Plan Before You Take Action

 

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Read: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

If you don't know what port you are steering for,
no wind is favorable to you.
- Seneca [paraphrase]

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

Further reading: Where Are You Going?

Choosing Your Destination

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What is my happiness supposed to look like?

Creating Your Own Future
    

Know Your Goal, then Chart Your Course

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Read: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

If you don't know what port you are steering for,
no wind is favorable to you.
- Seneca [paraphrase]

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

Further reading: Where Are You Going?

Choosing Your Destination

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What is my happiness supposed to look like?

Creating Your Own Future
    

Have a Goal, Make a Plan

 

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Read: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

If you don't know what port you are steering for,
no wind is favorable to you.
- Seneca [paraphrase]

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

Further reading: Where Are You Going?

Choosing Your Destination

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What is my happiness supposed to look like?

Creating Your Own Future
    

Embrace Your Uniqueness

 

The first step in the evolution of ethics
is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.
- Albert Schweitzer

Embrace your uniqueness.
Time is much too short to be
living someone else's life.
- Kobi Yamada

Fear of difference is fear of life itself.
- M. P. Follett

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
- M. Scott Peck

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect
the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

Once you respect yourself, there is no longer
any reason to disrespect anyone else.
Once you are confident of your own worthiness,
the worthiness of others ceases to be an issue.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every man and woman is born into the world
to do something unique and something distinctive;
and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.
- Benjamin E. Mays

Today's affirmation:
I celebrate both my uniqueness
and my connection with all that is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Recognize, Accept, and Celebrate Differences

Accept Others

Avoid Labeling Yourself
      

What is Your Goal in Life?

 

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Read: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

If you don't know what port you are steering for,
no wind is favorable to you.
- Seneca [paraphrase]

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

Further reading: Where Are You Going?

Choosing Your Destination

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What is my happiness supposed to look like?

Creating Your Own Future
    

Solidarity with Other Human Beings

The first step in the evolution of ethics
is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.
- Albert Schweitzer

Embrace your uniqueness.
Time is much too short to be
living someone else's life.
- Kobi Yamada

Fear of difference is fear of life itself.
- M. P. Follett

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
- M. Scott Peck

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect
the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

Once you respect yourself, there is no longer
any reason to disrespect anyone else.
Once you are confident of your own worthiness,
the worthiness of others ceases to be an issue.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every man and woman is born into the world
to do something unique and something distinctive;
and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.
- Benjamin E. Mays

Today's affirmation:
I celebrate both my uniqueness
and my connection with all that is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Recognize, Accept, and Celebrate Differences

Accept Others

Avoid Labeling Yourself
      

Chart Your Course

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Read: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

If a man does not know what port he is steering for,
no wind is favorable to him.
- Seneca

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

Further reading: Where Are You Going?

Choosing Your Destination

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What is my happiness supposed to look like?

Creating Your Own Future
    

Unique, Yet Bonded To All Humanity

Embrace your uniqueness.
Time is much too short to be
living someone else's life.
- Kobi Yamada

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
- M. Scott Peck

The first step in the evolution of ethics
is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.
- Albert Schweitzer

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect
the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

Fear of difference is fear of life itself.
- M. P. Follett

Every man and woman is born into the world
to do something unique and something distinctive;
and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.
- Benjamin E. Mays

Once you respect yourself, there is no longer
any reason to disrespect anyone else.
Once you are confident of your own worthiness,
the worthiness of others ceases to be an issue.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
I celebrate both my uniqueness
and my connection with all that is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Avoid Labeling Yourself

Accept Others

Recognize, Accept, and Celebrate Differences
      

Unique, Yet Connected

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect
the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

Fear of difference is fear of life itself.
- M. P. Follett

Every man and woman is born into the world
to do something unique and something distinctive;
and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.
- Benjamin E. Mays

Once you respect yourself, there is no longer
any reason to disrespect anyone else.
Once you are confident of your own worthiness,
the worthiness of others ceases to be an issue.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
I celebrate both my uniqueness
and my connection with all that is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Accept Others

Avoid Labeling Yourself

Recognize, Accept, and Celebrate Differences
      

Knowing What You Want

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Read: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

If a man does not know what port he is steering for,
no wind is favorable to him.
- Seneca

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

Further reading: Choosing Your Destination

What is my happiness supposed to look like?

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

Where Are You Going?

Creating Your Own Future
    

Purpose and Direction

If a man does not know what port he is steering for,
no wind is favorable to him.
- Seneca

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ...
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost

Further reading: Reaching for Your Goals

Choosing Your Destination

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Where does your path lead?
    

