A person should strive to improve himself to effectively deal with the situation around him. Some people would say that imitating other people is not a good way to assert one’s individuality. This statement is only partially correct because a person can improve himself by emulating the good deeds and character of others. Indeed, one person can be a good source of inspiration to another person.  Moreover, some people are averse to compare themselves with others. But some constructive comparison can be good for them.  By comparing themselves with other people especially the high achievers they can set a measure for their life’s achievement.      

We have our own strengths, weaknesses and limitations. We must remember always that we are all unique individuals. Although it is good idea to follow other people’s example, we should also remember that we can hardly replicate other people’s achievement because of our uniqueness as individuals. We cannot shine walking in anyone else’s shadow. We can prosper by developing our own style to make things happen in a way that suits our personality.      

We should focus on the things that we have rather than on those that we don’t have.  If we look around us there are some unfortunate people that can’t even have the small things that we own. On the other hand there are people who have things that we cannot afford to buy. There are always people who are greater or smaller than we are. The food on the table, our income and our family are blessings from God that we can’t take for granted. We should be grateful for all of them.               

If we have too much of a thing we seem to eventually get tired of it rather than enjoy it. For example, if we go to a place with breathtaking sights. At first we are delighted on what we see. But as days go by it seems that our surroundings are just ordinary sight, and we want to get back to where we came from.     

We certainly need money, and we can’t get by without it.  And it would be hypocritical to say in this day and age that we can be happy without it. We need money to buy the things we need and to support our family.  But we don’t have to be filthy rich to be happy. Even things of a very small value that we enjoy make us happy.

What we need in this world to satisfy our needs is moderation. We need only moderate amount of food, exercise and water to be healthy. Too much of anything is harmful to our body.  We should also distinguish our needs from our wants. Our needs should be our priority, and we can do without having our wants. We should never go to excess but let moderation be our guide to a happy and healthy life.                                                                                                                                                                           

There are times that our effort is not enough to get what we desire because of our limitations. The bottom line is that we should treat things that we have both big and small as our blessings. “Count your blessings” is a cliché, but the saying is valid for all time. By doing it, we can always be satisfied and happy persons.

What should be your purpose?

·         Your purpose in life differs according to your dreams and aspirations. If your purpose in life is success in your job, you should relentlessly work towards it. Without purpose your life will be like a ship without a rudder and everything goes haywire with no proper aim and direction.

·         Without proper planning it is all confusion and blurred. Whatever might be your aim you should study the pros and cons before venturing into it. If you want to be successful film director, see that you are qualified for it and you should study the famous directors’ and observe them keenly. If possible avail a chance to work under them. This is just an example.

·         Be ready for failure as it is failures that teach you lessons. You cannot always expect success in your endeavors and it would be foolish if you forgo you aim in life because of it.

·         Do not always think that being rich should be the purpose of your life. Money is just a means to buy whatever you want and the main things it can never buy are happiness and peace of mind.

·         Be courageous to face your problems and do not shut out the world with your cowardice. A coward dies a thousand deaths and you should not fall into this category.

·         You should have a goal in your life and all your thoughts should be directed towards it.

·         If you are wealthy, allot some of your money for some noble cause.

·         Be honest in all your dealings so that you have a clear conscience.

·         Allot a small percentage of your earnings to the needy poor.

·         Respect your parents and make them feel your love and care.

·         Show love for animals and teach your children to love them.

·         Take good care of your health and be active.

·         Learn something new, it can be anything, music, cooking, anything which holds your interest.

·         Spend your birthday or your wedding anniversary in some orphanage or old aged home.

·         Count your blessings and thank god for that.

·         Never make fun of the physically challenged and you should realize that they too are as human as you.

·         Do not be arrogant in any phase of your life.

·         Always love your spouse and treasure herhis love.

·         Save money for the future and do not be dependent on anyone.

·         Be socially conscious and do not alienate yourself from public issues.

·         When you are in fault, be ready to apologize.

·         Accept apology with graciousness and do not rekindle the old fight.

·         Love your neighbors’ and have a good relationship with them.

·         Respect your country and be patriotic.

You should spend your life with a purpose and around  your purpose there will be small and intricate facets of life which you should able to relate . Your main purpose in life should be to be a good human being who respects the feeling of others and will always be ready to lend a helping hand to others.

