Welcome
to our newest Tuesday, the second day of our newest
week!
We hope that you're able to make the most of this
week and end your
January on high notes in all areas of your life (or
at least most areas)!
Every
time you heal a dark part of yourself
you bring more light into the world.
-
Stephen
C. Paul
We
must always remember that possessions have no inherent
value. They become what we make them. If
they increase our capacity to give, they become
something good. If they increase our focus on
ourselves and become standards by which we measure other
people, they become something bad.
-Kent
Nerburn
I
believe fervently in our species and have no patience with the current
fashion of running down the human being as a useful part of nature.
On the contrary, we are a spectacular, splendid manifestation of life.
-
Lewis
Thomas
It
is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion;
it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the
great person is the one who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of
solitude. -Ralph
Waldo Emerson
Do you ever
find yourself slightly depressed because your life isn't
working as you would like? Here is a wonderful story
that can help you to understand that life is always
presenting you with opportunities to succeed.
Horinouchi
Kyuichiro is a Japanese man who went from being a complete
business failure, to becoming the president of a $100
million business empire.
While still
in his early thirties, Horinouchi ran his family's business
totally into the ground. Bankrupt, shattered, and
ashamed, he got in his car, drove away, and deserted his
family and his creditors. For months he lived on the
streets amongst other homeless people, and spent many hours
pondering his seemingly sad fate.
With lots
of time to think, he came to realize three things:
1. He
previously had no concept of what would bring him joy in
life.
2. "Quality of life" was a term he hadn't
understood. He had been obsessed with
"success" and he thought that with enough money to
spend, the quality of his life could be purchased.
3. The more he strove for material wealth, the more he
found himself to be spiritually bankrupt.
With winter
fast approaching, Horinouchi was wandering about aimlessly
one day and came upon a broken kerosene heater left in the
garbage.
Horinouchi had always enjoyed fixing things
and he impulsively decided to take the broken heater back to
his car and repair it. By the time evening rolled
around a ration of kerosene had been bought and he and a
small flock of his homeless friends basked in the warmth of
the rejuvenated heater.
As
Horinouchi sat there, he realized not only that he had
enjoyed doing the repair work, but that he also very much
had enjoyed giving the heater a chance at a second
life. In that moment he vowed to give himself a shot
at a second life as well. Little did he realize that
his personal desire to start all over again would spawn a
wonderful rebirth for many others as well.
If you stay
in Japan for some period of time you will be amazed at the
quantity and quality of household goods that get
discarded. You can easily find working TV's, heaters,
toasters, CD players, and computers. People used to
believe that the Japanese would never buy such discarded
goods because they would feel that they smelled strange and
seemed dirty. Horinouchi proved everyone wrong!
He
rekindled his entrepreneurial spirit by focusing on doing
what he truly enjoyed--fixing things, and recycling goods
rather than adding to Japan's already huge mound of
garbage. This time around he realized that by focusing
on quality of life and job satisfaction, he would likely
achieve financial stability as well. Slowly, he built
up a business of collecting, repairing, and reselling
merchandise that had been thrown in the garbage.
As fate
would have it, Horinouchi established his recycling business
at the perfect moment--just as the Japanese economy began
its meltdown. As numerous businesses failed, "all
of a sudden" people became quite open to saving money
by buying second hand goods. With Horinouchi having
made the vow to reclaim his life, it seemed like the
Universe was pitching in to fully support him.
Eventually
he was able to save enough to open his own store, and the
rest as they say, is history. Today he has more than
200 franchised stores, with gross sales of more than $100
million a year, and a whole raft of new businesses in the
early planning stages.
How about
you?
Would you
like to reprioritize and recycle your life by focusing on
what brings you the greatest joy?
If you stay
sensitive to ALL of life's offerings, you just might find
the key to your success lays hidden in a pile of high
quality "garbage"!
Can a truly
happy person ever really be "unsuccessful"?
We
have some
inspiring and motivational books that may interest you. Our main way of supporting this site is
through the sale of books, either physical copies
or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the
online reader). All of the money that we earn
through them comes back to the site
in one way or another. Just click on the picture
to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and
non-fiction!
Let
the Past Go (an
excerpt) Ella
Wheeler Wilcox
Do
not begin the new year by recounting to yourself or
others all your losses and sorrows.Let the past go.
Should
some good friend present you with material for a
lovely garment, would you insult her by throwing it
aside and describing the beautiful garments you had
worn out in past times?
The
new year has given you the fabric for fresh start in
life; why dwell upon the events which have gone, the
joys, blessings and advantages of the past!
