Tag Archives: Happy Life

Develop

Develop A Positive Mindset

The number one goal of life for many people is to be happy. Most seek this outcome over all others, or they say being happy is what they want the result of theirParents-can-only-give-good-advice-or-put choices to be. I was making a little list of things that might turn the tide for you in the direction of happiness. My thoughts are going to lead you to a store of positive emotions. These will lead to the words you use, and all of this will lead to the actions you take, which will make you happy or not, depending on your mentality. Look at this advice and see if it will work for you today to provide you with a more joyful experience. Happiness always comes from within. Make your own within a happier place. The following is my advice to be followed or ignored as you see fit. It is the steps I try to take every day. I try.

1. Never Forget You Are Great

You are great
You Are Great!

Sometimes we make bad choices. Sometimes our learning experiences are not so pleasant. These are all just events happening outside of us and have nothing to do with who we are inside.

There is no goal that you can’t reach or success that you can’t attain if they are willing to be dedicated to getting there.

Don’t let what anyone else tells you, thinks about you, or acts toward you change the goals you feel in your heart are for you to accomplish. Sometimes your peers, your teachers, parents, or the world will tell you things that make you feel like you are not a great human soul with endless possibilities.

If they do, ignore them, they are just trying to bring you down. You can do anything; your light is perfect and doesn’t need to be adjusted because of others’ thoughts and ideas. Follow the flash of inspiration inside of you and create as it guides you.

Sometimes we forget this and accept less than we should from our experiences. If you clear all the rubble of life away, underneath, there is still a force of greatness. Never forget it is there, and you will find happiness.

2. Follow Your Passion

follow your passion
Always follow your passion.

I don’t care what you do in life, be a banker, a lawyer, a dancer, a carpenter, or whatever it is that makes you happy, but you must be the best you can when you follow that vocation.

Too many people choose a career because of what their parents or society thinks will provide a good living. Or it will be a safe and productive choice. This direction will make you end up in a career that is not fulfilling and ultimately leave you feeling unhappy in life.

When you choose what to do with your time, do what you are passionate about in your life. Choosing this path will allow your heart to expand, your mind to grow, and for you to come alive as a person. It is difficult to be unhappy when you are feeding your essence with creativity. Do what you have a calling to do.

3. Be Kind

You can either make someone’s day or provide a hurt that

Be Kind
Remember This!

May never heal. Kindness is free, contagious, and good for everybody. Look for ways to be kind to everyone you come in contact with today, including yourself. Understanding is infectious and has the side effect of happiness. You will make the world just a little bit better by being kind.

People in the world have forgotten how great they could be, and they spend a lot of time being miserable. Misery loves company, so they spend much of their time trying to make everyone else feel as bad about themselves as they do.

Please don’t pay any attention to this and recognize the actions for what they are. Being kind and understanding is not always easy, but it is still right.

Stay away from judging people and their behaviors because you will never know what experiences they have had.

Understand that there is greatness in everyone, and perhaps some people will never be able to reach their best, but you never know. Maybe your kind word or action will propel them to greatness.

It is a sure thing a selfish act or an unkind word or deed will never help anyone. Help people when you can. Be kind.

4. Be Patient

Patience is not an easy thing to practice. But not all things come instantly, and often the best stew takes a little time to cook. Understand that good things are coming to you if you want them and take action toward them. Just practice patience and enjoy each step of the journey. It is often the journey we will remember fondly as we look back on our triumphs.

There are a perfect time and a place for everything in your life. When you are a kid growing up, I understand there are a lot of pressures placed on

Be patient
Be patient, and enjoy what life has for you today.

You to get older quicker, and you feel like you will be ready to make your own decisions, and you will have the opportunity to make many.

Be patient, don’t grow up too fast, enjoy being a kid as long as it is appropriate because you will never be able to go back.

No matter how it feels when you are in high school, good or bad, that is a concise part of your life, and it won’t define your life. It is just something that you have to go through. You may be popular, or you may not. In the end, it doesn’t make a difference in the type of individual you will grow into.

