Courage and Perseverance

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

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

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

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

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: Beyond Failure

Keep Moving

Choose to Soar

Wanting is Not Enough
     

There is More to SEEING than Merely Looking

Look closely... See with new eyes...
Don't just pass by what is familiar without a thought.
Pay attention and look closely.
There is beauty - there is discovery -
there in a whole new world hiding
beneath the face of the familiar.
Your Close Attention Will Be Richly Repaid.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Reason, observation, and experience;
the holy trinity of science.
- Robert Green Ingersoll

The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass,
it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
- Henry Miller

You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one.
Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own.
It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.
- Paulo Coelho

The more you look, the more you see.
- Robert M. Pirsig

Further reading: Where Are You Going, and Why?

Have Eyes for Beauty

Stay Alert for Opportunities
      

Trust Yourself - Only You Can Live Your Life

If you can keep your head when all about you
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
  And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
...
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same: 
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
  And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools; 
...
 - Rudyard Kipling

Confidence comes not from always being right
but from not fearing to be wrong.
- Peter T. Mcintyre

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.
- Vince Lombardi

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it...
that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.
- Dale Carnegie

Trust yourself. Only you can live your life.
Only you can taste your victories.
Only you can suffer the sting of your defeats.
Make your own choices, and accept your own consequences -
for better or worse.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Stand Tall and Proud

Have Confidence in Yourself

Feeling Tired?

Blaze Your Own Trail
      

Great Futures Won't Happen Without Open Minds

Let today be a day to break with convention,
to try out new ideas and ways of living.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I don't need other people to have an open mind.
The crucial question is "Is my mind open?"
- Byron Katie

Every really new idea looks crazy at first.
- Alfred North Whitehead

Minds are like parachutes.
They only function when they are open.
- James Dewar

The human mind, once stretched by a new idea,
never returns to its original dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar,
you present a new place for new ideas and progress.
- Charles Kettering

Few new truths have ever won their way
against the resistance of established ideas
save by being overstated.
- Isaiah Berlin

Further reading: Cultivate Awareness

New Ideas

The Art of Seeing

You are the Window

Honor Your Roots
    

Gratitude is a Source of Joy

There Is Peace In A Life Of Constant Gratitude.
Have Gratitude for the Smallest Blessings,
for the crust of bread and the cool drink of water.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The way to happiness is what I call Zero-Based Gratitude.
Each day be happy and grateful for what you have,
independent of yesterday and of other people.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Appreciation is the highest form of prayer,
for it acknowledges the presence of good
wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.
- Alan Cohen

Gratitude is the Path to Joyful Living.
[my phrasing of a widely shared concept]

Today's affirmation:
I give thanks for all of life.
I Find Peace in Gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Appreciate Your Blessings

Give Thanks for the Commonplace

Praise and Celebrate Your Life
       

Life is Mostly a Matter of Introspection

The world in which we live and work,
is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.
- Earl Nightingale

Everyone is a mirror image of yourself -
your own thinking coming back at you.
- Byron Katie

A person experiences life as
something separated from the rest -
a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
Our task must be to free ourselves
from this self-imposed prison,
and through compassion,
to find the reality of Oneness.
- Albert Einstein

Life is for each of us
a solitary cell
whose walls are mirrors.
- Eugene O'Neill (paraphrase)

Once we are destined to live out our lives
in the prison of our mind,
our duty is to furnish it well.
- Peter Ustinov

Further reading: Are You a Prisoner?

Life is a Mirror

s Being a Reflection

How We See Things
    

Avoid Battles, Especially With Yourself

We carry our worst enemies within us.
- Charles Spurgeon

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

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

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

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

Further reading: Your Own Worst Enemy

Still Your Mind

Create Peace Within Yourself

Manage Your Wayward Mind