A Christmas Thought!

Which One Are You?

Do Not Follow The Crowds!

Will Smith - Ultimate Motivational Speeches

Accomplishment

 "To accomplish anything worth accomplishing, to create success, to achieve your dreams, you don’t have to do impossible, extraordinary, superhuman things. But you have to do something. You have to start with a penny. Do you think you could improve yourself—your health, your knowledge, your skills, your diet, your relationships, whatever area of life you want to look at—just one percent?"

Taken from the book - The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

Personal Development and Self Improvement

"Just Do It!"

HERO - Motivational Video

The Secret

"Passion" - A Secret Scrolls message

Most people don't realize how much passion they put into what they don't want. When you speak to a friend and you tell them all about an "awful" situation, you are putting passion into what you don't want. When you react to an event negatively, with the response that it is "terrible," you are putting passion into what you don't want.

You are a beautiful passionate being, so make sure you direct your passion wisely.

 

May the joy be with you,

Rhonda Byrne - author - "The Secret"

Bill Gates - 11 Rules You Will Never Learn In School

"Your Talents!"

Don't Give Up!

Life Lessons From the Master Gautama Buddha

Richard Branson on Motivation

“My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had — everyday I’m learning something new.”
- Richard Branson

Steve Jobs - on "Your Inner Voice!"

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

- Steve Jobs

Motivational Courage Quotes - A Better World Takes Courage

" A Kickstart To A Brand New YOU!"

Dale Carnegie - "How To Win Friends And Influence People!"

Cultivate a Mental Attitude that will
Bring You Peace and Happiness

1. Fill your mind with thoughts of peace,
courage, health and hope.
2. Never try to get even with your
enemies.
3. Expect ingratitude.
4. Count your blessings – not your
troubles.
5. Do not imitate others.
6. Try to profit from your losses.
7. Create happiness for others.

Dale Carnegie - How To Win Friends And Influence People!"

Don’t Worry about Criticism

1. Remember that unjust criticism is
often a disguised compliment.
2. Do the very best you can.
3. Analyze your own mistakes and
criticize yourself.

Prevent Fatigue and Worry and
Keep Your Energy and Spirits High

1. Rest before you get tired.
2. Learn to relax at your work.
3. Protect your health and appearance
by relaxing at home.
4. Apply these four good working habits:
a. Clear your desk of all papers except
those relating to the immediate
problem at hand.
b. Do things in the order of their
importance.
c. When you face a problem, solve it
then and there if you have the facts
necessary to make a decision.
d. Learn to organize, deputize and
supervise.
5. Put enthusiasm into your work.
6. Don’t worry about insomnia.

Dale Carnegie - "How To Win Friends And Influence People!"

Fundamental Principles for
Overcoming Worry

1. Live in “day-tight compartments.”
2. How to face trouble:
a. Ask yourself, “What is the worst
that can possibly happen?”
b. Prepare to accept the worst.
c. Try to improve on the worst.

3. Remind yourself of the exorbitant price
you can pay for worry in terms of your
health.

Basic Techniques in Analyzing Worry

1. Get all the facts.
2. Weigh all the facts – then come to a
decision.
3. Once a decision is reached, act!
4. Write out and answer the following
questions:
a. What is the problem?
b. What are the causes of the problem?
c. What are the possible solutions?
d. What is the best possible solution?

Break the Worry Habit
Before It Breaks You

1. Keep busy.
2. Don’t fuss about trifles.
3. Use the law of averages to outlaw
your worries.
4. Cooperate with the inevitable.
5. Decide just how much anxiety a thing
may be worth and refuse to give it more.
6. Don’t worry about the past.

Jack Canfield : Attracting Dreams and Success with Law of Attraction

"How To Win Friends And Influence People!"

Be A Leader

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.

2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.



3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.

4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.

5. Let the other person save face.

6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”

7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.

8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.

9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

by - Dale Carnegie

10 Keys To Personal Power - Brian Tracy

How To Win Friends And Influence People

Win People to Your Way of Thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an

argument is to avoid it.

