Why are you here?

Why are you here? 

I'm not talking about why you are here reading this, or why you are where you are in longitude/latitude of space/time.

Why are you here in this body? Why are you here on this Earth, at the perfect?

 Do you know there's never been such an abundance of opportunity for anyone who is willing to serve rather than just gain? If so,  I invite you to stop for a moment and feel that in your heart before continuing to read. 

Do you know also know that the greats were great not because they were more special, but because they took action in spite of fear?

The purpose of life we desire, the passion, the answer to the first question, "Why are you here?" is found when you can step into uncertainty, step into fear, and do what it is you REALLY want to do, and not what sort-of calls to your heart.

Now I don't believe people when they say, "I don't know what I want to do with my life…" And when I am told this I ask people two questions:

1.) Imagine it's one year from now, what would have had to have happened for this year to be the most wildly fulfilling and or successful year ever? (touch your heart when you have an answer).

2.) Second, what would you do if you had no limits, if you simply knew you couldn't fail, if you had the resources, the time, and whatever else the mind way comes up with…? (I invite you to touch your heart again and feel the answer you came up with).

All of us on some level know the answer to these questions. And if it were me and I couldn't find those answers right now, I wouldn't move from where I was today until I figured out the answers and wrote them down, at least malleable answers that could give me a starting place….

So what prevents us from knowing the answer, to pursuing the journey; fear.

It's not a lack of action, because even in-action becomes action after a period of time, even not-doing becomes our doing at a certain point. This is because we are always choosing, it's just that we're either choosing to inspire ourselves or expire ourselves, in everything…. our career, our food, our daily schedule, our goals, our commitments, our time management….

Each of those and so much more are either bringing us closer to the meaning of life, or further away…. they are either aligned with our dreams, or counter-productive to the realization of them….

So there are three final questions…. What is it you want to remember about your life, your experience, yourself? How can you get there? When will you begin?

Jack Ducey

http://jakeducey.com

75 Happiness Quotes to Live By

Marc and Angel Hack Life

Practical Tips for Productive Living

Here are 75 happiness quotes gathered from our sister site, Everyday Life Lessons, to brighten your day and move your mindset in a positive direction.

