Play to Win, but 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? 
      

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
     

Set Your Own Course

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
      

Seek to Understand More and to Fear Less

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

Preparation and Awareness Beget Innovation.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Darkest Night
 
Choose To Be Fearless

From Your Own Darkness

Seek the Truth
      

Each Day is a Gift

 

Yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That is why it is called Present.
- Anonymous

Do not say, "It is morning,"
and dismiss it with a name of yesterday.
See it for the first time
as a newborn child that has no name.
- Rabindranath Tagore

If you aren't in the moment,
you are either looking forward to uncertainty,
or back to pain and regret.
- Jim Carrey

Today's affirmation:
I walk today's march with courage.
I create today as my celebration of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life

Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

Simple is Marvelous

What If Every Day Were Your Day

Being Fully Present in TODAY

Today is for Living
    

Success Starts from Optimism

 

If we say, "This is never going to work..."
then chances are excellent it never will.
- John Assaraf

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.
- William James

Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it,
while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill.
- Helen Keller

Optimism is a prerequisite to progress. It provides the inspiration we need, especially in hard times. And it provides the encouragement that wills us to chase our grandest ambitions out into the world, instead of locking them away in the safe quiet of our minds.
- Shimon Peres

Whatever happens, always look to tomorrow -
with courage and optimism.
Optimism Precedes Progress.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Optimism

Be the Melody

Mental Attitude
      

Courage and Perseverance

The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.
- Herbert Kaufman 

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

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is
that one comes from a strong will,
and the other from a strong won't.
- Henry Ward Beecher

All endeavor calls for the ability
to tramp the last mile,
shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.
The fight to the finish spirit is the one...
characteristic we must posses
if we are to face the future as finishers.
- Henry David Thoreau

Patience, persistence, and perseverance.
A little more each day,
a little better each day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Emulate the Patience of Nature

Stand Up To Your Obstacles

Realize Success

The Power of Mental Attitude
    

 

Do Not Fear the Unknown

 

Refuse to be average.
Let your heart soar as high as it will.
- Aiden Wilson Tozer

Choose what lies in the shadows to be a matter
for discovery and adventure, rather than fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
- Raymond Lindquist

Today's affirmation:
I release the familiar that I may better discover my inspiring future.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Curious - Adventurous

Impulse to Soar

Understand More, Fear Less
    

Trust in Yourself

 

Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.
- Jonas Salk

Trust in yourself.
Your perceptions are often far more accurate
than you are willing to believe.
- Claudia Black

Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon,
there is always someone to tell you
that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising
that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust your own inner guidance.
Have faith that your steps are
carrying you toward your dreams.
Keep your eyes on the heavens
and believe that your feet will carry you well.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Follow your dreams, believe in yourself and don't give up.
- Rachel Corrie

Further reading: The Symphony of Your Life

Confidence is Half of Victory

Uncharted Territory
      

I Wish You Confidence, Courage and Patience

 

This is my wish for you:
Comfort on difficult days,
Smiles when sadness intrudes,
Rainbows to follow the clouds,
Laughter to kiss your lips,
Sunsets to warm your heart,
Hugs when spirits sag,
Beauty for your eyes to see,
Friendships to brighten your being,
Faith so that you can believe,
Confidence for when you doubt,
Courage to know yourself,
Patience to accept the truth,
Love to complete your life.
- Anonymous

Calm provides clarity. Pause to consider
the gifts you have been given,
the difference you have made
and the direction in which you are headed.
- Anonymous

As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand
that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives
for which we should be particularly grateful.
They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness --
just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it;
just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength;
the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Lord, grant comfort, joy and health
to those I call friend,
to those I call enemy,
and to those I have cursed by my indifference.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation

Give Unconditional Love

The Secret of Happiness

Offering Comfort
   

Always Choose What You Know to be Right

The greatest way to live with honor in this world
is to be what we pretend to be.
- Socrates

Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

The truth of the matter is that
you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.
- Gen. Norman Schwarzkoff

You will never do anything in this world without courage.
It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
- Aristotle

When people get caught up with that which is right
and they are willing to sacrifice for it,
there is no stopping point short of victory.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
- Abraham Lincoln

Never let your sense of morals
get in the way of doing what's right.
- Isaac Asimov

Read: What is Moral versus What is Right

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

Whatever your friends and family do,
Always do what you know is right.
...
If it's Right, stand up for it - together.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live with Honor

Be yourself. Honor yourself.

Is there a place for Honor today?
         

Make Today Your Day

 

Today is your day to paint life in bold colors;
set today's rhythm with your heart-drum;
walk today's march with courage;
create today as your celebration of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Love bravely, live bravely, be courageous;
there's really nothing to lose.
There's no wrong you can't make right again,
so be kinder to yourself;
have fun, take chances. There are no bounds.
- Jewel

To love what you do and feel that it matters,
how on earth could anything be more fun.
- Katherine Graham

Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal.
Live this day as if it were your last.
The past is over and gone.
The future is not guaranteed.
- Wayne Dyer

I am the poet of my mind.
I am the painter of my heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Canvas Of Life

Create Your Masterwork

Fun and Success

Big Dream - Big Adventure
     

Explore. Dream. Discover.