2. Show respect for the other person’s

opinion. Never say, “you’re wrong.”

3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and

emphatically.

4. Begin in a friendly way.

5. Get the other person saying, “yes,

yes” immediately.

6. Let the other person do a great deal of

the talking.

7. Let the other person feel that the idea

is his or hers.

8. Try honestly to see things from the

other person’spoint of view.

9. Be sympathetic with the other

person’s ideas and desires.

10. Appeal to the nobler motives.

11. Dramatize your ideas.

12. Throw down a challenge.

from - "How To Win Friends And Influence People"
by Dale Carnegie.

Always Take Chances ....

Steve Jobs Inspiring Speech

"How To Win Friends And Influence People!"

Become a Friendlier Person

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest, sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager
want.
4. Become genuinely interested in other
people.
5. Smile.
6. Remember that a person’s name is
to that person the sweetest and most
important sound in any language.
7. Be a good listener. Encourage others
to talk about themselves.
8. Talk in terms of the other person’s
interests.
9. Make the other person feel important
– and do it sincerely.

from - "How To Win Friends and Influence People"
by - Dale Carnegie

The 18 Rules Of Happiness

Rule #1 - Stop Feeling Sorry for Yourself! 
Rule #2 – Be Grateful 
Rule #3 – Say Yes More 
Rule #4 – Follow Your Bliss
Rule #5 – Learn to Let Go 
Rule #6 – Do Random Acts of Kindness 
Rule #7 – Happiness Is Only Ever Now
Rule #8 – Experience, Don’t Hoard! 
Rule #9 – Appreciate Both Sides of the Coin 
Rule #10 – Be More Social
Rule #11 – Love More!
Rule #12 – Have a Dream
Rule #13 – Intention Sets Direction
Rule #14 – Enjoy Simple Pleasures 
Rule #15 – Accept What Is
Rule #16 – Exercise and Eat Well
Rule #17 – Zoom Out and Don’t Sweat 
Rule #18 – Laugh, Dance, Smile!

Karl Moore

Testing! - Anthony Robbins

I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret.

Anthony Robbins

Morrice Goodman - "The Miracle Man!"

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Many years ago, Norman Cousins was diagnosed as “terminally ill”. He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was 1 in 500.

He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to, and perhaps helped cause, his disease. He wondered, “If illness can be caused by negativity, can wellness be created by positivity?”

He decided to make an experiment of himself. Laughter was one of the most positive activities he knew. He rented all the funny movies he could find – Keaton, Chaplin, Fields, the Marx Brothers. (This was before VCRs, so he had to rent the actual films.) He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something funny.

His pain was so great he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep.

He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy, healthy and productive years. (His journey is detailed in his book, Anatomy of an Illness.) He credits visualization, the love of his family and friends, and laughter for his recovery.

Some people think laughter is a waste of time. It is a luxury, they say, a frivolity, something to indulge in only every so often.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Laughter is essential to our equilibrium, to our well-being, to our aliveness. If we’re not well, laughter helps us get well; if we are well, laughter helps us stay that way.

Since Cousins’ ground-breaking subjective work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions.

So, if you like laughter, consider it sound medical advice to indulge in it as often as you can. If you don’t like laughter, then take your medicine – laugh anyway.

Use whatever makes you laugh – movies, sitcoms, Monty Python, records, books, New Yorker cartoons, jokes, friends.

Give yourself permission to laugh – long and loud and out loud – whenever anything strikes you as funny. The people around you may think you’re strange, but sooner or later they’ll join in even if they don’t know what you’re laughing about.

Some diseases may be contagious, but none is as contagious as the cure. . … laughter.

By Peter McWilliams

From “Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul”

A Simple Hello

 I have always felt sympathy and compassion for the kids I see at school walking all alone, for the ones that sit in the back of the room while everyone snickers and makes fun of them.  But I never did anything about it.  I guess I figured that someone else would.  I did not take the time to really think about the depth of their pain. Then one day I thought, what if I did take a moment out of my busy schedule to simply say hello to someone without a friend or stop and chat with someone eating by herself? And I did.  It felt good to brighten up someone else's life.  How did I know I did?  Because I remembered the day a simple kind hello changed my life forever.