1. Smile every chance you get.  Not because life has been easy, perfect, or exactly as you had anticipated, but because you choose to be happy and grateful for all the good things you do have and all the problems you know you don’t have.
2. Never let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.
3. Tell the negativity committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up.  (Read Learned Optimism.)
4. A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t get very far until you change it.
5. In a world where you can be anything you want, BE YOURSELF.
6. The more you love your decisions, the less you need others to love them.
7. It’s important to make someone happy, and it’s important to start with yourself.
8. Life is not about making others happy.  Life is about sharing your happiness with others.
9. Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design into the present.
10. If you settle for just anything, you’ll never know what you’re truly worthy of.
11. Sometimes life gives you two options: losing yourself or losing someone else.  Regardless of the situation, don’t lose yourself.
12. If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, you do have a pretty big problem.
13. Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present.  Only you give it power.
14. Don’t worry too much about people who don’t worry about you.
15. Know your worth!  When you give yourself to someone who doesn’t respect you, you surrender pieces of your soul that you’ll never get back.
16. Sometimes you’ve got to emotionally let go of the things that once meant a lot to you, so you can move beyond the past and the pains they bring you, and open the next chapter in your life.
17. If you want to get over a problem, stop mulling it over and talking about it.  Your mind affects your mouth, and your mouth affects your mind.  It’s nearly impossible to move beyond something when you’re obsessing over it.
18. If it is detrimental to you emotionally, physically and spiritually, what choice do you have but to let go and flourish with self-respect.
19. Saying goodbye is one of the most painful ways to solve a problem.  But sometimes it’s necessary.
20. Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting, it means you choose happiness over hurt.
21. Stop looking at what you have lost, so you can see what you have.
22. Someone else is happy with far less than what you have.
23. Talk about your blessings more than you talk about your problems.
24. Sometimes people throw away something good for something better, only to find out later that good was actually good enough and better never even came close.
25. In life, you get what you put in.  Everything comes back around.
26. You can never change the past nor control the future, but you can change the mood of the day by touching someone’s heart with your smile.
27. The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.
28. Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
29. It’s nice to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s also important to make sure you haven’t lost track of the things that money can’t buy.
30. You don’t need a lot of money to lead a rich life.  Good friends and a loving family are worth their weight in gold.
31. You will never fully believe in yourself if you keep comparing yourself to everyone else.  Instead, compare yourself to who you were yesterday.  (Read Authentic Happiness.)
32. You won’t always be punished FOR your anger, but you will always be punished BY your anger.
33. Give yourself permission to immediately walk away from anything that gives you bad vibes.  There is no need to explain or make sense of it.  Just trust what you feel.
34. One of the greatest freedoms is truly not caring what everyone else thinks of you.
35. As long as you are worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them.  Only when you require no approval from outside yourself can you own yourself.
36. Don’t let anyone walk through your mind with their dirty feet.
37. It hurts the most when you start pretending it doesn’t.
38. You are responsible for how you feel no matter what someone does to you. Remember, you are always in control of your thoughts so choose to feel confident and adequate rather than angry and insecure.
39. Being kind to yourself in thoughts, words and actions is as important as being kind to others.
40. Death is not the greatest loss in life; the greatest loss is what dies inside while you’re still alive.
41. Only when we begin to be awake do we realize just how asleep we have been.
42. You are always free to do something that makes you smile.
43. You define your own life.  Don’t let other people write your life’s story for you.
44. Don’t be afraid of change.  Oftentimes you will lose something good, and then gain something even better.
45. Worry is a massive waste of time and energy.  It doesn’t change anything.  All it does is steal your joy and hinder your ability to make positive changes.
46. If you want to be happy and bright, let go of your need to always be right.
47. In life, you usually get what you ask for and it rarely comes in the package you think it’s supposed to come in.
48. If you don’t like something, change it.  If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.
49. Life does NOT have to be perfect to be wonderful.
50. You look the best when you wear your smile.  There is no beauty like the one that comes from inside you.
51. Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.
52. The time spent on hating is the time lost for living a peaceful, happy life.  It is a habit that controls what you see, what you say, what you do, and ultimately what you become.
53. Sometimes you need to be alone to reflect on life.  Take time out to take care of yourself.  You deserve it.
54. The good things we build end up building us.
55. You cannot change what you refuse to confront.
56. The difference between who you are and who you want to be, is what you do.
57. If you want your life to change, your choices and actions must change.  Every day brings a chance to start over.
58. Good things don’t come to those who wait.  Good things come to those who pursue the goals and dreams they believe in.
59. Don’t make a decision based solely on popularity. Just because other people are doing it doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for you.
60. Following all the rules leaves a completed checklist.  Following your heart achieves a completed you.  (Read The Happiness Project.)
61. Knowing yourself is one thing, but truly believing and living as yourself is another.  With so much social conditioning in our society, we sometimes forget who we are.  Don’t lose yourself out there.
62. Of all the things that can be stolen from you – your possessions, your youth, your health, your words, your rights – what no one can ever take from you is your freedom to choose what you will believe in, and who and what your heart will love.
63. When you find yourself cocooned in isolation and despair and cannot find your way out of the darkness, remember that this is similar to the place where caterpillars go to grow their wings.
64. Take all the time you need to heal emotionally.  Moving on doesn’t take a day; it takes lots of little steps to be able to break free of your broken self.
65. When you can forgive, yourself and others, and stop the imprisonment, you’re creating the love of your life.
66. What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for.  You become what you believe.
67. Keep your heart open to dreams.  For as long as there’s a dream, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there is joy in living.
68. When you try to control everything, you enjoy nothing.  Sometimes you just need to relax, breathe, let go, and just live in the moment.
69. Even though you cannot control everything that happens, you can control your attitude toward what happens.  And in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.
70. Life will never be perfect, no matter how hard you try.  Even if you pour your heart and soul into it, you will never have that perfection you seek.  There will always be broken hearts, there will always be days where nothing goes right.  But you must accept and learn that even the most imperfect things will always be made better with love and laughter.  (Read Stumbling on Happiness.)
71. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
72. Satisfaction is not always the fulfillment of what you want; it is the realization of how blessed you are for what you have.
73. Sometimes you just have to look back at your past and smile about how far you’ve come.
74. Just because it didn’t last forever, doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth your while.
75. It’s not that everything will be easy or exactly as you had expected, but you must just choose to be grateful for all that you have, and happy that you got a chance to live this life, no matter how it turns out.   

