidotes for worry are gratitude, action, service, and faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Worrying about Tomorrow

The Edge of All You Know

Don't Let One Cloud

Harmony of the Soul
   

Don't Sell Out

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
- Henry David Thoreau

Don't compromise yourself.
You are all you've got.
- Janis Joplin

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
- Steve Jobs

In matters of style, swim with the current;
in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
- attributed to Thomas Jefferson

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable,
you disconnect yourself from what you truly want,
and all that is left is compromise.
- Robert Fritz

Further reading: Choose Your Priorities

Your Relationship with Time

Your To-Do List

The Main Thing

Question Your Questions
     

Refresh and Renew

Be gentle first with yourself.
- Lama Yeshe

First renew your own body, mind and emotions;
be kind, compassionate, and gentle with yourself.
Then use your regenerated strength and commitment
to be of service to the less fortunate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Rest when you're weary.
Refresh and renew yourself, your body,
your mind, your spirit.
Then get back to work.
- Ralph Marston

Affirmation: Today, I will be gentle with myself.

Further reading: Renew Yourself

Feel Good About Yourself

Keeping Your Head

Make Time For Yourself

Love Yourself
   

One World, Many Views

Loving people live in a loving world.
Hostile people live in a hostile world.
Same world.
- Wayne Dyer

The eyes of the cheerful and of the melancholy man
are fixed upon the same creation;
but very different are the aspects which it bears to them.
- Albert Pike

If you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change.
- Wayne Dyer

A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.
- William Arthur Ward

Further reading: Choosing a Joyful Life

Don't Let One Cloud

Being a Reflection

Power of a Positive Attitude