By Katie E. Houston. From the book "Chicken Soup For

The Soul.

3 Habits You Must Give Up If You Want Sustained Happiness

You, my friend, were born with a birthright.

You were born with the birthright to be happy every single day.

Everything you need to be happy is given to you from the moment you make your first cry. And you still have those things to this very day.

• You have your primary needs met — food, shelter, clothing.

• You have intelligence that allows you to work, create, observe, feel, and experience.

• You have relationships with people who care for you, who engage with you, and who afford human connection.

• You live on a beautiful, amazing planet free for you to explore and enjoy.

• You have easy access to information, ideas, books, entertainment, music, art, and many other things to heighten the senses and stimulate the mind.

In other words, you truly have everything you need right now to be happy.

Yes, we all have had difficulties, childhood issues, health problems, relationship upheavals, and unexpected tragedies that undermine our feelings of happiness. Many of these things are simply out of our control. And sometimes they create emotional and psychological problems that separate us from happiness for long periods.

Fortunately, most of us have the ability to heal from these unexpected life problems, to learn from them, and to move forward with happy lives. And yet the feeling of sustained happiness, that mixture of underlying contentment and joy, seems to elude most people.

Do you feel sustained happiness yourself?

Do you see it in the people around you?

When you observe someone who lives from that state of happiness, rather than constantly striving for happiness, you recognize that this person has a gift of some kind, a special knowledge or personality trait that lights them up from the inside out.

There are people born with “happier” personalities. But personality alone does not constitute sustained happiness. Achieving that sense of inner contentment and joy is more a matter of releasing things that have become daily habits. These habits separate us from the happiness that is immediately accessible to us every day. And they will continue to do so until we recognize them in ourselves and do the work to let them go.

What are these bad habits? I’ve outlined 3 major culprits below and what you can do to change them.

1. Listening to negative self-talk

If you pay attention, you’ll notice you have a running dialogue in your brain. And quite often that dialogue is negative. You have self-talk that is self-defeating. You think negatively about your appearance, your worthiness, your intelligence, your abilities, your value, and any number of concerns that you’ve trained yourself to believe.  And you believe because you listen.

Perhaps at one point in your life, something happened to make these thoughts appear. But whether there is a little truth or no truth at all in these thoughts, thinking about them and listening to your thoughts only further entrenches you in negativity and separates you from happiness. Your thoughts are far out-of-proportion to the reality.

So what can you do?

The first thing you can do is start paying attention. Put a post-in note on your computer or write a word on the back of your hand to remind you to observe your thoughts. Notice how often negative self-talk is passing through your brain, and notice what you are saying about and to yourself.

When you catch yourself in the negative thoughts, first just say the word “STOP” — either out loud if you are alone (the spoken word has power) or to yourself if you aren’t. Then take action. If the negative self-talk is something you can and/or should do something about, then do it. For example, if you are thinking, “I’m so fat,” and you really need to lose a few, then run up and down the stairs a few times or prepare something healthy to eat. Positive action makes you feel better.

Even if your thoughts have no basis in reality, take some positive, forward moving, or enjoyable action anyway. This will both distract you from the negative thoughts andbuild your self-esteem.

So in general, get out of your head and do something! Eventually you will break the habit of negative self-talk as you continue to replace it with positive action. You might create a list of positive actions you can take to have handy when you catch yourself in negative thinking.

2. Worrying what other people think

So much of our angst and unhappiness in life comes from worrying what other people will think.

• We hold ourselves back.

• We say yes when we mean no and no when we mean yes.

• We give up on dreams or chase the wrong ones.

All because we worry about the judgments and opinions of others. We worry about hurting their feelings or letting them down, while abusing our own feelings and letting ourselves down.

Once you are able to disengage from concern about what others think, it will be the greatest liberation of your life. When you give up on trying to make others happy or trying to prevent them from thinking poorly of you, then you are free to be yourself completely and unreservedly.