Happiness is a feeling of satisfaction of what one does or the feeling of intense joy of what he experiences at a certain moment in time. The feeling or sense of happiness can be short-lived or long term. Happiness can be attained whether one has money or not.

Man has aspirations in life whether they are material or otherwise. He has the desire to acquire things such as money, house, car, investment in business or employment. He also desires to be loved by someone, to have a harmonious relationship with the family and friends and to fill his spiritual needs. He can be happy having all those things. He can also find joyful moment in listening to music, watching movies, playing guitar or other musical instruments, playing his favorite sports, reading books and magazines and in making love with his spouse.

It is said that money can’t buy happiness. That statement is not absolutely true because having money to buy things or to pay services can certainly make one happy. On the other hand, he will be sad if he has no money to buy things that he needs. But money is not all that there is to make one happy. Getting old, getting sick, having unattractive looks, being unintelligent, losing loved ones are things that won’t bring joy to everyone. Although money can lessen or delay the effect of those things, they are bound to happen or exist regardless of one’s money. We know of celebrities and famous people who had the looks, money and fame and yet committed suicides.

Sadness and depression weaken our immune system and make us prone to diseases. In other words happiness contributes to our good health and well being, and helps us live longer.

It always follows that people who have positive outlook in life are the ones who are happy too. People who have positive attitude are likely to have enthusiasm and determination to make their dreams come true. Their accomplishments will make them happy persons.

To have happiness, we should cultivate habits conducive to its attainment. Following are my suggestions so that we can have long term happiness:

-         Rid ourselves of negative thoughts. Negative thoughts will discourage us from doing things that we want to do.

-         Work for a livelihood. As I have said money can buy happiness. With a source of income we can provide ourselves with our needs.

-         Live within our means. Acquiring material things like house and car can give us instant joy. However, if we obtained those things without considering our long term ability to pay for our loans, we might find ourselves being divested of those things and being mired in debt in the future. These situations would make us sad in the long run.

-         Count our blessings. This is a cliché, but a thing that is important for us to remember. We might not have all the things that we want, but if we look around our surroundings we have many things that we should be thankful of. For example, we have our wife, our children, our job and the love of other people around us. We are blessed.

-         Don’t compare ourselves to others. There are always people who are greater or lesser than we are. If we look at people who are more accomplished than we are, we might become dissatisfied with ourselves. If we look at people who have lesser in life than we do, we might become haughty. Although it will be nice to emulate other people as a model for their good traits, we must remember that we are a unique person in this world. We have different personality and other traits than other people.

-         Do the things that we love and enjoy. We excel in doing things that we like and are passionate about, and this makes us productive persons. However, we must not do things that are against the law or against the norm of the society like taking drugs and engaging in illicit sexual activities. Vices can give us instant joy, but they can get us into trouble in the long run.

-         Love people.  Love is the most positive feeling a person can have. When we love people, they will reciprocate that kind of action. Loving people will make us a likeable person, and things will work for the better around us.

-         Have a sense of humor. It is said that laughter is the best medicine. A person even if he is the one telling joke can also bring joy to himself. Humor should not be offensive to a particular group or degrading to the one who brings it.                                                                   

Life in this world is short. We should enjoy every moment of our life’s journey according to God’s purpose on us.

Related article: The Power of Positive Thinking                               http://soceberty.com/pshycology/the-power-of-positive-thinking-5/

1) Count your Blessings
It’s actually a good practice to count your blessings every morning. In this way, you start off your day on the positive note that God has blessed you with many things. Here’s is mine for the day.

a) Breath in Me
b) Supportive Family and Friends
c) Roof over my Head
d) My Wealth
e) My Health (could have been worse)
f) My Job
g) Sunshine
h) Knowledge I Have
i) People I Know
j) My Ability to Write

2) Blessing in Disguise
Stay positive by acknowledging the fact that there is a blessing in disguise behind your current difficulties. Find out what they are. For instance, I was recently in a complicated family problem, but I looked for the blessings behind them and I found many. I worked to improve on my communication skills, be a better person, the opportunity to learn new things and the best of all, I learned to be closer to God. I would never have been able to do so if I had no problems at all. So believe that there are positive effects resulting from your problems. Look at it positively. Whatever it is, you will emerge a better person.

3) Believe Your Problems will be Solved
You may be facing difficult times but believe in yourself that your problems will come to pass and it will be resolved eventually. Analyse your situation. Look for opportunities. If there are options available, weigh them and opt for the better one. Work towards your goal. Important of all, have faith and pray.

