Frustration is an Insidious Emotion

When you are angry or frustrated, what comes out?
Whatever it is, it's a good indication of what you're made of.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams.
Think not about your frustrations,
but about your unfulfilled potential.
Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in,
but with what it is still possible for you to do.
- Pope John XXIII

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more
than when we have nothing and want some.
We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than
when we seem to lack but one thing.
- Eric Hoffer

If you get frustrated by some of your family,
focus on the good aspects of your relationship
and attempt to overlook the irritations.
Then give thanks for everyone who plays a part in your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration:
set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes,
cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell,
simmer down and go about business as usual.
- Phyllis Diller

All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this:
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right
about face which turns us from failure to success.
- Dorthea Brande

Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration
and turn it into positive,
effective, unstoppable determination.
- Ralph Marston

Further reading: How to be Positive Around Negative People

s How to Move On and Let Go

When You Feel Sad for No Apparent Reason

How to Think Positive
               

ALL Human Beings are OUR Family

 

Always hold peace toward all in your own heart.
If you are healthy, support those who are sick.
If you have a job, support those who have lost theirs.
If you are strong, support those who are feeble of body or mind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

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

If we have no peace,
it is because we have forgotten
that we belong to each other.
- Mother Teresa

Further reading: Feed Just One

Commitment To Service

The Good Samaritan

Help Others

Encourage Others

How Helping Others Helps You
      

Choose to See the Beauty in Life

Even those things which seem out of reach of our choice
are governed by how we choose to perceive them.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Much in life can be seen as ugly or beautiful - it's our choice.
Why would we choose to see any part of life as ugly?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is nothing true anywhere,
The true is nowhere to be seen;
If you say you see the true,
This seeing is not the true one.
- Abraham Lincoln paraphrasing Lao Tzu's Tao te Ching

Seeing the light is a choice, not seeing the light is no choice.
- Douglas Horton

Change what you see,
by changing how you see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Labels

Opinions

Finding Beauty
    

You are given your circumstances; you choose your response

 

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Your RESPONSE to any situation is your own RESPONSibility.
You are given your circumstances; you choose your response.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Don't Give Up

Thoughtful Response, Not Panic

Life is Not Hopeless

Create Happiness
    

Change Is Life

 

You change your life by changing your heart.
- Max Lucado

Thinkers do not accept the inevitable;
they turn their efforts toward changing it.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

If you take the responsibility for your life,
you can start changing it.
- Osho

It’s the most unhappy people who most fear change.
- Mignon McLaughlin

Everyone thinks of changing the world,
but no one thinks of changing himself.
- Leo Tolstoy

When you are through changing, you are through.
- Bruce Barton

Further reading: A New Perspective

Moving Forward

Rattlesnake of the Mind

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind
      

New Ways of Thinking and Doing

 

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

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

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

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

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: A Better Plan

It's Never Too Late

How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions
     

Growing Up Without Growing Old

 
The trick is growing up without growing old.
- Casey Stengel

Too many people grow up.
That's the real trouble with the world,
too many people grow up. They forget.
- Walt Disney

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
- e. e. cummings

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
- John Wooden

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

If we don't change, we don't grow.
If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
- Gail Sheehy

Don't go through life - grow through life.
- Eric Butterworth

Curiosity keeps one young - in thought and in action.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Stay Young

Never Stop Learning

Staying Young

Never Too Old

Unstoppable Youth

The Power of Laughter

A Young Child
 

Wisdom via Humor

The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all
is the person who argues with him.
- Stanislaw Jerszy Lec

Always listen to the experts.
They'll tell you what can't be done and why.
Then do it.
- Robert Heinlein

Money won't make you happy...
but everybody wants to find out for themselves.
- Zig Ziglar

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

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.
- Will Rogers

The most difficult phase of life is not when no one understands you,
it is when you don't understand yourself.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Taking Ourselves Less Seriously

Sense of Humor

The Problem with Advice

Too Serious?

