His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.  After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when he was told he room was ready.  As he manuevered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheest that had been hung on his window.

“ I love it “ he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight year old having just been presented with a new puppy. Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room: just wait”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with it”, he replied.
“Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice. I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories is stored away, just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!

Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank. I am still depositing.

Remember these 5 simple rules to be happy:
1.Free your mind from hatred
2.Free your mind from worry
3.Live simply
4.Give more
5.Expect the best.

Compliments of the Facebook I Am Happy Project – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=188677384965&ref=mf

© 2009 – 2010, admin. All rights reserved.

Happiness Is A Decision You Make in Advance originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 12, 2009.

I know a man who, if he happens to forget something in the morning and is obliged to run back for it and perhaps is late at his office, will fret and stew, curse and swear, not realizing that he is poisoning his mind, getting himself out of time, and totally unfitting himself for the day’s work.

If your mental attitude is right, if you face life in the right way, if the right spirit is in you, if you put yourself in tune, everything you do — taking your morning bath, dressing, eating your breakfast, going to your office for business — all this will give you a sense of real pleasure.  But if you fret and stew and think that these many things in your daily routine are a bore, a waste of time, you are losing a lot of precious energy.

If there is anything that an efficient man must do it is to put himself in tune for the day’s work and not allow anything to disturb his mental balance or throw his mind out of poise.

There is nothing irksome in doing necessary things in the day’s routine if we do them in the right, kindly spirit.  The spirit is everything.  What’s the use of keeping yourself, your home, your place of business all stirred up over the trivial, the things that do not amount to anything?

The art of all arts is to keep the mind poised, balanced, serene.  Then you are in condition to do the best thing possible to you and to enjoy life to the full.  It takes but little to destroy the harmony of the home or the place of business.  It takes little to destroy your own peace of mind.  Why should a great big man, made in the image of his Creator, inheriting all the good things of the world, allow himself to be so upset by a little, contemptible, trifling, picayunish thing?  Is it sensible?  Is it worthwhile?  A thousand times no!

Just try this experiment of starting out in the morning with an invincible determination to keep your poise, your mind serene, yourself in harmony all day, no matter what happens to make you otherwise, make up your mind that you cannot afford to lose your mental balance in any circumstances.  You will get such immense satisfaction from your increased efficiency, the greater amount of work you can do with so much greater comfort and greater peace of mind, that you will not feel that you can afford to pay such a terrible price, the price of your peace of mind and your happiness, for the sake of indulging your explosive passions.  There is no business or efficiency in it.

–  Orison Swett Marden, The Chicago Daily News, Chicago, IL., June 7, 1919

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Start Your Day Off With the Right Mental Attitude originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 11, 2009.

Many people are disappointed because they have so little love in their lives.  I have heard one woman say that she does not believe there is any such thing as real unselfish love.  She has found that what she thought was love in some of her so-called friends was only self-interest, for when she was unfortunate and was not able to pay what she owed them they turned against her.

Without knowing it, her own mental attitude, her cold distrust of others, is driving love and sympathy away from her.  In a general way, we get back as much love as we give.  The feelings we arouse in others, the sentiments, the emotions, the passions we excite, are good indicators of our own disposition, our own character.  If we arouse suspicion, distrust, jealousy, envy–these qualities must exist to some extent in ourselves.  Like attracts like.  We call out of others what corresponds to our mental attitude toward them, our treatment of them.

Many people who are famishing for love, whose greatest disappointment is that their love instinct is not satisfied, make it impossible for love to burn in their hearts, because there is so little there that goes with love.  A heart full of bitterness, envy, jealousy, of greed, cold selfishness, an overlapping ambition for place, fame, power, is no dwelling place for love.  It would be chilled to death.

Most of us by our wrong mental attitude drive away the things we long for and struggle to attain.  Every normal being longs for love, and yet how many are constantly driving it from them by their mental attitude and their unlovely ways.

A mother who all her life has been hungry for love is alienating her children by the exactions of an unfortunate temperament.  She makes the home so uncomfortable by her hard, critical fault finding spirit and her disagreeable disposition that her children are never happy there.  They are always glad to get away from it and from their mother.  Nothing they do pleases her.  She is continually finding fault with their conduct, their dress, their manners, their habits.  They never get a word of praise or commendation from her, no matter how hard they strive for it.  The result is that she is driving what love they have for her out of their hearts.

True love is never exacting or fault finding.  It cannot be unkind or querulous.  If you want to be loved you must stop barking at the bad in others and look for the good.  You will always find what you look for.

Love is the golden key with which all hearts are opened.  It is the magic door through which we must pass to the hearts of our fellow men as well as to the success in work and life.

– Orison Swett Marden, The Chicago Daily News, Chicago, IL., May 28, 1919

© 2009, admin. All rights reserved.