http://www.marcandangel.com/2012/07/04/75-happiness-quotes-to-live-by/

Reader’s story: The perfect heart

Paulo Coelho's Blog
Sent by Priya Sher

A young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it.

But an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said,
“Your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.”

The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly but full of scars. It had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in … but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. The young man looked at the old man’s heart and laughed.

“You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart with mine … mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”

” “Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking … but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love….. I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them … and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges.

“ Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away … and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges … giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too … and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?”

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man.

The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart.
It fit …. but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.

The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his.

Paulo Coelho's Blog: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/10/04/readers-story-the-perfect-heart/

The Philosophy Professor

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he picked up a very large and empty jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things; your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions; things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full."

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your important possessions. And the sand is everything else; the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "There is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life." "If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem; there's always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend."


http://www.humanext.com/ideas.html

Happiness by W. Beran Wolfe & Lisa Coffey

Happiness by W. Beran Wolfe & Lisa Coffey

"If you observe a really happy man, you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that had rolled under the radiator, striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of each day."

-W. Beran Wolfe

Of course, happiness is something that we all want for ourselves and those we love. But happiness is not something that we can pursue. Happiness is something that finds us! When we are expressing ourselves, living a life filled with love, we can't help but feel the happiness that is always around us.

-Lissa Coffey

Get Off the Couch by Ron White

The legendary Jack LaLanne is 94 years old and fit. He still lifts weights and swims each day. He also has a purpose. He wants to transform every American into a fit, healthy machine. So what can you learn from the founding father of fitness?

Anything in life is possible. You control your life—it’s all up to you. The food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow. You have to ask yourself, ‘What can I do to help myself?’ ”

A strong will and a belief in yourself are all it takes to achieve whatever goal you’ve set for yourself.

“Everyone is a genius in his own way, but you have to bring it out to make it happen. You have to work at it and you have to believe. You can’t just dream your way to success.”

Believe in what you are doing. “People line up after motivational talks to thank me. That’s my reward; it’s not about money.”

Ron White

An Aesop Fable: The North Wind and The Sun

An Aesop Fable
The North Wind and The Sun

The North Wind boasted of great strength. The Sun argued that there was great strength in gentleness.


"We shall have a contest," said the Sun.


Far below, a man traveled a winding road. He was wearing a warm winter coat.


"As a test of strength," said the Sun, "Let us see which of us can take the coat off of that man."


"It will be quite simple for me to force him to remove his coat," bragged the Wind.


The Wind blew so hard, the birds clung to the trees. The world was filled with dust and leaves. But the harder the wind blew down the road, the tighter the shivering man clung to his coat.


Then, the Sun came out from behind a cloud. Sun warmed the air and the frosty ground. The man on the road unbuttoned his coat.


The sun grew slowly brighter and brighter.


Soon the man felt so hot, he took off his coat and sat down in a shady spot.


"How did you do that?" said the Wind.


"It was easy," said the Sun, "Through the strength of gentleness I got my way."