Cute Wisdom
    

Seeing Beyond the Superficial

 

The eye sees what it brings the power to see.
- Thomas Carlyle

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
- Jonathan Swift

We never see what we are not ready to see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.
- Napoleon Hill

Today is a unique and special day.
It is unlike any other day you have ever experienced.
If you assume that today is like every other day,
you will never notice today's uniqueness.
If you practice keen awareness, you will get
to savor today's uniquely wonderful qualities.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:

What You Focus On

What You See

Cultivate Awareness

Be a Passionate Observer

Manage Your Wayward Mind
    

Ask yourself what makes you come alive

 

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake
is to be continually thrown out of the nest.
- Pema Chodron

My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the
young and inflame their intellects.
- Robert M. Hutchins

Don't ask yourself what the world needs;
ask yourself what makes you come alive.
And then go and do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
- Howard Thurman

One does not become fully human painlessly.
- Rollo May

Further Reading: Stay Flexible

Embrace Change

Welcome Upheaval
    

Do Not Despair of Humanity

 

One way or another, we all have to find
what best fosters the flowering of our humanity
in this contemporary life,
and dedicate ourselves to that.
- Joseph Campbell

You must not lose faith in humanity.
Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

A generous heart, kind speech,
and a life of service and compassion
are the things which renew humanity.
- The Buddha

We cannot despair of humanity,
since we ourselves are human beings.
- Albert Einstein

Today's affirmation:
I choose acceptance and compassion toward all humanity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: We are One

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

We are most like God when we forgive

Progress of the Human Mind
      

Kindness Dissolves All Walls

 

Kindness is the light that dissolves
all walls between souls, families, and nations.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Tread Lightly:
1. Don't step on anyone's toes.
2. Don't look for trouble.
3. Keep your sense of humor.
4. Carry the Light of God wherever you go.

These are the keys to a great life...
taking oneself lightly, forgiveness, and acceptance.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.
- Gilbert (G. K.) Chesterton

Today's affirmation:
I go gently into the world, and radiate kindness.

Further reading: The Storms of Life

Live Gently

The Melody Within Your Soul

Lighten Up

Dance Gently With Life

Create Light
      

Transcend Race, Tribe, Class, and Nation

 

Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe,
our class, and our nation;
and this means we must develop a world perspective.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Color of skin, languages, religions, and traditions
are all part of the magnificence of humanity.
Honor diversity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Loyalty to the family must be merged into loyalty to the community,
loyalty to the community into loyalty to the nation,
and loyalty to the nation into loyalty to mankind.
The citizen of the future must be a citizen of the world.
- Thomas Cochrane

Few are the giants of the soul who actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

Further reading: We are All Brothers and Sisters

All things share the same breath

War

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Natural Web
     

Offer Confort and Encouragement

 

What do we live for, if it is not
to make life less difficult for each other?
- George Eliot

Generally, your greatest service to someone
in their time of trouble, sorrow, or confusion, is your comfort.
Take the time to listen to their troubles and concerns
with patience, kindness, and empathy,
but without offering unsolicited advice or suggestions.
Your kindly hand on their shoulder, supportive hug, and patient listening
are often the greatest gifts you can offer.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou

There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.
- Katharine Butler Hathaway

Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.
- Hippocrates

“Friendship," said Christopher Robin, "is a very comforting thing to have.”
- A. A. Milne

The best comfort I could offer
was to just let her tell her story.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: True Measure of a Successful Life

This is my wish for you...

Giving Love and Comfort

Encourage Others
      

Worth and Dignity

 

There is dignity in being of service.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors,
but in deserving them.
- Aristotle

One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked,
but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.
- Michael J. Fox (afflicted with Parkinson's disease at age 30)

A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of
labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil.
- Grover Cleveland

Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity.
- Anne Sophie Swetchine

Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative
of the dignity of my high vocation,
and its many responsibilities.
Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way
to coldness, unkindness, or impatience.
- Mother Teresa

The primal principle of democracy
is the worth and dignity of the individual.
- Edward Bellamy

Further reading: Live with Honor and Dignity

Is there a place for Honor today?

HONOR - the first Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Self-Care
      

Be 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

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

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

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

Make Lemonade

What is Defeat? 
      

