The icons in tech world -Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, the most successful investor of the 20^th century -Warren Buffett, the greatest basketball player of all time -Michael Jordan, etc.

All of these extraordinary people have one thing in common.

They live their passion.

If you have read some well-known self-improvement books, you will notice that many of these books emphasize a lot on passion. If you have a burning passion toward a certain topic, you wouldn’t mind spending extra hours thinking about it, to visualize it, and to retry multiple times failure after failure.

Passion is important because it drives you crazy, makes you lose track of time doing the same thing over again with improvement, and ultimately allows you to achieve success.

To me, passion is the greatest gift we can have for ourselves.

It is a mixture of enthusiasm and excitement, a source of energy, and of course, a form of power to turn inspiration into action.

Passion fuels our life. It’s not just something we do when we have free time, but it gives us the meaning, or sometimes, the purpose of our lives. Yes, it is very important indeed.

However, many people do not have any clue what their passion is.

They will often feel the lack of purpose in life and everything in life seems boring to them. And if you’re one of them, you seriously need to rediscover yourself, and to find out your passion today.

Over these years, I’ve learnt some great ways to discover passion.

If you’re completely clueless about your passion, then perhaps the following methods can help you to discover and to pinpoint your passion today.

5 Methods to Discover Your Core Passion

First, before we move on and find out what is your passion, I would like you to know that the word “passion” is defined as things that arouse great enthusiasm.

When you go through the steps to find out your passion, please detach yourself from your work, your friend’s influence, and of course your own inner counter-voice. This is to make sure that you’re able to find out what is your true passion, not your needs.

First Method: Find out which categories of books interest you the most

This first method, in my opinion, is the easiest method to discover your passion.

Go to the nearest book store and allow yourself to be drowned in the sea of books.

Forget about your work, forget about your assignment, and leave aside all your problems.

You’re there simply because you want to look around.

Just relax and allow your instinct to guide you. It will show you what interest you the most.

If you find yourself digging into the books under a particular section for long hours until you’ve lost track of time, then….

Voila! You’ve probably found the topics you’re passionate about.

Personally, I found that, each time when I look around in a bookstore, I will definitely get stuck in one of these three particular sections: self-improvement, personal finance, and business. And yes, these 3 are the topics which I’m really passionate about.

There are so many sections in the bookstore. For example, health and living, business, finance, history, hobbies, religion, relationship, cooking, pets, computing, etc. Go to a larger bookstore, so that there are more varieties of books can be found, and the chances for you to find out what your passion is will be higher.

You can also visit the magazine corner. At magazine corner, you can find topics related to photography, fashion, men’s health, traveling, automobile, fitness, etc. Some of these are specialized topic which does not have a particular section itself, and only can be found in the magazine corner.

Like I said, leave everything aside, just walk around in the bookstore and let your instinct show you what you’re passionate about. Don’t pick up a book because you think you need to read it to enhance your work, to complete the project you have currently.

Avoid picking up the book because of needs; instead, pick up books because you are truly interested in it.

This method is great to explore what would your passion be, but it is not enough to pinpoint what is your true passion. Thus, make a list of the top 5 sections or categories where you’ve spent most of your time while looking around in the book store, and then you can compare this list with another list you make with method 2 & 3 to pinpoint your passion.

Action:  Make a list of the top 5 sections or categories where you’ve spent most of your time while looking around in the book store.

Note: You can compare this list with the list you make with method 2 & 3 to pinpoint your passion.

Second Method: Find out what kind of books you’ve bought all these while

Usually, we only have 2 reasons to buy a book, either we need it (e.g. for academic purposes) or just because we love to learn more about the topic.

So, this step is very simple.

Bring out all the books you have bought over the years and have a close look at them. I bet you will find it easy to categorize your books.

The larger the collection of books in the particular category, the higher the chance it is where your passion lies.

Of course, I’m not saying that if 80% of your books are related to travelling, then your passion must be travelling. Just that in this case, there’s a higher chance that your passion is probably related to travelling.

For myself, when I found a book which I’m really interested in, I would buy a copy of my own rather than borrow it from others for reading. I do not know what about the others, but I personally only buy books which interest me. I’m not the kind of person who will buy books to enhance my knowledge in other area which is out of my interest. That’s why I do not have books related to political science, photography, etc. Thus, it is quite easy for me to categorize all my books and see where my passion lies.

So, in this step, take out all your books and then list down the top 5 categories of books you have, for example self-help, stock investment, etc.

You can compare this list with other list to pinpoint your passion later.

Remember to put aside those books which you’ve bought not because of interest but because of needs. For example, you can put aside your college textbook and any other books which you did not buy out of interest.

Action: List down the top 5 categories of books you have

Note: You can compare this list with the list you make with method 1 & 3 to pinpoint your passion.

Third Method: Check your online activities

Online activities are very often different from offline activities.

This means that by looking at what you do online may help you to further explore your passion.

Simply open up the history tab and see what you have been doing online. The more frequent you visit a site, the chances for the site’s topic to be your passion is higher. Of course, the longer you visit a site also indicate the same thing.

Pay attention to the top blogs, forums and site which you have been following for the past 1 week. Also, check out what you’ve been constantly looking for with YouTube and Google.

Then, as usual, categorize them and make a list of the top 5 categories of the site which you visit most often.

It is interesting to see that I often read self-improvement and personal finance books offline, but when I’m surfing the net, I often look for other information, for example internet marketing, online business, and also blogging tips. This shows that what I’ve been looking offline and online can be very different.

You too, go ahead, open up the history tab and start to explore which blogs or forums you have been following all this time. See what kind of information you’ve been looking for online, and is it similar to what you’re looking for offline.

Action: Make a list of the top 5 categories of sites which you visit most often.

Note: you can compare this list with the list you make with method 1 & 2 to pinpoint your passion.

Fourth Method: Figure out your passion which lies behind your strength

Aristotle once said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

We are good at something only because we practice it repeatedly, and very often, we only practice something repeatedly because we are really passionate about it.

Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time said “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

What actually drives him to move forwards, failure after failure?

The only answer here is passion.

If you’ve read his background story, you would know that he is a very determined man, and he has intense passion for basketball. It is passion that drives him to practice long hours every day and lead him to his success and fame.

You too, are the same. Your strength is most probably comes from long hours of practice, and it is your passion that motivates you to do so.

So, gather with some of your closest friends.

Ask them what your strengths are.

You might be surprised that they will tell you they admire you for your talent or ability which you never thought it is part of your strength.

After finding out your strength, the next step is to figure out what is your passion which contributes to your strength. Sometimes, it is easy to link your strength and your passion together. For example if your strength is you can swim very well, then perhaps your passion is swimming too.

However, sometimes it is not easy to figure out your passion directly as the linkage between passions as strength is not obvious. For example, you can speak very good English and your friend considered it is part of your strength. However, speaking might not be your passion; just that you happened to listen to news very often and got influenced by how the news reporter speaks. In this case, your hidden passion might be learning the interesting or latest things that happen in the world every day. (Bear in mind, this is just an example to illustrate the linkage between passion and strength can be weak. Sometimes, it takes time to figure out what your passion really is)

Action: Ask your friend about your strength. Then find out the passion which contributes to your strength.

Fifth Method: Answer these 4 questions to find your true passion

Question 1: What do you like to talk about?

It’s human nature. We like to talk about things we love or interest us the most. If you realize you have been constantly talking about the same topic, then most probably that particular topic is related to your passion.

Question 2: What would you do for free?

When there are no benefits or return attach to it and you willing to do it for free over and over again, then most probably it is something you enjoy doing it. It could be your passion.

Question 3: What often makes you lose track of time?

If you do something you do not enjoy at all, you will keep looking at the clock and wondering when will it end and why the time pass so slow. On the other hand, you will often feel that time flies so fast when you’re having fun doing things you love. So, if you find yourself frequently lost track of time doing the same “thing”, then that “thing” could be your passion.

Question 4: If today were your last day of your life, how would you like to spend it?

This is probably the most important question to answer.

If you know you have only 1 day left, you will most probably choose to do the thing you enjoy the most in your life.

During the Stanford commencement speech, June 2005, Steve Jobs once said: ““Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

I believe what he said is very true indeed. If you can answer this question, you can almost certainly be able to identify what your passion is.

Action: Write down the answer for all 4 questions listed above. Look at your answer and you will be able to discover your passion.

End note:

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

So, like Steve Jobs said, never ever settle until you find your true passion.

I found mine, and I sincerely hope you will be able to find out yours too.

Go through all the 5 methods above to explore and to discover your passion now.

Don’t wait or delay anymore.

Allow your passion to fuel your life and live to the fullest start from today!

PS:If you have found your passion, then let us know by leaving a comment below.
We would love to learn more about your passion and how much you love doing it =)

Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

You can always learn something through trial and error and there’s nothing wrong with that.

However, isn’t that it’s better if you can achieve the same success faster and easier?

Isn’t it’s better to achieve success in 1 year while others take 2-3 years?

Tony Robbins, in his best selling book Unlimited Power, said “If you want to achieve success, all you need to do is find a way to model those who have already succeeded.”

This is one of the most powerful ideas which I’ve ever come across.

Success does leave clues. Someone has already achieved success with the particular method. You just need to trace the success clues, see what he has been doing, follow and apply the same method, and eventually you will achieve the same success too.

Modeling after successful people not only will save you from falling into the same pitfalls they have gone through, but it will also open your eyes to the potential risk or opportunity.

Journey to success is full of invisible stones. The invisible stones mentioned here are the unexpected problems which prevent you from success.

Along the journey, no matter  how careful you are, you will fall for a few times because you couldn’t see and avoid the invisible stone.

While some people choose to turn their back and to quit, others choose to blame when they fall over the invisible stone. They blame everything except themselves for things that preventing them from success.

Blaming is dangerous because at the moment you start blaming, you are rendering yourself powerless, as if everything happened was beyond your control. On the other hand, if you take the responsibility, you will allow yourself to take charge of the situation and eventually change the consequences.

If you pay attention and look carefully at those successful people around you, you will notice that they too have fallen over the invisible stone, they too have met countless obstacles before they eventually achieve success, just that they decided to get back on their feet and keep moving until they reach their destination while others choose to quit. That is what makes them extraordinary.

By learning from those who are already highly successful, you are able to locate the invisible stone which they have fallen over before, hence you can avoid falling into the same mistakes.

A fall will cost you time, energy, monetary loss, and sometimes even worse, it breaks your spirit. So, if you‘re able to avoid multiple falls, you  will definitely be able to travel faster along the journey to success.

