Success is Measured by Other Lives Made Better

It is not what we get.
But who we become, what we contribute...
that gives meaning to our lives.
- Tony Robbins

Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got a hold of for the moment,
and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to future generations.
- George Bernard Shaw

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children,
to leave the world a better place,
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived,
this is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The true measure of success in life is how many other lives you made better.
- Jeff Hoffman

Almost nothing you worry about today
will matter in a hundred years.
Think carefully about what you can focus on today.
Choose tasks that will actually make a positive difference
to your great-grandchildren.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: To Live, Not Merely To Exist

Serving Others

Recognizing Our Abundance

Passing the Torch
      

Forget Regret

Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
- Jonathan Larson

Life is now.
There was never a time when your life was not now,
nor will there ever be.
- Eckhart Tolle

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

A goal is a dream with a deadline.
- Napoleon Hill

When in doubt, do it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Begin each day as if it were on purpose.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Do you have a plan for your life? If not, allocate some time today to sit quietly with pen and paper to begin writing your life plan - what you want to accomplish with your life, and what projects will support your goals.

Further reading: Create Your Inspired Future

Live Fully and Joyfully

To Live, Not Merely to Exist

Fully Live Your God-Given Life
      

Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

Memorial Day 2018

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others.
- Pericles

When people get caught up with that which is right
and they are willing to sacrifice for it,
there is no stopping point short of victory.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice,
and is never the result of selfishness.
- Napoleon Hill

Be unselfish.
That is the first and final commandment for those who
would be useful and happy in their usefulness.
If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because
you are choking the source of development,
which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.
- Charles William Eliot

He who would accomplish much must sacrifice much.
- James Allen

Those we love don't go away,
They walk beside us every day,
Unseen, unheard, but always near,
Still loved, still missed and very dear.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Words of Comfort on the Death of a Loved One

Coping With Loss, Grief, and Mortality

Going Home to God

What is Honor? Is there a place for Honor today?
       

God Calls Us to be Compassionate to All

You may call God love, you may call God goodness.
But the best name for God is compassion.
- Meister Eckhart

Praying without ceasing is not ritualized,
nor are there even words.
It is a constant state of awareness of oneness with God.
- Peace Pilgrim

The style of God venerated in the church, mosque, or synagogue
seems completely different from the style of the natural universe.
- Alan Watts

I distrust those people who know so well
what God wants them to do,
because I notice it always coincides
with their own desires.
- Susan B. Anthony

He who is persistent will realize God.
So try your best to make meditation
a regular experience in your life.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

When the universal sacraments of compassion and joy
fill the vast cathedral of our being,
we become the face of God.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Everything is God

Surrender to God

Solitude vs. Feeling Lonely

Be an Open Channel
      

Cheerful in Defeat

It's one of life's great paradoxes ...
Accepting with gratitude whatever life throws at us
is critical to happiness.
Yet without a goal and commitment, life loses much of its value.
The best we can do in the face of this paradox
is to play to win, but be cheerful in defeat
and ready to play again.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The greatest test of courage on earth
is to bear defeat without losing heart.
- Robert Ingersoll

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: Do What You Can; Trust God With The Rest (Serenity Prayer)

Make Lemonade

What is Defeat?
      

Not About You

Whatever anyone else says or does, their words
and their actions are truly about themselves.
Don't take it personally when they rant,
even if they direct their unhappiness in your direction.
Their negativity is basically selfishness,
and their selfishness is about them, not about you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Don't Take Anything Personally.
Nothing others do is because of you.
- Miguel Angel Ruiz (don Miguel Ruiz)

We are to take nothing personally,
least of all ourselves, for the moment we do,
our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
- Hopi Proverb

You can't get mad at weather because weather's not about you.
Apply that lesson to most other aspects of life.
- Doug Coupland

What you think of me is none of my business.
- Terry Cole-Whittaker

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; ...
Forgive them anyway.
- Kent Keith
(often attributed to Mother Teresa, who kept a copy on the wall of her orphanage)

Further reading: Don Miguel Ruiz' Four Agreements

Don't Take Rejection Personally

How to Not Care What People Think about You

How to be Positive Around Negative People

Families and Social Expectations
      

Treat Life as Fun

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
- Dale Carnegie

What work I have done I have done because it has been play.
If it had been work I shouldn't have done it.
- Mark Twain

 It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney

If we like what we do, if we always do our best,
then we are really enjoying life.
We are having fun, we don't get bored,
we don't have frustrations.
- don Miguel Ruiz

It's work only if I say it's work,
but it's play if I say it's fun.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cherish the Whimsey

Realizing Success

Bounce Back

Dream. Begin. Persevere.