Treat people with goodness and strive to be true to your greatness. Be friends with all kinds of people because they will broaden your horizons and your perspectives on life. Growing up is an awkward, exciting time full of social learning and development, but it is only a few years of your experience, and it doesn’t amount to much. Take time to enjoy it, learn from it, and leave it behind when it is time. Be patient with yourself and your journey. One day you will look back and think wistfully of those days. Know you got the most out of them.

5. Think Outside the Box

Since you are a great human soul and able to accomplish anything you want, don’t let

Don't be boxed in
Think outside the box

society puts you in a box and restrains your power in any way.

From the day you go to school, they will try to teach you how to think. Learn how to read, learn how to do the math, learn what they tell you about history, but never forget that you are free to think anyway that you want.

Think outside the box; all great things were accomplished outside of the box, not following someone else’s prescription for life.

Think creatively, and look for answers that nobody has ever thought of before. Be original in your thought, and you will find innovative solutions. The world needs much more of this than cookie-cutter responses that an educator believes to be correct. Don’t let them put you into a box; you are more significant than that!

6. Choose Friendship Wisely

Be friendly with everyone, and look for the good in them, but only allow those you can trust into friendship. Many people who were

friends let you down
Expect the best from yourself and little from others.

Apparently, friends will be nowhere to be found when the inevitable trouble hits your life.

There will be a few, though, who will stick with you no matter what, and those should be cherished and never forgotten. Nurture those relationships, give them time and effort because they are unique.

The older you get, the more these jewels will reveal themselves, and the false friends will fade away into yesterday.

Most people enter your life for a season because you need to learn something from them or let them learn something from you, and when that season ends, they or you move on. Enjoy the seasons and don’t turn them into anything other than what they are. People can raise you or drag you down, seek the former and avoid the latter.

7. Never be afraid to fail

In my life, I have noticed that I shy away from things that I am not sure about, and the reason is that I am so scared that I might fail or make a

don't be afraid to fail
No Fear For You!!!

Mistake.

Never be afraid to make a mistake or to fail. These failures or mistakes will only define the act, not the person committing them.

Often you will learn your most valuable lessons by trying new things, and when you fall short, you will have an opportunity for growth and understanding.

The problem comes when, as people, we take our failure personally and let it define us.

This label makes us not dare to try again because it hurts too much to fall short. Never let a misstep define you, decide, fail, learn, and try again.

Show your courage and character by not allowing your mistakes to destroy you and understand the valuable lessons you teach you.

You are great after all and will do great things; the lessons failure teaches you is most likely to help you move in that direction. You have unlimited possibilities.

8. Stay away from Organized Religion

Organized religion is designed to control people and earn money for specific organizations. God did not create everyone and then disregarded most of the population because they don’t go to the right church.

These are fear tactics meant to diminish God and the greatness within you. Understand that God is about love, and anything that teaches division in any way is not from God but humanity.

When humanity creates differences with labels, they try to make themselves feel right by calling the other wrong. All are right if they are based on love; all are wrong that is based on fear.

9. Follow your Heart

When it comes to decision making, rely on your heart to decide on all other factors. Your head will think logically and weigh many options; your emotions will pull you in one direction or another, usually based on what will benefit you solely.

Let all of those factors pass by and make your decisions from your heart, and you will make the right choice, and nothing is more important than that. Learn all you can about the situation and do what your heart tells you is correct.

This correct action will be true in big and little things. As you develop this skill, there are bound to be mistakes made. Wisdom is not gained in a day, but use the errors to hone the ability not to go another way.

10. Be Honest

We make many mistakes, but always be honest about ourselves and accept the consequences of them.

A person will judge you based on your word, and if you often tell lies, your credibility will be gone, and it is not quickly gained back. Tell the truth in all things, be honest, and life will work much easier for you.

11. Accept Help

Because people are independent, oftentimes, they will need help but won’t ask for it because they don’t want to be a burden or are afraid they will look weak.

Never be afraid to ask for help if you need it, you don’t know everything as high as you are, and it may be that the person you ask for help will benefit as much from rendering the advice as you will from receiving it. Be as willing to accept it as you are to give it.

