Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

Listen to episode 307 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Law of Giving & Receiving | It Works. Edited and adapted from Working With God by Gardner Hunting.

Inspirational 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 or Twitter. A positive review at the iTunes store or Google Play would also be much appreciated. Thank you.

Today’s reading is a continuation of last week’s reading on How to Transform Your Life, and has been edited and adapted from Working With God by Gardner Hunting, published in 1934.

There's a lot of talk these days about the power of thought, and some people are disposed to sneer at it. But there's more in it than these persons suppose, and they suffer because they don't realize its power.

Consider this, can you do anything without first thinking about it? Is any discovery or invention, any work of art or book, any newspaper or tool, any manufacturing or any crime, any deed (good or bad) ever performed without some one's first thinking about it? In other words, everything that you do is first an idea in your mind. That is where it is first "created."

If you want to make a chair, or a plan, or a sailboat, or a printing press, or a bomb, or a broom, it must first take shape in your mind, as an idea. As a matter of fact, the idea of a thing is the real creation of it. The physical putting it together afterward is a mere copy of the idea in your mind.

We are accustomed to think that a certain amount of time and energy is required to make the visible copy of the idea — the visible chair, or plow, or broom. But the more perfectly we think it out (that is, create it as a complete idea in mind), the more quickly and perfectly we can create it in visible form. And as we think it out better and better, we find that we require less and less time to make the visible thing, and less and less energy.

Newly invented machines, for instance, are usually crude, cumbersome, heavy, and require a lot of power to operate them. But as they are perfected (that is, as they are thought out) they become lighter, simpler, more efficient, are operated by less power, and do their work more quickly.

During this process, the time always comes when the thing that once took a long period and much labor to make is made at a speed so high that the production is in some cases almost instantaneous. If, when we began making this thing, we had understood all the laws of its making, we could have made it instantaneously without going through the process of learning how. But that would have been a miracle! Exactly.

Listen to episode 306 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Dalai Lama on Life, Religion, and Education. Tibetan Buddhism.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to you by the kind financial support of our patrons. Learn how you can support our work, and gain access to full transcripts, by visiting LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from the writings and talks of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.

“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive. I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others. I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

“Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay.”

“Time passes unhindered. When we make mistakes, we cannot turn the clock back and try again. All we can do is use the present well.”

“We can never obtain peace in the outer world, until we make peace with ourselves.”

“There is a saying in Tibet: ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’”

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.”

“No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.”

 “To remain indifferent to the challenges we face is indefensible. If the goal is noble, whether or not it is realized within our lifetime is largely irrelevant. What we must do therefore is to strive, and persevere, and never give up.”

“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation.”

“The true hero is one who conquers their own anger and hatred…..In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.”

Listen to episode 305 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Transform Your Life | Start Today. Edited and adapted from Working With God by Gardner Hunting.

Take advantage of Blinkist's 7 day free trial for our listeners by visiting: http://www.blinkist.com/living

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Why not have what you want? Have you settled down with a notion that you can't get it? Are you accepting a disappointment as something you must suffer through? Do you look at the thing that you really desire as being far beyond your reach? Do you carry around with you a heartache because you think your heart's desire is finally and forever denied you?

Do you look on yourself as being down and out, with no chance to get back? Do you think you are too poor to buy the things you like or even the things you need?

Have you done something that you think has brought a penalty upon you — sickness, poverty, loss of freedom, grief?

Well, before you give it all up as hopeless, won't you just hear me out a little way to see if your case is as bad as you think it is? I am not trying to sell you anything or to teach you anything or to persuade you of anything, but just want to share with you the ideas that changed the life of a man who used to think as you do, and who thought he had good reason to think so, but who has found out that he was mistaken and that life is not hopeless at all; and who believes that what helped him may help somebody else who is under a cloud similar to the one that he once lived under. Many things you want most are now within your reach.

It has been said that if a person were to offer a hundred dollar gold pieces for sale on the street at 5 dollars each, there would be few buyers, because nearly everybody would leap to the conclusion that the seller was a fraud. If you study the real reason why people instinctively feel that way, you will find in it the very secret of success in getting what you want.

You have heard it said a thousand times that "you can't get something for nothing." You may or may not think that you believe this to be true, but it is true, whether you believe it or not; and everybody deep down in their inner nature knows it is true. That's why we are shy of any promise that promises too much. That's why you are probably skeptical about the promise of what I am sharing with you today.

But just let this idea get a foothold in your mind: If it is a law that I cannot get something for nothing, then it must be true of this law, as it is of all genuine laws, that it works both ways. It must be true that I cannot give anything without getting something for it. Ever think of that?

Listen to episode 304 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Magic Voice Within You | Creative Power. Edited and adapted from Working With God by Gardner Hunting.

Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I’d like to start today with a special thanks to our newest patrons: John Lichieoveri, James Allen, and Soncerae Beam. If you would like to lend your support to our podcast by becoming patron, you can do so for as a little as $1 a month. Learn more by visiting LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Working With God by Gardner Hunting, published in 1934.