The Main Thing

 

Clarity affords focus.
- Thomas Leonard

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

Instead of focusing on that circumstances that you cannot change -
focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can.
- Joy Page

Keep your attention focused entirely
on what is truly your own concern,
and be clear that what belongs to others
is their business and none of yours.
- Epictetus

Remember that there are a million "wrong things" in the world
(as well as a billion "right things"),
so focus your energies on addressing with courage the few issues closest to your heart,
and accept the rest of life with serenity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The Main Thing is to Keep
The Main Thing The Main Thing.
- Stephen Covey

Further reading: Fork in the Road

Life Begins When You Do

A decision about Who You Are

Aesops Fables: The Miller, His Son, and the Ass
     

Cooperation

 

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
- Bertrand Russell

Ideologies separate us.
Dreams and anguish bring us together.
- Eugene Ionesco

There is only one way... to get anybody to do anything.
And that is by making the other person want to do it.
- Dale Carnegie

Communication leads to community, that is,
to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.
- Rollo May

Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men
is primarily based on mutual trust
and only secondarily on institutions
such as courts of justice and police.
- Albert Einstein

Further reading: Evolving Toward Cooperation

Progress of the Human Mind

Stand Together
      

Your Own Inner Compass

 

Set Life's Rhythm with Your Heart-Drum
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Do what you feel in your heart to be right.
You'll be criticized anyway.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

The way is not in the sky.
The way is in the heart.
- The Buddha

March to the beat of your own drum.
- Proverb

Today's affirmation:
I follow my own star and my own inner compass.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Color Today Bright

Primal Rhythmic Power

The Beat of the Universe
      

Do Not be Deceived by the Shadow

Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
- Aesop  [Read The Dog and the Shadow - A Fable by Aesop]

It is not the man who has too little,
but the man who craves more, that is poor.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect,
excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
- John Henry Newman

Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
- Joseph Epstein

The envious person grows lean
with the fatness of their neighbor.
- Socrates

Further reading: This God Called Money

The Shadow of Worry

Attitude toward Gratitude

Discovery and Adventure, rather than Fear
        

 

Mastery

 

A happy life consists not in the absence,
but in the mastery of hardships.
- Helen Keller

Only one who devotes himself to a cause
with his whole strength and soul
can be a true master.
For this reason mastery demands all of a person.
- Albert Einstein

Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts.
If you don't control what you think,
you can't control what you do.
Simply, self-discipline enables you
to think first and act afterward.
- Napoleon Hill

How different our lives are when we
really know what is deeply important to us,
and keeping that picture in mind,
we manage ourselves each day
to be and to do what really matters most.
- Stephen Covey

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Master of My Emotions

Live Your Inspired Life

Master of My Fate

Laugh at Life
            

Choosing Your Experience

What I recognized is that you can't put it together.
It's already together, and what you have to do
is experience it being together.
- Werner Erhard

If you want reality to be different than it is,
you might as well try to teach a cat to bark.
- Byron Katie

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
- Henry David Thoreau

We don't live in the world of reality,
we live in the world of how we perceive reality.
- Bryan Singer

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious
privilege it is to be alive -
to breathe,
to think, to enjoy, to love.
- Marcus Aurelius

Not what we experience,
but how we perceive what we experience,
determines our fate.
- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Further reading: Seeking

Solitary Cell

Perspective

Live Your Own Life

 

I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
- William Ernest Henley

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

Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life ...

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

2. Don't be trapped by dogma -
which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

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

Take time to contemplate -
away from the opinions and influence of others -
what you really want
and what you believe to be important in your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
I set my own course through the ocean of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Life and Death: Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 (video)

Big Dream - Big Adventure

Create Your Masterwork

Fun and Success
      

Conquer Yourself

 
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
- Edmund Hillary

It is better to conquer yourself
than to win a thousand battles.
Then the victory is yours.
It cannot be taken from you,
not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
- The Buddha

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,
but the triumph over it.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear.
- Nelson Mandela

I believe that anyone can conquer fear
by doing the things he fears to do,
provided he keeps doing them until he gets
a record of successful experience behind him.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Further reading:  Balance Caution With Courage

Don't Try to Please Everyone

Play to win, but be a good loser
     

Let the Journey Begin

 

Find something to be joyful about, TODAY.