12. Love over Fear

Every emotion and thought you have will come from one of two branches of the tree of life, and they are fear and love.

Fear will make you feel angry, sad, mad, jealous, or any other negative feeling, whereas love, happiness, patience, flexibility, understanding all stem from desire. Those are the thoughts and feelings that allow you to enjoy life as you are living it.

It is a choice which branch of the tree you spend your time on, spend it on love, and you will find life quite a pleasant experience, or spend it on fear, and you will most likely be unhappy.

I can give you and urge upon you all of this advice, but the beauty of this game called life is that you have to play it for yourself and find out the joys and wonder that awaits you. I can’t do it for you or take away all the risk because my game is different from yours. It all starts with your thoughts, which lead to your emotions, words, and actions. Advice is a way to make sense of and provide value to our own experience.

“Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.”- Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

“Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.”- Harper Lee

“I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”- Elon Musk

“Know when to hold ’em, Know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away, know when to run.”- Kenny Rogers.

Thoughts and Reality

thouths matterAre you aware that everything we think and do matters in the reality we create?  This is not something that I knew all my life, and it is a concept that I think everyone should contemplate at least a little each day.  When you are looking at your life experiences and wondering why you are where you are, look back at your thoughts, choices, and actions of the past, and there will be a direct connection to the path that you are on right now, the job you work, or the relationship you are in. Your life is the extension of what you believe about yourself and the world.

You Can’t Fool Everyone.

As a young person, I thought I was pretty smart. There were times where I could manipulate situations through lies and deception to make things work out my way seemingly.  I told lies to people that nobody could have possibly known were not true.  I believed there was no harm in manipulation or deceiving someone else for a short-term gain.  Yet, that has not been the case.  I have paid the price for every deception I have ever perpetrated in my life in the long-term.

All of your choices have repercussions. The energy in your life is going to attract more of the same. If you deceive, prepare to be deceived. If you lie, prepare to be lied to. If you are honest, get ready for honesty from others. It is a fact of life, and the way life works. I wish someone had told me this earlier. I was never as smart as I thought.

It IS How Your Play the Game

It is one of the greatest things about the Universe and how it all works that nobody really gets away with anything in the long run.  Often I have seen a person seemingly benefit from doing something that is not right.   It seems unfair that someone should benefit from doing something wrong, while those who do things right seemingly see no tangible benefit (besides having a clear conscience and morals and happy life).   But you shouldn’t be upset because you are looking at the scoreboard in the middle of a contest, and the final score always tells a different story, one that defines how you played the game.

Doing what treats others with respect, understanding, and kindness is always the right thing to do. Follow this guide, and when the final score is tallied, you will be far ahead in any way that matters.

The Great Thing Is

There is no escaping the fact that in the end, thoughts that come from love lead to happy people, and the choice to react and think from fear generally leads to misery in the long run.  To prove it, honestly look at your life and analyze something that you are not happy about.  Make a list of the thoughts and actions you have about that thing, not only right now but in the past.

change thought change worldIt is human nature to feel like we are being singled out and life isn’t fair, but when you do this little exercise, most often you are going to see what actions you took, thoughts that you had, or beliefs you cultivated that put you right where you are at this moment.

Here is the part of being grateful for. This can change at any moment.  There are countless stories about people who seem in a day to have changed their lives, themselves, and their circumstances.  None of the personal changes we experience in life would ever occur if we didn’t make the conscious effort to change the way we think about something or a belief that we once held.

We all have the same ability to make these changes, and they start with our thoughts.  I am grateful that all that we think matters.

You make a choice every day about how your scoreboard is going to read.

 

Into The Wild Film-Courage or Foolishness

Alexander Supertramp, Chris McCandless

Into The Wild Film

“I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!”