Do
not tell me it is too late to be successful or happy.Do not tell me you are sick or broken in spirit; the spirit
cannot be sick or broken, because it is of God.
It
is your mind which makes your body sick.Let the spirit assert itself and demand health
and hope and happiness in this new year.
Forget
the money you have lost, the mistakes you have made,
the injuries you have received, the disappointments
you have experienced.
Real
sorrow, the sorrow which comes from the death of dear
ones, or some great cross well borne, you need not
forget.But
think of these things as sent to enrich your nature,
and to make you more human and sympathetic.You are missing them if you permit yourself
instead to grow melancholy and irritable.
It
is weak and unreasonable to imagine destiny has
selected you for special suffering.Sorrow is no respecter of persons.Say to yourself with the beginning of this year
that you are going to consider all your troubles as an
education for your mind and soul; and that out of the
experiences which you have passed through you are
going to build a noble and splendid character, and a
successful career.
Do
not tell me you are too old.Age is all imagination.Ignore years and they will ignore you.
Eat
moderately, and bathe freely in water as cold as
nature's rainfall. Exercise thoroughly and regularly.
Be
alive, from crown to toe.Breathe deeply, filling every cell of the lungs
for at least five minutes, morning and night, and when
you draw in long, full breaths, believe you are
inhaling health, wisdom and success.
Anticipate
good health.If
it does not come at once, consider it a mere temporary
delay, and continue to expect it.
Regard
any physical ailment as a passing inconvenience, no
more. Never for an instant believe you are permanently
ill or disabled.
The
young men of France are studying alchemy, hoping to
learn the secret of the transmutation of gold.If you will study your own spirit and its
limitless powers, you will gain a greater secret than
any alchemist ever held; a secret which shall give you
whatever you desire.
Think
of your body as the silver jewel box, your mind as the
silver lining, your spirit as the gem.Keep the box burnished and clear of dust, but
remember always that the jewel within is the precious
part of it.
Think
of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled
success.A
whole, clear, glorious year lies before you!In a year you can regain health, fortune,
restfulness, happiness!
Push
on!Achieve,
achieve!
From The Heart of the New Thought, 1902.
Ella's book is available for
download on our free
e-book page!
Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week.
The need to
make wise choices encompasses every area of our lives.
Since we have time for only a limited amount of
stuff,
we need to choose wisely what stuff we're going to
allow to take up that time.
Since we have only a
limited amount of time to spend with friends or to engage
in leisure activities, we need to choose our friends and
our activities wisely.
It's quite a contradiction that most people would claim that
honesty is one of the most valuable traits in life, yet so many of
us have stopped putting a value on honesty as far as the greater
society is concerned. We now allow politicians and
advertisers not just to play with the truth and warp it, but to
completely disregard it. The number of voices that express
themselves against this trend seems to be diminishing, as more and
more people seem to accept lies as just a part of life.
The headlines in the United States pretty constantly tell us about
the lies of our politicians, especially concerning the current
presidential administration. Their lies are consistently
well documented, but their supporters either refuse to believe the
documentation or simply don't care that they're being lied
to--they're going to support the administration come hell or high
water, no matter how dishonest the administration is. When
we all have access to videos that show something very clearly
happening, and the administration can come out and say "That
never happened" and face absolutely no repercussions for
their dishonesty, then we have a serious problem in this country.
We don't have to look too far in the advertising world to see
blatant lies in the form of implications. When the man on
the commercial says "Plus, if you order in the next ten
minutes, we'll include a second can free," you can be sure
that there's no one at the call center with a stopwatch who will
check to make sure that only the calls that come in within 600
seconds get the "free" second can.
What they want is for you to infer that there's a sense of
urgency, and in order for you to get that idea, they manipulate
the truth. The truth is that the $19.99 price is the price
that they've set for two cans--you're getting nothing free.
But if someone feels that if they don't call in ten minutes, they
may only get one can for the same price, then they're much more
likely to pick up the phone and place an order.
We can also look at so-called "energy" drinks, which
provide basically only a form of sugar and lots of caffeine.
Neither of these ingredients is healthy for us when we use them to
excess, and actually can affect us negatively. The bottom
line, though, is that they don't do what they advertise--the
caffeine may make you more alert for a short time, but it will
wear off; it's basically the same effect that a stimulant drug
will have. The sugar may metabolize quickly enough to be
used if you're doing physical activity, but it gives you extra
empty calories that you'll have to work off some other way if
you're sitting at a desk.
And how many times have we seen a politician refuse to admit that
something is true for weeks or months, and then finally admit the
truth of his affair or illegal dealings or any other unethical or
even illegal activity? Very often, the public simply lets go
the unethical activity AND the time that the politician spent
denying it, which means that the person never faces any sort of
consequences for the behavior.