To Receive Love You Have to Give Love originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 10, 2009.

An eastern legend tells of a wonderful vase–known as the vase of life–which was full of a mysterious liquid.  No one could tell what this liquid was.  No chemist could analyze it or tell what entered into its composition.  The marvelous thing about it was that whatever one dropped into it would overflow and run down the sides of the vase.  That is, the original liquid would not run over, but the thing which was dropped into it would overflow in kind and in amount.  The depositor would always get out of this magic vase exactly what he put into it.

Life is just such a magic vase.  It will run over to you only that which you drop into it–nothing more, nothing less, nothing different.  If we drop in love, generosity, tolerance, magnanimity, kindness, helpfulness, unselfishness–the life vase will run over to us the same things, in the same amount and quality.  If on the other hand, we put in hate, jealousy, envy, cruelty, selfishness, grasping greed, malicious gossip about our neighbors–it will run over with all these black devils to torment us and rob us of happiness and success.

Every minute of every day we are dropping something into our magic vase, and our present and future welfare depends upon what this is.  You alone control its overflow.  You can drop into it everything you please, and as surely as the earth yields to the farmer a harvest like the seed he sowed, your life will yield to you an overflow like the thing you put into it.

If, after years of toil and hard, persistent effort, you find your hands empty, your life meager, unfruitful, it is because of your empty, negative thought, your poverty thought, your limited, restricted ideas, the fear thoughts, the discouraged thoughts that you have put into your life vase.  These have negatived your mind, lessened your ability and killed your creative power.

Are you dissatisfied with your life, disappointed with your measure of happiness and success?  Then your thought must be at fault.  You cannot expect an overflow of happiness and success when you have dropped into your vase only failure, distressing thoughts, poverty thoughts, unhappy, miserable, pessimistic thoughts of all sorts.

One thing is certain.  If you are miserable and disappointed, if you feel soured toward the world, you are getting the overflow from your past.

If you want to get the best out of life this year, you must put the best you have into it.  If you have been dropping all sorts of hideous things into your life vase during the last year, stop it, drop in this year only the things you want, the things your heart longs for, the things which will make your life bright, beautiful, successful, happy.

– Orison Swett Marden, The Chicago Daily News, Chicago, IL., February 21, 1919

© 2009, admin. All rights reserved.

The Magic Vase of Right Attitude and Positive Thinking originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 9, 2009.

Some of us think the best way to break a bad habit is to taper it off.  Our mistaken idea is not to subject ourselves to the shock and strain of breaking off a habit sharply.  We think we can do better by letting go gradually.  But the real fact is that to taper off means merely to stall around with the habit until we get to going on it strong again.  Tapering off is a poor method.  It usually succeeds only in keeping the habit alive during a dull period and before it is stronger than ever.

– Grove H. Patterson, Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee, WI., October 17, 1930

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An Ineffective Way to Break Bad Habits originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 6, 2009.

Truly there is no more demoralizing thing than the habit of berating one’s self.  How very often we find people who do this.  They seem to derive the very keenest delight in telling how trivial is their worth in comparison to others.

This habit of self-depreciation is demoralizing to one’s character, because it has a very tendency to destroy self-confidence, and once one’s self-c0nfidence has been destroyed there is no hope for independence of any sort.

There is about the person who feels the right amount of self-confidence a real poise and balance which nothing else gives, and one wonders why there should exist the type who seems to glory in the fact that it is really lacking in this most valuable asset.

Self-c0nfidence, you know, is not conceit.  Don’t conflict the two, for they are not one and the same, as so many persons seem to believe.

We admire above all things the man, as well as the woman, who has the courage to be self-confident–who know his virtues as well as his faults–and who wants credit for whatever he possesses that is worth possessing.

We admire above all the man, as well as the woman, who has the courage to give free rein to his thoughts, who has the indomitable courage to live his own life as he feels he should.

One must believe absolutely in one’s self.  It means strength, and force and many other things which combine to make the full measure of a man or a woman, and to make it possible for one to achieve the goal of one’s effort.

The majority of the folk who drift into the habit of self-depreciation do so because they are so filled with disgust over those who have placed too great a value upon their abilities, that is who have substituted that thing we call nerve and its partner, “cheek,” for true ability, and, going to the other extreme, the disgusted one positively revels in a non-pretentious, humble air.  But this leads to a weakness of character that shouldn’t be encouraged.  As we have already said, it is demoralizing.

Genuine self-respect and a good opinion of one’s personality and true ability are wonderful weapons to wield against weakness, lack of confidence, and the other things which detract from one’s progress, both in character making and that thing we call success.

– Harriet Russell, Houston Daily Post, Houston TX., March 15, 1916

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Self-Depreciation Is Not True Humility and Lacks Self-Respect originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 5, 2009.