— Chris McCandless’ journal from Alaska

The other day I happened to come across this movie called Into The Wild.  I had no idea what it was about or that it was based on a “true” story.  I started watching it and there seemed to be a lot of problems for this kid, Chris McCandless growing up, the movie portrays his parents as not so nice people and because of this, he was propelled to give up his identity, his money and hike off across the country to find some inner truth.  Two things struck me about this movie as I watched it.  First, either this kid was out of his tree crazy, or he was brilliant and had a large supply of courage. Into the WildTravel Biographies & Memoirs)

Secondly, was the soundtrack which was performed mostly by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame, and I have to say, it is outstanding.  Made me remember that I really loved Pearl Jam and the music, well listen for yourself, I will put the videos at the end of this.

For those of you who don’t know the story here is a brief account:

Chris McCandless Story

Into the Wild is the story of Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, who chose a life on the road in the early 1990s after graduating from Emory University. He hitchhiked, hopped freight trains and backpacked throughout the American West before hitchhiking to Alaska in summer of 1992. It was there in the Alaskan bush near Denali National Park that Chris McCandless died in an abandoned bus, having lived off the land before a series of tragic events caused his death by starvation.

Chris McCandless, Alexander Supertramp, into the wild
Kind of Creepy Picture of the Real McCandless in front of his bus

Chris’ story was told by Jon Krakauer in the bestselling book,Into the Wild, originally published in 1997 in response to the popularity of Krakauer’s article on McCandless in Outside magazine.  The book was adapted for the screen by Sean Penn, who also directed. Actor Emile Hirsch plays Christopher McCandless. The film also stars:
Marcia Gay Harden (Billie McCandless), William Hurt (Walt McCandless), Jena Malone (Carine McCandless), Vince Vaughn (Wayne Westerberg), Catherine Keener (Jan Burres), Hal Holbrook (Ron Franz), Kristen Stewart (Tracy).

Now I warn you that Chris McCandless is a lightning rod for people to complain about.  You don’t have to look very far online to find people that claim you shouldn’t  romanticize and make McCandless a heroic figure, because it is making a hero out of a crazy person or a fool.  Their words not mine.  There is much worse out there, claiming he could have hiked ten miles in the opposite direction to find safety, or a few miles up or down stream to get across the river and save himself.  There are also many accounts that McCandless had a reputation for doing foolish things his entire life and almost killed himself numerous times.  I do not know if any of this stuff is true or not, but I do know that the story is inspirational as told by Sean Penn and it’s hard to watch it without it affecting you.  I mean, how many people live their entire life and never take a chance on anything?  Ever?   The story ends with McCandless’ death but the idea lives on, that life is to be lived and not survived.  It made me wonder if I had ever done anything even remotely heroic, ever in my life.  I recommend you watch it and judge for yourself.

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greather joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

Chris McCandless quote

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods:

There is a rapture on the lonely shore:

There is society, where non intrudes.

By the deep sea, and music in it’s roar:

I love not man the less, but nature more…….”      Lord Byron


Watch the videos below you’ll be glad you did.
Society

Two years he walks the earth.
No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, ’cause “the West is the best.” And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.
— Alexander Supertramp

Hard Sun

Probably the best: Rise

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
— Chris McCandless

“The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences.”
— Chris McCandless

“Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness… give me truth.”

— Chris expanded on the original quote by Henry David Thoreau

“Greetings from Fairbanks!
This is the last you shall hear from me Wayne. Arrived here 2 days ago. It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here. Please return all mail I receive to the sender.
It might be a very long time before I return South. If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again, I want you to know your a great man. I now walk into the wild. Might be a very long time before I return South…
I now walk into the wild.”
— Chris McCandless, in postcard sent to Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South Dakota, from Alaska

“…henceforth will learn to accept my errors, however great they be…”
— Chris McCandless’ journal from Alaska, written weeks before he died

“I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!” — Chris McCandless’ journal from Alaska

“It should not be denied… that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape from history and oppression and law and irksome obligations, with absolute freedom, and the road has always led West.”
— Wallace Stegner

“I want to go up to them and say Stop,
don’t do it— she’s the wrong woman,
he’s the wrong man, you are going to do things
you cannot imagine you would ever do.”
— Sharon Olds, May 1937
(In the movie, Chris reads this to his sister, Carine, outside the restaurant)