The question now is how can you start modeling successful people?

You can start doing this by identifying the authority in the field you passionate about. Find out who is the icon of the field? If you are passionate about business, then you should find out who has achieved success in the industry you are interested.

If you’re highly passionate about a certain topic, I believe you would have followed someone for inspiration, guidance, or ideas. You can also model after them and achieve the same success.

Once you have decided the authority person, you can choose any of these ways to model after them.

Read their books

One of the best ways to model after a successful person is to read their books. Through reading, you are able to learn the flow of their thoughts, visions and ideology. You will be able to understand the reason behind the decision they make. Besides that, you will also be able to learn and avoid the same mistake which they had gone through so far.

Extraordinary people are better than average people because they think and act differently from other people. They often have their own principles in doing things, and most importantly, they often have a unique strategy which allows them to stand out from the crowd. All these valuable knowledge, principles and strategies usually can be found in their books, written in details.

You can also read their reports, biography, and interviews. Through the interview especially, you can see how they think critically and react towards some really tough questions. It might open up your minds to the problems or opportunities which you never thought it was there before.

Attend their seminars

While reading books allow you to learn more about the person who you want to model after, attending their seminars and be able to see them in person will give you a different feeling or motivation. At the seminar, you can see how he really talks, communicate, and address problems in a close distance. It is a wonderful experience to be able to see the person who you admired to speak in front of you.

Attending seminars are sometimes more useful than reading books because the content or knowledge shared during seminars are usually more specific. Besides that, you are able to earn some friends who share the same passion as you do. Remember, your network is one of your biggest assets too.

Personally, I’m really passionate about online business and internet marketing. I remember once when I was attending an internet marketing seminar hosted by 2 highly respected guru in the field, I was really surprised when they made a simple mistake during the presentation and part of the images are not showing up on their web page. He tried to fix it on the spot but he didn’t manage to fix it. In the end, he said  something like this “It’s okay to screw up sometimes. Well, at least this proves that to become a great internet marketer, you do not need to know all the technical stuff. You just need to have a proven system to achieve success.”  Simple, short, yet powerful words from him totally changed the way how I look at online business and internet marketing.

I used to think that in order to have a successful online business, I must be good with the all technical stuff such as handling the website and dealing with codes. I have even spent hours learning the technical knowledge because I believe it will help me to build a successful business until his words woke me up. I’ve since then switched my focus from learning the technical know-how to learning how a business works because I believe that the core elements to build a successful business is never the technical stuff, but a proven system which works. And of course, problems do occur from time to time, and when that happens I always tell myself it is totally fine. I remember his words which says “It’s okay to screw up sometimes”.

Go to their courses or workshop

While learning through the books and being able to see the person in the seminar is good, learning about the topic with him watching over your shoulders is even better .

These successful people have gone through a lot of hardship to develop a certain success pattern or strategy for themselves. By attending their courses or workshop, you will be able to learn the same strategy which has already been proven to be useful.

Demonstration during the workshop allows you to learn much faster than you can learn from a book. Besides that, if things do not work out as expected, you do not need to worry much because the expert is there to help you in person. You will get your problem fixed and ready to move on with lightning speed.

After you have learned some good strategy, the only thing you need to do next is to implement it. This saves you from spending hours after hours just to figure out how to make things work, and sometimes what to do. You can definitely shorten the time you need to achieve success by learning from the pro.

Follow him via blogs or social media platform.

Via blogs, and social media platform like Facebook and Twitter, you will be able to get the latest news from the person you’re following.

Unlike books, the content shared via blogs and social media platforms are often up to date. This is important because it allows you to catch up with the latest trend or opportunity in the particular field you are interested.

In this era, information spread fast, so does opportunity. You need to be fast in grabbing the opportunity before everyone else does the same thing.

Big in size does not count much anymore, speed in terms of catching up with your competitors is way more important nowadays. Thus, if you want to be better than others, you need to adapt and react faster than others as well.

It is too hard for you alone to foresee the future and the trend when you do not have sufficient experience. Thus, it is better to follow and learn from the authority first, especially when you are still a newbie. Always get yourself up to date will definitely help you to achieve success faster.

Conclusion

Above are some of the methods which you can use to clone for success. It is not going to help to achieve the same result immediately after you implement it. However, it will definitely help you to fast track your success.

It is crucial to have great ideas and sufficient knowledge; however, when it comes to achieving great success, there are 2 other things which are far more important: experience and attitude. Instead of endless learning from books, seminar, workshop and articles online, you need to get your hands dirty and go through it yourself.

You must take action and implement whatever you’ve learned. And, in case if things don’t work out as expected and turn really bad instead, always remember this amazing poem, “Don’t Quit”, from Edgar A. Guest,

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re truding seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit –

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit!

 

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As everyone of us sometimes learns,

And many a person turns about

When they might have won had they stuck it out,

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow –

You may succeed with another blow,

Often the struggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victors cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown!

 

Success is failure turned inside out!

So stick to the fight when you are hardest hit!

Its when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit!

 

Don’t Quit, written by Edgar A. Guest

(1881-1959)

Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

Life and maze, there are so many similarities between these two things.

In both life and a maze game, we face confusion when we do not know which path to choose, we face dead end when we chose the wrong path, we lost after picking up several wrong paths which lead us nowhere.

These are the similarities between life and maze. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, and of course, it depends on how you look at it.

I would say it is a good thing to have a life like a maze because to be able to explore the unknown always excite me.

There are times when you will feel so confused, so lost until you are unable to identify the exact path which will lead you to the final destination…

You will stop and think for a very long time without taking any further step, and then soon you will realize that you are wasting your life for not taking any action.

There are times in life; you do not have the answer at the moment when you really need it. Too many options lie in front of your eyes will sometimes blinded you.

You have to learn to see and to make decision by following not only your eyes, but also your heart.

Now, you do not waste too much time to analyze the options you have, instead, you will just choose the path you like and execute it as long as you hold 70% confidence that it will be successful.

Just like playing maze, you do not stop and analyze all the paths at one time, you choose only one path and then see where it will lead you.

Meeting dead end simply means you just need to choose another path and that’s all.

If you are too afraid to step forward, chances are you will never reach your desired destination.

We have different starting points to begin during a maze game, but when it comes to life, unfortunately we do not have that kind of luxury to choose where we born.

Some people born in a rich family, others in poor families; some people born healthily while some with defects.

Everyone’s life is equally precious.

However, life, as we said, is always unfair.

You are able to choose where to start in a maze game, but not in real life.

If you happened to have a bad starting point, you do not need to worry too much.

There is always a cheat to win the maze and the game of life.

The trick is simple: Look at the destination point & backtrack to the starting point.

Plus, in life, you’re able to make your own paths.

What is your destination and how fast are you going to reach your destination is determined by your determination.

This is exactly why they say “Where there’s a will there’s a way”

Now close your eyes and think for a while,

What would your destination of life be?

And, which path will lead you to the destination?

You have got to figure out this by yourself or you will have to play the game of life by hard by simply choosing a path without knowing where will it lead you to.

You can be like the rest of the people out there, leaving your life and success to chance; or you can set your destination today and choose a path which will bring you there one day.

If you already have goals in your life and you’re taking action upon reaching it, please share it with us by leaving a comment below.

Tell us what is your goal of life and how are you planning to achieve it.

Help us to inspire more people to take charge of their life like you do =)

Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

The Dalai Lama’s 18 Rules For Living~

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

Have you ever worked really hard to achieve some goals in your life but stop working at the same level after you see some results with it?

Have you ever put in all your effort and devote all your time into something which you’re highly passionate about it, yet, not long after that, everything faded away and you were back to the old you just like in the past?

If you are facing this problem, you will constantly find that you can’t stay motivated for long when pursuing something which you know is going to change your life into a more positive one. In addition to that, each time after you put in some effort, you then tend to settle down for mediocrity, for what you already have, even though you know that you deserve more than that.

If this has happened multiple times in your life, then perhaps it is not as simple as you have just chosen to indulge in the wrong passion. When the same problems keep arising around you, then perhaps it is not so much about the external factor, it is more to the internal factor. Yes, I’m saying that you yourself might be the reason of this problem.

I have seen how people try to achieve or to change something in their life. The set goals, read books on that particular topic, seek advice, get excited and take action for a while, and then everything suddenly just faded away. They no longer feel the same enthusiasm like they used to feel in the beginning, nor they put in the same amount of time and effort to make things work out like what they had planned.

If you’re one of them, just like how I used to be, then perhaps you need to change now before it ruins your life.

So, now the question is: what is the root factor which causes this problem? Why at the end of the day, nothing changes even though you are so motivated to make the change in the beginning?

Well, I would say that’s because deep in your heart, you are chasing after something which you think you should have it or you should do it. It is not something which you felt it is a must do or a must have for you.

Let me give you a simple example. Have you ever decided to build your body into a better shape? Out of a sudden, you decided to waive all the fast food, start to take in a healthy diet, and start to work out with the hope that you will soon own a physique like a model on the magazine cover. However,  after a few days in a row, you seem to lose the motivation you hold in the first place and you just let yourself to lead your life like you used to be?

You can see this problem actually surrounds a large part of your life. Another example: every year, you have a New Year resolution, where you plan to change into a better you in the coming New Year. You got excited for a while and you follow all the rules and principles you set for yourself; but after some time, “poof” and you got back to the same old you.

Another example is that you decided to put in more effort into your work, hoping that you may get promoted or to obtain a higher income in the future. In the beginning, you can see the progress you make, you see the improvement and it motivates you to go further, but weirdly enough, this positive progress of yours will suddenly slow down along with your daily improvement, and then everything reverse and go back to the state like how you used to be.

I would say this has happened to most of us, and this is a serious problem because as long as it exists, you can never really achieve what you truly want in life. You will need to overcome this problem if you really want to lead a healthy lifestyle, to stay motivated to work hard for your career and for all the other things you want to achieve in life.

Let me know if you think I’m wrong. How can you be possibly made a change if you can’t stay motivated long enough to carry out all the necessary routine achieve the final goals?

Well, please take note that unable to hold onto something for long and work hard until you achieve your goal does not mean you are lazy or incapable of making changes in your life. It is just that, many times in our life, we are unaware that the way we communicate with ourselves is inappropriate.

It is good to know our inner voice is encouraging us to change into a better self. However, sometimes, the inner voice which allows us to initiate changes in our life is not strong enough to help us to stay motivated until we achieve our goal.