THERE is a remarkable little book called "Finding Youth," by Gertrude Nelson Andrews, that tells the story of a man who lost his job when he was sixty years of age, after a lifetime of faithful service to others. In despair, he did not know which way to turn to make a living for himself and his family. In his own trade, printing, no place was open for him; and he knew no other trade. Want and the shame of failure stared him in the face. But through a chain of circumstances that makes up the body of the story, he found within himself a creative faculty, which he began to use. He found that by giving attention to this creative urge he could reconstruct his work and his life. He found that by giving heed to its suggestions and dictates he could reconstruct his youth. And he did. He built a new career for himself, and happiness, and prosperity.

The author says that this story is not fact but fiction. It doesn't matter, for whichever it is, it is true. We all have a creative faculty within us that will reconstruct our work, and our career, and our youth, if we will pay attention to it and obey it. The trouble is that we do not usually trust this inner urge to create. We haven't any confidence in our own ideas — because they are our own.

Maybe you think this is not true in your case. But stop and review some of your experiences. Don't you often look at some device or plan or object that somebody else has made and see a better way of doing it? Don't you frequently believe you could build a house, run a school, launch a business, sail a boat, play chess, raise radishes — anything that happens to interest you — better than somebody else you see doing it, if you only had time to gain the requisite fundamental information with which to equip your creative impulses?

And haven't you had the experience of thinking of what seemed momentarily a good idea; then discarding it because it was your own, and so couldn't be worth much? — and soon after finding that somebody else had conceived the same idea, used it, put it over successfully, and reaped the profits and the credit that might have been yours? And how cheap you felt, when all you could say to yourself was "I thought of that first. Why didn't I do it?"

Listen to episode 301 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Albert Einstein: Thoughts on Science, Religion & Life. Edited and adapted from the writings of Albert Einstein.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you are having trouble sleeping, try our Living Hour sleep meditations, which combine the relaxing sounds of the ocean or rain with a binaural beat track and 50 positive affirmations to send you off into a deep and rejuvenating sleep. Learn more by visiting LivingHour.org/ocean. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from the writings of Albert Einstein.

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

“There are only two ways to live your life: one as though nothing is a miracle, and the other as though everything is a miracle.”

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge — for knowledge is limited, while imagination encircles the world.”

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when we contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if we try merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

“Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty. Never regard study as duty but as a wonderful opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty, in the realm of the spirit, for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community — to which your later work belongs.”

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether they are the garbage man or the president of the university.”

Listen to episode 299 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Two Great Obstacles of Health & Success. Edited and adapted from Dynamic Thought by Henry Thomas Hamblin.

Take advantage of Blinkist's 7 day free trial for our listeners by visiting: http://www.blinkist.com/living

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: THERE are two great obstacles along the path to health and success. They are fear and hate. Not only do they bar your path to success, not only do they break down your health, but they also destroy all happiness and peace of mind. They are the most negative of all negative qualities, and give rise to the most negative of thoughts and the most destructive emotions. They break down the fabric of the character, destroy the nervous system, and create disharmony and disturbance which effectually keep success, health, peace of mind, and happiness at a distance.

There has never been a truly great figure in the world's history that has harbored fear. On the contrary, the truly great have always been distinguished by their faith and courage. Great characters, accomplishers of great achievements, the truly successful, know full well that they can only do great deeds, or accomplish mighty purposes, to the extent that they are able to banish fear and hate from their minds and lives.

Fear is the deadly enemy of accomplishment. It paralyzes effort, destroys initiative, and corrodes the mental machinery. Fear and worry go hand in hand, the one produces the other. Worry never yet succeeded in overcoming a difficulty, neither has it ever succeeded in elucidating a problem. All it can do is destroy health, wreck happiness and peace of mind, and make our difficulties more difficult to overcome and our problems less easy to solve.

Fear, worry, care — what a terrible trinity! How destructive they are, what numberless lives they have marred and ruined. Mental gifts, high achievement, a university education, help from friends and relatives, even genius, all are in vain, all are rendered futile, if the mind is allowed to entertain fear. Unless fear is cast out of your life, there can be no success. Entertain fear in your mind and you slam and bolt the door on all achievement; you sound the death knell of your hopes and ambitions.

Listen to episode 298 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Concentration and Meditation. Edited and adapted from Concentration and Meditation by Swami Paramananda.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction to cigarettes, alcohol, or heroin, our break free meditations can help. To learn more, please visit LivingHour.org/breakfree.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Concentration and Meditation by Swami Paramananda, published in 1921.

WE all possess the faculty of concentration, but with the majority it is instinctive and automatic, not conscious. Even among the animals, we see how a lion or tiger will gather their strength by a moment of absolute stillness before they spring upon their prey.That automatic, instinctive power of concentration is embedded in every living creature. But until we can gain conscious command over our mental and spiritual forces, we can never have complete concentration.

When the scattered mind is gathered together, it is like a bright searchlight, and by it we are able to investigate the latent powers which we possess, but of which we are not now wholly aware. And as we grow more conscious of these hidden forces and learn to use them, we become more and more proficient with them.