 

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
- widely misattributed to Mark Twain

I have accepted fear as a part of life -
specifically the fear of change...
I have gone ahead despite the pounding
in the heart that says: turn back.
- Erica Jong

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

Play full-out and enjoy all of Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Think Big, Act Big

Become a Seeker

Don't Wait!

My thoughts on "safety" versus living full-out
      

Practice Keen Awareness

Today's affirmation: I practice keen awareness,
and make my choices with consciousness, courage,
and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Let us not look back in anger
or forward in fear,
but around in awareness.
- James Thurber

Today, begin to look on all things
with love, appreciation and open-mindedness.
- A Course in Miracles

It is the Consciousness with which we participate
in activities that makes the difference.
- Michael Beckwith

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

Pay attention. Cultivate awareness.
Life cannot be lived fully or joyfully if
our thoughts are focused on regretting the past,
preoccupied with anticipating the future,
or lost in the mind-fog of unconscious habitual behavior.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What is necessary to change a person is
to change his awareness of himself.
- Abraham Maslow

For some of us, the world appears to provide
only a fixed quantity of each resource -
a limited amount of food, of money,
of love, of success, of appreciation.
For others, life is unlimited.
Their world expands with the generosity, compassion,
inventiveness, and service that they contribute.
In this world-view, money that is spent
or given away returns multiplied.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Let Go and Accept This Moment

Assumptions are Dangerous

Be Open - Welcome the New

Bounty of the Earth
      

 

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
       

Have Higher Aspirations than "Fitting In"

 

Attempting to "fit in" is not a worthy objective.
There is no point in feeling sad or upset when your plans, your ideas,
or even your fundamental nature do not "fit in" with the majority view.
Be the courageous hero and stay committed to your greatest ideas and ideals,
however they are received by those around you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
- Elbert Hubbard

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions;
it is easy in solitude to live after your own;
but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many people allow their need for other people's approval to control their lives.
They spend their lives worrying about what others think of them.
- Rick Warren

For those few who, sooner or later,
are lucky enough to break away from the pack,
the most intoxicating moment comes
when they cease being bodies in the command of others,
and find that they control their own time,
when they learn their own voice and authority.
- Theodore H. White [non-gendered paraphrase]

Further reading:  Be Yourself

Believe and Take Action

Think for Yourself

Appreciate Yourself

Don Miguel Ruiz: The Four Agreements - The Wisdom of the Ages in Four Sound-Bites
     

Fear is Disempowering

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded,
but the fear of pain or death.
- Epictetus

It is idle to dread what you cannot avoid.

- Publilius Syrus

We are not victims of aging, sickness and death.
These are part of scenery, not the seer,
who is immune to any form of change.
This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.
- Deepak Chopra

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
- Henry Van Dyke

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

- Felix Frankfurter

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering
is worse than the suffering itself.
- Paulo Coelho

There can be no happiness when one lives in fear.
Whatever the future holds, fear will not improve tomorrow,
and it will destroy your happiness today.
Action is empowering, fear is disempowering.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: My Thoughts about Fear

A Life Without Fear

Choose to be Courageous

Beyond Fear

    

If You're Committed, There's a Way

Be resolute in your goals,
but flexible in your tactics.
- 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 

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

You must do the things you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Where there's a will, there's a way.
- old English proverb

Sometimes the way to the pot of gold on the other side of the mountain is to keep fighting up the steep slippery slope, but often it is better to walk around the mountain. Also consider refocusing your attention on another pot of gold that is even larger, shinier, and virtually at hand.

How often we keep banging our head into the same wall, or to use the phrase derived from Cervantes Don Quixote, "tilting at windmills." 

When a problem seems unsolvable, or a question appears unanswerable, consider that you may not be asking the best question. 

In their own way, problems can be blessings.
They can be the prod to get us out of our complacency and into action.

Problems create an opportunity for us to exercise our ingenuity,
to plan, to persevere, to interact with our social network,
and to feel a sense of accomplishment when we finally overcome the unexpected roadblock. 

In the midst of crisis, boldly seize opportunity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

Further reading: Problem-Solving Abilities 

Be Flexible

Another Door Opens 

Rising Again
    

The Antidote for Fear Is Courage

 

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

We must build dikes of courage
to hold back the flood of fear.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

Fear defeats more people than
any other one thing in the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.

- Anonymous

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow."
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Photo was taken in the aftermath of 9/11 2001 in New York City

Further reading: Draw from Suffering

Gather Strength

Hard Times

To Overcome Fear
    

Stay Adaptable, 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