Very often, when we decided to make some changes, our inner voice says “ we should do this, we should be…” It can tell you anything ranging from you should be healthier, be happier, be more productive to be more attractive, but still, it will not bring any substantial result most of the time. This is because, if you have paid attention to what it says to you, you will notice that it utilize the word “should”, not “must”.

Our thoughts guide our action, and our action in return determines the result we get to a very large extend. Thus, the word “should” and “must” does really make a whole lot of difference.

Let see what is the difference if your inner voice use the word “should” or “must” 

Above are the simple interpretations of our inner voice. If you pay close attention to your inner voice, you will notice that when the inner voice utilize the word “should”, it means that it is not an obligation to fulfill it. You can put the task aside if you have other things which you feel more fun to do in your life. Sad to mention, most of the time, once we leave the task aside, it is hard for us to come back for it and subsequently accomplish it later.

On the other hand, for the second interpretation, the word “must” is being utilized. You can see how powerful the word is as it changes your stand on the importance of the subject. Now, you have only 1 option which is to do it.

If you are the one who want to read more about personal finance to manage your wealth in a better way, which inner voice do you think will have the greatest impact on you? Which inner voice encourages you better to get final result which you want? For me, my answer is definitely the second inner voice, which utilized the word “must”

If it is not an obligation, we will tend to think that it is completely alright just to try, and it does not really matter much if we fail to achieve what we want at the end of the day because there are plenty of options in our life which we can focus on. Thinking in such a way, we often do not unlock our full potential and justify it is completely alright to settle down for what we have at the current time and to remain in our own comfort zone.

If things have become an obligation, when we must do it regardless of the challenges ahead of us, a lot of time, we will usually give it all we have to achieve it. Even though giving all the best we have does not guarantee success, however, don’t you think that the possibility or chances to achieve success are much greater when we give in all we have? We might not be able to reach the goal this time, but we would have achieved substantial improvement. In addition to that, because it is an obligation, we need to complete it no matter what. And so, we will do it again and again until we achieve success. We never know that success may lie just one step ahead, isn’t it?

For those have been working real hard for something and then the enthusiasm just faded away and you remain the old you, please do not take it too hard.

I’m saying this because I have seen people denying their potential because they lost their motivation to do something after a while of trying. I have seen people who deny their talent for music because they are unable to stay motivated long enough to complete the necessary course and quit half-way. I have seen students claim that they are not as talented as other students but the real reason is that they are not motivated to study for the same amount of time like the others do.

Come to think about it again, do you really think the other people are far better than you merely because they are born talented? I doubt it. I believe it is just that they have taken it as a must, and thus they continue to do their best to achieve what they want.

Everyone can be good if he/she can master the art of staying motivated for long enough to achieve whatever he wants to achieve.

One of the ways to overcome this problem is as simple as changing your inner voice message.

Next time when you want to accomplish something, always use the word “must’ instead of “should”. This way, you will directly shut down excuses and left with only one option which is to do it. The chances for you to achieve what you want will turn out to be much higher. If you realize that your inner voice is utilizing the word “should” again, you can change the statement by utilizing the word “must” and then speak it out loud. Correct it by making it no longer an option but an obligation to change. This is going to increase your determination to achieve whatever you want, which in return will definitely increase the chance for you to achieve success.

Conclusion:

If you have tried to achieve something or to change a part of you which you dislike in the past but failed multiple times, please don’t relate it very much with luck, talent, timing and other excuses. Because once you give it in that way, you are rendering yourself from taking charge of your destiny.

Tell yourself that you were not wrong in believing in yourself that you can achieve that particular goal or to change yourself in the first place. You can’t take action and hold on it long enough to achieve your goals does not mean you are lazy or incapable to make changes for your own good. Tell yourself that you just need to communicate well with yourself once again and as long as you never quit, you can never fail.

Go for it one more time but this time it is no longer an option but an obligation. Trust me, the moment you  tell yourself “I must” instead of “I should”, you are also directly pointing yourself away from the mentality of “I’ll try” to a more powerful one, which is “I’ll do it”. This is going to encourage you to give in your best shot.

Give in all you got and you will be able to achieve your goals.

Jedi Master Yoda once said: “Do… or do not. There is no try.” -quoted from Star Wars

Leave a comment below if you think this is going to help to overcome some challenges you’re currently facing in your life.

I wish all of you success.

Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

It is never too late to start changing your life.
Here it is, the list of 27 things you can start doing today.

1. Start making your own happiness a priority
I always believe that happiness is contagious. Only if you respect yourself, satisfy your own needs and be happy first, then you only have the true power to bring happiness to everyone around you. People who really care about you like your family and real friends would want you to be happy always. If they know you are making them happy at the expense of your own happiness, they will not be happy about it anymore. Change your mindset. Making your own happiness a priority is not equal to selfishness. So, respect yourself, love yourself as much as you can without hurting the others.

“We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.”
― John Lennon

2. Start being yourself
It’s time to take off your mask, and be the one who you really are. You cannot avoid the peer pressure, but you definitely have the choice to follow the mainstream or to be the real you. One must understand that everyone in this world is unique, and it is totally okay to be different from the others. Being different might get you some unwanted attention, but, on the other hand, being different means that you’re special. After all, the life is yours. Live it the way you always wanted.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. Start learning from your past mistake
We can’t choose. We all grow older each day. But, growing up is not the same. It is an option. You can definitely choose to learn from your past and live a wiser life starts from today. It your mistakes has caused you pain, then you should really learn from it. Avoid the same mistake and the subsequent pain from happening over again. It’s time to break the cycle. If you feel that wasting time is the biggest mistake of your life, then stop doing it today. It will never be too late to change.

“Experience is the name we give to your mistakes.”
– Oscar Wilde

4. Start facing your inner demons
There’s always something evil inside you. But you have to understand that this is part of the nature. The law of polarity mention that everything in this universe has its opposite. The most important thing is that you are aware of both the negative and positive power within you. Let the positive one prevail and be reflected in your everyday decision and action.

“Like anyone else, I too have the potential for violence; I too have anger in me. However, I try to recall that anger is a destructive emotion. I remind myself that scientists now say that anger is bad for our health; it eats into our immune system. So, anger destroys our peace of mind and our physical health. We shouldn’t welcome it or think of it as natural or as a friend.”
-Dalai lama

5. Start discovering and know how lucky you are
The fact that you have the opportunity to read this article and you do not need to worry about your next meal proves that you are already luckier than than at least 1.02 billion of people.

Every day, poverty kills more than 50,000 innocent people – 18 million every year.
Source: World Health Organization

 

These statistics account for one third of all human deaths. More people die as a result of extreme poverty than of any other cause. Source: WHO 2008

 

1.37 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day, and 2.56 billion live on less than $2 a day. Moreover, 5.05 billion people (more than 80 percent of the world’s population) live on less than $10 a day.
Source: World Bank 2005

 

Because of the global economic slowdown and rising food prices, FAO projects 100 million more people will suffer from poverty and chronic hunger by the end of 2009 – an 11% increase from 2008.
Source: World Food Program 2009

 

For more reliable statistics, visit:http://www.heartsandminds.org/poverty/hungerfacts.htm

6. Start believing in yourself that you deserve something better
Lack of confidence is what kills your talent. At times, you really need to show what you are capable of and be the leader. Let people around you know that you are a diamond and you can shine. If you can lead, then take the chance and lead those who have faith in you. Have more confidence in yourself. It does not matter if you fail. Fail or success, you will learn. The confidence of yours makes you a more charismatic person ever and people respect that.

“Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish.”
– Brad Henry

7. Start looking into the future and decide who you really want to be
Stop belittle yourself. The human is only as as big as his imagination and his dream. Stop letting the limitation you imagine ruining your life. Put all the limitation aside. Just decide what is the best you want in your life, and then only look at the uprising problem and solve them one by one. If you look at the limitation first, it will kill your dreams.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr., P.S. I Love You

8. Start forgiving yourself and the others in your life
You can keep things forever in your heart. And I bet you still do it up to now. How does it feel? If you keep unhappy things in your heart, it will never turn into anything happy one day. It has happened for so long. It is time to put it down. This will help to enlighten your present and your future. Forgive yourself for the stupid mistakes you make and forgive the others who have hurt you in life.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections

9. Start appreciating the small beautiful things around you
How long since the last time you look at the sky, observe the beauty of sunrise and sunset, the elegance of the moon and the stars? Slow down your pace, so that you can rediscover all these beautiful little things in your life. Appreciate them all while you can.

“When you take the small roads you see the life that goes on there, and this makes your own life larger.”
― Elizabeth Berg

10. Start taking new steps towards your goal every day
Stop procrastinating. If you have a dream, and you just keep it in your head, it will never come true. You must be aware that for dreams to come true, you need to be committed and take all the necessary action. Stop wasting your time thinking all about the what if problems and all the limitation which appear in your mind. It is okay to be aware of the potential problems but if you are wasting too much time just thinking about them will not bring you forward. Life is full of uncertainty but you can’t afford to spend your whole life worrying because life, it is too short.

“The future depends on what you do today.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

11. Start opening your mind and widening your horizon
You can choose to have the same thinking and mindset until the day you die, or you can open up your mind a little bit and start learning to see things from a different perspective. If you can do this, you will find the conflicts between you and those around you magically disappear because you have learned to respect other people’s opinion and see things from the other’s perspective. If you allow it, you will be surprised to see that there are so many things you can learn from your friends.

“It’s okay to disagree with the thoughts or opinions expressed by other people. That doesn’t give you the right to deny any sense they might make. Nor does it give you a right to accuse someone of poorly expressing their beliefs just because you don’t like what they are saying. Learn to recognize good writing when you read it, even if it means overcoming your pride and opening your mind beyond what is comfortable.”
― Ashly Lorenzana

12. Start doing things you love
Life is too short after all, isn’t it? If you do not do the things you love right now, when exactly you are going to do it then?

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
-Steve Jobs

13. Start spending your time with your loved ones
Your family and your real friends. No matter you are happy or sad, they will always be there for you. This kind of bond is priceless. You can’t buy it no matter how rich you are. They come into your life all because of fate. Treasure them, love them back and tell them how important they meant in your life. Forget about those who are merely using you or hurting you constantly. Pay more attention to your loved ones because they are the only ones matter in your life.

“Remember, spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, “I love you” to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all, mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.”

- George Carlin

14. Start visiting the place you’ve always dreamt to go
It is time to start planning a trip to somewhere you have never been to in your life. Learn how people in the other part of this planet live, eat, communicate and lead their lives. Be ready to be amazed by the difference in beliefs, culture and life style.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
– Mark Twain

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
– St. Augustine

15. Start expressing your true feelings to everyone around you
Be honest towards yourself and people around you. Faking does not get the relationship long way down the road. Be who you really are and let them choose whether to accept the true you or not. Stop worrying what if people do not accept the true you. If that happens it does not mean you are not worth to befriend with, it simply means they are not meant to be in your social circle. You can’t please anyone and be friend with everyone. Be the true you and let those who love the true you comes into your life.

“About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.”
― Rita Mae Brown

16. Start leading a healthy lifestyle
Leading a healthy lifestyle does not limit only to your diet menu. Your mental health and social health matters a lot as well. You have to strive a balance between these 3 health to achieve a truly healthy lifestyle. It is not easy to change your lifestyle. However, remembering the impact and the changes you want to see in your life will definitely encourage you to do so.

“A healthy body is a guest-chamber for the soul; a sick body is a prison.”
– Francis Bacon

17. Start giving compliments to other people
If you love the cookies your girlfriend made for you, give complement. If you love how he/she smiles, give compliments. Give sincere compliments to everyone. It is one wonderful way to appreciate things. Giving compliments cost you nothing. In fact, you make other people happy, feel appreciated and want to give you more. So, why not?

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
― Voltaire

 

“Appreciation can make a day – even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.”
– Margaret Cousins

18. Start to learn more about yourself
Learn who you really are. Identify your true strength and weaknesses. Know what you are truly capable of and improve what you are weak at. If you know yourself very well, it will help to boost your confidence which is very important for your working performance and your social life.

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.”
-Lao Tzu

19. Start making a difference
There a millions of people suffer from hunger and poverty. In fact, one sixth of humanity do not have enough food to eat. That is more than the population of the United States, Canada and the European Union combined. Start giving something to people in needs. You do not need to be very wealthy to give and to share what you have. A little contribution from you can make a huge difference in their life. Join some charity group and make a difference today. Putting a smile on people’s face is a wonderful thing to do.

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
― Mother Teresa

20. Start following your heart and intuition
At times, you need to follow your heart and intuition and do something you really want to do, even though it might be contradicted with the ideal plan which others have created for you. When you follow your heart and intuition, things will get a little bit messy, but your life will be filled with more surprises and excitement.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
– Steve Jobs

21. Start loving unconditionally
Love people as if it is your last day to stay together with them. Love the animals and the planet earth since they have made this world a better place to live. Love, love without asking anything in return.

“You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.”
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper

22. Start taking full control of your life
If the same problem arises consistently in your life, then perhaps the root cause of the problem might be you yourself. It can be your mindset, your attitude that influence you to take certain decision and give rise to the problem. If you are questioning why only the wrong people walks into your life, then perhaps you should look at how and where you expand your social circle. If you are wondering why you have no real friends, then perhaps you should pay attention to the way you speak, the locus of your sentence and your attitude. Maybe you should learn to listen more instead of keep talking about yourself. Look at the problems and ask yourself how you can take control of it and change it. This requires a lot of responsibility. If you think it is all about external cause, you are basically telling yourself that it is out of your control. It renders you powerless. So, try to avoid that by telling yourself that you have to responsibility to change your own life.

“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”
– Brian Tracy

23. Start sharing with everyone around you
Put down a list of items which you can share with your friends. Sharing is the most magical way to earn new friends and form a stronger bond between you and your family and friends. It is through sharing, you show others that you’ve accepted them In your life. People only share their real thoughts, their real stories with people who they trust. Sharing is an indirect way of telling others you trust them.

“Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”
― Brian Tracy

24. Starts getting your life on purpose
Do you have a mission in your life? If there’s one day, you know that you can only live for another 24 hours, what would you want to do the most? Would you regret for the things you have never done before? Look at the big picture of your life and start doing something you are meant to accomplish. Look beyond the present, find your calling, your destiny.

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
-Mark Twain

25. Start learning from the one who inspired you
Extraordinary people create miracle under circumstances where most others despair. These people have an extraordinary way of thinking, knowledge and mindset. Learning from them directly saves you a lot of time without the need to go through all the unnecessary pitfall. Learn from those inspires you and then become the seeds of inspiration for the other people in the future.

“Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself.”
– Alfred Sheinwold

26. Start reading some self-improvement books
Our lives, societal environment have become more complex than ever because of the advancement of technology and the change of moral values. Somehow, people have become more materialistic, and a lot of them pay more attention to impress the others rather than on their own happiness. Read more self-improvement books, see how the others achieve happiness in life, be motivated and then transform your own life into a better one too.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
– Zig Ziglar

27. Start opening up your heart and let things come into your life
If you do not have many beautiful moments in your life, then perhaps you have been too protective over yourself. I have seen some people say they do want to fall in love because they want to avoid getting hurt. I have also seen animal lover do not want to adopt animals themselves because they are afraid of the pain of losing their pet one day (dogs and cats have a generally short life span). I understand the pain which some called it the price of love can be very hurting sometimes. But, it is worthwhile for it, because the love you can get by letting things/people comes into your life always outweigh the pain you might receive. Love is one big part of life. If you’re willing to open up your heart, you will see a lot of changes happening in your life within 2 months.

“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
― Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam

 

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
― Mother Teresa

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Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

1. They Design Their Own Blueprint
Clever people understand that they have to set a S.M.A.R.T goal (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goal); but a wise man will know the need to create his own blueprint. This is because a goal only defined what do you want to achieve; but, a blueprint will tell you what to achieve and also, most importantly, how to achieve it. Successful people know what to achieve and they have a very specific and defined approach to make it happen.

At the end of the day, having a goal is like having a north star shining upon you. It is important so that you won’t get lost as long as you proceed towards the direction of the north star. But, in order to reach the destination, you must also know the exact method to achieve your desired result. Everyone can have the same goal, for example to build a house, but only those with a blueprint will know exactly what kind of material do they need, how much human labor do they need, and then ultimately be able to build their dream house successfully. Thus, you need more than a goal to be successful, you need to customize a blueprint for yourself.

“Every well built house started in the form of a definite purpose plus a definite plan in the nature of a set of blueprints.” ~Napoleon Hill

2. They Get Their S.K.A.H Right From The Beginning
Successful people always have the right S.K.A.H which allows them to excel in their respective field. S.K.A.H represents non other than skills, knowledge, attitude, and habit. A lot of people refrain themselves from taking action because they think that they do not have to the skills and relevant knowledge. However, in many situations, skills and knowledge can be easily obtained through reading and practicing. It is the attitude and habit which is hard to be obtained. This is because attitude and habit is part of the reflection of a personal characteristic, which is formed under so many different influences such as culture, religion, environment, etc. It takes a lot of time to shape one’s character, and to change is definitely not a simple task.

Many people find it is hard to change their habits because it has been part of their life after so long. However, in order to become successful, you must identify your bad habits, the negative habits which drive you away from your success, and then change it. The funny thing about transforming your habits is that the best time to change your habit is always now. The sooner you take effort to change your bad habits, the easier it is for you to change your habit successfully. Get your S.K.A.H right from today in order to achieve success. Related post: How to get your new habit stick

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” ~Colin Powell

3. They Have The Undying Burning Passion Of A Hundred Suns
I have never seen a successful man without passion in my whole life. Each and every successful man I know walks, sleep, and breath in their own passion. Passion will fuel your success. It gives you the drive to go on when everyone around you would understand even if you give up. It is the true force which pushes you to learn more, and the magical elements which make all your work a fun thing to do. Most importantly, it makes you a very confident and charismatic person. Success or failure, your passion will still be very infectious, powerful. It will help you to create miracles in the situation where most of the others would have normally given up. Even if there’s a failure, it will only be a short term one. As long as you hold the same undying passion for it, you will attract the right things/people to help you to achieve success eventually one day. Related post: 5 best ways to discover your passion

“There is no greatness without a passion to be great, whether it’s the aspiration of an athlete or an artist, a scientist, a parent, or a businessperson.”— Anthony Robbins

4. They Conquer Themselves, Then The World
Many times when you try something new, strive for a better result, something inside you, your inner voice, will attempt to stop you or to slow you down. “Don’t do this, you might get yourself into some unnecessary trouble”, “Your current situation is already acceptable, there’s no need for you to do this”, does all of this inner voice sounds familiar to you? This inner voice of yours is meant to be there to serve as a protection barrier. It is meant to protect you from getting hurt. However, it is the same protective barrier which has prevented a lot of people from moving forward, from making a difference in their life. You must understand that if you want to achieve success in your life, you need to do something extraordinary. This means that you will have to try a lot of paths which others forgone, and make a lot of painful mistakes which others choose to avoid in the first place. All of this arises the fear within you. You need to convince yourself that it is worth for the trial, so that you will achieve what you truly want in your life or the success which you have defined in your own words. Dalai Lama XIV once said “True change is within, leave the outside as it is”, and I totally agree with that. In order to achieve success, you must believe that you can achieve the success from the bottom of your heart. If you do not believe it, no matter how much money and time you spend, it is very unlikely for you to achieve the result you desired.

One very common example of people fail to achieve what they truly want because of their own inner voice is contradict with their goal. The relationship is one good example. I have seen people with intense desire for love, but they are also afraid to start a relationship at the same time. What really happen behind the scene is because they are under the influence of their own inner voice. Their inner voice is telling them that they might get hurt and it might be very painful if the relationship does not work out in the end. If the inner voice is too powerful, they might decide not to get into a relationship at all. Even if they do, they would not give in all they have into the relationship because most people think that giving more in a relationship means that the pain will be more intense in case if it does not work out. Unfortunately, this kind of half-hearted relationship rarely works out because getting together is a mutual relationship after all. So, you see, unless that person communicate well with his inner voice, he will not be able to find his true love no matter how intense is his eagerness for love. The same goes for success in terms of performance. A salesman can never achieve excellent sales results if his inner voice is rejecting selling and servicing people. If you were to achieve your defined success, you will need to make sure that you have conquered yourself first, and then only you can be 100% committed to achieve it.

