Stay Flexible, Stay Joyful

Life is not always as it seems.
What you have wished for is not always best.
What you have feared may become a blessing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

Change always comes bearing gifts.
- Price Pritchett

Zig as Life Zigs and Zag as Life Zags.
Stay Adaptable, Stay Joyful
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Change of any sort requires courage.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Today's affirmation:
I choose to adapt to the circumstances in which I find myself.
I choose to be flexible in my dealings with those around me.
I understand that my way is not the only way -
that inner peace comes from respecting the ways of others,
and that, if I am open, I may gain great insights and happiness
from the ideas and traditions of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Go With the Flow

Be Flexible

There is a Way

Enjoy the Journey
      

Consider Trying a New Approach

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.

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

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

Further reading: Stay Adaptable

Learn to Surmount Obstacles

Begin Anew Today

Multiple Ways to Your Goal
      

Life operates in subtleties rather than in absolutes

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

Life only appears complicated when one is worrying.
Relax, and life becomes simple again.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The contradictions are what make human behavior
so maddening and yet so fascinating,
all at the same time.
- Joan D. Vinge

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am,
then I can change.
- Carl Rogers

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

I think wholeness is God's design for us;
and that often amounts to embracing contradictions.
- Bono

Life operates in subtleties rather than in absolutes.
Life plays out in shades of gray rather than in blacks and whites.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Overflowing Cup of Tea - Zen Koan

Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

Yin-Yang

Balance in All Things
      

Seek Balance In All Things

To everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die.
- Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

We have an obligation to live in harmony with God's creation.
- Bruce Babbitt

One has to find a balance between
what people need from you
and what you need for yourself.
- Jessye Norman

A time for everything: a time to relax and a time to be busy,
a time to frolic and a time to lay up food for the winter,
a time to receive and a time to give,
a time to begin and a time to finish.
A time for work, a time for play -
balance in all things.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Change must always be balanced with some degree of consistency.
- Ron D. Burton

The ending of a job or a relationship
may appear as the darkest night,
but it is merely the Winter season -
the time of renewal and rebirth
that precedes the new planting -
the beginning of the next great cycle.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Balance vs. Moderation: Eight Ways to Balance Your Life

Live in Harmony

Creating Balance

Renew Yourself

A List of Gratitudes

Yin-Yang
   

Ask Deeper Questions

Let no one think that flexibility
and a predisposition to compromise
is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.
- Paul Kagame

The boldness of asking deep questions may require
unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers.
- Brian Greene

Those who can see value only in tradition,...
deny man's ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
- Stephen Bayley

In science the important thing is to modify and change
one's ideas as science advances.
- Herbert Spencer

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

Further reading: I choose to adapt to the circumstances in which I find myself

New Ideas

Practice makes perfect - sometimes

Be Flexible
       

Choosing Compassion Toward ALL is Heroic

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

The opposite of courage in our society
is not cowardice, it is conformity.
- Rollo May

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

Today's affirmation
I CHOOSE with Open Mind and Open Heart.
I renounce all assumptions and expectations.
I thoughtfully consider all possibilities.
I CHOOSE with courage, awareness, consciousness, and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Trouble with Conformity

Make Decisions

Embrace Change

Do What You Know Is Right

Try Being Outrageous
       

LOOK, Don't Just Assume What You Will See

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

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

A flower is a weed seen through joyful eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Call a plant beautiful, and it becomes a flower.
Call it ugly, and it becomes a weed.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
- Helen Keller

Look for the Unexpected in the Commonplace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

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

Further Reading: What I Know - What I Don't Know
            

In All Circumstances, YOU Get to CHOOSE How YOU Respond

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
    

Open Your Heart, Change Your 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 Times Require 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
     

Keep Your Focus on What's Most Important

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
     

Welcome Change, But Apply Change Wisely

He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
- Harold Wilson

Scientific advancement should aim to affirm and to improve human life.
- Nathan Deal

Knowledge is power.
Information is liberating.
Education is the premise of progress,
in every society, in every family.
- Kofi Annan

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

You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines,
whimpering and complaining.
You make progress by implementing ideas.
- Shirley Chisholm

If we all did the things we are capable of doing,
we would literally astound ourselves.
- Thomas Edison

Live out of your imagination, not your history.
- Stephen Covey

Change is the Inherent Nature of Progress.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  Welcome Change

How to Move On and Let Go

Forward Together

Adapt to Change
         

Personal Transformation

If you begin to understand what you are
without trying to change it,
then what you are undergoes a transformation.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Today's affirmation:
I am the master of my emotions -
I transform fear to love, anger to compassion,
pain to comfort, scarcity to abundance,
expectation to gratitude, and jealousy to generosity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

At all times and under all circumstances,
we have the power to transform the quality of our lives.
- Werner Erhard

Personal transformation can and does have global effects.
As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us.
The revolution that will save the world
is ultimately a personal one.
- Marianne Williamson

Revolution begins with the self, in the self.
- Toni Cade Bambara

Transformation in the world happens when people are
healed and start investing in other people.
- Michael W. Smith

Further reading: The Power of Transformation

Be an Instrument of Change

What is Transformation?

