Inspirational Living: Life Lessons For Success & Happiness

Listen to episode 34 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Cheerfulness: The Benefits of Smiling and Laughing. Adapted from The Optimistic Life by Orison Swett Marden. Podcast Excerpt: No matter what your work may be, learn to find happiness everywhere. The love of cheerfulness can be cultivated like any other faculty — and in practical life, it will be worth more to you than a college education with-out it. This is wealth that all can accumulate — the wealth of joy. No matter how hard your lot, how dark the day may seem, if you work a little good humor into it, it will lift your life above a humdrum existence. If you manage to get in a good laugh during the day, your work will not seem nearly as hard. It will relieve the grind and dreariness. A dull, serious mood all day will not only make you very uninteresting to others, but it makes your own load heavier. A good laugh does away with cares, worries, doubts, and relieves the great strain of modern life....Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspi

Listen to episode 30 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Be Calm, Cool & Collected. Adapted from a Harvard lecture by Dr. George Lincoln Walton. Podcast Excerpt: We live in an age where discretion is the better part of valor. The person who exercises this discretion is less at risk for harm, but does not see so much of life as the more forceful individual. It is true that the hypochondriac is prone to live longer, but what a life! The time has past when the young child can say, "And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Now the prayer is more like this: "Don't even mention death to me or I shall lie awake all night!" Today’s parents are raising children in ways that bring into prominence the little worries; that cause the tempest in the teapot; that bring about the worship of the intangible, and the magnification of the unessential. If we had lived in another age, we might have dreamt of the eternal happiness of saving our neck, but in this one we fret because s

Listen to episode 27 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Build Better Life Habits (Getting Unstuck). Adapted from book The Mind & Its Education by George Herbert Betts. Podcast Excerpt: Building better habits will require something of heroism on our part. For to follow the well-beaten path of custom is easy and pleasant, while to break out of the rut of habit and start a new line of action is difficult and disturbing. Most people prefer to keep doing things as they always have done them, to continue reading and thinking and believing as they have long been in the habit of doing, not so much because they feel that their way is best, but because it is easier than to change. Hence the great mass of us settle down on the plane of mediocrity, and become "old fogies." We learn to do things passably well, cease to think about improving our ways of doing them, and fall into a rut. Only the few go on. They make use of habits as the rest do, but they also continue to modify them at critical points o

Listen to episode 25 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Succeed in Anything. Edited and adapted from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.Podcast Excerpt: Persistence is an essential factor of success in life. And the basis of persistence is the POWER OF WILL. Will-power and desire, when properly combined, make an irresistible pair. People who achieve great success are sometimes known as ruthless. Often they are misunderstood. What they have is will-power, which they mix with persistence, to insure the attainment of their objectives. Most people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard, and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. Only a few carry on despite all opposition, until they attain their goal: the Steve Jobses, the Andrew Carnegies, the Mahatma Gandhis, the Thomas Edisons. While there may be no heroic connotation to the word "persistence," the quality is to the character of a person what carbon is to steel....Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/

Listen to episode 24 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Power of Words. Edited and adapted from The Mental Cure by Warren Felt Evans. Podcast Excerpt: Words are the index of character. They enclose within them our thoughts, and the tone with which they are spoken indicates the state of our affections. The utterance of a single word can reveal the love, fear, or hate that lurks within it, and, as such, our life and character are laid open to public view. By the effect of our words, others can perceive the cause. The heart is the fountain; words are the stream. If the fountain is clear as crystal, the issuing spring will be the water of life....Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Listen to episode 22 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Book of Tea | Zen & The Art of Tea Drinking. Edited and adapted from The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō. Podcast Excerpt: There is a subtle charm in the taste of tea which makes it irresistible and capable of idealization. Western humorists were not slow to mingle the fragrance of their thought with its aroma. It has not the arrogance of wine, the self-consciousness of coffee, nor the simpering innocence of cocoa. Samuel Johnson draws his own portrait as "a hardened and shameless tea drinker, who for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of the fascinating plant; who with tea amused the evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed the morning. Teaism is the art of concealing beauty that you may discover it, of suggesting what you dare not reveal. It is the noble secret of laughing at yourself, calmly yet thoroughly, and is thus humor itself—the smile of philosophy. All genuine humorists may in this sense be c

