Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

Listen to episode 472 of the Inspirational Living podcast: What You Ask for You Will get. Edited and adapted from Youth and Opportunity by Thomas Tapper.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Get the best of our podcast in book form by visiting InspirationalLifeLessons.com. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Youth and Opportunity by Thomas Tapper, published in 1912.

There is an old expression coined by J.P. Morgan which says: "It is impossible to unscramble an egg." The logic of the statement is this: With an egg in hand, be sure you know what you want to do with it before you break the shell — for once the shell is broken, it is impossible again to restore it to wholeness. Exactly the same statement is true of life.

It is impossible to unscramble life. Hence, with life before us, we must be reasonably sure of the use we wish to make of it before we break the shell, but we must not wait too long; nor must we expect to undo, tomorrow, the act we have performed today.

The familiar expression, "many people, many minds," like all proverbs, is rich in meaning. We all fashion our own mansion, and we must dwell in it. If we turn to the records of literature, and, at the same time, observe those about us, we will learn a few principles about success that should ultimately make the mansion we are building a delightful and beautiful dwelling place.

Listen to episode 471 of the Inspirational Living podcast: What You Ask for You Will Get. Edited and adapted from The Open Door by Hugh Black.

Inspiring Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. A special thank you to our newest patron Letitia Worthy. Your monthly financial support helps me a lot in being able to continue this podcast. To learn how you can become my patron and get access to our full archive of podcasts, plus transcripts, please visit LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Open Door by Hugh Black, published in 1914.

Always remember that what you request is given to you, and what you really will in your heart you attain. Life comes and says calmly and confidently, "Ask what I shall give you," and the door opens out into the place of your asking.

I know that this may seem at first an absurd statement that what we seek we find, and where we knock it is opened to us, but if you think a little you will see that it is true. We may not get the exact thing we most desire. The particular object on which we have set our hearts may be out of our reach, but we do get along the line of our desire.

Listen to episode 470 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Importance of a Youthful Spirit | Non-Conformists. Edited and adapted from The Open Door by Hugh Black.

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Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Open Door by Hugh Black, published in 1914.

Youth stands at the magic door of life. It never remains the same, but seems to alter with each person. This is not strange, since youth itself does not stay the same. We speak of youth as if it were always of one texture and color, whereas it is a time of chaotic contradictions.

We talk of the hopefulness of youth, which is true enough, and yet some have known a childhood full of bitter despair never again equaled. We call it a time of impractical radicalism, and yet it is curiously conservative. We speak of its blithe carelessness, and yet it is sometimes marked by moods of brooding sadness.

Youth is like an April day flecked with alternate sun and shower. And whatever youth does, it does with zest: it believes more valiantly, doubts more tragically, hopes more buoyantly, fears more poignantly than ever again. All this because it is a time of dawning self-expression. It is for the first time fully conscious of being alive...

Listen to episode 469 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Happy Life: Love, Hope & Friendship. Edited and adapted from The True Source of a Happy Life by Hugh Wayt.

Happiness Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Get the best essays from our podcast in heirloom hardcover by visiting the website InspirationalLifeLessons.com. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The True Source of a Happy Life by Hugh Wayt, published in 1909.

Those who would be happy must love. Not only parents, children, and friends; but unlovable people too. Love gives us the disposition to suffer long and still be kind — to see others with talent and riches surpassing ours and not envy them. It keeps us from boasting of our personal possessions and attainments.

Love makes us humble. It helps us to bear ourselves gently toward others. It makes us protective of the rights of others, as well as our own. It keeps us from being provoked by some supposed slight or insult. It makes us slow to suspect others of evil motives or evil designs. It causes us to rejoice in the triumph of truth. It makes us cover up the faults of others, as we desire others to overlook ours.

Love gives us confiding hearts. It makes us hopeful and trustful. It helps us to endure hardships and privations. These are all elements of happiness.

Listen to episode 468 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The True Sources of Genuine Happiness. Edited and adapted from The True Source of a Happy Life by Hugh Wayt.

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Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Greatness of mind and heart will give us the spirit to do and bear great things. It endures trials without sinking beneath them, stands face to face with danger and death without flinching, can smile favorably on the face of a foe, and rejoice in a competitor's success. It is calm under great provocations and endures unmoved both perils and privations for the sake of great principles and the common good.

True magnanimity consists of personal worth. One may be truly magnanimous and recognized as such, and at the same time be destitute of learning, scholarship, office, or rank. Such nobility, or largeness of life, is frequently found in people of humble circumstances. Acts worthy of heroes are being performed daily by people scarcely known at all.

The qualities which must be sought in order to secure such greatness of mind and heart are a lofty purpose, deep sympathies, and absolute self-sacrifice. These combine in a nobility of character and life which makes one happy.

Listen to episode 467 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Self-Control: Letting Go of Anger, Hatred & Irritability. Edited and adapted from The Freedom of Life by Annie Payson Call.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. To get access to full transcripts and over 150 additional podcasts from our archive, please become our patron today by visiting LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Freedom of Life by Annie Payson Call, published in 1905.

