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Thursday, March 31, 2011

LIFE- 101....rules to follow

“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs


How do you feel about your life today? Are you living every day in exuberance? Do you love what you’re doing? Are you excited every single moment? Are you looking forward to what’s coming up next? Are you living your best life?
If your answer to any of the above is a no, maybe or not sure, that means you’re not living your life to the fullest. Which really shouldn’t be the case, because your life experience is up to you to create. Why settle for anything less than what you can get? You deserve nothing but the best. 


This is a list of 101 timeless principles to live your best life. As you live in alignment with them, you’ll find yourself becoming more conscious, more alive, and more importantly, experiencing life on a whole new level. Be sure to refer to it daily to guide you to your best life.


Here are 101 ways to live your life to the fullest:


1.Live every day on a fresh new start. Don’t be held back by what happened yesterday, the day before, the week before, the year before, and so on.
2.Be true to who you are. Stop trying to please other people or be someone else. It’s better to be an original version of yourself than an exact duplicate of someone else.
3.Quit complaining. Don’t be like the howling dog, always howling and never doing anything. Stop complaining about your problems and work on them instead.
4.Be proactive. Stop waiting for others around you to do something and take action yourself instead.
5.Rather than think “what if”, think “next time”. Don’t think about things you can’t change or unhappy things because these are disempowering. Instead focus on the things you can action upon.
6.Focus on WHAT vs. How. Focus on WHAT you want first, before you think about HOW to do it. Anything is possible, as long as you set your mind, heart and soul to it.
7.Create your own opportunities. You can wait for opportunities to drop in life. Or, you can go out there and create your own opportunities.
8.Live more consciously each day. Stop sleepwalking through life. Your life is something to be experienced, not coasted through.
9.Be committed to your growth. Achieving higher consciousness comes from your commitment to growth.
10.Know your inner self. This means knowing who you are and what you represent. Be clear of your personal identity.
11.Discover your real life purpose. Set the mission statement for your life; one that will drive you to live your life to the fullest.
12.Live in alignment with your purpose.
13.Set your life commandments. Define your personal commandments to live your best life.
14.Discover your values. Values are the essence of what makes you, you.
15.Hold yourself to the highest conduct. Every one of us have our own set of ethics, principles and moral codes. Live true to them every day.
16.Design your ideal life. There are no limits in life – only those you set for yourself!
17.Stop putting life on hold. What is one area of your life you have been putting off/avoiding/denying? Uncover it and start working on it.
18.Create your life handbook. Your life handbook is your life-long personal manual to live your best life – from your mission statement, your values, your long-term goals, short-term goals, personal strengths, blind spots to address, plans, among others. Create your book first then build on from there.
19.Set your goals. After you design your ideal life, set your 5-year, 3-year and 1-year goals. The more specific your goals, the better! 
20.Take action on your goals and dreams. Create an action plan with your strategy, plan and immediate next steps.
21.Create your bucket list, i.e. things to do before you die. Then, get out to achieve them.
22.Don’t do things for the sake of doing them. Always evaluate what you’re doing and only do it if there is meaning behind them. Don’t be afraid to quit the things that don’t serve your purpose.
23.Do the things you love, because life is too precious to spend it doing anything else. If you don’t enjoy something, then don’t do it. Spend your time and energy on things that bring you fulfillment and happiness.
24.Discover your passion in life. What sets you on fire?
25.Make your passion a full-fledged career. Then, start pursuing it. Stop working in a job you are passionless towards. Quit your job when you are ready to do it full-time.
26.Turn your passion into a huge success. Turn your passion into a multi-million dollar business. Better yet, make it a multi-billion dollar one.
27.Learn from criticism. Be open to criticism but don’t be affected by it. Criticism is meant to help you be a better person. Learn from it.
28.Be positive. Is the glass half empty or half full? How about neither? It’s actually all-full – the bottom half is water, the top half is air. It’s all a matter of perception. Take on empowering perceptions, not those that bind you. If you can see the positive sides of every thing, you’ll be able to live a much richer life than others. Purge unnecessary negativity from your life.
29.Do unto others what you would like others to do unto you. The law of reciprocity – Golden Rule
30.Don’t complain or badmouth about other people.
31.Be empathetic. If everyone only see life from his/her own perspective, we’ll forever be close-minded and insular. See things from others’ shoes.
32.Be a compassionate person. Show compassion and kindness to everyone around you
33.Develop 100% self-belief. Believe in yourself and your abilities. Remove your limiting beliefs and replace them with empowering ones.  If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect others to believe in you?
34.Let go of an unhappy past. This means past grievances, heartbreaks, sadness, disappointments, etc.
35.Forgive those who may have done you wrong in the past. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and realize it was you.” – Lewis B. Smedes