We ourselves are the builders of our habits, and therefore we are the creators of ourselves in that sense.  This quotation is frequently given:  “We sow a thought and reap an act, we sow an act and reap a habit, we sow a habit and reap a character, we sow a character and reap a destiny.”  I believe that’s true and I believe that we should always be conscious of that.  Coupled with that is the thought that we alone are shaping our own habits, our own destinies.  We build habits through adherence to principles, and considering habits, let us remember that we are talking of and considering principles.  It has been put this way:  “Self-respect, self-help, application, industry, integrity are all of the nature of habits, not beliefs.  Principles, in fact, are words, but habits are the things themselves.”  Then how do we form our habits?  I think we form our habits by the secret thoughts of our hearts; and that’s where our responsibility lies, and we can never avoid it.  Habits are the results of our thoughts and largely, I think, the results of our secret thoughts, the thoughts of our heart. …

I think that’s another truth we should always bear in mind, that, in one sense, there is no such thing as a secret thought.  We may think there is, we may think we are having secret thoughts, but every secret thought comes out on us.  We cannot hold them in.  They are an integral part of our character.  We act because we’ve thought; so let’s not ever consider that we’re having secret thoughts.  We’re having thoughts that will appear on the surface, that will manifest themselves in our character, that will determine our decision on important matters and that will come out in many other ways.  More than that, religions have said that the time will come when our secret thoughts will be declared from the housetops.  So let us give up the idea of any secret thoughts.

Thoughts are the tools with which we shape our character, just as truly as a great sculptor with chisel and mallet chips and chips on the rough marble until it’s shaped, perhaps into a Moses, or a David; a splendid and perfect work of art.  Just so every thought is shaping our character and, consequently, shaping our destiny and our lives.  Therefore the result is, in all our thoughts, the creation of character.  It’s character that holds the world together; it’s character that in the end you’re striving for here and that will give true success as you go from here.  Character is the power that moves the world, and that achieves the greatest things.

– George Q. Morris, “The Importance of Habits,” Provo, UT., May 20, 1953

© 2009, admin. All rights reserved.

Our Secret Thoughts Are Revealed Through Our Habits originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 4, 2009.

One big weakness in too many of us is that we do not have our hearts set on some worthy objective.  We have no hope to be deferred.  Tragic is this condition for any life.  Everyone should have his or her heart set on a few really worthy goals.  …  When worthy desires are realized, life takes on new and richer meaning.  The efforts which one puts forth in order to realize his dreams are rewarded, and there is further desire for yet further fulfillment.

– J. H. Avery, Panama City News-Herald, Panama City, FL., August 29, 1954

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Always Have a Worthy Goal Before You originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 3, 2009.

When we sincerely like people and try to get their point of view, we create a mental attitude that actually releases from within ourselves “that something” which others sense and to which they naturally respond. …  Sincerely serve people and try to get their point of view. …  People will reflect it in their attitudes towards you.

Life is, indeed, a mirror, and this world would be a better place in which to live, and much human static would be eliminated, if we would try to like each other and seriously attempt to get the other fellow’s point of view.

– Julian Pennington, The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA., November 19, 1933

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The Attitude of Understanding originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 2, 2009.

The more heated our reactions to a problem or subject the more, I think, we should suspect our motives and judgment.  If we are unable to give a respectful hearing and consideration to the opposite point of view we should begin to doubt the soundness of our position.

This does not mean that we should be listless about our beliefs, nor does this imply that we must never feel certain on the rightness of our cause.  No one can go very far in this life without positive attitudes and enthusiasm.  But we always ought to leave the door open to changing our minds when the facts warrant such a reversal.

Unfortunately too many of us become so rabid and prejudiced, that we refuse to hear the other side of a question.  We close our minds to alternate views and opinions.  We will not read a book that differs with our own feelings.  We will shun people and newspapers, lecturers and magazines which oppose our pet theories.

In this manner we narrow down the sources of our information and reduce the intake of knowledge.  Then we “see red” when our convictions are questioned and our beliefs are doubted.  We soon fall prey to our emotions and instead of thinking through an issue we are screaming for the blood of the “enemy.”

The next time you feel your blood pressure rising at the mere mention of a name or problem, take hold of yourself and see if your mental approach is fair.  Unless you learn to calm down and respect the right of the other fellow to his arguments, you can never help justice to triumph.  You don’t have a free mind unless you are willing to change it in accordance with new facts or logic.  Nor do you help democracy to grow by closing your ears.

– Hyman Judah Schachtel, Houston-Post, Houston, TX., April 14, 1956

© 2009, admin. All rights reserved.

Lower Your Blood Pressure – Adjust Your Attitude originally appeared on NobleAspirations.com on November 1, 2009.