We Come This Way But Once
      

Beyond Limits

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.
- Richard Bach

We must accept finite disappointment,
but never lose infinite hope.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

As long as a man stands in his own way,
everything seems to be in his way.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don't Limit Your Challenges... Challenge Your Limits.
- Anonymous

Life is unlimited - it expands with the generosity, compassion,
inventiveness, and service that you contribute.
-Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: You Can Do It

The Power of Courage

Challenge of Dark Times

Be Unstoppable
     

Behavior is not evil simply because it is different

Never impose on others what
you would not choose for yourself.
- Confucius (Ancient Chinese)

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil.
- Japanese pictorial maxim (the Three Wise Monkeys)

Behavior is not evil simply because it is different.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Read more of my thoughts about this.

Live and let live.
- Yiddish Proverb

Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling
with other men's concerns.
- Plato

Many people excuse their own faults
but judge other persons harshly.
We should reverse this attitude
by excusing others' shortcomings
and by harshly examining our own.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Let It Be.
- Paul McCartney

Let today be a day to honor and respect the beliefs and lifestyles of your extended family, your friends, your neighbors, your fellow citizens, and all those around the world.

Further reading: Meddling - 5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice

Point of View

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

Our Bond of Humanity

Shouting
        

Courage and Perseverance

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

When you get into a tight place
and everything goes against you,
till it seems you cannot hold on a minute longer,
never give up then, for that is just
the place and time the tide will turn.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Stand up to your obstacles
and do something about them.
You will find that they haven't
half the strength you think they have.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Obstacles are those frightful things you see
when you take your eyes off your goals.
- Henry Ford

Today's affirmation:
Even when I am afraid or unsure,
I choose to move in the direction of my goal.
Whenever I fall, I stand up,
brush myself off, and keep moving.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Photo: Talking to relatives across the Berlin Wall 1961.

Further reading: Keep Moving

Wanting is Not Enough

Choose to Soar

Beyond Failure
     

Our Purpose is to Help Others

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.
- Matthew Arnold

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me:
I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
...
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Matthew 25:35-40

The only commandment that really matters
is universal kindness:
Be as kind as you can to everyone.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Charity: To Do God's Work

Measure of Your Heart

The Purpose of Our Lives

Basic Kindness
    

Opportunity in Times of Trouble

Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves
come when life seems most challenging.
- Joseph Campbell

Facing a difficulty requires a willingness of heart.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
- Sun Tzu

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis"
is composed of two characters.
One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
- John F. Kennedy

Further reading: When Life Appears Difficult

How Hard?

The Quiet Voice of Courage

Life's Daring Adventure
      

Be True to Your Own Values - Live an Honorable Life

This above all, to thine own self be true.
- William Shakespeare
[Be true to your own values - live an honorable life.]

Self-respect is often mistaken for arrogance
when in reality it is the opposite.
When we can recognize all our good qualities
as well as or faults with neutrality,
we can start to appreciate ourselves
as we would a dear friend
and experience the comfortable inner glow of respect.
- Osho

Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

If you doubt the virtue in self-honor,
remember what the flight attendant says,
"Put your own oxygen mask on first."
You are of no use to anyone else
if you have not taken care of your own needs first -
this includes your own emotional,
as well as physical, well-being.
In addition, your greatest value to your children,
your family, your friends, and your community
is the example you set, leading a great life that inspires
those around you to emulate your being.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: At the Center of Your Being

Earning a Good Name

Either Accept It, or Change It

Treat ALL with Goodness
        

First a Dream

Nothing happens unless first a dream.
- Carl Sandburg

Powerful Dreams Inspire Powerful Action.
When you can taste, smell, and touch your dreams,
you can enroll the world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A man can succeed at almost anything
for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.
- Charles M. Schwab

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort,
and without it nothing great was ever achieved.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is your dream - your life-dream?
Have you begun to live it yet?

Further reading: Follow Your Dreams

I Dreamed a Dream (Susan Boyle video)

Dream. Begin. Persevere.

I have a Dream... Martin Luther King Jr. (video)
      

A Good Egg

A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg
even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.
- Bernard Meltzer

A friend is someone who understands my past,
believes in my future,
and accepts me just the way I am.
- Anonymous

Friends are helpful not only because they will listen to us,
but because they will laugh at us;
Through them we learn a little objectivity,
a little modesty, a little courtesy.
- Will Durant

One measure of friendship consists
not in the number of things friends can discuss,
but in the number of things they need no longer mention.
- Clifton Fadiman

Further reading: Tears and Laughter

Happy Friends, Happy You

Choosing Your Friends
     

Don't Fight Life

If we fail to plan, we merely bob helplessly -
like a cork on the sea of life.
If we resist whatever life delivers to us,
we create untold misery for ourselves.
If we act with vision and commitment,
and then accept whatever Spirit provides,
we live a life of purpose and joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.
Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality.
Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
- Lao Tzu

We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.
- Jules Verne

What you resist, persists.
- Carl Jung

By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try.
The world is beyond the winning.
- Lao Tzu

Resistance creates suffering.
Stress happens when your mind resists what is.
The only problem in your life
is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds.
- Dan Millman

Today's affirmation:
I practice non-resistance.
I accept the wisdom of God
in creating the world exactly as it is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Acceptance Is Not Resignation

Non-Resistance

Everything Happens In Its Own Time

Serenity in Times of Crisis
    

Beauty Surpasses Utility

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty
out-values all the utilities of the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not take life too seriously.
You will never get out of it alive.
- Elbert Hubbard

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at yourself.
- Ethel Barrymore

Earth laughs in flowers.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Lighten Up, Life Isn't Serious

Time to Smell the Flowers 

Choose Not To Stress
      

Mother's Day 2018

A mother is not a person to lean on,
but a person to make leaning unnecessary.
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher

You can't live a perfect day without doing something
for someone who will never be able to repay you.
- John Wooden

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss
at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.
- Honore de Balzac

We leave our most profoundly positive impact
on those around us by the nature of our lives
and the example we set.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

Debt of Gratitude

Opportunity for Daily Thanksgiving
        

Make the Leap

You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
- old proverb often attributed to David Lloyd George

You need to make a commitment,
and once you make it,
then life will give you some answers.
- Les Brown

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
- Confucius

Many important things shouldn't be done half-way.
Think of getting married, having children,
starting a business, changing your career.
There are times to gather your courage
and make the leap, the whole leap.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live Courageously

Honor Your Commitments

Live Your Greatest Life

Be Unstoppable
      

Who Told You Life was Supposed to be "Fair?"

Life is NOT "Supposed to be Fair."
Know that there is no single way that life is "supposed" to be.
Demanding that life meet our expectations
is a sure fire recipe for a miserable existence.
Life is a game with no rules.
Life just happens to us regardless of our best intentions.
Our only path to happiness lies in being open
to receiving whatever life throws at us -
with Gratitude. Have NO Expectations of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"Why?" is the most useless question in the universe.
The only question with any meaning is "What?"
Asking "Why is this happening?" can only disempower you.
Asking "What do I want to make of this?" does exactly the opposite.
- Neale Donald Walsch

The less I take the difficulties of my life as personal affront,
and the more I use them as an opportunity to learn and grow...
the easier I sleep at night.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Nature is relentless and unchangeable,
and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons
and actions are understandable to man or not.
- Galileo Galilei

Further reading: Complaining Only Makes You Miserable

Break Your Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

You Are Not A Victim

What One Emphasizes

My thoughts on "Life is not supposed to be fair."
        

Age is Only a Limitation if You Think it is

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
- C. S. Lewis

And in the end, it's not
the years in your life that count,
it's the life in your years.
- Abraham Lincoln

You are only as old as you think you are.
- Anonymous

What is age but a number.
What you can dream, you can become, at any age.
Live your best life, not your age.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Staying Young

Never Too Late

Growing Up - Staying Young
     

Compass of Your Heart

Listen to the compass of your heart.
All you need lies within you.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Your inner knowing is your only true compass.
- Joy Page

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition -
they somehow already know what you truly want to become.
- Steve Jobs

Everyone who wills, can hear the inner voice.
It is within everyone.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: Three Rules of Life

Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation

Ask from a Compassionate Heart
      

How We Respond to Challenges

Our lives are defined not by the challenges we encounter,
but by how we respond to those challenges.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances
but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.
- Joy Page

Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.
- James Allen

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.
- Richard Bach

A little more persistence,
a little more effort, and
what seemed hopeless failure
may turn to glorious success.
- Elbert Hubbard

Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions,
everything we have done, and have not done.
- Hubert Selby Jr.