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.” ~Lao Tzu

5. They Don’t Wait For Perfection
A lot of people demands perfection before they try their best. There are people who always complain that the time is not ready, they have not acquired all the necessary skills and knowledge to do it, etc. On the other hand, there are people who just give their best shot, learn from their mistake, make improvement, and then proceed further. Based on my observation, most of the time, the one who takes action first instead of the one who wait for things and time to be perfect achieve greater success. I believe there’s some logical explanation behind this phenomena. First of all, to be able to excel and to become an authority, sufficient experience must be acquired. Experience can only be acquired through taking action, making all the mistakes one can make. Oscar Wilde once said “experience is the name we give to our mistakes.” If you take some time to think about it, you will come to realize these words are so simple, yet so true in nature and powerful. The more action you take, the more you learn from your mistake, and the more perfect you are.

“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.” – Niels Bohr

6. They Recruit Powerful Allies
Notice that I’m not using the word friends, but the word allies. There is a little difference in the definition for both of these words, but the impact is profound for those who can distinguish the meanings. A friend is someone who like you, trust you and will help you in needed time. On the other hand, an ally is someone who shares your devotion to a cause, cooperate and march along with you towards for the same purpose. If you want to be successful, you will need to form allies with some of the key people, the authority in the field. If you have them as your comrade, you then have greater skills, knowledge pool. This increase your capabilities to achieve more in a shorter period. Having a group of allies allows you to have someone who fighting along with you when there’s huge challenges. This greatly increases the chance for you to break through some of the most time consuming and greatest obstacles, and then excel in the field.

I have been reading about blogging tips lately, and I notice one very common yet important advise mention that: bloggers do not write alone, bloggers always stay connected with the other bloggers. I found this same advise appears repeatedly over the famous blog which I follow. It only indicates one thing: having an ally is truly important. There are times a blogger needs to interview the other blogger, to gain more exposure, to promote his own products/services, and all this time requires a blogger to form allies. This is the same for you. If you want to excel and become an authority in certain field, you will need to form allies with the key person in the field. After all, one can gain credibility instantly if he is acknowledged by the established authority figure in the field, isn’t it? Imagine how powerful it is if you can have Tony Robbins acknowledge your work if you are in the self-improvement field? Yes, it is extremely powerful.

7. They Push Themselves Until It Hurts
Successful people are not afraid of mistakes and the subsequent pain. They always work outside of their comfort zone. Each time when they feel relaxed on the common things they do, the next thing they will do is to step out from their comfort zone again and to explore more new things. In many situations, exponential growth comes after you hit the tipping point. But the problem is that you can never know how much you must do and how long do you need to wait until you hit the tipping point. Thus, many people feel content for what they already have, unwilling to go for more. It is a good thing because happy for what you already have currently does make you a happier person. But, the question is, do you really feel happy and content to stay on the same stage for the rest of your life? If you want to be successful, you need to make sure that you continually expose yourself to a different area in the field. It helps you to widen your horizon and you may never know one day what you have explored will bring you some unexpected benefits. Steve Jobs once said: “you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future.”

Most people quit when they are being thrown out of their comfort zone, when they feel they lost control. But, sometimes in life, if we decided to look at the bright side and continue to work outside of the comfort zone, we might be able to achieve an unbelievable thing. What would you feel if you set up a very successful company and then you are fired from the company itself? Most people will feel devastated because they now lost everything they have. Uncertainly crawls into their heart and the fears eat them up, but not this man , Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was being fired from Apple at his 30, but instead of quitting, he decided to continue his adventure, his exploration. During the next five years after firing from Apple, he started a company named NeXT, and another called Pixar. Pixar went on and become the most successful animation studio in the world. The Apple bought NeXT, Steve Jobs return to Apple then, and guess what happen? All the technology he developed at NeXT become the heart of Apple’s current Renaissance. All of this cannot be achieved if he was not being forcefully thrown out from what he already has and achieve in the first place. He said: “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life”. I hope you can now see how important it is to get yourself out of your comfort zone and marching forward. You will never know what you will come across one day that it is so huge, so influential and changes the rest of your life. The core lesson here is that you might fall and get hurt when you move out of your comfort zone, but it is only by doing so you will learn new things, make improvements and bring yourself to the next level.

8. They Apply The KISS Principle To Their Work
KISS is an acronym which means Keep It Simple, Stupid. The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than complex. If the current strategies you apply in your work is too complicated until you can’t really understand what you are doing, then perhaps it is the right time for you rethink about your strategy once again. People tend to make things complicated subconsciously, thinking that the more complex it is, the more branches it has, the more robust it is. However, this is not true sometimes. There are times where the questions are complicated and the answers are very simple. The idea here is that you should make things simple to the level which you can explain, so that you understand what you are doing exactly. Albert Einstein once said: “ If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well. Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone. Everything should be simple as it can be, yet no simpler.”

I do not deny that when we steps out of our comfort zone, we are basically exploring into something new and trying to learn new things. However, the core message here is that you must at least understand what you want to achieve, and the reason behind of your decision and action. One very good example is the strategies businessman use to handle new competition, where one can try to lower the price, to give away bonus and membership, to promote the brand name, to differentiate the product line, etc. There are so many methods to compete and one cannot really know how effective the method is until he really tries it out. But the most important thing here is that no matter what kind of method he will choose at the end, he must understand his objective and the consequences of his action. Lowering the price can be a good method if the company has a competitive advantage in getting supply at a lower cost, but if it does not have such competitive advantage, it might initiate a price war which might hurt instead of help the company. It is very important to keep things simple, so that you understand and have full control over your strategies and you action.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci

9. They Track And Measure Their Progress
A lot of people do not understand why there is no obvious improvement after they try so many things and have taken so many different actions. Well, one of the most common mistakes they make is that they take a lot of action in the same period. First, they lost their focus, and second, they forget to track and measure their progress. Tracking is important because it tells you the source which brings you the result you want to achieve or obtain. On the other hand, measuring is important because it allows you to identify which source or method you used brings you the best result. Tracking and measuring your progress is very important because success does not come overnight but based on small improvement you make each and every day. If you are able to identify and choose the most effective and efficient method, you will be able to fast track your path to success.

10. They Focus On The Process, Not On The Result
There’s one very successful insurance agent share his opinions with me on why many rookie agents quit very soon after they started. And according to him, it is because they focus too much on the result, the sales, instead of the process. The logical explanation behind this is when a rookie agent newly enter the market, there’s still a lot of things requiring him to allocate time and effort to learn. This things includes the product knowledge, the selling skills, communication skills, presentation skills, etc. Learning all this skill is not tough but mastering them is a different story. To gain enough experience for one to master a skill requires a lot of practice and this takes time. This means that it is very unlikely for a new agent to do very well immediately after he join the field because he has not yet acquire the correct S.K.A.H as mentioned above, which is the skills, knowledge, attitude, and habit.

Based on the statistics, the average stats for closing a sale is 10:1, which means out of the 10 leads, only one sale will be closed. Of course, this does not happen all the time, the number here is only an average. However, these stats show and says something very important. If the rookie agent A, and let say he emphasize a lot on the result, how will he feel if he can only close 1 sales after doing all the hard work? If he takes the result too heavily, he will definitely won’t feel happy because he will need to handle objections and rejection for 9 times before he can close 1 sales. It seems that he has done so much, yet the return is too small. And because of this, this discourages a lot of new agents who emphasize on the result. The unhappiness they had yesterday is carried on to today and subsequently make them unproductive, unwilling to put in more effort into today’s work, and ultimately fail in the long term. On the other hand, if the agent B is willing to emphasize on the process, then he will be happier and more motivated to carry his duty. For example, the agent now focuses on the process. He will feel satisfaction because his goal now is to meet people, and try his best to service them. Let say each of the agent A and agent B only meets 10 people a day and make a sale. Agent A will consider he fails 9 times a day and only achieve his goal once because he emphasized on the result. On the other hand, agent B who emphasize on the the process, which is to meet up with his potential client, will consider himself achieve 10 successes every day. As a result, agent A gets demotivated every day and his performance only tends to slump, while agent B gets motivated each day and because of that, he works harder and are likely to achieve better performance in the long term. Of course, there are many variables involved in the illustration above, but I think this is a very good example to show that how you allocate your attention, either on the process or the result, can greatly influence the consequences. If you’re disappointed about your performance lately, then perhaps you should learn to emphasize more on the process, not the result. Remember, many things in this world require time to learn and master, if you’re too impatient to achieve your desired result, you will be discouraged, but if you emphasize on the process, you will eventually achieve your goal one day.

11. They Befriend With Mistakes
Success does not come overnight. It comes at a small pace every time you step forward. Our life journey is like a road full of invisible stones. You can only know it existed at a particular location only if someone else or you yourself have fallen over it. Many people quit after they fall a few times along their journey of life but not those who determined to achieve success. Each time they fall, they will take it as a valuable lesson instead of a failure. They will also remember it by heart, so that they will not make the same mistake if they have to travel along the same road again.

12. They Stay Productive, Not Busy
Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, emphasize a lot on the importance of being productive instead of just keeping your schedule full. He said: “In the strictest sense, you shouldn’t be trying to do more in each day, trying to fill every second with a work fidget of some type “ and he further said “Being busy is often a form of mental laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.” I believe to some extent, many of us are fond of the result-by-volume approach, which we think we accomplish more if we can finish more tasks. However, that is not very true because the value of each task is different. Successful people know how to prioritize their daily tasks. They are fully aware of which task is more important than the others and thus they put more effort into it. To stay productive, it is a necessity for you to eliminate the unimportant portion of your work and only focus on the part which really brings value to you.

“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity” ~Bruce lee

13. They Take 100% Responsibility
Successful people take all the responsibility when failure happens. Thus, they are able to learn and to adapt another way to convey the message in a better way. Successful people are able to excel because they put the locus of attention on themselves instead of the external things/forces. For example, when they cannot sell any products, they believe their selling skills is not good, instead of saying the product is hard to sell. When miscommunication happens, they believe they are the one who didn’t communicate in an effective manner instead of blaming the message receiver. This is very powerful because it grants them 100% control over the matters. This will empower them to make changes and see a better result in the future. If one were to blame all the external factors but himself, he will not develop the need to change, and subsequently he will not improve himself. When problems happen again, he won’t be able to cope with it. The cycle just keeps rolling. The only way to break the circle, one must learn to take responsibility over the problems or failure.

“Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . . In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.” ~ Michael Korda

 

“The price of greatness is responsibility.” ~Winston Churchill

14. They Believe In The Law Of Circulation
Many successful people choose to give back to the society. A lot of them holds the believe of give first and you shall receive. You can see the concept is beheld in the way they conduct their business and especially in the way how they treat people around them. Robert Allen in his book, The One Minute Millionaire, devoted a full chapter on the importance of giving back and he advises people to give back 10% of their income.

