An Opportunity to Learn and Grow

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

Neither Religion Nor Science Suggests that Life is "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

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

You Are Not A Victim

Choose What You Emphasize

Complaining Only Makes You Miserable

Break Your Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering 
        

Choose Peace and Joy

Instead of dwelling on negative thoughts,
cause your mind to dwell on peace and joy.
- Ernest Holmes

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

My life has been filled with terrible misfortune;
most of which never happened.
- Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes,
the greater is their power to harm us.
- Voltaire

Don't dwell on what went wrong.
Instead, focus on what to do next.
Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.
- Denis Waitley

Further reading: Are You Scared of What MIGHT Happen?

Set Goals - Take Action

Choose to Soar

Create Your Own Legacy
    

For Any Provocation, You Can Choose Your Response

We cannot choose our external circumstances,
but we can always choose how to respond to them.
- Epictetus

You don't have the power to make life "fair,"
but you do have the power to make life joyful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I am determined to be cheerful and happy
in whatever situation I may find myself.
For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness
is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.
- Martha Washington

Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
- Charles R. Swindoll

CHOOSE Your Response to Life's Provocations.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Joy is a Choice - but Not an Easy Choice

Life as a Dance

Your attitude determines the quality of your life
    

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
    

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
     

In the midst of difficulty lies opportunity

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

Stay Alert, and doors will open.
You can never know when and where a magic door will open for you,
so pay attention, stay watchful, and never give up hope.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution.
If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.
- Norman Vincent Peale

In the midst of difficulty lies opportunity.
- Albert Einstein

Further reading: Pay Attention

The Door Will Be Opened To You

What We Perceive
     

Complaint Against Life Fixes Nothing

Some things you can change, others you need to work with.
But the worst choice is to pretend that things aren't the way they really are.
Begin with the facts, then make your choices.

Do not rail against life. [Do not complain about life.]
Make positive contributions where you can.
Practice gracious acceptance elsewhere.
And express daily gratitude for all of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

He who avoids complaint invites happiness.
- Abu Bakr

How is it that one rails against that
which is nearly a certainty?
- Mary Anne Radmacher

To deny the facts would be illogical.
- the character Spock in the television series Star Trek

Further reading: Do What You Can; Trust God With The Rest

Don't Resist Life

I Will Fear No Evil

Serenity rather than Fear
      

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
     

Choose to Create Joy

We cannot choose our external circumstances,
but we can always choose how to respond to them.
- Epictetus

It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are,
or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.
It is what you think about.
- Dale Carnegie

Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
- Charles R. Swindoll

Could we change our attitude,
we should not only see life differently,
but life itself would be different.
- Katherine Mansfield

We can always choose to perceive things differently.
You can focus on what's wrong in your life,
or you can focus on what's right.
- Marianne Williamson

Today's affirmation:
I choose to create joy in my life.
Whatever my external circumstances,
I choose to see all of life through joyful eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Your attitude determines the quality of your life

You are the Window

Look Beyond the Cloud 
         

Seek Internal Peace

 

Today's affirmation:
I am at peace with myself,
and with all that is.

Each one has to find his peace from within.
And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

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

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

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Guide our feet into the way of peace.
- Luke 1:79

Further reading: Highest and Innermost God

Life Without Stress

Experience This Moment

The Enemy Within
     

Pay Attention When Doors Open for You

 

It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail.
It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.
- Charles Kettering

When one door of happiness closes, another opens,
but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
- Helen Keller

It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
- Vince Lombardi

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

Circumstances don't defeat you -
you defeat yourself when you give up.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

All good things end - and new good things begin.

Further reading: Don't Give Up

Learning from Failure

Finding A Way

The Quiet Voice of Courage
    

Challenges Make Us Stronger

 

When life is too easy for us, we must beware
or we may not be ready to meet the blows
which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Overcome obstacles - grow and bloom anyway.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We must free ourselves of the hope
that the sea will ever rest.
We must learn to sail in high winds.
- Aristotle Onassis

Do not pray for easy lives.
Pray to be stronger men.
- John F. Kennedy

You Can't Soar Without a Headwind.
Obstacles are Necessary to a Life Fully Lived
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Opportunity within Crisis

We Must Sail, Not Drift

Serenity rather than Fear

Life Is As Hard As You Think It Is
      

Seek Contentment, Not Treasure

 

Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy,
to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter,
and to lead but not manipulate.
- William Arthur Ward (1921-1994 writer, educator, and church lay leader)

The more generous we are, the more joyous we become.
The more cooperative we are, the more valuable we become.
The more enthusiastic we are, the more productive we become.
The more serving we are, the more prosperous we become.
- William Arthur Ward

He who is contented is rich.
- Lao Tzu

It is not our circumstances that create
our discontent or contentment.
It is us.
- Vivian Greene

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

A good life isn't measured in material goods.
There is no quicker path to misery than coveting your neighbors' stuff.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What You Have That Money Can't Buy

Simple Joys, the Essence of Life

Contentment in Ourselves
        

In Spite of the Constraints of Circumstance, We Still have Free Will

Our circumstances define the playing field, not the outcome.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life consists not in holding good cards
but in playing those you hold well.
- Josh Billings

Customs form us all.
Our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed beliefs,
are consequences of our place of birth.
- Aaron Hill
Yet within these quite extreme constraints, progress, success, and happiness are still possible.

