Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

By The Living HourHealth & FitnessMental HealthReligion & SpiritualityEducationSelf-ImprovementSpirituality
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Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness episodes

  • What is Success? | Self-Improvement Podcasts
    Listen to episode 452 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: What is Success? | Being Truly Successful. Edited and adapted from How to Get On in the World by Major A.R. Calhoun.
    Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If our podcast has been a help to you, please let us know by writing a short review of our podcast on iTunes or Google Play. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from. How to Get On in the World by Major A.R. Calhoun, published in 1895.
    It has been said that "Nothing Succeeds Like Success." But what is Success? If we consult the dictionaries, they will give us the etymology of this much used word, and in general terms, the meaning will be (quote) "the accomplishment of a purpose." But as the goals in nearly every life differ, success cannot mean the same thing to all people. The artist's idea of success is very different from that of the business person, and the scientist differs from both, as does the politician from all three.
    We read of successful gamblers, burglars, or charlatans, but no true success was ever won or ever can be won in such a manner. To win (so that we ourselves and the world shall be the better for our having lived), we must begin the struggle with a high purpose, keeping ever before our minds the characters and methods of the noble men and women who have succeeded along the same lines.
    The young person beginning the battle of life should never lose sight of the fact that we live in an age of fierce competition, and that this competition must, in the nature of things, become more and more intense. Success is now less and less dependent on luck and chance. Instead, the prime requisites of those who win are a preparation for your chosen field of effort, an industry that is ever increasing, a hope that never flags, a patience that never grows weary, a courage that never wavers....
    14 min
  • How to Face Life & Not Grow Old | Inspirational Aging
    Listen to episode 451 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: How to Face Life & Not Grow Old. Edited and adapted from How to Face Life by Stephen Samuel Wise.
    Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. To support our podcast with a one-time financial donation, please visit LivingHour.org/donate. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from How to Face Life by Stephen Samuel Wise, published in 1917.
    OLD age depends largely upon our attitude toward the whole of life. Old age is not a joke, nor a bore, nor a trial, nor a calamity, though it may be any one of these, as all of life may be. What needs to be stressed is that old age has no content in itself apart from the whole of life. Little can come to old age that was not in and throughout life.
    Age, like happiness, is neither to be sought nor evaded. It is a by-product of life rather than life's end. Not the aim nor goal of life, but the way of life must it be.
    In the matter of revering old age, it sometimes is well to ask whether old age is to be respected as a virtue in itself — whether length of days should be regarded as a merit apart from what has gone before. One is sometimes moved to believe that if the aged are unhappy, it is because age brings with it not only opportunity for quiet meditation and serene retrospect, but the necessity of thinking about the great issues of life.
    13 min
  • Building Health, Energy & Personality | Charles Atlas

    Listen to episode 450 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Building Health, Energy & Personality. Edited and adapted from the work of Charles Atlas.

    Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you’re a fan of our podcast, don’t forget that our official Inspirational Living t-shirt is available at TeePublic. Shop now by visiting LivingHour.org/clothing.

    The very first essential thing to do in securing radiant health and physical strength is the deep breathing of pure, outside air. We can live without food for many weeks, without water for many days, but we cannot live without air for more than a few minutes.

    Air is equally a food as fruits and vegetables. When it enters into the composition of the body, its value cannot be over emphasized. Yet because it is so cheap we often ignore its real value.

    Remember that oxygen is LIFE! The more oxygen you breathe, the more health and strength you will get. This life-giving oxygen furnishes the power to pump the blood through the heart. It assists in carrying off the waste products from the myriad of tiny cells in the body, and helps to build new and stronger cells.