What concerns me about all this is the way that our young people
are seeing these examples and learning the lesson that complete
honesty isn't regarded highly in our society, and therefore they
don't necessarily need to aspire to being honest themselves.
And it's not just kids--how many people aren't honest on their
taxes because they see so many others practicing dishonesty with
their taxes? How many people become indignant when a police
officer dares to give them a ticket for speeding?
When we let others lie to us, are we showing ourselves the respect
that we deserve, and admitting the dignity that should be
ours? When we allow others to misrepresent themselves to us,
what are we saying about our own sense of value?
Personally, I have a very simple policy--I refuse to do business
with any company that misrepresents themselves to me in their
advertising. My business means little to them, of course,
but my policy means a lot to me. I also refuse to vote for
any politician who knowingly has told a lie, and then later has
changed his or her story. My vote means little to them, but
I know that one of my most important criteria for voting is
important to me.
If we're ever going to have a society in which honesty and
integrity continue to be valued strongly, it's going to take
action from everyone who values them. As with most things,
such actions don't have to be huge or earth-shattering--they just
need to be consistent. Until businesses begin to lose
business because of misrepresentation, they'll have no motivation
to change their ways. Until politicians lose significant
numbers of votes when they play loose with the truth, they'll also
have no motivation to change what they do.
And until you're willing to show yourself the self-respect that
you deserve by not allowing others to lie to you without
repercussions, then you'll find that others will continue to lie
to you.
Pythagoras used to say that life
resembles the Olympic Games:
a few people strain their
muscles to carry off a prize; others
bring trinkets to
sell to the crowd for gain;
and some there are,
and not
the worst, who seek no other profit than to look
at the
show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the
life
of other people in order to judge and regulate
their own.
The life in us is diminished by
judgment far more frequently than by disease. Our own self-judgment or the judgment of other people can stifle our
life-force, its spontaneity and natural expression. Unfortunately,
judgment
is commonplace. It is as rare to find someone who loves us as we
are
as it is to find someone who loves themselves whole. Judgment does not only take the form of criticism. Approval is
also a form
of judgment. When we approve of people, we sit in judgment of them
as
surely as when we criticize them. Positive judgment hurts less
acutely
than criticism, but it is judgment all the same and we are harmed by it
in far more subtle ways. To seek approval is to have no resting
place,
no sanctuary. Like all judgment, approval encourages a constant
striving. It makes us uncertain of who we are and of our true
value. This is as true of the approval we give ourselves as it is of the
approval
we offer others. Approval can't be trusted. It can be
withdrawn at any
time no matter what our track record has been. It is as nourishing
of
real growth as cotton candy. Yet many of us spend our lives
pursuing it.
Let
me explain what we mean by compassion. Usually, our
concept of compassion or love refers to the feeling of closeness
we have with our friends and loved ones. Sometimes
compassion also carries a sense of pity. This is
wrong--any love or compassion which entails looking down on the
other is not genuine compassion. To be genuine, compassion
must be based on respect for the other, and on the realization
that others have the right to be happy and overcome suffering
just as much as you. On this basis, since you can see that
others are suffering, you develop a genuine sense of concern for
them.
As for the
closeness we feel toward our friends, this is usually more like
attachment than compassion.
Genuine
compassion should be
unbiased. If we only feel close to
our friends, and not to our enemies, or to the countless people
who are unknown to us personally and toward whom we are
indifferent, then our compassion is only partial or biased.
Genuine
compassion is based on the recognition that others have the
right to happiness just like yourself, and therefore even your
enemy is a human being with the same wish for happiness as you,
and the same right to happiness as you. A sense of concern
developed on this basis is what we call compassion; it extends
to everyone, irrespective of whether the person's attitude
toward you is hostile or friendly.
Life is made up not necessarily
of great sacrifices or high-level duties
but of little things. The smiles, the kindnesses, the
commitments and
obligations and responsibilities that are given habitually and
lovingly
are the blessings that win and preserve the heart and bring comfort
to one's self as we as to others. This is the ministry
of service performed by every useful life.
Yes, life
can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's
actually rather dependable and reliable. Some principles apply
to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called
universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use
them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever
learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning. I use it a lot when I
teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to
the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.
What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or
generous, compassionate or arrogant? In this book, I've done my
best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life,
writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.
Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too! Universal Principles of Living Life Fully. Awareness of
these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration
out of the lives we lead.
Explore all of our
quotations pages--these links will take you to the first page of each
topic, and those pages will contain links to any additional pages on
the same topic (there are five pages on adversity, for example).
™
