Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

Listen to episode 424 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Finding Success on the Hunt for Happiness. Edited and adapted from The Joys of Living by Orison Swett Marden.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: We may not recognize our motives, but we are all trying to better ourselves, to get a little more comfort, a little easier position, a little more happiness, a little more out of life than we have been getting.

Real happiness, however, is not titillation of the nervous system. It does not come from eating, drinking, seeing, or hearing. It does not come from the gratification of desires or of possession. Real happiness is born of noble endeavor, a useful life. It is extracted a little here, a little there, from a kind word, a noble deed, a generous act. We get a little bit from every right thought, from every kind word or deed, and it cannot be found anywhere else.

Happiness, it has been said, is a mosaic composed of little stones. Each taken singly is of little value; but when all are grouped together, combined and set, they form a pleasing and graceful whole — a costly jewel

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Listen to episode 423 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Importance of Self-Education | Forbes Magazine. Edited and adapted from Keys to Success by B.C. Forbes.

Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to you by the kind financial support of listeners like you. To become our patron for as little as a dollar a month, please visit LivingHour.org/patron. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Keys to Success by B.C. Forbes, published in 1918.

Education is not merely “a” key to success. It could almost be called “the” key to success. No uneducated, uncultured person is really successful — for true success consists less of money than of mentality; it is an inward thing, not an outward one.

Education is both a means to an end and an end in itself. Without education, no man or woman can reach the highest pinnacle of success. But education does not consist of merely of school learning. Education comprises the sum total of what we know. It comes, or should come, from our daily experiences in life. Education is observation rather than perspiration.

Books form the groundwork of education. Without well-directed, diligent reading, few people can hope to become really educated or successful. But not all wisdom is contained between the covers of books. We can learn daily from all sorts of men, women, and children — from what we see going on around us, from what we hear.

Self-education can become one of the most enjoyable habits, and certainly it is of all habits the most profitable. Education — knowledge — means power. It begets ability, and ability means advancement.

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Listen to episode 422 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Combining Thought & Action for Lasting Success. Edited and adapted from Keys to Success by B.C. Forbes.

Motivational Podcast Excerpt: The Empire State Building was once only a thought. Thousands of years ago an Egyptian king had a thought, and lo! every generation since then has gazed on its fulfillment — the Pyramids.

Thought is the parent of progress. Thought creates all. Everything springs from thought. Human beings are distinguished from other animals by this one power: the power of thought. The immortals of this world are they who thought deeper or more brilliantly than their fellow citizens.

Henry Ford once said: “My advice to business people is to read a lot, think a lot, and work a lot. I started that way. I kept on thinking and I am still thinking. The habit of analysis, the ability to get under the surface of things and at the vital essentials, gives you a tremendous advantage over those of your competitors who do not do likewise.”

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Listen to episode 420 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Becoming Rich in Wisdom, Love & Happiness. Edited and adapted from A Man Worthwhile by John Phillips Meakin.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Men and women of character are the need of the day. People whose minds are developed in strict integrity and honor; people who believe in truth, who are broad-minded, who are deep-hearted, full of love and wisdom — their hearts continually beating in true affection for humankind — just plain, true, honest, thinking men and women, imparting their influence of joy and sunshine not only in their immediate circle, but wherever they may go and to all they may meet on life’s rough highway. 

Success in life does not only mean the winning of some great prize: it ought to mean the attainment of that physical and intellectual condition in the individual where all the various strings which make up the harp of life respond in fullest measure to the infinite vibrations of a throbbing, pulsing world.

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Listen to episode 419 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Be Pleasant & Live for a Great Goal. Edited and adapted from Think (a Book for Today) by William Crosbie Hunter.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Be pleasant to live with and you will have more pleasant things to live for. There will be kindnesses, kisses, beauty, health, peace, fun, happiness, and contentment coming your way all along the great big road of life you are traveling.

Be pleasant to live with and the people will turn to you as you pass, and reflect your cheerfulness like the sunflowers turn to face the sun.

Be pleasant. Don't be cross and crabbed because someone else in your household is not pleasant. Do your part. You will likely thereby cure the frown habit on the face of the unfortunate disturber of your peace.

Make yourself right before you criticize your life partner. And it all begins by answering this question: "Am I pleasant to live with?"

Don't fool yourself in the matter. Get right down to brass tacks with yourself. Watch your moves, acts, and attitude for ten days carefully before answering the question.