Listen to episode 21 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Sleep Better, Peacefully & Fast. Edited and Adapted from the book The Victorious Attitude by Orison Swett Marden.Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: We never awake the same exact being as when we went to sleep. We are either better or worse. We changed while we slept. While our senses were wrapped in slumber, the subjective mind was busily at work. It was either building up or tearing down. If we go to bed holding a grudge against a neighbor, with a resolve to "get back" at somebody who has hurt us; if we have hatred or jealousy in our heart; if we are envious of another's success, and if we go to sleep nursing these feelings, we awake in a depressed, exhausted state, feeling bitter, pessimistic, irritable, and unhappy.The destructive spirit was at work all night, running amuck among the delicate brain and nerve cells, furiously tearing down what beneficent Nature had taken such pains to upbuild. But, when we take pleasant, kindly, loving

Listen to episode 20 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Transform Your Life & Thinking (Neville Goddard). Edited and Adapted from a lecture by Neville Goddard. Podcast Excerpt: The purpose of today’s talk is to bring about a psychological change in you, the individual. Humanity, understood psychologically, is an infinite series of levels of awareness. And you, individually, are what you are according to where you are in the series. Consciousness is the only reality. And where you are conscious of being psychologically determines the circumstances of your life. The ancients knew this great truth, but our modern teachers have yet to discover it. There is only one substance in the world. Our scientists call it energy, while scripture defines it as consciousness.....Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Listen to episode 10 of the Inspirational Living podcast: What the World Needs From You. Adapted from the book The Art of Being Alive by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Podcast Excerpt: LIFE means action, from the cradle to the grave. There are limitless possibilities in this life to bring into realization whatever hopes or aspirations we desire. If we only but begin… There is no such thing as inaction during this life. We are continually going forward or backward. You are either stronger or weaker this year than you were last year. You are braver or more cowardly. You are more hopeful or more pessimistic. You are more capable mentally or less so. You have better or poorer command of your forces. You have more efficiency or not as much. You are nearer your goal or farther from it. You are a better human being or not as good.....Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Listen to episode 8 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Stay Calm & Motivated. Adapted from The Majesty of Calmness by William George Jordan.Transcript Excerpt: Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the signpost of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of the life self-reliant and the self- controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power — ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Listen to episode 6 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How Thoughts Shape Your Destiny. Edited & adapted from the book As a Man Thinketh by James Allen.Transcript Excerpt: The world is your kaleidoscope. The varying color combinations are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts. You are literally what you think, your character being the complete sum of all your thoughts. As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every action springs from the hidden seeds of thought and could not have appeared without them.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Listen to episode 4 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Art of Being Alive. Edited & adapted from the book The Art of Being Alive by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.Transcript Excerpt: Stop wondering why you were born into this world. Stop looking for faults and flaws. Rise up today with joy and say, “I am going to be alive!" In every thousand people who are living on this earth, not more than one is alive. To be really alive means more than to be a moving, breathing, eating, drinking, and talking human being. Those who are actually alive find the days too short to pursue all the wonderful explorations which life offers them. They find life itself a continual adventure, an unfolding panorama, with opportunities for pleasure and achievement at every turn....Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Listen to episode 3 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Daring Greatly: Finding the Courage to Lead. Edited & adapted from the book The Power of Truth by William George Jordan.Transcript Excerpt: The reformers of the world are those men and women of mighty purpose. They are leaders with the courage of individual conviction who dare run counter to the criticism of the crowd. They are the souls who voluntarily bear crosses for what they accept as right, even without the guarantee of redemption. They are the heroes who gladly go down into the depths of silence, darkness and oblivion, only to emerge finally like divers, with pearls in their hands...Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Listen to episode 2 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Living the Immortal Life, edited & adapted from Theodore Parker's Unitarian sermon on immortality.Transcript Excerpt: It is the belief of many that we shall all live forever. This is not a doctrine of Christianity alone. It belongs to the human race. But how did we come by this belief? Our ancestors did not sit down and think it out; never waited till they could prove it by logic and metaphysics; did not delay their belief till a miraculous revelation came to confirm it. It came to them by intuition; by instinctive belief, the belief which comes unavoidably from our nature. In this same way came the belief in a higher power; the redeeming power of love; and the yearning for justice.Some faculties of the body act spontaneously at first---so others of the spirit. Immortality is a fact of human nature; it is thus a part of the universe, just as the sun is a fact in the heavens and a part of the universe....Support this podcast at — https://redcircl

Listen to episode 1 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Love & Live True to Yourself. Edited & adapted from Emerson's classic essay on self-reliance.Transcript Excerpt: The power that resides in you is new in nature, and no one but you knows what you can do, nor will you know until you have tried. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place that divine providence has found for you in the society of your contemporaries. Great men and women have always done so, devoting themselves childlike to the genius of their age, with all of their being. Like those who have come before us, we must accept with highest mind our transcendent destiny; and behave not like cowards fleeing before a revolution, but like fearless guides helping others advance through the Chaos and the Dark...Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy