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September 13 - September 18, 2019
leadership usually gravitates to the man who can get up and say what he thinks.
‘Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.’
best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm, on doing today’s work superbly today. That is the only possible way you can prepare for the future.
‘Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’
‘Have no anxiety for the tomorrow.’
good thinking deals with causes and effects and leads to logical, constructive planning; bad thinking frequently
leads to tension and nervous breakdowns.
life as an hourglass. You know there are thousands of grains of sand in the top of the hourglass; and they all pass slowly and evenly through the narrow neck in the middle. Nothing you or I could do would make more than one grain of sand pass through this narrow neck without impairing the hourglass. You and I and everyone else are like this hourglass. When we start in the morning, there are hundreds of tasks which we feel that we must accomplish that day, hut if we do not take them one at a time and let them pass through the day slowly and evenly, as do the grains of sand passing through the
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“Today is a new life.”
this day will never dawn again.’
Today is our most precious possession. It is our only sure possession.
Shut the iron doors on the past and the future. Live in Day-tight Compartments.
analyzed the situation fearlessly and honestly and figured out what was the worst that could possibly happen as a result of this failure.
I reconciled myself to accepting it, if necessary.
III. From that time on, I calmly devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally.
acceptance of what has happened is the first step in overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.’
Ask yourself, ‘What is the worst that can possibly happen?’ Prepare to accept it if you have to. Then calmly proceed to improve on the worst.
‘Those who do not know how to fight worry die young.’
man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.’
When trying to get the facts, I pretend that I am collecting this information not for myself, but for some other person. This helps me to take a cold, impartial view of the evidence. This helps me eliminate my emotions. While trying to collect the facts about the problem that is worrying me, I sometimes pretend that I am a lawyer preparing to argue the other side of the issue. In other words, I try to get all the facts against myself – all the facts that are damaging to my wishes, all the facts I don’t like to face.
problem well stated is a problem half solved.’
What am I worrying about? ‘2. What can I do about it?
failure to arrive at a fixed purpose, the inability to stop going round and round in maddening circles, that drives men to nervous breakdowns and living hells.
Writing down precisely what I am worrying about. ‘2. Writing down what I can do about it. ‘3. Deciding what to do. ‘4. Starting immediately to carry out that decision.’
Don’t begin to hesitate, worry and retrace your steps.
keep thinking about our problems beyond a certain point is bound to create confusion and worry.
What is the problem? What is the CAUSE of the problem? What are all possible solutions to the problem? What solution do you suggest?
The remedy for worry is to get completely occupied doing something constructive.’
‘The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.’
‘Life is too short to be little.’
Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember ‘Life is too short to be little.’
‘Let’s examine the record.’ Let’s ask ourselves: ‘What are the chances, according to the law of averages, that this event I am worrying about will ever occur?’
We are stronger than we think.
If we rail and kick against it and grow bitter, we won’t change the inevitable; but we will change ourselves.
As long as there is a chance that we can save a situation, let’s fight! But when common sense tells us that we are up against something that is so – and cannot be otherwise – then, in the name of our sanity,
‘There is only one way to happiness,’ Epictetus taught the Romans, ‘and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.’
Co-operate with the inevitable.
Whenever we are tempted to throw good money after bad in terms of human living, let’s stop and ask ourselves these three questions: 1. How much does this thing I am worrying about really matter to me? 2. At what point shall I set a ‘stop-loss’ order on this worry – and forget it? 3. Exactly how much shall I pay for this whistle? Have I already paid more than it is worth?
‘Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.’
‘Our life is what our thoughts make it.’
mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.
‘A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens.’
‘Thus,’ he explains, ‘the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if your cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.’
Think and act cheerfully, and you will feel cheerful.
No one can humiliate or disturb you and me, either unless we let him.
no man can force me to stoop low enough to hate him.’
Let’s never try to get even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ourselves far more than we hurt them. Let’s do as General Eisenhower does: let’s never waste a minute thinking about people we don’t like.
It is natural for people to forget to be grateful; so, if we go around expecting gratitude, we are headed straight for a lot of heartaches.
can ever hope to be loved is to stop asking for it and to start pouring out love without hope of return.