You play the hand you're dealt.
I think the game's worthwhile.
- Christopher Reeve

All men and women are born, live, suffer and die;
what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams,
whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things,
and what we do to make them come about.
We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch,
the country of our birth,
or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing.
We do not, most of us, choose to die;
nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death.
But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.
- Joseph Epstein

Our Free Will is Highly Constrained,
Which Makes the Free Will that We Do Have Even More Precious.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We all have free will, but only within the harsh constraints of predestination.
Within the limits placed upon our lives by the circumstances of our genes,
our place and condition of birth, the parenting we receive,
and other events beyond our control,
we are defined by the free will we can still exercise.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Make Your Dreams Come True

Do What You Can Do

Choose to Soar
    

 

Choose Inner Peace

 

The world has always been in an uproar, and it always will be.
Choose Peace. Choose to live with Peace.
Choose to interact peacefully with everyone -
especially those whose instinct is not to be peaceful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely
as small as what you allow to annoy you.
- Robert Anton Wilson

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

Choose Inner Peace.
Nothing is worth losing your inner peace.
Take action as circumstances require,
but never surrender your inner peace.
Stop. Breathe deeply.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply again.
Then, and only then, take action -
from a peaceful heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Dalai Lama

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.
Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,
even if your whole world seems upset.
- Saint Francis de Sales

Further reading: Have Gratitude for THIS Moment

Slow Down and Focus

Focus on Peace

Kick Back
    

YOU Control Your Attitude

 

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
       

Nobody Promised That Life Would Be Fair

 

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, Compared to what?
- Sydney Harris

Adversity can crush our spirit - or strengthen it - it is our choice.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What if we just acted like everything was easy?
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Whenever you say or even think, "This is hard,"
that task or challenge becomes difficult.
Dread it, and it becomes terrifying.

When you choose to move past fear -
fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of "looking bad," fear of losing respect -
life becomes much lighter, and most any task becomes possible - perhaps even enjoyable.
Most any challenge can become an adventure of discovery.

The secret to a great life is recognizing that life was never intended to be fair.
Life simply isn't "fair," and that's okay.
The joy of life comes from playing the game of life as best we can,
focusing far more on the love and good example we can contribute
to other lives than on demanding money, stuff, love, or appreciation.
Service becomes a source of joy when it is not viewed as a duty.

Life Is Not "Fair," But It Can Still Be Joyful.
Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Do Not Rail Against Life

Strength In Hard Times

Circumstance Reveals What You Are Made Of
      

Choose to Accept and Love All of Life

Happiness doesn't depend on any external conditions,
it is governed by our mental attitude.
- Dale Carnegie

Things turn out best for the people
who make the best of the way things turn out.
- Art Linkletter

Live and work but do not forget to play,
to have fun in life and really enjoy it.
- Eileen Caddy

Happiness depends upon ourselves.
- Aristotle

Today's affirmation:
I become happy when I choose to accept and love all of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness

Radiate Your Happiness to the World

Say NO to Stress

Finding Joy

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now
      

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself...

Today, fear again grips America - in public and in private. Remember FDR's words and focus with courage on the job at hand - the job of living joyfully regardless of external circumstances.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself
the means of inspiration and survival.
- Winston Churchill

We must be the great arsenal of democracy.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

This world of ours... must avoid becoming
a community of dreadful fear and hate,
and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy...
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd President of the United States)

Watch FDR's 1941 "Live in Infamy" Speech

Further reading: Serenity rather than Fear
       

Meet Life with Equanimity

Equanimity (or composure) is the state of being calm, balanced,
and in control of one's emotions, even under stress or in the midst of difficulty.

Affirmation:
I choose to respond to life's provocations,
not with anger, resentment, or regret,
but with equanimity and a focus on positive action.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I know, to banish anger altogether
from one's breast is a difficult task.
It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort.
It can be done only by God's grace.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity
opinions which differ from
the prejudices of their social environment.
Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
- Albert Einstein

Without accepting the fact that everything changes,
we cannot find perfect composure.
But unfortunately, although it is true,
it is difficult for us to accept it.
Because we cannot accept the truth of transience,
we suffer.
- Shunryu Suzuki

Further reading: Complaining Creates Unhappiness

Stillness

Ancient Wisdom about Uncertain Times

Restraint

Stay Positive