Moving Forward in Life

Sometimes in order to move forward we need to stand still for awhile and reflect where we are in the present.— What’s happening in our lives at this moment?— Where have we come from?— We need to take account of our successes as well as our mistakes. Realize there is nothing in the world we can do about yesterday, or even a couple of hours ago. What did our successes show us about ourselves that we liked—expand on it, make it part of our future! — What we don’t like about ourselves, leave it— it doesn’t have to come with us into our future! No matter how old we are, —or what experiences we have encountered— we do have the power to change— we do have the power to become a stronger person— and we have the power to conquer our future!

Happiness is not something owed us. Nobody is handed happiness on a silver platter. Instead, we make our own happiness, knowing it, is an attitude, a habit gained from daily practice.

Self-esteem is the cornerstone of happiness. It’s that deep-down feeling in our souls of our own self-worth. Healthy self-esteem is not self-indulgent or arrogant. Healthy self-esteem means to appreciate the value of ourselves as unique human beings. The word “esteem” is Latin, meaning “to value highly”. It would be impossible to value another person without first feeling value for ourselves.

The practice of positive self-talk is perhaps the most important key to the permanent enhancement of self-esteem. We must constantly feed our self-image with positive thoughts about ourselves. We all have an inner video cassette within each of us. It records our self-talk, minute to minute. Every waking moment, we mold our self-esteem with thoughts about ourselves. Become aware of the silent conversations we hold with ourselves. Our self-talk is creating our self-image.

Healthy self-esteem and positive self-talk are the spiritual seeds of happiness and success. Now is the time to get those seeds to sprout. The necessary nutrient for happiness is attitude. Positive attitudes are like nourishment to the body and soul. There is growing scientific evidence that positive mental attitudes actually create a natural “high” to help us withstand pain, overcome depression, turn stress into energy, and gather the strength to persevere.

It is difficult to have positive attitudes without faith. When our thoughts are combined with faith, if we deeply believe, we will receive courage and strength to help us along the way. Dr. Norman Vincent Pearle worded it this way, “Religious faith may very well be considered a science, for it responds invariably to certain formulae. Perform the technique of faith according to the laws which have been proved workable in human experience and you will always get result of power.”

Happiness means having faith in God, and therefore faith in ourselves, because we are God’s creations: