Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. So many of you have taken advantage of our self-growth package that I’ve decided to extend the special for another week. Once again, what you’ll be receiving in this package is all 3 of our life lesson e-books, which feature 150 of the most popular inspirational essays that I’ve read on this podcast, as well as our MAJESTY meditation, our Ocean Sounds sleep meditation with positive affirmations, and all 3 of our Break Free from Addiction meditations.

You can get all of these e-books and meditations bundled together, right now, for only $9. Get your self-growth package by visiting LivingHour.org/special. Thank you.

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.

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Listen to episode 462 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: The Quiet Power of Nature Within You. Edited and adapted from The Power of Repose by Annie Payson Call.

Inspirational Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I’d like to start today by telling you about a teaching resource that I have available online. It’s a reading comprehension course that I created for elementary and middle school students, as well as students of English as a Second Language. This fun, quiz-based course not only helps improve reading comprehension. It also boosts knowledge in the humanities, arts, and sciences.

It’s available at Udemy, who is now offering the course for only $10.99, which is 69% off the regular price. Learn more by going to LivingHour.org/reading. And if your friends have children, please share it with them too. Thank you.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Power of Repose by Annie Payson Call, published in 1891.

Within all of us there is an exquisite sense of growing power that comes from Nature. In studying Nature, we not only realize the strength that comes from following her lead, but we discover her within ourselves gently moving us onward.

We all believe that we look to Nature; but it is surprising how often we are mistaken. We all would profit much if we took but fifteen minutes every day simply to think of Nature and her methods of working, and to see at the same time how we constantly interfere with the best use of her powers. Try to realize the quiet power of all natural growth and movement: from a blade of grass, through a tree (a forest of trees), the entire vegetable growth on earth; the movement of the planets to the growth and involuntary vital operations of our own bodies.

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Listen to episode 461 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Motivation for Mastering Your Circumstances. Edited and adapted from The Freedom of Life by Annie Payson Call.

Motivational Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I know that many of you are isolating at home now and wondering how to pass the time. Not surprisingly, my advice is to focus on self-growth. And if you need some tools, I’ve decided to offer all of our e-books and meditations for only $9. You’ll get all 3 of our life lesson books, plus our MAJESTY mediation, our Positive Affirmations Sleep Meditation, and our break-free from addiction meditations. Get this special package now by going to LivingHour.org/special. This $9 deal will only be available for a few days, so go now to LivingHour.org/special. Thank you.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Freedom of Life by Annie Payson Call, published in 1905.

IT is not the circumstances of life that trouble or weigh upon us. It is the way we take them. If a person is playing a difficult game of chess, the more intricate the moves, the more thoughtfully they look over their own and their opponent's pieces, and the more fully they are aroused to make the right move toward a checkmate. If, when the game became difficult, the player stopped to be depressed and disheartened, their opponent would probably always checkmate them. However, in most cases, the more difficult the game, the more thoroughly the players are aroused to do their best. And a difficult game is invariably a good one — the winner and the loser both feel it to be so, even though the loser may regret their loss.

“But,” you may say, “a game of chess is a game only — neither one's bread and butter nor one's life depend upon winning or losing it.” Well, yes, but if we need to be cool, quiet, and decisive for a game (which is merely an amusement), and if we play the game better for being cool, quiet, and decisive, why is not a quiet steadiness in wrestling with the circumstances of life just as necessary — not only that we may meet the particular problem of the moment truly, but that we may gain all the experience that may be helpful in meeting other difficult circumstances.

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Listen to episode 460 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: The Life of Freedom | Overcoming Self-Consciousness. Edited and adapted from The Freedom of Life by Annie Payson Call.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Self-consciousness may be truly defined as a person's inability to get out of their own way. There are, however, some people who are so entirely self-conscious that don’t even realize it. They are so completely in bondage to themselves that they have no glimpse of the possibility of freedom, and therefore this bondage is pleasant to them.

With these people there is nothing to do. It is only those who have begun to realize their bondage that can take any steps toward freedom. The self-satisfied slaves must stay in prison until they see where they are. It is both curious and sad to see them rejoicing in their bondage and miscalling it freedom. Indeed, it makes one long to see them struck by an emergency, bringing a flash of that inner light which is often the beginning of a new state of being.

When such enlightenment occurs, it is usually followed by a time of groping in the dark, and always by more or less suffering. But one must continue on the path, assured of the good results to come. Self-development requires that we be steadily patient, content to aim in the true direction day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. If we fall, we must pick ourselves up and go right on. Whatever the stone may be that we have tripped over, we will have learned that it is there, and, while we may trip over the same stone many times, if we learn our lesson each time, it decreases the possible number of stumbles, and smooths our path more than we know.

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Listen to episode 459 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Inspiration for a Larger, Richer, More Beautiful Life. Edited and adapted from The Pathway of Roses by Christian D. Larson.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The mind that lives in doubt can see limitations everywhere. The mind that lives in faith can see no limitations, and, in fact, knows that there are no limitations anywhere. The mind that lives in doubt is in bondage to these seeming limitations, and therefore realizes nothing more of life than what is confined within these seeming limitations. But the mind that lives in faith, lives in the freedom of the all of life, and is daily realizing more and more of everything that is contained in the all of life.

Faith can see that no matter how large or beautiful life may be now, there is always a larger and a more beautiful life to live for, to work for, and to realize in the days that are near at hand. In a life of faith, there is no end to anything; there is always something more, always something richer, always something greater, always something better.

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