It is good to have an end to journey towards;
but it is the journey that matters in the end.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

Happiness isn't at the end of the rainbow.
Happiness is at the beginning of the rainbow.
Following the rainbow is happiness,
not getting to the end of it.
- Werner Erhard

To live only for some future goal is shallow.
It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
- Robert M. Pirsig

Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin.
- Francesca da Rimini

Further reading: Stay Adaptable

The Secret of Happiness

Be Flexible

Choosing to Love Life
       

Take Yourself Lightly

 

Keys to a great life... taking oneself lightly, forgiveness, and acceptance.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If we could all just laugh at ourselves,
in hard times or good times, it would be an incredible world.
- Jena Malone

Life's burdens are lighter when I laugh at myself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is no defense against adverse fortune which is
so effectual as an habitual sense of humor.
- Thomas W. Higginson

Humor is mankind's greatest blessing.
- Mark Twain

Life is not a tragedy, it is a comedy.
To be alive means to have a sense of humor.
- Osho

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
- Mark Twain

Further reading: Power of Laughter

Cherish the Whimsey

Having a Sense of Humor

As a Child Again 
   

The Riddle That Life Is

Life is a riddle.
We cannot expect to understand life's twists and turns as they occur each day,
and we greatly frustrate ourselves in the futile attempt.
Be content to appreciate that there is an overarching purpose,
though that purpose be known only to God, and to history.
Choose service. Choose joy. Accept the unknowing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.
- Jose Ortega Y Gasset

We learn more by looking for the answer
to a question and not finding it
than we do from learning the answer itself.
- Lloyd Alexander

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

Half of everything you were ever taught is wrong;
the question is which half.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The book of life is filled with incoherent riddles.
(and human nature is perhaps life's greatest riddle.)
Life's true lessons are inscribed in a corner of the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Read more about The Book of Life

Further reading:  The Nature of Learning

Lessons from Life

Beyond Understanding
      

 

Adventure AND Home

 

Remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
- Confucius

If you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are,
and if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going.
And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong.
- Terry Pratchett

When you jump for joy, beware that no one
moves the ground from beneath your feet.
- Stanislaw Jerszy Lec

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do,
and the more genuine may be one's appreciation
of fundamental things like home,
and love, and understanding companionship.
- Amelia Earhart

Keep your feet firmly planted on the ground
as you reach for the stars.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Honor Your Roots

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

A Strong Foundation

Fulfill Your Dreams
    

To be Grateful & Thankful...

 

Everything is a miracle,
not just the beautiful and lovely things.
- Anonymous

There can be no joy without gratitude.
- Richard Paul Evans

Today I offer a prayer of forgiveness:
forgive the pettiness of my ingratitude...
the absence of profound thankfulness.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter
everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe
that change forever how we experience life and the world.
- John Milton

Look at everything as though you were seeing it
either for the first or last time.
Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
- Betty Smith

Today's affirmation:
I Receive ALL of Life with Thanksgiving -
I have gratitude for EVERYTHING
that has ever occurred to bring me to this moment.
I give thanks for the joys and the sufferings,
the moments of peace and the flashes of anger,
the compassion and the indifference,
the roar of my courage and the cold sweat of my fear.
I accept gratefully the entirety of my past and my present life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:; Yes, YOU Can Be Happy

Gratitude for All of Life

Tending the Garden of Our Lives
    

Not Fear, But Understanding

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
- Marie Curie

Seek To Understand, Rather Than To Fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Who never walks save where he sees
men's tracks, makes no discoveries.
- J. G. Holland

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars,
or sailed to an uncharted land,
or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
- Helen Keller

Seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us,
but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them.
- Joseph Henry

Further reading: The Darkest Night
 
Choose To Be Fearless

From Your Own Darkness

Seek the Truth