36.Let go of attachments. Don’t fixate yourself with a certain status, fame, wealth or material possessions. These are impermanent and will ultimately disappear one day when you die. Focus on growing and living life to the fullest instead.
37.Let go of relationships that do not serve you. That means negative people, dishonest people, people who don’t respect you, people are overly critical and relationships that prevent you from growing.
38.Spend more time with people who enable you. Hang out with people who you compatible with, like-minded people, people who are positive, successful, strong achievers and positive for your growth. You are after all the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
39.Build genuine, authentic connections with people around you – strangers, friends, family, colleagues, business partners, customers/clients, etc. Spend more time to know them better and foster stronger connections.
40.Connect with an old friend. There is no end to the number of friends you can have. Reach out to people from the past.
41.Do a kind deed a day. What is something you can do today that will make the world a better place? Go and do it.
42.Help other people who are in need. Voluntarism is one outlet. You can also start with your friends and family.
43.Help people when they least expect it, without reason. You don’t need any reason to help others. Do it because you want to. Share the love with everyone.
44.Go dating (if you’re single).
45.Fall in love ♥
46.Review your life. Set a weekly review session to assess how you are doing for your goals and your life. Review your purpose once every 3-6 months too so you know you’re on the right path.
47.Overcome procrastination. Procrastination is a huge waste of your time (and your life). Get rid of it once and for all.
48.30 minutes a day. Set aside at least 30 minutes every day to work on a goal.
49.Get out there and make new friends – whether in your workplace, online, friends’ friends, social groups, etc.
50.Be your advisor (from the future). Imagine you’re the future you, 5 years later. How would you advise yourself? Write it down. Now, apply them.
51.Write a letter to your future self. Actually, write 3 letters – for yourself in 1, 3 and 5 years. The longer the letters, the better. Envision how you’ll be like in the future. Make each letter a minimum 2 pages long. Now, seal them and put them in a safe place. Set it in your calendar so you’ll know to open them when it’s time. This will inspire you to work your hardest and achieve your maximum results in the time period.
52.Declutter. Start from your computer, then your table, your room, your bag/wallet, and your home. The more you throw the unwanted and old stuff away, the more room you’re creating for new things to enter.
53.Keep learning. There is something to learn from everything you see, hear and experience. This includes your mistakes and past misshaps. Learn to interpret each event objectively. Focus on what you can learn from it so you can apply them moving forward.
54.Keep developing yourself. Equip yourself with a huge breadth of knowledge. Learn different skills, pick up different hobbies, study different fields.
55.Keep upgrading yourself. Equip yourself with a huge depth of knowledge. While you can usually only level up to 99 in video games, in real life you can level up to infinity. Go for further studies if need be. Develop your skills. Level up. Build your >10,000 hours in each skill.
56.Try new things. What’s something you’d normally not do? Get out of your comfort zone try something different. It can be something simple like taking a new bus route, trying a new food item, picking up a new hobby, or something bigger like studying a different field, picking a new skill, traveling to a country you’ll never visit, etc. You set your own limits.
57.Get yourself out there. This applies for everything. (a) Get out there geographically. Go out, travel and explore the world. Set sail into the sea. Go backpacking by yourself and visit as many countries as possible. Get on a road trip and visit the different places that come out. (B) Get out there situationally. Stop sticking to routines and comfort zones. Try something different. (c) Get out there in life. Stop watching TV and living vicariously through the TV characters. Go and live the life of your dreams.
58.Be the absolute best in what you do. Go for the #1 position in what you do. If you want to spend your time doing something, you might as well be the best in it. Strive for the best – you don’t deserve anything lesser than that.
59.Don’t settle. Don’t settle for less. Don’t settle for someone you don’t like as your partner. Don’t settle for a job you don’t like. Don’t settle for friends who make you feel like a lesser person. Don’t settle for a weight you are unhappy with. Go for what you really want.
60.Stretch yourself. What are you doing now? How can you achieve more? Set bigger goals. Explore your limits and break them.
61.Embrace new ideas. Don’t mentally limit yourself; Let your mind be a breeding ground for new ideas. 
62.Create your inspirational haven. Turn your room into a place you love. Do the same for your work desk. Get rid of things that make you unproductive. Surround it with things that inspire you and trigger you to action.
63.Behave as your ideal self will. All of us have an ideal vision of who we want to be. How is your ideal self like? How can you start to be that ideal self now?
64.Set your role models in life. With role models, you become much better than you can be by yourself.
65.Get mentors and/or coaches. There’s no faster way to improve than to have someone work with you on your goals. Not only will they drive you to achieve more for yourself, they’ll also share with you important advice which you can use to create even more success for yourself.
