Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

Listen to episode 518 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Inspirational Life Lessons on Happiness. Edited and adapted from The True Source of a Happy Life by Hugh Wayt.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: It will help much in learning the lesson of happiness if we persistently train ourselves to be cheerful and to see the bright things in our every-day life. There are some people who seem to have eyes only for the disagreeable things. They find every bit of roughness and hardness in life's pathway. They see at once (and see it magnified) every unpleasant thing that comes into their lives. They remember every unhappy experience they ever had. They keep on the walls of their memory pictures of all their vanished joys and faded hopes. They indelibly record all the trials, adversities and misfortunes they have ever suffered.

But, on the other hand, they are forgetful of all their blessings. They hang up no pictures of the joys they did not lose, which have filled their lives on so many bright days. They have poor memory for the things that beautify and gladden life. There are few habits more common than this: of remembering the unpleasant and forgetting the pleasant things — and there is no other habit which is a greater enemy of true joy.

The person who would be of good cheer must break this habit if it has fastened itself to your life. You must train yourself to see the beautiful things and be blind to the disagreeable things. There are, in the ordinary life, a thousand pleasant things (favors, joys, comforts, things to cheer) to one unpleasant thing, one real cause for unhappiness. It is a shame, therefore, to let the one bit of roughness, trial, or suffering spoil all the gladness of the thousand blessings, to let the one discordant note mar all the music of such splendid harmony.

Listen to episode 966 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Originality & Living Up to Your Potential. Edited and adapted from Stepping-Stones to Success by Horace D. Hitchcock.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: In each of us there should be developed a liking for some one thing that brings us the thrill of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is, indeed, a great tonic. You may drive yourself to do good things by sheer force of will, concentration, and so forth, but enthusiasm is a power which makes things seem easy, when in reality they are not. Enthusiasm in work is inspiration, joy, and gladness. Nothing great is ever achieved without it. Enthusiasm is the root of original creation.

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Listen to episode 529 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: The Courage & Patience to Achieve Success. Edited and adapted from Making the Grade by C.V. Mosby.

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Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Patience means more than being able to stick to a task until it is finished. It means having a philosophy that makes one understand that it is continuous, well-directed efforts that win. Furthermore, patience must have an imaginative eye that sees the completed task and pronounces it well done.

A mule can plod up and down the field. It makes no difference to the mule whether cotton or weeds are being plowed, but the farmer would have little patience if they did not feel that they would harvest more than a crop of weeds.

To be patient, to keep plugging along, to keep climbing the hill, you must be inspired by, and buoyed up with, the hope of reaching the top. It is not patience, but hopelessness that keeps one working at a task that holds out absolutely no promise of ultimate successful completion. The patience that helps carry one up the hill is the cheerful, hopeful kind. It is the kind that realizes the necessity of well-directed, intelligent, continuous effort.

Listen to episode 795 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Make the Most of Life. Edited and adapted from Ready Money by George H. Knox.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: What is nerve? Nerve is that which enables a person to hang on and either lose everything or win out. It is undertaking more than ordinary things. It is taking big risks on one's own ability. It is holding the fort against all-comers. It is doing the thing which the ordinary person thinks is impossible. It is setting your standard twice as high as your colleagues would set it for you, and then reaching it. It is burning your bridges behind you and staking your all on your own endeavor.

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Listen to episode 65 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Stop Worrying (Start Living Anxiety Free). Edited and adapted from: Your Right to Be Happy by Frank & Marion Van Eps.

Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: You might be ready to embark on a new enterprise, but your imagination conjures up all sorts of obstacles and difficulties, and you are afraid to begin, lest you fail. But this is, actually, just where the turn of success is made. Daniel Webster, when he first started in his career as a lawyer, felt as if he were utterly incompetent and could never succeed. But he persevered and did not run away or give up, and he eventually became one of the most famous American statesmen of the 19th century. Had he yielded to that feeling of fear, he would never have amounted to anything; but having overcome that, all things were set in his favor.

On the eve of any great achievement, it is not unusual to feel the most like a failure or that your goals are unreachable. It is this point of apparent collapse that is so important in everyone’s career. Just when failure and disaster seem unavoidable is the time to push right on through and disregard appearances. More will power and determination put forth at that time will turn the tide, and glorious results are certain.