Believe or not, the Law of Circulation states that everything in the universe is always flowing in circulation but at an ever expanding rate. This means that whatever you gave away, you will receive it multiplied from a different source. So, a good advice here is to always give away whatever you want. If you want more love, then give love. If you want knowledge, then share your knowledge first. If you want trust, then have faith in others first. Whatever you want more in life, you just need to give it away. One very simple example is smile. Michael Lewis says “It would appear that the way we feel emotions isn’t just restricted to our brain- there are parts of our bodies that help and reinforce the feelings we’re having”. Furthermore, clinical research studies show that just as happy emotions can drive happy behaviors like a smile, a smile can also drive happy emotion. This means that, when you give a simple smile to someone, you might receive a smile from him/her. At the same time, you become happier and have more positive energy with you. People like being with you because of your positiveness and then the more smile you will receive from people around you. If you would like to learn more about the power of a smile, you can google for smile therapy and see how it can help to break the problem-centered mindset of anxiety and anger. It is extremely powerful to turn a disaster into nothing in many situations. In a nutshell, if you want to become successful, you must learn to give away. A gift can be in many forms. It does not need to be in monetary form all the time.

“Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.” ~Elbert Hubbard

 

“To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich.” ~Muhammad Ali

15. They Invent Opportunity
Stephen R. Corvey, in his #1 bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, mentions the first habit as being proactive. He wrote “Change starts from within, and highly effective people make the decision to improve their lives through the things that they can influence rather than by simply reacting to external forces.” A lot of time, people wait for the perfect moment for things to happen but the successful people work the opposite way, they choose to create the opportunity for themselves even in the worst situation.Thus, if everything looks bad, you do not despair, you just need to be proactive and try your best to change the situation.

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” ~Bruce Lee

16. They Act With Integrity
One of the most important quality one can ever develop in life is the integrity. Like courage, integrity is a value, and having integrity means being totally honest and truthful in every part of your life. Warren Buffet once said “Honesty is a very expensive gift. Do not expect it from cheap people.”

Integrity is very important because it is the foundation of a character and those wo have high integrity always accomplish the highest quality of work in everything they do. Besides that, every time you keep a promise that you’ve made is an act of integrity. It allows you to earn trust, which is probably one of the most valuable things you can receive from the others. It is critically important for you to lead and influence other people join forces with you and to help you accomplish your dream. The Law of Attraction says that things and people are attracted to you because of the person you are. Having integrity yourself will attract good people with integrity into your life. They are the key you need to have in order to be successful.

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”
― Oprah Winfrey

 

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

17. They Strive For Balance In Life
When asked “What thing about humanity surprises you the most?”, the Dalai Lama answered: “Man…. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” You have to strive balance between health, life, and work. If you do not have health, there’s no point to own prestigious awards for your achievement because you can’t reap the fruits of your labor at the end of the day. If there is no life, that is even more sad, that you have never truly live before. And lastly, if you do not put some time into your work, it is hardly possible for you to surpass your competitors and excel. Any one of these elements is crucial in our life, but in my opinion, health is more important than the other two. This is because once you lost your health, it is almost an irreversible condition. So, take care of your health first, and then your life and your work.

30 second speech by Bryan Dyson- Former CEO of Coca Cola

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. They are Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit, and you’re keeping all of these in the air.
You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the four others – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be scuffed, nicked, damaged, even shattered. And it will never be the same.
Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give proper time to your family and friends, and take a decent rest.
Value has a value only if its value is valued.”

 

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Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

1. Feel it in your heart
In life, whenever you feel confused, frustrated, lost or do not know what you really want, you can always seek guidance from your heart. There are too many things in this world do not have a perfect or a definite answer. Some answer will unfold naturally as you proceed in life, while some answer will never reveal by itself unless you seek it attentively. The question “what is the meaning of life?” is one very good example of which you cannot find a perfect or a definite answer from the others. You can Google and YouTube the meaning of life (which is a fun thing to do), but at the end of the day, you would be only learning what is the meaning of other’s life, not yours. Along your journey of life, there are many questions like this where there’s no one can give you the best answer and you are the only one who can find the answer for yourself. If you happened to feel lost in life, not knowing what to choose or to do next, then perhaps one of the best sources you can tap into is your heart. Let it whisper to you what you truly want in your life. Find your true calling, your destiny, your fate, and then live your dream like how you want it to be.

“Our fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it.” ~Merida, Brave

2. Be part of something you believe in
One of the best thing if life is you are free to take part in the things which you believe is true and meaningful. Different people in this world fight for different things in their life. Some fight for the animals and give them a lot of love unconditionally, some protect the future generation ensuring they have sufficient and up to standard living condition, some save the earth and call for a greener and cleaner place to stay, and some provide urgent medical care in countries to victims of war and disaster regardless of race, religion, or politics. Ask yourself what do you truly believe in and what you think it is worth to strive for in your life. Join related non-profit organization and start taking action. You can enrich your life while doing all the meaningful right things.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

 

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~Winston Churchill
“The purpose of life is not to be happy; but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.” ~Leo Rosten

3. Travel to your wherever you want, be a stranger in that place.
There is a dream place in your mind that you would like to visit at least once in your lifetime. Deep inside your heart, you are shouting to see the place with your own eyes and to feel the breeze there. The reason why you want to visit that place is irrelevant. The purpose of your visit can be very simple, plain, or even crazy. It doesn’t matter at all. The most important thing is that you must start planning the trip now and really visit your dream place one day, so that you will have no regret in life, the day you take your last breath. If you have a place pop up in your mind right now as you are reading this, then perhaps that is your dream place. Write down the name of the place in your personal journal and make a promise to yourself to visit there one day.

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” ~Gustave Flaubert

 

“When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” ~ William Least Heat Moon

4. Appreciate your love ones
Apart from your dreams and believes, I would say that relationship is also one of the most important things in your life. Have you ever looked closely at the bond between you and your family, as well as close friends? Have you ever imagined how different your life would be if you never met them in your life? Fate is one very mysterious and miraculous thing. Some people who run the same bloodline with you, meant to be very influential in your life but only leaves a minor impact in your life, yet some people are so distant, might only meet your once in a lifetime but might change your whole life. No matter who and where you are, relationship is one of the most precious things you can have. Always appreciate those who love you unconditionally when the everyone else seems to go against you, and always treasure those who give you a hand when you need it the most. Remember to take the initiative to express your feelings, to let them know how much they meant for you . Appreciate them for being there when your whole world was shattered apart. A simple hug would be more than sufficient to express your appreciation.

“The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they’re alive.” ~ Orlando A. Battista

5. Simplify your happiness
Simplify your life starting by simplifying your happiness. Tell yourself that you only need very little to be happy. Do you live on more than $10 a day? Do you have adequate access to water? If yes, then you should be happy because according to world poverty statistics, there are 80% of the world population live on less than $10 a day and 1.1 billion people do not have adequate access to water. Total number of children that die each day due to poverty is 22,000. If you do not need to worry for your next meal, then you are a very lucky person already. Many people think that to be happy means to own more: more money, bigger house, latest gadget, etc. I totally agree that all of these can bring happiness in different ways. But the core message I would like to convey here is that they are not the definition of happiness, owning them does not complete your happiness in life. There is always something else, which is free, cannot be bought with money brings you the true happiness. Don’t believe me? Take a look around yourself and recall when was the last time you have a good laugh or yell because of excitement. You will realize that it is the time you spent along with your loved ones or with your buddy. Not all happiness comes with a price tag. There is some happiness which is free, yet are so precious to make you feel it is worth living. A smile you receive from the one who wake up next to you every morning is one very good example, agree?

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” ~Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

 

“Happiness is pretty simple: someone to love, something to do, something to look forward to.” ~ Rita Mae Brown, Hiss of Death

6. Start living in the present, be here now
The core message here is to live and to enjoy everything in the present. Don’t lock yourself in the past for you can’t change what is already a history. You will need to keep moving forward, take advantage of every day to shape your coming future. “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.”

On the other hand, don’t be too anxious about the future too since it will come as the time pass. You will eventually reap what you sow today. Thus, focus only on the present and leave tomorrow’s worry for another day.

“When asked “What thing about humanity surprises you the most?”, the Dalai Lama answered: “Man…. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

7. Learn everything that fascinates you
Whether it is learning how to bake a cake, how to ice skate, how to surf, how to speak a new language, trying or learning new things will always excite you. It is a very good way to make friends and also to enrich your life. Excitements is what makes our life colorful, don’t you agree? When was the last time you can’t fall asleep because you were so anxious for the next day to come for there’s a very special event or activities? I bet you were so excited because the event was rare, it was something new. A lot of people are afraid of getting out of their comfort zone because they are afraid of disappointment or getting hurt. But, come to think about it again, isn’t that life is meant to have up and down? A fall in life is meant to be there to make you stronger. The most important thing is that you always keep the door opened, try out new things, and it will certainly spice up your life.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

8. Always give your best shot
Besides trying different things in life, you should also try your best in anything you do. One of the best things in life is you can always confront your failure and then conquer it. If you have failed something in the past, be it in losing weight, learning how to make cookies, or anything, you should go back and give your best shot. If you really want to do it and you have started it, then never give up until the moment you succeed. The moment you accomplish what you want after failures will give you a huge boost of confidence and joys. A lot things in life are simple. Everything you try for the first time is hard and failure usually comes along. It is part of the process. However, if you are willing to keep trying, to learn and to improve, one day you will eventually success. The moment you master it, congratulations, it will be yours forever, and you can also taste all the fulfillment and satisfaction along with your victory.

“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” ~Oprah Winfrey

9. Move forward every day
We all have big dreams and it is dreams which fill our lives with hopes. It is amazing to own a big dream no matter how silly it sounds of the others. How the other look at your dream doesn’t matter at all because it is your dream after all. The most important thing is that you make use of every second you have to keep moving forward, marching towards your goal. Embrace change and enjoy your life as it unfolds. Do not waste time. Make every moment a meaningful moment.

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” ~Walt Disney

10. Falling in love
You can’t force it, but when it comes, make sure to treasure it and never let it go easily. Some may not agree but falling in love can change your life completely. It allows you to feel all the weird mixture of emotion you could ever imagine, hate and love at the same time. It also makes you extraordinary brave when you need to protect the one you love, and also might change your attitude or perception towards the world. If you have big houses, beautiful cars, achieve financial freedom, yet still feel there’s no meaning in life, then perhaps you are lack of this thing, love. Laughing alone while watching comedy, win all the awards but no one to share the joy is one pathetic thing. Open your heart and allows others to come into your life. Let the fate collides and sets off beautiful fireworks in your life.