To most people self-control means the control of appearances and not the control of realities. This is a radical mistake, and must be corrected if we are to get a clear idea of self-control, and if we are to make a fair start in acquiring it as a permanent habit.

You are what you are by virtue of your own motives of thought and action, by virtue of what your mind is, what your will is, and what you are in the resultant combination of mind and will. You are not necessarily what you appear from the outside. If someone is ugly to you, and you want to knock them down, and refrain from doing so simply because of what others might think, your desire to knock that person down is still a part of yourself, and you have not controlled yourself until you are absolutely free from that desire.

So long as you feel hatred toward another, you are in bondage to your hatred; and if (for the sake of appearances) you do not act or speak from that hatred, you are none the less at its mercy, and it will find an outlet somewhere.

Listen to episode 466 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Self-Improvement Tools: Tolerance & Acceptance. Edited and adapted from The Power of Truth by William George Jordan.

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Self-Improvement Podcast Excerpt: Intolerance is part of the unnecessary friction of life. It is prejudice on the war-path. Intolerance acknowledges only one side of any question — its own. It is a monopoly in thinking: the attitude of a person who believes they have a corner on wisdom and truth.

Tolerance, on the other hand, is a calm, generous respect for the opinions of others, even one's enemies. It recognizes the right of every person to think their own thoughts, to live their own life, to be themselves in all things, so long as it does not run counter to the rights of others. It means giving to others the same freedom that we ourselves crave.

Tolerance is silent justice, blended with sympathy. If the one who is tolerant desires to show others the truth as they see it, they seek with gentleness and deference to point out the way in which they have found peace and certainty; they try to raise others to the recognition of higher ideals; they endeavor in a spirit of love and comradeship to lead others rather than to drive them, to persuade and convince rather than to overawe and eclipse.

Listen to episode 465 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Meaning of Education. Edited and adapted from Character Building by Booker T. Washington.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you would like to help support the continuation of this podcast with a one-time financial donation, please visit LivingHour.org/donate. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Booker T. Washington’s book Character Building, which is a collection of Sunday evening talks he delivered to the students of the Tuskegee Institute, the first institution of higher education for African Americans. The book was published in 1902.

It may seem to some of you that I am continually talking to you about education — the right kind of education, how to get an education, and such kindred subjects — but surely no subject could be more pertinent, since the object for which you all are here is to get an education; and if you are to do this, you wish to get the best kind possible.

You will understand, then, I am sure, if I speak often about this, or refer to the subject frequently, that it is because I am very anxious that all of you go out from here with a definite and correct idea of what is meant by education, of what an education is meant to accomplish, what it may be expected to do for one.

We are very apt to get the idea that education means the memorizing of a number of dates, of being able to state when a certain battle took place, of being able to recall with accuracy this event or that event. We are likely to get the impression that education consists in being able to commit to memory a certain number of rules in grammar, a certain number of rules in arithmetic, and in being able to locate correctly on the earth's surface this mountain or that river, and to name this lake and that gulf.

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Listen to episode 464 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: The Eternal Soul | Life After Death. Edited and adapted from Growth in Silence, the Undertone of Life by Susanna Cocroft.

Spirituality Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you enjoy our podcast, please help us spread the word by sharing your favorite episodes on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Growth in Silence, the Undertone of Life by Susanna Cocroft, published in 1917.

High ideals and lofty sentiments, with the mind and heart alert for new light (fresh thoughts to weave into new pictures), keep the heart, brain, and body young and strong. There is no senility in progress. We do not (quote) "grow old." Age comes with the cessation of effort, in letting go. So long as we keep growing, we are young — new cells are being born. We are the chemical laboratories of life; and cheerful thoughts give inspiration to life's building.

Age is not measured by revolutions on the sundial. It is measured by the growth of the spirit, by the acceptance of new ideas. It may be the watching for a new flower each morning, or a new note in the song-bird's carol, or a new shade in heaven's blue. High ideals and lofty purposes; the frequent uplift to something better; the happy mental attitude; are Nature's rejuvenators. So let us admit no false limit to our youth.

There is negation in talking, in thinking death. Every emotion has its corresponding chemical activity. There is positive growth in thoughts of life. There is stimulation to growth in joy and happiness. Let us live longer by living more fully, more richly each day — richly because of richer thinking and more efficient doing.

Listen to episode 463 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Self-Growth by Giving & Doing | Self-Development Podcasts. Edited and adapted from Growth in Silence, the Undertone of Life by Susanna Cocroft.

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Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Growth in Silence, the Undertone of Life by Susanna Cocroft, published in 1917.

What is education, what is knowledge, what is spiritual development, what is gladness and joy, but so much capital to spend, but an exhaustless storehouse from which we may draw?

Give to the world generously — your hands were made to open, as well as to close. It is more blessed to give than to receive because in giving we are growing. As the parable of the ten talents teaches, in proportion as you give shall your store be multiplied a hundredfold. This giving does not refer to money, but of yourself, for (quote) "ye have greater gifts than gold."

We can never expand the real inner self — never gain soul growth, never feel ourselves really worthwhile — unless we give of the self. The gift of money or goods means little unless accompanied by the heart. Then, giving helps the giver more than the receiver.