Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

Listen to episode 583 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: The Mindset to Win Life’s Battles. Edited and adapted from How to Lick Our Fears by David V. Bush.

Motivation Podcast Excerpt: Not many people believe in witches and goblins anymore, but plenty of us have, through fear, worry, and shyness, conjured up numerous devils to beset our road, to rob us of our happiness, and sink us into the rut of despair. Borrowed troubles, magnified worries, these are the modern devils which camp on nearly everyone’s trail, and block many a successful highway.

What is there to fear? Nothing but fear. But thousands of us are haunted day and night by that particular devil of the imagination. Devils of worries, fear, and disappointment are barriers which only the mind can overcome.

Devils, like our troubles, are mostly in our minds. If we mix up a witches’ brew of fear and worry, we shall sip a bitter cup of unhappiness indeed. Loss may become such a devil, it could drive us to suicide today, as it has done to thousands in the past. And yet loss may be a blessing in disguise, or an incentive to drive us to greater accomplishments. Whatever effect it has on us depends upon the state of our mind. Loss may be as vinegar to the taste and wormwood to the soul. Or loss may help us to make friends and lay the foundation for success or riches.

Listen to episode 582 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: How to Overcome Your Fears. Edited and adapted from How to Lick Our Fears by David V. Bush.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, as special thank you to our new monthly patrons, Judith Ogedegbe, Jeri Neathery, and Andy Graham. Learn how you can become a patron for as little as $3 a month, to receive ad-free podcasts, full transcripts, and more, by visiting LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from How to Lick Fear by David V. Bush, published in 1924.

The common saying that you are making a mountain out of a molehill, contains more truth than poetry. When your imagination takes wings, and fancy runs wild, you can picture and anticipate more trouble in five minutes than you could actually bring upon yourself in a lifetime. Imagination can do almost anything: It can give us the right mental attitude for success, health, and happiness; but uncontrolled, it can build structures of doubt, sorrow, ill-health, and many a trouble.

Most of the troubles we have are imagined. Our worst troubles never come. Whether our troubles are real or imaginary, there is one way to meet them and rise superior to them — one easy, sure way to knock every fear in the head and throw it out of your mental picture gallery. It is so simple that you will wonder why the human family has not been taught it from infancy.

Listen to episode 580 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Inspirational Thoughts for Every-day Life. Edited and adapted from the work of Maltbie Davenport Babcock.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. A special thank you to our newest patron Jackie Cochran. Jackie now has access to ad-free podcasts, full transcripts, and our entire archive of over 550 podcasts. You can too, by visiting LivingHour.org/patron.

Opportunities do not come with their value stamped upon them. Every one of them must be challenged. A day dawns, quite like other days. In it a single hour comes, quite like other hours. But in that day, and in that hour, the chance of a lifetime faces us. To face every opportunity of life thoughtfully and ask its meaning bravely and earnestly, is the only way to meet the supreme opportunities when they come, whether recognized or disguised.

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Many a good intention dies from inattention. If, through carelessness, indolence, or selfishness, a good intention is not put into effect, we have lost an opportunity, demoralized ourselves, and stolen from the pile of possible good. To be born and not fed, is to perish. To launch a ship and neglect it, is to lose it. To have a talent and bury it, is to live a wasted life. For in the end, we shall be judged not only by what we have done, but by what we could have done.

Listen to episode 578 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: The Quality that Makes or Breaks You. Edited and adapted from The Making of the Man by Edward Ward Carmack.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The subject of my talk today isn’t the training of your intellectual faculties or the acquisition of knowledge. I would rather impress upon you that the strongest, most disciplined mind cannot of itself bring you honor or happiness, cannot make you a good and useful citizen, or entitle you to the respect of others. The great topic upon which I plan to speak is character — for the greatest women and men, whose names are honored and revered by all humankind, were not great because they were mighty in intellect, but because they were grand in soul.

Listen to episode 574 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Become an Artist in Your Work & Life. Edited and adapted from Essays on Work and Culture by Hamilton Wright Mabie.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The person whose life is intelligently ordered is always preparing themselves for the highest demands of their work. They are not only doing their work with adequate skill from day to day, but always fitting themselves in advance for more exacting and difficult tasks.

If you are to become an artist in your work, your specific preparation for particular occasions and tasks must be part of a general preparation for ALL possible occasions and tasks — because it is not only impossible to foresee opportunities, but often impossible to recognize their importance.

Listen to episode 573 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Climbing the Ladder of Purpose and Success. Edited and adapted from The Crown of Individuality by William George Jordan.

Success Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. A special thank you to our newest monthly patron, Sandra Hopper. To learn how you can become our patron and get access to ad free episodes, full transcripts, and more, please visit LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Crown of Individuality by William George Jordan, published in 1909.

Purpose gives a new impulse, a new impetus, a new interpretation to living. Purpose is the backbone of a life of courage. It shows that the highest justification for living is love, in some form. It may be for a cause, a country, an ideal, a family, or an individual. Purpose at its best means our mastery over conditions, our mastery over self, our dedication to something higher than self, fighting for the right and fighting it to the end. Were we able to follow a great purpose from its highest flights of effort, we might find its nest of inspiration in the heart of someone of whom the world knew nothing.

Listen to episode 571 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: True Optimism for a Happy Life. Edited and adapted from The Crown of Individuality by William George Jordan.

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Happiness Podcast Excerpt: Optimism is the sunshine of the soul in action. It is sturdy confidence that right must triumph, united to tireless courage to make it triumph. Optimism is the finest weapon in the armory of the individual. It unifies all the undaunted virtues of your strength into a force and inspiration. It means fighting for, or with, the battalions of right, love, justice, and truth — with a determination to win.

True optimism is something more than a continuous performance of hope. It is the joy of living — made an actual fact. It means seeking the best, living the best, doing the best. It means focusing all that is highest in our character to meet conditions.

Listen to episode 569 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: How to Hold on to Happiness. Edited and adapted from The Crown of Individuality by William George Jordan.

Happiness Podcast Excerpt: Happiness does not consist of what we have but what we are — not in our possessions but in our attitude towards them. It is the serenity of the soul in the presence of a joy. It is not absolute, requiring certain fixed conditions. It is relative. What would be a fast for one might prove a royal feast for another.

Happiness does not always require success, prosperity, or attainment. It is often the joy of hopeful struggle, the consecration of a purpose, and energy used to some good end. Real happiness ever has its root in unselfishness — its blossom in love of some kind. We make or mar our own happiness and that of others to a larger degree than we are willing to admit. It is easier to pose as a victim of conditions than to prove ourselves a victor.

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The 50 affirmations included in the Ocean Sounds Sleep Meditation were carefully selected and edited by David Alan, host of the Inspirational Living podcast and founder of The Living Hour. To learn about our MAJESTY meditation, which can help transform your personal and professional life in 30 days, please visit https://livinghour.org/majesty.

Listen to episode 568 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: The Crown of Individuality | Living Your Best Life. Edited and adapted from The Crown of Individuality by William George Jordan.

Motivational Podcast Excerpt: The supreme courage of life is the courage of the soul. It is living, day by day, sincerely, steadfastly, serenely — despite all opinions, all obstacles, all opposition. It means the wine of inspiration that comes from the crushed grapes of our sorrows. This courage makes the simplest life great. It makes the greatest life sublime. It means the royal dignity of fine individual living.

Every man and woman reigns a king or queen over the kingdom of self. They wear the crown of individuality that no hands but their own can ever remove. You should not only reign but rule. Your individuality is your true self, your best self, your highest self, your self victorious.