We never wish to be defeated, and yet how often our strength of mind or our physical capacities prove inadequate. It is because we have not the full and conscious possession of our whole being. We cannot achieve much unless we have free use of our hands and feet, free use of our eyes and ears, free use of our muscles, and above all free use of our mind and intelligence. But how many of us have the free use of all these? When we would make use of them, we find them hopelessly scattered and rebellious to our will.

The cause of this does not lie in any inherent lack of power, but in our inability to coordinate, and in our lack of a definite singular purpose. We miss the mark because we do not set our aim properly. Once in ancient India there was a tournament held to test marksmanship in archery. A wooden fish was set up on a high pole and the eye of the fish was the target. One by one, many valiant archers came and tried their skill but in vain.

Before each one shot their arrow, the teacher asked them what they saw, and invariably all replied that they saw a fish on a pole at a great height, with head, eyes, etc.; but Arjuna as he took his aim said: "I see the eye of the fish." — and he was the only one who succeeded in hitting the mark.

Listen to episode 297 of the Inspirational Living podcast: C.S. Lewis: Inspirational Quotes & Wisdom. Edited and adapted from the works of C.S. Lewis.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living Podcast, brought to you by the kind financial support of listeners like you. To learn how you can become a patron, please visit LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from the works of C.S. Lewis.

“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest… No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond… Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”

“We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road. In that case, the person who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

“Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”

“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make a person a more clever devil… The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

“Even in literature and art, no person who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring a whit how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”

Listen to episode 296 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Getting Out of Ruts | How to Live Long & Love It. Edited and adapted from The Road to Seventy Years Young by Emily Mulkin Bishop, published in 1909.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Discover how you can begin developing a lasting positive Mindset with our MAJESTY meditation program. Visit LivingHour.org/majesty. And use the coupon code “inspiration” for a 30% discount.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from “The Road to Seventy Years Young or The Unhabitual Way” by Emily Mulkin Bishop, published in 1909.

A kind of mental laziness (which for lack of a better term may be called “an inertia of the will”) is, perhaps, the chief cause of old age. It is easy to dawdle mentally, for no action of will is required when the wheels of thought aimlessly revolve in accustomed grooves. Such come-as-you-please thoughts are practically automatic, the undirected response to some stimulus.

Directed thinking to some definite end (which is the only kind of thinking that makes for the retention of mental vigor) requires effort. If you are going to use your mind, use it with all your heart. A virile will takes the initiative. It is pioneering, daring, and definite. Inertia of the will manifests, instead, in such mental habits as treadmill thinking, mooning about, and vain longings.

During the early part of life, the strong stimuli afforded by school and college, study and sports, by the first few years of aggressive business and professional life, are sufficient to keep the brain quite generally active. But as time goes by, the early stimuli no longer stimulate. The result is that the average person of forty years thinks and feels principally in ruts — and thoughts and emotions control their acts.

It is well, occasionally, to take an inventory of our stock of ideas, of our staple lines of thought, and to close out those that have become "dead stock." To make room for the new, out must go the old prejudices, the antiquated ideas, the old business methods. True, this is setting a task that is difficult for some people. But what matter does it make, if growth follows.

Now, it may seem like we are losing a part of our very selves to give up certain long cherished ideas — for our opinions and habits of thought are very intimately associated with our identity. But if our mental furnishings have become shabby, no matter what their associations, they must be discarded. As it’s been said, "Angels must go, that archangels may come."

Listen to episode 295 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Break Bad Habits | Character Building. Edited and adapted from the book Within You is the Power by Henry Thomas Hamblin.

Inspirational Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to by the generous financial support of listeners like you. If you would like to give back to our podcast in the way of a donation, please visit LivingHour.org/donate. Your donation will help ensure the continuation of our podcast for years to come. Thank you.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Within You is the Power by Henry Thomas Hamblin, published in 1920.

Character building is the greatest object in life. It has been said that character is the only thing we can take with us when we depart this life. That is perfectly true, therefore the object of all religion, mental training, and spiritual development should be the building of character.

A religion that does not build up character is worthless. Those who think that they can slide through life, who make no effort to improve their character, and through believing in a certain creed can miraculously become perfect, simply by dying, are deceiving themselves.

We do not become "perfect" — that is, a person of strong and perfect character — either by believing in a creed or through dying, but by attainment. God helps those who help themselves, and those people who will not strive after better things cut themselves off from all the great and wonderful possibilities of spiritual attainment.

Before, however, thinking about such lofty things as entering the Path of Attainment — and modeling ourselves after the Divine Image — the average person may wish to know how to overcome those bad habits and weaknesses of character which are keeping you down in life, and, possibly, undermining your health.

Most people are conscious of some wrong habits that ought to be overcome, and weaknesses of character which should be eradicated. Possibly they have fought against their habits or weaknesses for years, prayed until they are tired of praying, made innumerable attempts at turning over a new leaf, yet all in vain — for they are as firmly struggling as ever.