66.Uncover your blind spots. The more you uncover, the more you grow, the better you become.
67.Increase your consciousness. The more conscious you are, the more evolved you become.68.Ask for feedback. As much as we try to uncover our blind spots (#66), there will be areas we cannot identify. Asking for feedback gives us an additional perspective. Some people to approach will be friends, family, colleagues, boss, or even acquaintances, since they will have no preset bias and can give their feedback objectively.
69.Generate passive income. Create passive income streams so your income is not tied to the time you spend on your work. Of course you’ll still continue to work, but only because you want to and not because you have to.
70.Help others live their best lives. There is no better way to grow than to help others grow. Ultimately, the world is one. We are all in this together.
71.Get married / Start your family / Have kids!
72.Improve the world. There are many things in the world that need your attention and help. Poverty. Disaster recovery. Illiteracy. Children in need. Depleting rainforests. Animal rescue. Endangered species.
73.Spearhead a humanitarian cause/organization you are passionate about.
74.Give more value than you receive. There is so much unspeakable joy that comes from giving. And when you keep giving, you’ll find that you actually receive a lot more in return.
75.Be big picture focus. You can either set your eyes on the big things or get hung up by the nitty gritty details. The former will help you get a lot more out of life than the latter. Focus on the big rocks in life and put first things first.
76.Be clear of your end objective. What is the end goal you seek? Is what you’re doing bringing you there? If not, put it aside. As long as you keep taking on things that meet your end goal, you’ll eventually reach there.
77. For every goal you have, there are different paths to achieve it. Pick out the most effective path that brings you there the fastest with least amount of effort.
78.Prioritize - Focus on important tasks and cut out the less important ones.
79.Live in the moment. Are your thoughts wandering around all the time? Calm your mind down. Be present. The only time you’re ever living is in this moment. Meditation helps to remove mental clutter.
80.Relish in the little moments. Snuggling under warm covers on a rainy day. Ice cream on a hot day. A kiss with your loved one. Being with your best friend. A walk by the park. The breeze on your face. Quiet, alone time. Watching the sun rise/set. Soak in all these little moments of life. They are what make up your life.
81.Take a break. Being the best also requires you to take breaks when needed. Make sure you rest when needed.
82.Stop wanting things a certain way. Life is not perfect !
83.Focus on creation.
84.Don’t criticize or judge others. Respect others for who they are.
85.The only person you can change is yourself. Stop expecting others to behave in a certain way. Rather than demand that others around you change, focus on changing yourself. You’ll be happier and live a more fulfilling life this way.
86.Embrace gratitude. Be grateful for everything you have today, and everything you will get in the future.
87.Express gratitude. Let the people who’ve touched you know of your gratitude towards them. You’ll be surprised what a little act like this can do. If you don’t tell them, they’ll never know.
88.Let loose and have fun. Sing at the top of your lungs. Dance in the rain :D. Run barefoot and feel the ground underneath your feet. Release of your self-imposed shackles and be free :D.
89.Get into nature. Many of us live in concrete jungles. Soak in the beauty of nature.
90.You have a choice. Recognize you always have a choice in how to live your life.
91.Laugh more :D. Are you reading this with a straight face? Smile and have fun :D.
92.Embrace change. The only thing that’s constant is change. Change means growth. Rather than resist change, learn to versatile such that you can make the best out of the changes that come. In fact, become an agent of change.
93.Be more risk-inclined. Don’t be afraid to take risks. The bigger your risks, the bigger your return.
94.Embrace mistakes. The more mistakes you make, the faster you learn. Make sure to draw lessons so you can build on them.
95.Embrace disappointments. Many people try to avoid feeling disappointed. They develop a resistant relationship with disappointment. However, disappointment is part and parcel of being human – it reflects your real passions. Don’t resist it – instead, embrace it. Understand it, then channel into it to create more in life.
96.Challenge your fears. All of us have fears. Fear of uncertainty, fear of public speaking, fear of risk… All our fears keep us in the same position and prevent us from growing. Rather than avoid your fears, recognize they are the compass for growth. Address and overcome them.
97.Maximize your mind, body, heart and soul. Living your best life requires you to maximize yourself mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
98.Be your best self. It’s only through being the best we can be that we live our life to the fullest.
99.Love yourself. You are the person you have to live with for the rest with your life. Treasure and love yourself.
100.Love others. Be grateful for all the people around you because they help you to grow. They enrich your life experience. Without them, your life would not have been the same.
101.Last but not least: Love life. I always find living to be a fascinating experience. How we’re all on earth, with millions of species, 30,000 different life forms, over 7 billion people, and all thriving in its own way, existing, co-existing and in co-creation mode. There’s so much we don’t know out there, so much to be experienced in life, that it’s just wonderful.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Quotes to Remember

Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we will not find it.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.- Dame Agatha Christie

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things- Henry Ward Beecher

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.- Thich Nhat Hanh

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.- Mark Twain

Trusting our intuition often saves us from disaster.- Anne Wilson Shaef

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.- Albert Einstein

There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.- C.S. Lewis

You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others.- President Gordon B. Hinckley

We love life not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving.- Freidrich Nietzsche

The world is harsh and cruel. Live as if the world were as it should be, to show it what it could be.- unknown

Our similarities bring us to a common ground. Our differences allow us to be fascinated by each other.- Tom Robbins

The future has several names. For the weak it is the impossible. For the fainthearted, it is the unknown. For the thoughtful and valiant, it is the ideal.- Victor Hugo

Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.- Voltaire

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.- William Arthur Ward

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.- E.E. Cummings

Not all those who wander are lost.- J.R. Tolkien

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.- Jane Austen

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.- Aristotle

I've loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.- Galileo Galilei

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.- Aristotle

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.- Mark Twain

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.- Winston Churchill

As we express our gratidude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.- John F. Kennedy

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.- Winston Churchill

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.- Douglas Adams

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Loving YOURSELF

Love your neighbor as you love your self.

Jesus of Nazareth

If you have trouble loving yourself, imagine that everyone in the world
is a hungry soul whose life has been imperfect. Like you,
they had imperfect parents. Like you, tragedies and difficulties befell them.
If you could hear each person's story, you would probably be moved to tears
and want to reach out and embrace that person. You would want to tell them
that in spite of everything they've gone through, they have great value.
Daphne Rose Kingma


When we don't love ourselves unconditionally, the limited, judgmental,
conditional love we give ourselves is all we have to give anyone.
When we see ourselves as flawed, we also see others as flawed.
unattributed


If you aren't good at
loving yourself,
you will have a difficult
time loving anyone,
since you'll resent the
time and energy you give
another person that you
aren't even giving to yourself.
Barbara De Angelis


Don't forget to love yourself.
Søren Kierkegaard


I believe that probably the most important thing is that a loving person is a person
who loves him or herself. Now people are going to sit up and say, "Oh, oh, what does
he mean by that?" I'm not talking about the ego trip. I'm not talking about standing
before a mirror and saying, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?
You're so right, mirror." You know that isn't what I'm talking about when I say a person
who loves him or herself. I'm talking about a person who loves oneself as being someone
who realizes that you can only give away what you have, so you damned well better
work at getting something. You want to be the most educated, the most brilliant, the most
exciting, the most versatile, the most creative individual in the world, because then you
can give it away; and the only reason you have anything is to give it away.
Leo Buscaglia


