“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Gandhi

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This wraps up my whole philosophy in 2 very wise sentences. Stick this quote on your door, so that every time you leave the house you apply this philosophy.

“Do not allow the little things of today to disturb you.”

Author unknown

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When an issue upsets you, try to remember how small and insignificant that issue is in comparison to what other people are going through all over the world. Some people have no food, no water, no shelter, no health…is your problem really that important?

Why do we give so much time and attention to the little things?

Why are the causes of disagreement so often on the little things?

Why don’t we invest our time on the real important issues of our lives?

“The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come”

William Hazlitt

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Instead of enjoying and being thankful for what we have now…

Have a nice day .

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”

Mahatma Gandhi

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It saves so much time when we choose to align the thinking, the saying and the doing altogether.

But why don’t we do this more consistently ?

“Joy is not in things, it is in us!”

Benjamin Franklin

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In our consumer society, we are bombarded everyday with advertisements that try to persuade us that we need a certain new toy to be happy.

And once we get the new house, new car, new boat, new clothes …will it really make us happy?

And for how long?

Benjamin Franklin wrote this quote more than 250 years ago before the advent of the consumer society.

I believe he was right. Joy has to be from inside us.

Where does your joy come from?

“Avoid with fury the killers of time “

Og Mandino

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Most of the time, we are not even aware of how we waste our time.

One of the ways that I found to avoid repeating the same mistake too often is to write it down after becoming aware of it.

The more I become aware of something, the more I will increase the chances of correcting the undesired behaviour.

Have you identified your “killers of time” ?

“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”

Aldous Huxley

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This is so true. But why is it so hard to admit or to accept?

Gandhi said;

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Will you try it today?

“It is wonderful what you can do when you have to”

C.S. Lewis

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Why are we so productive the day before we leave on holidays? We want to make sure everything is done before we go.

This is evidence that we waste time on other days. This is evidence that we procrastinate a lot.

Whatever you would like to do or you must do, act now, act today!

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hope for.”

Epicurus

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“Life is something to do when you can’t get to sleep”

Fran Lebowitz ( 1950-      )

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I still feel like a kid most of the time. I really don’t like going to sleep at night. I can’t wait to get up early in the morning.

By the time I’m ready to go to bed, I’m so exausted that I fall asleep right away. In between I try to live life to the fullest.

Do you have a hard time sleeping sometimes?

If you do, I reccommend that you do something very enjoyable until you’re so tired, that you will need to rest very quickly.

When it comes to relationships with your loved ones;

Love is spelled  T-I-M-E.

Our life is frittered away by detail…simplify,simplify.

Henry David Thoreau

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How much time do you spend taking care of things that are not important?

How much time do you invest in things that are important?

Do you take time to get rid of what’s not essential?

“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live”

Dorothy Thompson, journalist

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“It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness”

Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson was describing the “Flow” before it was clearly defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.

According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.

Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states include: to be on the ball, in the zone, in the groove, or keeping your head in the game.

(source: Wikipedia, english, May 18, 2010)

How often are you experiencing the Flow?

“To choose time is to save time”

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

English philosopher

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It’s all about choices! At every moment, we must choose.

Choose to eat well. Choose to sleep enough. Choose to be physically active. Choose to learn some new skills. Choose to teach to younger people. Choose to be friendly. Choose to be patient. Choose to give. Choose to relax. Choose, choose, choose.

We each have to make our own choices individually.

Which choice will you make today?

Act now because now is all you have. Too many times, we wait before doing what we know we should be doing.

This is called procrastination. But why do we wait? Is it because of fear? Is it because of laziness? Is it because of a lack of self-confidence?

Whatever the reason, time will not wait for us.

“At the end of each day, you should play back the “movie” of your day”

Stephen Lafond

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If you do, ask yourself if you would like to produce this kind of movie again.

The Ant Philosophy by Jim Rohn

“Whenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.”

Walt Disney

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Everyday we should become a little better than we were the day before. If we can become one percent better daily, we can recreate our life every 100 days. Learn to get better daily; look for ways to improve, to be kinder, more intelligent, and more helpful..

Everyday we re-create ourselves.

Do you evaluate yourself everyday to see what you can improve?

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

Walt Disney

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Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Life is too short to spend it doing the possible. Learn to pursue the impossible, pursue what others say can’t be done, pursue what has never been done before, pursue your dreams, and turn them into a reality.

You must believe in the beauty of your dreams. Walt said, “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.” If you’re going to believe, you might as well believe all the way.

It’s the age-old question, how to reconcile the fact that life is so short?

Make the most of every nanosecond.

Or at least, die trying…

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In other words, we should try to be fully aware of each moment, to do one thing at the time with people, to be active and productive and to simply be ourselves.

“Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others”

Morrie Schwartz  (  Tuesdays with Morrie p.164)

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Why is it so important to forgive ourselves? Why is it so important to forgive others as soon as we can?

Forgiving ourselves and others is an act of letting go, it is also an act of selfishness because when we let go, we let go of the emotions that are poisoning our day. Who needs these emotions? Shouldn’t we use our limited time and energy for more exciting activities?

Morrie said “Forgive yourself and others before you die”

But since we don’t know when we are going to die, why not forgive NOW?

If we know that we will eventually forgive, why wait?

“If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough.”

— Vince Lombardi, football coach

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There is nothing wrong with making mistakes. This is how we learn.

Where did we get the idea that we have to avoid making mistakes?

What we should try to avoid is repeating the same mistake over and over again.

When we learn from our mistakes, we improve our quality of life and we save time in the long run.

Do you try to avoid making mistakes at all cost?

“Forget the past and live in the present hour”

Sarah Knowles Bolton

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There is not much you can do about your past. The only thing you can do is learn from it and try not to repeat the same mistakes.

But what if I cannot learn from my past mistakes? First, forgive yourself for not learning the lesson, then pay the price one more time until you sick of learning the same lesson over and over again.

Which lesson are you willing to learn over and over again?

I will never be able do it all! I can only live every moment to the fullest. NOW !

Stephen Lafond

I hear you say “Why?” Always “Why?” You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw

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This is the reason why we talk about George Bernard Shaw; he dared to say WHY NOT?

How many times in our lives did we say WHY and the main reason was our concern for the opinion of others?

How many times we did not dare SAY THE THING or DO THE THING because of fear or timidity?

Benjamin Franklin used to say ; “Do something worth writing about or write something worth reading if you don’t want to be forgotten an hour after your death.”

Will you dare say WHY NOT ?

What do most people get out of criticizing others? I simply can’t understand that.

Sometimes, I still find myself doing it . I hate it when I do this.

What a waste of time. Live and let live.

Do you often “catch” yourself criticizing others?

Shouldn’t we learn to appreciate others?

What do we get out of it ?

“To revolt against reality will only torment you.”

Author unknown

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If you have any doubts about this quote, just keep trying and I’ll promise you will be disappointed.

Remember the beginning of the post on serenity.

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change

And the courage to change the things that I can.”

Another way to say the same thing is

“Accept things as they really are and not as you want them to be”

This is the way to face realism.

Do you still like to be tormented?

Isn’t it a waste of your time and energy to rebel against things over which you have very little control?

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”

— Maya Angelou, poet

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Good luck with this one. Have a nice day.