That’s not to say you can’t make conscious choices about how you wish to accommodate or show respect and kindness to others. You can do that within the framework of putting your own needs and desires first most of the time.

The people you want in your life are those who love and respect you for who you are and how you choose to live — not those who reject or diminish you because you make certain choices in life.

Most of the time, when we stop worrying about what others think and start living life on our own terms, we actually become more attractive people. Yes, you may lose a few people in your life as a result, but are these really people you want in your life anyway?

So what can you do?

If you have been one who constantly worries about what others might think, it will take a bit of time to retrain yourself and release this bad habit. Start by defining what YOU really want from life, who you really want to be. Write down all of the things you are afraid to do or be because you worry about what others might think.

Then write down the list of people who might be offended by your choices or actions.

• How many of these people do you really value?

• Of the people you value, do you really believe they will reject you because of your choices?

• How could you communicate your desires to them in a kind and loving way?

If you are worried about the general masses of people (ie: neighbors, Facebook friends, casual acquaintances) and what they might think or say — let that go. Simply stop caring. You will never please all people all the time. There should be just a handful of people in your life whose good opinion matters to you enough to consider their feelings or thoughts before you act.

In general, practice making choices in spite of your concern about what others might think. The more you practice, the more you realize that you won’t die, people who love you won’t reject you, and they might actually like the “real you” even better.

3. Longing for more

If you are really honest with yourself, you must admit that you have everything you need in life and much of what you want. And between the demands of work and life responsibilities, how much time do you have to really enjoy more than what you have right now?

There is a difference between wanting to improve your quality of life and longing for more. When you long for more, your happiness hinges on achieving or attaining the thing you long for. So you postpone happiness until you get the thing you want. But sometimes you don’t get the thing you long for. And sometimes you get it, but the happiness it brings is fleeting. So you long for something else.

So life becomes a cycle of long periods of longing followed by brief encounters with happiness.

But it is possible to work to improve your quality of life and remain happy in the present moment. You improve your quality of life through . . .

• improved relationships

• passionate and fulfilling work

• positive and fun experiences (ie: travel, adventure, culture, etc.)

• financial stability

• good health

These are things you should continue to improve throughout your life, but they don’t require you to postpone happiness until you do. You can continue to be happy with the life you have right now while you find new ways to improve these “happiness fostering” circumstances.

So what can you do?

Begin by focusing with gratitude on what you have right now that is rewarding, fulfilling, and that brings you joy. Write a list of these things and keep it handy where you can read it every day. Sometimes we forget how much we have when we get caught up in longing for more.

When you catch yourself longing, feeling anxious or frustrated that you don’t have what you think you want or need, refer to this list as a reminder of all of your blessings. Remember that material things rarely bring sustained happiness. We can get momentary pleasure from new clothes, a fancy car, or a big screen TV, but those things don’t provide sustained happiness.

If you want to quickly move past the feelings of longing, there are three things you can do immediately to help:

• find someone to serve

• finding something to create

• do something to improve yourself or to further your quality of life goals

Sustained happiness isn’t really so hard to achieve. Once you release listening to negative self-talk, worrying what others think, and longing for more, you will see that happiness is sitting on your doorstep, just waiting for you to come home.

http://liveboldandbloom.com/03/habits/3-habits-you-must-give-up-if-you-want-sustained-happiness

A Secret Scrolls message - Rhonda Bryne

The fastest way to become the Master of your thoughts and emotions is through challenging situations. If your life is going along fairly smoothly, there are not the same opportunities that enable you to strengthen your power and become the Master of your thoughts and emotions.

You see, even challenges are beautiful opportunities in disguise.

 A Secret Scrolls message from Rhonda Byrne

Creator of The Secret

Jim Rohn - Motivational Speaker - "10 Great Powers"

Who You Are Makes A Difference

A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they each made. Using a process developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California, she called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told them how the student made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference."

Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week

One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened."

Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure."

The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favor? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."

That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine. He thinks I'm a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon that says 'Who I Am Makes A Difference' on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor. As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honor you.

"My days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you!"

The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me. Now I don't need to."

Helice Bridges