People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,'
and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is
realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us
to find beauty in places where others have not dared
to look, including inside ourselves.
Salma Hayek


You can explore the universe looking for somebody who is more deserving
of your love and affection than you are yourself, and you will
not find that person anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody
in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
Buddha


Self-love is not opposed to the love of other people. You cannot really
love yourself and do yourself a favor without doing people a favor, and vise versa.
Karl Menninger


My primary relationship is with myself--all others are mirrors of it.
As I learn to love myself, I automatically receive the love and appreciation
that I desire from others. If I am committed to myself and to living
my truth, I will attract others with equal commitment. My willingness
to be intimate with my own deep feelings creates the space for intimacy
with another. As I learn to love myself, I receive the love I desire from others.
Shakti Gawain


You will always have to live with yourself, and it is to your best interest to see that you have good company -- a clean, pure, straight, honest, upright, generous, magnanimous companion.
Orison Swett Marden

It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.
Norman Vincent Peale

You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy.
unattributed


I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same
as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must
undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though
my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.
June Jordan


There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout:
This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel,
love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me. . . or leave me.
Accept me--or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person,
just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change
me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.
When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad--
you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you.
Stacey Charter


Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice. Without it
our other efforts to love fail. Giving ourselves love we provide our
inner being with the opportunity to have the unconditional love we
may have always longed to receive from someone else.
Bell Hooks


My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God
as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.
Mohandas Gandhi

Love yourself first and everything falls into line.
Lucille Ball


And most of all, I will love myself. For when I do, will zealously inspect
all things which enter my body, mind and soul. Never will I overindulge
the requests of my flesh, rather I will cherish my body with cleanliness
and moderation. Never will I allow my mind to be attracted to evil and despair,
rather I will uplift it with the wisdom and knowledge of the ages. Never will
I allow my soul to become complacent and satisfied, rather I will feed it
with meditation and prayer. Never will I allow my heart to become small
and bitter, rather I will share it and it will grow and warm the earth.
Og Mandino


Most of the time you are growing up, people tell you what's wrong with you. Your
coach tells you, your parents tell you, the teachers tell you when they grade you.
I think that's very good in the early stages, because it helps you then develop skills.
But at some point in your career, generally I think when you are in your teens, you
look in a mirror and you have to say, despite all the bumps and warts, "I like that
person I'm looking at, and let's just do our best."
Robert D. Ballard


The question "Is this an act of self-love or is it an act of self-sabotage?" is
one you must consistently ask yourself if you are committed to having all
that you want and all that you deserve. When you love yourself you feel
worthy and deserving of claiming the gifts of this world. Self-love gives you
peace of mind and balance. Self-love gives you self-respect and the ability
to respect others. It gives you the confidence to stand up and ask for what
you want. Self-love is the main ingredient in a successful, fulfilled life.
Debbie Ford

Forgiveness

Forgiveness enables you to bury your grudge in the icy earth and
put the past behind you. You flush resentment away by being
the first to forgive. Forgiveness fashions your future. It is a brave
and brash thing to do. The gutsiest decision you can make. As you
forgive others, winter will soon make way for springtime as fresh joy
pushes up through the soil of your heart.
Forgiveness is a stunning principal, your ticket out of hate and fear
and chaos. I know what regret feels like; I’ve earned my credentials.
But I also know what forgiveness feels like, because God has
so graciously forgiven me. Forgiveness frees you of the past so
you can make good choices today.
The practice of forgiveness can play an important role in your relationships
with others. Forgiveness will enable you to correct distortions in your relationships
and to improve the quality, intensity, and meaningfulness of relationships. It means
letting go of past resentments toward others so that you can experience them
in the present. Even if you do not "feel" like forgiving someone, forgiving them
will release you from the hold of the past and allow you to experience the world
in a new way. To forgive is to step outside the vicious circle of interpretation,
where concepts from the past dominate experience, and to begin to live in terms
of a larger, more worthy purpose. Forgiveness eliminates fear
and anxiety, weakness and vulnerability.
Forgiveness is at the heart of a healthy and happy life. Forgiveness protects relationships. It also protects the person who does the forgiving. Forgiveness is a method for giving love. It is a way of saying, "I am going to let go
of the wrong you did; I am not going to be bitter and I am going
to go on loving you anyway."
God heals through forgiveness and asks that we do likewise. Attack is an easier response than forgiveness, and that is why we are so tempted to give into it. Throughout our lives we have seen more anger than examples of true forgiveness. Forgiveness does not mean that we suppress anger; forgiveness means that we have asked for a miracle: the ability to see through mistakes that someone has made
to the truth that lies in all of our hearts. . . .Forgiveness is not always easy.
At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one
that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness. Attack thoughts towards others are attack thoughts towards ourselves. The first step
in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive.














