Thomas Jefferson: Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
- Thomas Jefferson

Say NO to the demands of the world.
Say YES to the longings of your own heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

First ask why the task is on your to-do list. When possible, discard those items to which you are not truly committed. For the tasks which do speak to the longings of your own heart, begin now, today, this moment.

Further reading: Time is my friend

Gifts freely given are never obligations - jlh

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning. - jlh

Urgency is a grim taskmaster. Escape time, and life becomes irie. - jlh

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for. - John A. Shedd

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for. - John A. Shedd 

 A truly safe car would be armor-plated and fully padded inside. Better yet, it wouldn't use gasoline or ever leave your garage. 

To be truly safe your children would never talk to anyone, let alone a stranger, would never breathe air in the same room with any other children, would never eat food from a restaurant, and would probably not eat food from a grocery store either.

 What is life for? We're all going to die anyway, so let's really live while we're alive. Personally, I have fond memories of playing on slippery rocks on the banks of a rushing river as a child and hitchhiking in college. 

To those who say, "But times are different now," I reply that statistically life is much safer now than in the 1950s, with regard to both crime and accidents. What has changed is our attitudes. In those years, a broken leg from falling off a swing or the back of a tractor was just part of childhood - an excuse for gathering autographs. Today that broken leg would be a source of outrage and probably lawsuits. I long for a simpler time when life was taken less seriously.

Further reading: A life lived in fear is a life half lived

Anais Nin: We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.

Joseph Campbell: The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

Babe Ruth quote: Never let the fear of striking out get in your way

Mark Twain: The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
- Mark Twain

Happiness comes from being of service.

Happiness comes from being compassionate.

Further reading: Universal Kindness and Compassion

Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

A hero is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or something other than himself. - Joseph Campbell

Mark Twain: It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

Abraham Maslow: If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

If the only tool you have is a hammer,
you tend to see every problem as a nail.
- Abraham Maslow

Each one of us has many problem-solving abilities, but we tend to feel most comfortable with a small number of them - those techniques are our hammers.

For example, we may have learned that we get results by using anger. Others back down when we show anger, so we continue the practice. Anger has become the hammer.

So what happens when the problem is, for example, intimacy with a partner? Out comes the hammer - anger.

We all have a full tool box of interpersonal skills, which we can call upon whenever we take the time to take a deep breath and make conscious choices.


Further reading: Don't shoot the messenger

Albert Einstein: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

Moderating the Anger Response Through Training

Comparisons are odious

One of the greatest cause of unhappiness - perhaps even the only cause of unhappiness - is comparison. I remember as a young child hearing my mother say, "Comparisons are odious." That is one of the oldest sayings in the English language, and one of the most important.

Essentially all suffering is the result of...

* Comparing what we have (or don't have) today with what we had yesterday.
* Comparing what we fear we might have (or not have) tomorrow) with what we have today.
* Comparing what we have (or don't have) with what others have.

If I own two bicycles while my neighbor owns one, I feel rich, but if I own two bicycles while my neighbor owns a car, I feel that the world has treated me unfairly and I suffer. If I could only crawl yesterday, and can walk today, I am grateful, but if I could run yesterday, and can only walk today, I become angry and resentful.

The way to happiness is what I call Zero-Based Gratitude. Each day be happy and grateful for what you have, independent of yesterday and of other people. Think of Zero-Based Gratitude like zero-based budgeting, the process in which governments and businesses attempt to disregard the spending patterns they have become addicted to, and establish a realistic budget from a base-line of zero spending.

Further reading: Zero-Based Gratitude

7 Secrets of Happy Couples

GRATITUDE - the third Point of Simply An Inspired Life