A Great Future
  

Be Open to New Ways

When you expect nothing,
you can receive everything as a marvelous gift.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Expect nothing.
Live frugally on surprise.
- Alice Walker

Expectation is the root of all heartache.
- William Shakespeare

It is important to expect nothing,
to take every experience,
including the negative ones,
as merely steps on the path,
and to proceed.
- Ram Dass

Mostly, it is human to dislike surprises -
often with great intensity.
Be open to new ways;
sometimes newness just knocks on our door;
welcome it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choose Joy Anyway

Know the Difference

Cheer for Endings
     

Each of Us is In Charge of Ourself and Only Ourself

No one can persuade another to change.
Each of us guards a gate of change
that can only be opened from the inside.
We cannot open the gate of another,
either by argument or emotional appeal.
- Marilyn Ferguson

You cannot teach a man anything;
you can only help him find it within himself.
- Galileo Galilei

The truth only irritates those it enlightens,
but does not convert.
- Pasquier Quesnel

I cannot teach anybody anything.
I can only make them think.
- Socrates

The greatest roadblock to a great relationship
is trying to force a partner to change through bribes or threats.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live and Let Live

The Problem with Advice

My thoughts on meddling in the affairs of others

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice
    

 

Growth Requires Change

 

Change of any sort requires courage.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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

Change always comes bearing gifts.
- Price Pritchett

He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
- Harold Wilson

To live is to choose. But to choose well,
you must know who you are and what you stand for,
where you want to go and why you want to get there.
- Kofi Annan

The nature of life is constant change, yet we fight against it. Why do we fight change? Humans are creatures of habit and instinctively fear the unknown.

Affirmation: Change is the Great Adventure of Life. I welcome change.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  Accept Change

Success Tip: Drive Change

Take Action - Now

Better Alternatives to Complaining

How to Change the World
      

Drive Change, Don't be a Victim of Change

 

We must become the change we wish to see in the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
- Harold Wilson

Drive Change, don't wait for change to drive you.
The nature of life is constant change.
The world is not the same today as it was yesterday,
and it will be different still tomorrow.
We can be victims of that change, or we can proactively drive change.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Change is the essential process of all existence.
- The character Spock on the TV series Star Trek

Further reading: Take Action - Now

Think Big, Act Big

Only Today
    

A New Year, and Time to Sow a New Crop

A world in upheaval is the breaking of the old sod -
the revealing of rich fresh soil ready for new planting.
Rejoice in the opportunity to sow a new crop.
Progress Does Not Come Gently.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

Unexpected events can set you back or set you up.
It's all a matter of - perspective.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

This time, like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Progress Does Not Come Gently.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

We will only understand the miracle of life fully when
we allow the unexpected to happen.
- Paulo Coelho

Further reading: Knowledge is Soon Changed 

Appreciate the Unexpected

Assumptions

Expectations/Demands

Welcome Newness
     

View History Through a Clear Lens

 

You change the past when you change the way you see it.
- Alan Cohen

History is a vast early warning system.
- Norman Cousins

Study the past, if you would divine the future.
- Confucius

He who spends time regretting the past,
loses the present and risks the future.
- Quevedo

Oh yes, the past can hurt.
But, you can either run from it or, learn from it.
- the movie The Lion King

Live life with no regrets and no resentments.
Whatever happened in the past,
forgive yourself and others. Choose love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Clean the Lens Through Which You View the Past.
Clear away the prejudices and the biases.
Consider history from the perspective of both the losers and the winners.
Attempt to strip history (both your personal history and world history) down to just the facts.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Learning From History

Release the Past

The Cleansing Power of Forgiveness

Letting Go - Moving On
       

Welcome Change - Change is the Law of Life

 

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier
state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
- George Santayana

There are good and bad times,
but our mood changes
more often than our fortune.
- Thomas Carlyle

In times of change, learners inherit the earth;
while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped
to deal with a world that no longer exists.
- Eric Hoffer

Change is the law of life.
And those who look only to the past or present
are certain to miss the future.
- John F. Kennedy

Further reading: Renewal and Rebirth - The Great Cycle

Another Wave Comes, Another Wave Goes

Endings and New Beginnings