Reaching for Your Goals

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that,
but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
- Mark Twain

Like so much of life, it's a balance.
It's important not to abandon family and friends,
but it's also important to spend most of your time
in the company of people who support you without meddling,
who give you the space to grow,
who applaud when you spread your wings in whatever way YOU want to fly.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Dare to dream of your great success.
Become intimate with those things
which deeply motivate you
and regularly work toward
the realization of that mission.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Happy Friends - Happy You

Our Light that Frightens Us

Advice

May Your Spirit Soar

Avoid Labeling Yourself

Set Life's Rhythm with Your Heart-Drum
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every man and woman is born into the world
to do something unique and something distinctive;
and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.
- Benjamin E. Mays

Don't let the noise of others' opinions
drown out your own inner voice.
- Steve Jobs

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
- Raymond Lindquist

You didn't get stamped out of a mold. You aren't a "black person" or a "white person," a "fat person" or a "skinny person," a "bad person" or a "good person." You are a highly complex human being with emotions, beliefs, capabilities. Each day you face challenges to your health, relationships, finances, and world-view -- and every day you respond to those challenges in ways which are unique to you.

Honor and love all of your unique self. Never diminish yourself with self-applied labels or categorizations.

Today's affirmation:
I follow my own star and my own inner compass.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Don't Label Yourself, or Others

Honor Your Heart

Other People's Opinions

Categorizing People

Trust Your Intuition

You Make Your World

What You Become

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important
as what you become by achieving your goals.
- Henry David Thoreau

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays 

Dare to dream of your great success.
Become intimate with those things
which deeply motivate you
and regularly work toward
the realization of that mission.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

You will become as small as your controlling desire;
as great as your dominant aspiration.
- James Allen

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

What Is Success?

Be Yourself

We Come This Way But Once

What Is Life All About?

What Really Matters

Unique

As we grow as unique persons,
we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

Every man and woman is born into the world
to do something unique and something distinctive;
and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.
- Benjamin E. Mays

Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Today's affirmation:
I am a unique expression of the universal fabric of creation.
I celebrate both my uniqueness and my connection with all that is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Be Yourself

Unity (with Spirit and All Creation)

Achieving Your Goals

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. - Thomas Jefferson 

 Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. - Louis Pasteur 

 The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. - Benjamin Mays 

 What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. - Henry David Thoreau 

 To live a satisfying life requires two steps... 1. Plan your life goals. 2. Act on your plan - every day. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

 Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose 

  Success Tip: Drive Change 

  Purpose 

  Adapt to Change

Goals

A goal is a dream with a deadline.
- Napoleon Hill

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

Be resolute in your goals, but flexible in your tactics.
- jlh

If you know what to do to reach your goal, it's not a big enough goal.
- Bob Proctor

Further reading: Success Tip: Drive Change

How to be Successful in Business

What is your goal?

Dare to Dream of Your Great Success - Mary Anne Radmacher

Goal Quotes

Positive Quotes

Courage Quotes

Success Quotes

Set Goals - Take Action

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream;
not only plan, but also believe.
- Anatole France

Powerful Dreams Inspire Powerful Action.
When you can taste, smell, and touch your dreams, you can enroll the world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Believe in yourself. Dream big dreams. Set important goals. Take action on those goals.

Further reading: How to Motivate Yourself

Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions

How to Feel Good About Yourself

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others. Robert H. Schuller

Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive; and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.
- Benjamin E. Mays

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

God's Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm. I love that.
- Bono (Paul David Hewson)

I am a Unique Expression of the Universal Fabric of Creation.
I celebrate both my uniqueness and my connection with all that is.
- jlh

Each of us has a unique perception of the world. What if we could all celebrate our different ideas and beliefs rather than argue and fight wars over our differences.

Exercise: Recall a recent time when someone was strongly critical of your opinions (perhaps your political or religious beliefs). Now, put yourself in their shoes - with compassion. Try to understand and appreciate their point-of-view - not to change your own opinions, but to celebrate all our human differences - in peace.

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Some of you have asked about the pictures that appear in Daily Inspirations. Some of the pictures are public domain - either because they are very old, or because they come from sources such as NASA. The rest of the pictures have been taken either by myself or my wife Suze. Many of these pictures, including the eagle, pelican, and sunset pictures were taken very close to home. I carry a camera with me whenever I go for a walk.

Further reading: Stand Tall, Stand Proud

Positive Affirmations

Self-respect is not a function of size, age, or wealth. - jlh

Joy blooms where minds and hearts are open. - jlh

Perspectives on the Nature of God - Which of these Five Views Matches Yours?