It's not the situation that's causing your stress,
it's your thoughts,
and you can change that right here and now.
- Gerald Jampolsky

Your RESPONSE to any situation is your own RESPONSibility.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Thoughtful Response, Not Panic

Life is Not Hopeless

Don't Give Up

Create Happiness
    

Making Dreams Real

Choose in ways that support your dreams.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves.
The process never ends until we die.
And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

The big question is whether you are going to be able
to say a hearty yes to your adventure.
- Joseph Campbell

Sharpen your pencil as you create the story of your life.
Ask today as you consider the many choices in your view -
what is the highest and best use of your talents, skills and abilities?
When you answer that, seize the opportunity to sharpen
those qualities even more sharply by applying your focused effort.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Choose to Soar

Choosing a Joyful Life

Personal Boundaries

Pursue Your Dreams
      

Mutual Respect

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

Do to others what you would have them do to you,
for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
- Matthew 7:12

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs.
Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
- John F. Kennedy

Respect the religious views of others
to the same degree that you ask them to
respect your views.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Golden Rule

Cultivate Awareness

Through the Eyes of Another
       

What's Wrong with "Good Advice?"

Most people when they come to you for advice,
come to have their own opinions strengthened,
not corrected.
- Josh Billings

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer
but wish we didn't.
- Erica Jong

I always pass on good advice.
It is the only thing to do with it.
It is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde

No one can give you better advice than yourself.
- Cicero

Further reading: Granting Space

Trust Yourself

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice
        

Attitude Overcomes All

The greatest discovery of any generation
is that a human being
can alter his life by
altering his attitude
- William James

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Attitude is Everything.
- Charles Swindoll

Whatever happens to you, your attitude determines the quality of your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What One Emphasizes

How To Be Happy In Life

Choosing a Joyful Life
       

Enduring Legacy

The three controlling desires of every normal man seem to be:
First, to live. Not merely to exist.
Second, to be a man among men.
Third, to do that which will endure.
- James Hulme Canfield

Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime,
and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Death comes to all,
but great achievements build a monument
which shall endure until the sun grows cold.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The way you get meaning into your life
is to devote yourself to loving others.
Devote yourself to your community around you,
and devote yourself to creating something
that gives you purpose and meaning.
- Mitch Albom

Further reading: Your Legacy - Making a Difference

A Truly Successful Life

Earning a Good Name

Our Grandchildren's Planet

The Seeds You Plant
     

One's Inner Qualities Never Stay Hidden Long

How we think shows through in how we act.
Attitudes are mirrors of the mind.
They reflect thinking.
- David Joseph Schwartz

Whoever you pretend to be, you must face yourself eventually.
- Al Stewart

Everything you say and do,
is a reflection of the inner you.
- Anonymous

When I'm trusting and being myself...
everything in my life reflects this
by falling into place easily, often miraculously.
- Shakti Gawain

More often than not, the world mirrors your attitude back to you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmations:

I am a Mirror for Love and Light,
but never for Anger or Fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I will reflect the finest qualities my friends offer me
and remind them of all the promise I see in them.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: The Power of Your Intention

We see what we expect to see

Life Is A Mirror

Try a Different Approach

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

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
- Stephen Hawking

Persistence only takes you so far.
Then you need to try a different approach.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Sometimes success requires persistence and hard work. Sometimes an ingenious new approach is needed. Or it may be time for a whole new beginning. Think, and choose wisely whether to try harder or to try something new.

The very nature of the world is constant change. You set a goal and create a plan to achieve it; then the assumptions on which you based your plan change - they always do. The challenge is to retain your goals while adapting your tactics. Relax and stay flexible in order to reach your goals and maintain your happiness.

The phrase "tilting at windmills" (from the fictional character Don Quixote - shown in today's picture) epitomizes the hopelessness of a determined but inflexible approach. Far better to change your tactics than to fail - however nobly.

Further reading: Multiple Ways to Your Goal

Surmounting Obstacles

Begin Anew Today

Stay Adaptable