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    14 min
  • Living a Life of Sunshine & Success | Motivation Podcast
    Listen to episode 449 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Living a Life of Sunshine & Success. Edited and adapted from Making the Grade by C.V. Mosby.
    Motivational Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. To become our patron and gain access to over a hundred additional podcasts, please visit our Patreon page at LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Making the Grade by C.V. Mosby, published in 1917.
    Sunshine is essential to life. Disease and crime breed and grow where there is darkness. A hopeless individual is already defeated. The poison has entered their soul and paralyzed their initiative. Pessimism has crowded the lower rungs of life's ladder and gives plenty of room to those who would go to the top.
    All successful people are optimists. If they were not, they could not succeed. It is probable that some individuals who revel in pessimism have reached the top; but, like barnacles, they have ridden up fastened to the back of other people.
    In the early days of the United States, Jim Hill was optimistic with reference to the future of the Northwest. To him that land was capable of being converted into the granary of the world. He believed in its future. In his imagination, he saw fields of grain waving golden in the sun; he saw a railroad, reaching across the forest, over the mountain, through the vale, on and on until it touched the tidewater of Puget Sound. He believed in the Northwest and made the Northwest what it is today. He was optimistic and his optimism enabled him to make the grade.
    14 min
  • The Million Dollar Lecture Pt. 3 | Habits & Incentives
    Listen to episode 448 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Million Dollar Lecture Pt. 3 | Success Habits & Incentives. Edited and adapted from The Million Dollar Lecture by Professor Erwin Haskell Schell.
    Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you enjoy our podcast, help us spread the word by sharing your favorite episode on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Million Dollar Lecture by Professor Erwin Haskell Schell, delivered to the 1920 graduating class of MIT.
    When it comes to building good habits, don’t overlook the habit of success. Yes, there is such a thing. Make it a customary habit to surmount difficulties, even in little things. Perhaps the winning, in itself, will not be worth the effort, but in the strengthening of the habit, its value is immeasurable.
    The world has a place for the women and men who finish that which they undertake. I wish that I could burn that point into your minds so that it would always be before you.
    We cannot stand still in life. We must either go forward or backward. And I believe that one of the greatest elements in consistent progress lies in the increasing development and use of the success habit.
    12 min
  • The Million Dollar Lecture Pt. 2 | Free MIT Lectures
    Listen to episode 447 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Million Dollar Lecture Pt. 2 | Free MIT Lectures. Edited and adapted from The Million Dollar Lecture by Professor Erwin Haskell Schell.
    Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Get inspirational gifts and apparel by visiting BookofZen.com, each item featuring one of my one original, thought-provoking sayings. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Million Dollar Lecture by Professor Erwin Haskell Schell, delivered to the 1920 graduating class of MIT.
    Having talked with you about the importance of finding, making, and keeping friends, the next resource that I want to see upon the asset side of your personal balance sheet is ability in the art of cooperation. This is a characteristic in which the technically trained person is often found to be lamentably weak. But I think that the weakness may be readily explained and improved upon.
    The scientific method in which we are all trained is a method of analysis. Analysis is essentially critical and our viewpoint tends to be likewise. The error which we frequently make is in assuming that the critical attitude demands individuality of action, as well as thought, and we then adopt a non-cooperative attitude.
    We view industry through the eyes of a reformer, as something to be revolutionized, rather than evolutionized. Business, of course, does need independent thinkers and idealists. And the last thing we demand of executives is “mass thinking.” But business also demands of you a practical vision of present conditions and a willingness to enter the firing line and work with the others in an attempt to better a given situation.
    14 min
  • The Million Dollar Lecture Pt. 1 | MIT Lectures Online
    Listen to episode 446 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Million Dollar Lecture Pt. 1 | MIT Lectures Online. Edited and adapted from The Million Dollar Lecture by Professor Erwin Haskell Schell.
    Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. A special thanks to our new patron Clair Bilton. To learn how you can become our monthly patron for the price of a single latte a month, visit LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you.
    Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Million Dollar Lecture by Professor Erwin Haskell Schell, delivered to the 1920 graduating class of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