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Listen to episode 418 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Learn How to Say No & Working Until the End. Edited and adapted from Dollars & Sense by William Crosbie Hunter.

Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Since the age of ten years I’ve been thrust upon my own resources, and the 32 years since then have been years of study, work, and play — all blended into a happy life.

The jolts, the set-backs, the sorrows, worries, and discouragements are the things which made me strong. They were but experiences.

Smooth sailing doesn't bring out the stuff one is made of. It takes shadows to make sunlight appreciated. It takes reverses to make success. It takes hard knocks to polish you. And one of the most important things to learn early is to learn to say No.

Look over the history of the thousands who have failed in business, and you will find in nearly every instance the failure was due to an inability to say No.

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Listen to episode 417 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Importance of Perseverance & Punctuality. Edited and adapted from Right Living by Susan H. Wixon.

Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Get the best of our podcast in book form by visiting InspirationalLifeLessons.com. There you’ll find our trilogy of essay compilations: Evergreen: 50 Inspirational Life Lessons, Everest: 50 Motivational Life Lessons, and Evermore: 50 Life Lessons for Spiritual Growth. Learn more at: InspiriationalLifeLessons.com. Thank you.

Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Right Living by Susan H. Wixon, published in 1894.

The accomplishment of goals, the successes in life, are due to concentration of effort — to energy and perseverance. We see persons plodding along day after day, not showing much for their work at first, but then finally astonishing everyone by their acquirements and prosperity.

"They have genius!" it is said. But what is genius? The French scientist George Buffon famously said "genius is only patience." But it is more than that. Genius is work. It is the power to start work with an object in view; to never let that object out of sight; to keep straight on, no matter what stumbling blocks are in the path. It is keeping steady at one job till the work is complete. It is not being discouraged.

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Listen to episode 415 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Developing a Strong Personality & Perfect Poise. Edited and adapted from How to Develop Your Personality by Clare Tree Major.

Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you would like to help support our podcast you can do so easily by simply leaving us a positive review at the iTunes store. Or if you would like to make a one-time financial donation, go to LivingHour.org/donate. Thank you.

WHAT is "personality"? Webster interprets the meaning of the word as "individuality," but like many words that assume added meanings through common usage, personality also has acquired the suggestion of a quality not covered by the word "individuality."

You may be discussing a person you dislike very much, one who holds ideas that are rather loathsome, and while you might readily admit that such a person might be "individual," you would never for a moment say "So-and-so has personality." Why? Because the word "personality" has grown to mean magnetic power, the sort of power that consciously or unconsciously dominates and controls the individuals with whom it comes in contact. It is this magnetic power that is at the root of every successful career.

Review the life of any great individual. You will find that their success was the result, not only of careful study and of perseverance, but, more than all, of the subtle influence of personal magnetism. They succeeded because their personality convinced people that they were sincere, that they were strong, someone who could be relied upon. Without a well-developed personality, their good qualities would have lain unnoticed, and they would have been only another in the struggling, discouraged thousands.

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Listen to episode 414 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Happiness Cure | Being Healthy & Anxiety Free. Edited and adapted from How to Stay Well by Christian D. Larson.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: True happiness enjoys all things deeply, but serenely. And you can always know when you have had such happiness, because it makes your countenance radiant with a restful beauty.

To gain real happiness, the first essential is to train yourself to think constantly of the great value of happiness — especially with regard to its health producing power. Such thinking will tend to produce a subconscious desire for happiness, and what the subconscious begins to desire it also begins to create.

Train yourself to think of happiness as a mental necessity (just as food is a physical necessity) and you will gradually train every element and force in your body to work for the creation of happiness. By creating within yourself a constant demand for happiness, you will inspire the elements of your own nature to produce the desired supply, and before long the happiness you desire will become a permanent part of your life.

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Listen to episode 411 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Power of Individuality, Originality & Character. Edited and adapted from Right Living by Susan H. Wixon.

Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Is it true that we are too apt to be copies of one another? Yes, it is true. We are often imitators, and not originators. It would appear, almost, at first sight, as if it were dangerous to walk a different path from the accepted highway. Yet there are many short-cuts across lots that bring one to town sooner than following the beaten track.

Instead, we go as others go. We do as others do, without thinking whether it be right or not. When deviating somewhat from the well-worn way, we are apt to be frightened, and to fear we are lost. Yet, we do not live to be exact copies of each other. Originality of action, of speech, of thought, is the necessity of the world. Great men and great women of this or of any period of the world's history, are always those of striking characteristics, of strong individuality.

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