Many people continue to have difficult times in their lives because they do not know how to lift themselves from feeling depressed about them. But if you were look on the positive side of things, there are many to be thankful for. God send you difficult times because He loves you and wants you to be a better person. Take it in good stride!

Useful Articles about Being Positive

How to be Positive in a Negative World

How to Identify Negative People

1. Look Forward to Something

As a child, I had always found it easier to pass the day when I knew that I could go home and switch on my favorite game after school. Looking forward always beats looking at the present situation and complaining. When you walk, you do not look down on the ground before you and bump into obstacles – you lift your head up and look forward.

2. Count Your Blessings

I had one walked down a street towards home feeling very unhappy. After awhile, I started to comfort myself with happy thoughts and looking on the bright side – I have a good family, friends, and a God that cares. Upon reaching home, I was feeling much better. Remember to count you blessings – it works much better than counting sheep.

3. Recognize When Enough is Enough

Many do not realize it, but sometimes, the reason we are unhappy or fatigued is because we are striving for too much in too little time. Go out for a party with your friends! Go out for a dinner with your spouse! Let it loose! As my grandmother once said to me, “Holding your eggs too tight breaks it.”. Similarly, holding onto your life too tight would just destroy it. Relax.

The Bottom Line…

Those three suggestions above are just what they are – suggestions. The main thing here is to think positive no matter what situation you are in. Believe me, that can be applied anywhere from trivial matters such as losing a pencil to life and death situations. With such a value, Monday blues should not be a problem; For Monday at least…

Picture Source

I am entering a new phase in my life. What they say is true, forgiveness is the best medicine. Forgive all those who have harmed you in anyway, and your heart is set freer, lighter. When you forgive others, you learn how to forgive yourself. You learn to have more compassion for yourself.

I now want to spend more time counting my blessings, for when you focus on the positive it tends to multiply in intensity and greatness. The more you focus on the positive the fuller your life becomes.

I am also trying not to dwell in the painful memories of my past as much. This takes courage. It takes believing in me and very importantly others. I must believe that others are good hearted and will keep confidences. I must believe that there are good honorable people in life and from this belief these people will be naturally attracted to me. This is of course “The Law of Attraction”.

So counting my blessings, I must be thankful for everything positive in my life. I must look to where my life is and why it is where it is. It is amazing, whether you believe in God or not, there is an energy we dispel into the world that somehow comes back to us.

For the longest time I prayed to be in a situation where I was able to spend most of my time learning and writing. Now, I currently write freelance articles from home, though the pay is not what I want, ironically, I received exactly what I asked for. I must be thankful that my prayers were answered, but now, I must ask or envision a clearer picture of what I want.

Whatever position you are at in your life; career, relationship, etc. you are there for a reason. A big part of life’s lesson, I have learned is to understand why you are where you are and to decide whether you want to remain there or if you need to continue moving in another direction. Though we might not want to believe it, we have placed ourselves exactly where we are in our lives for a reason.

Logically communication passes from another person through language. However, often we communicate more than through just words. Body language, physical ailments, and emotional ailments are also ways that we communicate what our limited range of vocabulary fails to do so at times. Keep your eyes open. See others with the heart of a child. Yes, we all still have that child inside of us. When you do this, you will see so much more and your life will only grow richer and more beautiful, every single day.

Joie Schmidt © Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved.

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Dreams of the Heart – volume I by Joie Schmidt is available:

  * Volume I: Amazon Kindle, Adobe Reader, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iBooks

Dreams of the Heart – volume II is available:

  * Volume II: Amazon Kindle, Adobe Reader

———> Stay tuned . . . vol. II will soon be available on iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iBooks!

(*In memoriam of the tragedy in Japan all proceeds from – volume I – sales will go to the relief efforts until 3/11/12)

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For more great reading:

• Compassion and Love
• Love is Worth the Risk
• Choose Your Friends Wisely
• The Infinite Power of Compliments
• Your Path is Filled With Happiness
• Success and Discipline Go Hand in Hand
• Believe, Cheer and Always Be Your Bestfriend
• Rare Animals You May Have Never Seen Before
• 11 Simple Steps: How to Add Pictures and Links to Your Articles
• New and Seasoned Triond Writers: Answers to FAQs, Tips and Advice to Help You Reach Your Full Potential

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