    In this lecture I am going to lay down some rules of conduct which I am confident will reward each of you with 10 thousand dollars of additional income if you follow them faithfully. Therefore, to the one hundred or more students in this room, the lecture should have a potential value of a million dollars. This explains the title which I have given it.
    Here at MIT, you have learned three things well. First, you have learned to think straight. Our technical problems in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and applied science offer precise solutions. There is no room for undisciplined thinking.
    Second, you have learned to work hard. There is no question about that, and it will be one of your greatest assets....
    12 min
  • Doing What You Want to Do | Motivational Podcasts
    Listen to episode 445 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Doing What You Want to Do | Motivational Podcasts. Edited and adapted from Getting a Start: First Aids to Success by Nathaniel C. Fowler.
    Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you would like to support the continuation of our podcast with a one-time financial donation, please visit LivingHour.org/donate. Thank you.
    Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Getting a Start: First Aids to Success by Nathaniel C. Fowler, published in 1915.
    To feel the flush of success is to do what you most want to do, and what you can best do. Unless you can do well what you want to do, the fullness of result is impossible. Conversely, unless you want to do what you can do well, a small result is likely to follow.
    While what you want to do appears to be subordinate to what you can do, so much do I believe in the assistance of co-operation and the value of desire, that I would place "want to do" ahead of "can do."
    I would advise you, first to consider what you want to do, and then determine whether or not you can do it. If you find that what you want to do you cannot do well, then make no attempt in that direction and choose something else which you want to do, and continue the process until what you want to do and what you can do connect. But, in the meantime, don't loaf around. Do something, even if you don't want to do it. Keep busy.
    13 min
  • From Poverty to Plenty | Inspirational Podcasts
    Listen to episode 444 of the Inspirational Living podcast: From Poverty to Plenty | Inspirational Podcasts. Edited and Adapted from Success and How to Win It by B.F. Austin.
    Motivational 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. Leaving us a positive review at the iTunes store would also be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
    Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Success and How to Win It by B.F. Austin, published in 1904.
    Is your head filled with the idea that there is luck, accident, fate, when there's no such thing on earth? If you have not faith and confidence in yourself or in me, you must acquire confidence in the inner self and trust in everybody you are drawn to after first placing faith in your higher, spiritual self. That is the key to all success and has nothing to do with modern religiosity, creeds, or beliefs.
    I will present one hundred gold dollars to any person over 16 years of age who fully follows my directions and having done so fails to get from poverty to plenty — and another hundred to the one who follows my directions to go from Philadelphia to New York and fails. The two are equally sure.
    Obeying all of the following rules will make any person wealthy:
    Number 1) Work always so faithfully that somebody other than your employer will seek your services at a higher rate of pay. Work temporarily at any kind of work, for any rate of pay you can get. Never grumble at any imposition put upon you — but by faith in your higher-self draw yourself into better circumstances.
    Number 2) Conceal your dislikes, hold your tongue, and watch for something better. Do all your work as well as possible and let quantity be secondary. Never think evil.
    16 min
  • Motivation to Go Above & Beyond Expectations
    Listen to episode 443 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Motivation to Go Beyond expectations. Edited and adapted from Getting a Start: First Aids to Success by Nathaniel C. Fowler.
    Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. A special thanks to our newest patrons, Jennifer Kranenburg-Yip and Aaron Sentell. To learn how you can support our podcast with a small monthly donation, please visit LivingHour.org/patron.
    Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Getting a Start: First Aids to Success by Nathaniel C. Fowler, published in 1915
    IF you are faithful, ordinary success is yours. If you do what you are told to do, or what you have to do, you can't become a failure. But more than ordinary success, more than normal accomplishment, is due, not wholly to faithfulness, not entirely to your interest in your work, but to the fact that you do not only what you are told to do and have to do, but what you are not told to do and don't have to do.
    For example, let us suppose that you are an assistant bookkeeper. You arrive promptly at the opening hour. That is good. You are attentive to business. That is fine. You don't neglect things. That will be appreciated. You are accurate and faithful. Your employer gives you credit. But all this faithfulness, and all this attention to duty, will not bring you more than a normal raise in salary, or permit you to occupy more than an ordinary position, unless you add to them what is not required, what your employer doesn't ask or expect you to do.
    14 min

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