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” ~Dr. Seuss

11. Enjoy the beauty of the nature
If you are tired of your busy working life, perhaps you can take a break and enjoy watching the sunset on the beach. It will remind you that in the midst of all that hustle and bustle, something beautiful is still going on around you. You can also watch the sunrise on top of the hill, dancing in the rain, playing with the snows, running in the grass field, lying down on the flower bed, etc. Surrender yourself to the enchanting nature, it will magically shrink your problems and recharge your energy bar to the green level again. Life is too short to miss all these beautiful moments, so enjoy it while you can.

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” ~Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

12. Letting go of your past, embrace a brand new you
To live your life to the fullest, you need a lot of energy to push you forward every day. However, there are too many people in reality are unable to move forward because they simply cannot put down the negative things in their lives. The true impact of a motivational story can be the same. However, it can propel a person towards success but also have zero impact on the other person at the same time. The reason why the first person can achieve success while the other cannot is because he is willing to put down the negativity in front of him on his journey of life. When the pushing force is greater than the blocking or the negativity force, the result can only be one, which is that person moving forward. A lot of people didn’t live to the max, didn’t do what they really want to do in life is because they let the past negativity take control of them. Maybe something really bad had happened in the past and caused them to lose their confidence, thus they are afraid to keep trying in the future. If only they were to realize that the fear of the bad same thing to happen again is only an imagination, they would have moved far ahead from where they are standing right now, and perhaps would also be much more happier than their current state. Remember: shit happens, you can always choose to keep moving instead of just standing on top of that shit.

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.” ~Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

 

“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” ~Ann Landers

13. Respect and love yourself
Another reason why some people didn’t live their life to the max is because they are too concerned about what the others around them are saying. Peer pressure can be a very powerful thing when it comes to positively influence, but it can also be very devastating if the influence is bad. Selecting your friends is very crucial because ultimately, you will be influenced by your close friends subconsciously either you like it or not. If you have a bunch of friends with a negative mindset, you will tend to see a lot of problems instead of opportunity, make more complaints instead of searching for a good solution, etc. No matter what kind of friends you have currently, either people who influence your positively or negatively, you must understand that everyone is looking at the world from their own perspective. Even the people who have the greatest positive impact on your life might not agree with your vision or what you really what to do because he does not see the world through your eyes. Sometimes, you need to be really assured about what you want in life, hold your belief and dream so strong that no matter what others said, your goal will never be shaken. If you are too concerned about what others said about you in life, you might end up like a clown, trying to make everyone else happy but yourself. Yes, sacrifice yourself for your love ones makes you a hero, however please also remember that your life, it belongs to you. There are times you need to respect and appreciate yourself too. So, don’t forget to give yourself some space and do things which you really want to do. You only live once, make sure you live it to the max.

“The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.” ~Leo Buscaglia

 

“You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!” ~John Lennon

 

“Never dull your shine for somebody else.” ~Tyra Banks

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Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

1. Communication Skills

A good communication does more than just talking. It allows the sender to deliver whatever information he/she wants to pass along to the receiver without being misunderstood. It is crucial in your personal life in order to let the others to understand your need and want. Good and effective communication is also important in establishing a good relationship, minimizing misunderstanding and preventing unnecessary arguments, as well as resolving conflict.

• Improving Your Nonverbal Skills & Reading Body Language
• The Keys To Effective Communication
• 5 Things to Practice For Effective Communication Skills
• Book: The Seven Levels of Communication

2. Persuasion Skills

Although we may not realize it, but most of us do a certain amount of persuading each day. The art of persuasion plays a big role in your life, especially in your personal relationship and your career aspirations. This art is so critical because it allows you to earn powerful allies to fight along with you in your career, helps you to smash down more obstacles than you can do it alone. This subsequently allows you to go further and to achieve more in your life.

• 9 Powerful Techniques for Persuading People
• 5 Techniques That Make You Powerful, Persuasive, & Influential
• Language of Persuasion
• Book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

3. Time Management Skills

Why people who share same qualification, experience and skills in the same working field in the beginning can have different achievement in their life? I believe the answer lies in time management. Everyone has only 24 hours a day, thus only the one who knows how to invest it efficiently will be able to achieve more than the others. Time management is not all about keeping your schedule full and allow you to stay busy. Instead of that, a good time management is all about identifying your highest value daily activities and make them a priority. Simplify your working schedule and you will see yourself then having more time and achieving greater results at the same time.

• To Do Lists: The Key to Efficiency
• The 10 Commandments of Time Management
• 10 Tips For Time Management In a Multitasking World
• Book: Time Warrior

4. Problem Solving Skills

Problem solving skills which involve decision making can make a huge difference in your life and your career. Mastering basic problem solving skills will allow you to identify the root cause of your problem clearly and also to choose the best solution among the available options. The problem you face each day can be different in terms of its complexity. However, regardless of the size or the complexity of the problem, every problem which affects the quality of your life must be solved as soon as possible.

• 6 Ways to Enhance Your Problem Solving Skills
• How to Solve a Problem: 6 Quick and Powerful Tips
• Seven Steps To Problem Solving
• Book: Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People

5. Selling Skills

A lot of people reject and hate selling, and look down on sales people because the image of a salesman is often linked to people who are pushy, deceitful and always interrupt you to offer something you do not want or need. Stereotype and the reinforcement from the media makes us think that to become a salesman is to become a professional liar. Thus, subconsciously, people always linked selling to negative emotions and look at salesmen as if they are bad shameless persons. The fact is all of this is not true. If you have ever recommended some good movies or products to your friends even without asking them for money, you are already selling. If one were to hold his negative thoughts about selling, then he will probably find out that he cannot attract money or opportunity to him. Everyone in this world gives away value in forms of products or services in exchange for money. How well you sell the value of you offer will indirectly affect how much money you will be able to get in return. Even if you are just an employee and you do not sell a single product or services directly to the company client, you still need to learn selling in order to sell yourself, your opinions and your brilliant ideas daily, isn’t it? Put aside the stereotype and learn how to sell can reward you in many ways apart from financial terms.

• 3 Powerful Skills You Must Have to Succeed in Sales
• Do You Wanna Buy?
• How To Increase Your Closing Ratio
• Book: Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale

6. Learning Skills

Mahatma Ghandi once said “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you will live forever”. I can’t agree more with him than learning is a lifelong journey. Education should not and must not not stop even after the day you graduated. The more you learn, the more powerful you will be because after all, knowledge is power. Our world demand and pay higher for specialized knowledge and skills, thus having more knowledge in a particular field will definitely benefit you in the long term. To be able to learn more things in a faster and thorough manner, you will definitely need to hone your learning skills. Having good learning skills allows you to grasp the key ideas and understand things faster. It makes learning an efficient process. You can learn more in 3 days than the others can learn in weeks. This helps to fast track your success. Remember, to hone your learning skills, you must always start from identifying your learning styles first.

• 7 Secrets to Improve Your Ability to Learn (For Students of All Ages)
• Learning Styles: Understanding Your Learning Preference
• Improving your learning ability
• Book: Keys to Effective Learning: Study Skills and Habits for Success

7. Writing Skills

Writing is the primary basis of judgement being made on our learning in college, our performance in the workplace and our intellect in the community. Writing helps you to refine your ideas, put your thoughts down on paper for later reflection, and also allow you to evaluate the adequacy of your argument. Improving your writing skills will eventually improve your flexibility and maturity as you open up your mind to different visions and start to explore more about yourself. Mastering writing skills are crucial, so that the message you would like to convey is well deciphered by your target audience without any unnecessary misunderstanding.

• 50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills
• 12 Essential Writing Habits for Strengthening Your Skills
• 7 Ways to Improve Your Writing … Right Now
• Book: Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

8. Leadership Skills

Being a leader means you have to set a correct direction, create an inspiring vision and motivates everyone who follow you to achieve the same objective. Leadership is dynamic and vibrant, thus it is not easy to master. However, not easy to master does not mean it is unachievable. Through hard work and practices, anyone can be a great leader. To master the leadership skills, one must start by understanding the different leadership styles. From Mahatma Ghandi and Nelson Mandela, to Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs, we can see that there are various ways to lead people. It is easier for you to learn and develop your own approach of leadership by learning from the great leaders mentioned above. Read their autobiography is one good way to learn their leadership styles and impact.

• 10 Techniques To Improve Your Leadership Skills
• The Single Best Way To Develop Leadership Skills
• 20 Essential Leadership Skills
• Book: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time

9. Networking Skills

We have all heard that it’s often not what you know but who you know. Undeniable, networking skill is very important no matter you are still a student, in business yourself, or in the workplace because we often need help in our life to cope with different problems which we are not familiar with. Of course, you must also help the people in your network to achieve their goals too in the same way just like how the network has benefited you. Remember, successful networking must be reciprocal.

• 3 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Networking Skills
• 5 Ways To Improve Your Online Networking Skills
• 12 Great Tips to Improve Your Business Networking Skills and Get More From Business Networking Events
• Book: Make Your Contacts Count

10. Critical Thinking Skills

One’s ability to think in a critical manner allows him to reduce the influences of advertisement, to distinguish facts and opinions, and also to neutralize a weak argument with poor or unsupported evidence. Critical thinking requires one to employ logical reasoning and empirical evidence before they arrive at the conclusion. Critical thinking is so important especially in the process of analysis because it can help you to avoid personal biases, your intuitions, as well as your preconceptions which is usually formed in your early stage of life. Thinking in a logical manner can subsequently help you to take the right or most suitable decision when you are confronted with new challenges in life.

• How Good Are Your Critical Thinking Skills?
• Developing critical thinking
• Critical Thinking in Everyday Life: 9 Strategies
• Book: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life

11. Research Skills

You can’t learn everything under the sun. Instead of learning everything, try focusing only on the specific area which interest you the most. At times when you need to learn new things, Google can always help you to sort out all the relevant information in the shortest time possible. The only problem you might have is you need to filter and to take only the information you require to avoid information overload.

• How to Find Anything Online: Become an Internet Research Expert
• How to overcome information overload
• Dealing with too much info as a mumpreneur
• Book: How to Find Out Anything

12. Money Management Skills

After attending The Millionaire Mind Intensive, a T. Harv Eker signature program, I have come to learn that rich people are wealthier than the others mainly because they know how to manage their money. It is important to know how much wealth do you have right now, and start managing your personal finance today. Once you start managing your money, you will then start to think how to accumulate more wealth to live the kind of life you desired. Always invest in your financial knowledge first, then only put your money into any kind of investment.