Friday, March 25, 2011

The Complete Picture

As we stumble through life it is always nice to

see the complete picture...
but
many times it
does not work out that way...
remember not to judge
anyone or anything
by bits of information....
wait until you can clearly see
and understand
the whole picture
*
the bus story in point form ....
-a women on the bus
watching a man with his 3 children
-the children were misbehaving
... disturbing the entire bus
-the passengers where getting more and more upset by the minute
-how could this Father
just sit there
ignoring the
horrible behaviour of his children?
-the lady could not take it any longer
-she got up and went over to the man
telling him how horrified she was
with the behaviour of his children...couldn't he
see the whole bus was annoyed...why didn't he do something?
-the man looked up and replied,
"my wife just passed away yesterday"
{a perfect example of not seeing the whole picture}


Thursday, March 24, 2011

let's get loose
with
compassion,
let's drown in the delicious
ambience of
love.
do not wait for the last judgement. it comes every day.
albert camus

i wanted to write about the moment when your addictions no longer hide the truth from you. when your whole life breaks down. that's the moment when you have to somehow choose what your life is going to be about.
chuck palahniuk

happiness is the consequence of personal effort. you fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. you have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.
elizabeth gilbert

a person's life purpose is nothing more than to rediscover, through the detours of art or love or passionate work, those one or two images in the presence of which his heart first opened.
albert camus

Your heart is like a great river after a long spell of rain, spilling over its banks. All signposts that once stood on the ground are gone, inundated and carried away by that rush of water. And still the rain beats down on the surface of the river. Every time you see a flood like that on the news you tell yourself: That’s it. That’s my heart.
murakami

i love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
pablo neruda



if you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.
marilyn monroe


the place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.
hafiz

so you think that you're a failure, do you?
well, you probably are.
what's wrong with that?
in the first place, if you've any sense at all you must have learned by now that we pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats.
go ahead and fail. but fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. a mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success.
tom robbins

we do not grow absolutely, chronologically.
we grow sometimes in one dimension,
and not in another; unevenly.
we grow partially. we are relative.
we are mature in one realm, childish in another.
the past, the present, and future mingle
and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present.
we are made up of layers, cells, constellations.
anais nin


one regret,
dear world,
that i am determined
not to have
when i am lying
on my deathbed
is that i did not
kiss you enough.
hafiz



"
to let go isn't to forget,
not to think about, or ignore.
it doesn't leave feelings of anger,
jealousy, or regret.
letting go isn't about winning or losing.
it's not about pride
and it's not about how you appear,
and it's not about obsessing or dwelling on the past.
letting go isn't blocking memories
or sinking sad thoughts,
and doesn't leave emptiness, hurt, or sadness.
it's not about giving in or giving up.
letting go isn't about loss and it's not about defeat.
to let go is to cherish the memories,
but to overcome and move on.
it is having an open mind
and confidence in the future.
letting go is learning and experiencing and growing.
to let go is to be thankful for the experiences that
made you laugh, made you cry, made you grow.
it's about all that you have, all that you had,
and all that you will soon gain.
letting go is having the courage to accept change,
and the strength to keep moving.
letting go is growing up.
it is realizing that the heart can sometimes
be the most potent remedy.
to let go is to open a door,
and to clear a path and set yourself free. "
unknown