• The Easy Guide to Money Management
• Managing Your Money
• 5 Tips to Managing Your Finances and Avoiding Debt
• Book: Get a Financial Life

13. Stress Management Skills

Stress leads to poor health, and poor health leads to poor working performance, poor socialization. In a nutshell, hardworking is good, but you must never get overloaded by work until you neglected your health. Always pay attention at your stress level, and remember to take a short break and to rejuvenate your life. One free simple way to rejuvenate your life is to bring yourself closer to the mother nature. Enjoy the sunset and sunrise or a walk in the garden not only is a good way to release stress, it can also help you come to realize that there so many beautiful little things you shouldn’t miss in life.

• 10 Ways to Manage Stress
• What Is Stress? How To Deal With Stress
• Ten stress busters
• Book: The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook 

What Else?

I must have missed some  important skills right here. In your opinion, what are the other skills I should add to this list?

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Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

No matter what you do for a living, overcoming obstacles and accomplishing various challenges is always the key to success. As an entrepreneur, employee or a blogger, you tend to slack down and feel defeated whenever your hard work doesn’t pay off. Little disappointments here and there can be very destructive. If you let it be that way, self-pity, insecurities, excuses will then drag you away from your success without you even realizing it.

The bad news is that you cannot avoid setbacks or obstacles in your life because like almost everyone else in this world, you’ve got a job which is not perfect. There are times you will need to go through the rough challenge and do things which you dislike. However, the good news here is that you can take action and stay motivated by following the recommended tips listed below:

1) Watch inspiring videos
It is very inspiring to watch how the other people struggle, confront and conquer their fear, and ultimately achieve great success in life. It is truly amazing to watch how these people (some born with defects, some suffer from mental illness) turn impossible into a miracle.

I believe inspiration is just like happiness, they are both contagious. When you watch the others work so hard to make a difference in their life and in other people life, you will suddenly have all the motivation you need to confront your current obstacles and break through it. This is because when you compare the hardship you are facing with what they have went through, the hardship you’re currently enduring will shrink drastically until so small as if it has disappeared.

You can utilize YouTube to find many inspiring videos. For example, some of the most inspiring videos I recommend are Nick Vujicic, Derek Redmond, and Team Hoyt. Just search for these titles and it will bring up more inspiring videos to enlighten your day.

This video is one of the seeds of inspiration for me.
Warning: Try to Watch Without Crying =)

It never fails to remind me about one thing: When You Don’t Give Up, You Cannot Fail

2) Make it Fun

Motivation will come back if you make it an interesting task to do. One of the ways to make things fun is to use a new approach to complete it. For example you realized it is hard to stay motivated when it comes to keep fit. Then perhaps you can try to work out in the gym instead of jogging which you have been doing over the weeks. Or perhaps you can walk around in the mall looking at things you like since walking is considered as an exercise too. If you feel bored studying, then you can try listening to your favorite music while studying, group study, or imagine you are the teacher and you are teaching a student. Unleash your creativity and ask yourself “How can I make it a fun thing to do?” Remember, there is no right or wrong as long as it doesn’t go overboard.

3) Set a Reward for Yourself
Set a tempting reward for yourself and enjoy the reward every time you reach the target milestone. It’s like putting a carrot in front of the donkey, putting a reward in front of you makes you keep moving. I’m not saying you are a donkey though, please don’t be too sensitive =) Whenever you slowed down, just visualize you have accomplished the task and you’re enjoying the reward you prepared for yourself. It will trigger your urge to taste the reward, make it even stronger and you will end up only working harder than before. Just be careful, don’t taste your reward until you accomplish the required task. I know how tempting the carrot is, but try not to take a bite until you finish your task, or else it would be meaningless.

4) Challenge your friend.
I personally like to do this a lot because it helps to turn the most boring task in the world into a fun and addictive game just in seconds. What you need to do is very simple. Just set a goal, and lay out some basic rules, and then see who will achieve that goal first among you and your friends. Make sure there is a reward for the winner, and of course, a punishment for the loser. After all it is a challenge. Believe or not, no matter how boring your task is, it will become a very fun thing to do when you and your friend are fighting to put the punishment on each other. Be serious with the task and have fun when someone got the punishment.

5) Keep a past record of achievement.
If you have done something continuously for the pass weeks, then you will have to record it down in your special little journal. Yes, I said it’s special because it is going to be a book of record of your own.

Have you ever played any games which the game mode is repetitious? These games on smart phones or Ipads are often so simple, repetitive, yet they are highly addictive. People find it addictive because they can’t stop challenging themselves for a new high score. If you have ever played fruit ninja and get addicted to it, then you would definitely understand what I mean. Yes, it’s all about chopping the fruits but it is so addictive because humans like to see themselves progress to a higher level.

What you need to do is very simple; treat your task like a game. Set different levels with your decided yardstick, and then see how far you can achieve. For example, you run as an exercise. For level 1, you need to run 1km; for level 2, you need to run 1.3km, so on and so forth. You will then get addicted to it because now it is not just a task to you anymore. It has become a challenge game. You can then get addicted to the task and have all the fun while doing it.

In conclusion, you can take various actions to stay motivated in doing inevitable or boring tasks by watching inspiring videos, using a new approach, rewarding oneself after accomplishing the task, and make things become fun to do. I personally use all of them based on the situation and the nature of the task, and I like tip no4 challenge your friend the most. I hope these tips will help you to stay motivated in the things you do too.

P.S. No matter how tough your current challenges are, you should never give up. If things do not happen as expected, it means that you might be pushing yourself against the flow of the tide. Reallocate your position, fine tune your strategy, and look at the current failure at least one degree different from your original standpoint is always the best way to beat all challenges in life.

Last but not least, I wish you all succeed in your life. All the best =)

Some Quotes about Challenge which might inspire you:

“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.”
-Paulo Coelho, The Devil and Miss Prym

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

-Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

― Helen Keller, The Open Door

“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” 
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” 
― Roger Crawford

“Sometimes the darkest challenges, the most difficult lessons, hold the greates gems of light.” 
― Barbara Marciniak, Family of Light: Pleiadian Tales and Lessons in Living

What Else?

Let me know which tip you like the most =)
Also, I bet some of you have better ways to make big challenges a fun thing to do. So, do not forget to share them in the comment box yeah

If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to our newsletter.
Get daily inspiration, please like our Facebook Page

Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Day, Empowering Your Soul

This is a guest post by Omar Negron, Co-Creator of www.PixPirations.com. A site created to share “Images That Inspire” all across the web.

“Life will knock us down but we choose to get back up.” Mr Han (Image source)

Who wants to wake up early when sleeping is oh so sweet? If you are the workaholic type and are experiencing lack of sleep, this idea of waking up early might sound impossible. However, once you start practicing it, become accustomed to it and enjoy the benefits of it, I bet you it will become a no brainer and you simply will wonder why you did not do it sooner.

What are the 7 Reasons for Waking up Early?

#1 Waking up Early Will Pave The Way For You To Have a Healthier Diet

Admit it, being busy and all, you usually do not have time for breakfast. That is why the word “brunch” was invented – late for breakfast, early for lunch. Brunch might sound okay, and it works well with the kind of lifestyle that you have, but you know it is not as healthy as having breakfast. I believe that back in kindergarten, you were taught how important it is not to skip breakfast.

But if you need to be reminded again: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why? Your body needs to recharge after you sleep and having a nutritious breakfast will do just that. By having breakfast, you have enough energy to perform your activities for the day. Look at it as a kick starter. And also, if you think that skipping breakfast will help you shed some pounds, you are mistaken. The more you skip breakfast, the more likely you are to eat unhealthy snacks during the day – you just do not realize it.

#2 Wake Up Early To Have Enough Time For Exercise

Exercising, even just for 15 minutes, will boost your energy and enthusiasm. Exercising will improve your mood, it uplifts your emotions and relieves you from stress and that will truly be helpful in starting your day right. The good thing about having your work out in the morning is that you will usually not have any reason to cancel it. Regular exercise will not only help you be more energetic, it will also help you lose weight and it can prevent certain diseases like heart disease.

#3 Waking Up Early Will Make You More Productive

How? The logic is simple – you will have more time to do what you need and want to do. And since you will be able to have a healthier lifestyle, like eating breakfast and getting enough exercise in the morning, you gain more energy and enthusiasm and become more energized, efficient, focused and driven.

#4 Say Goodbye To Stress by Waking Up Early

I know you will not believe this, but the truth is that your day will turn out to be more positive if you wake up early. Wake up early and you will not need to rush and you will substantially decrease your risk of arriving late at work or school.

#5 Wake up Early and Watch the Sunrise

When was the last time you have witnessed a sunrise? I bet you can’t remember. Seeing the sun when it is just about to rise is just one of the many free pleasures that can bring you a sprinkle of positivity and start your day in a great way.

#6 You Will Develop a Great Sleeping Pattern

By prioritizing to wake up early, you will discipline yourself to sleep early and have ample hours of rest. You will have enough time to recharge your body and keep it healthy. Having adequate sleep will enhance your brain’s functioning, so when at work or school, you will be able to improve your focus and concentration.

#7 Wake up Early and Experience Solitude

Since more than half of the community is probably still in bed, you will be able to experience quietude, peace or tranquility. You may even be able to meditate and have certain stresses relieved. Sometimes, you get so busy that you do not even have time to think or breathe…to really take a good breath. Having your own quiet time will help you get in touch with your thoughts, creativity and emotions – which can help provide a healthier sense of well-being.

Now, How Do You Do It?

The following are 7 simple steps that you can take to help you accomplish your goal of waking up earlier:

1. Do not do it drastically. You can start by waking up 30 minutes earlier than usual. And then once you are accustomed to it, gradually cut down another 15 or 30 minutes until you arrive at your goal time.

2. Make sure you sleep early. One way to do so is to get in bed early. You can read a book until you feel sleepy, instead of your usual late night TV or internet activities.

3. Do not put your alarm clock within arm’s reach. Place it somewhere far enough that you will need to get up out of your bed. By doing so, it will be more unlikely for you to hit the snooze button, because, well…you are already up.

4. Be goal-oriented and provide a good reason for you to wake-up early. Whether it is to have breakfast with your family or to have a quick jog – setting up a morning task will give you extra motivation and a purpose to get up early.

5. Make sure that you take advantage of the extra time you gain when you wake up early. Do not wake up early and just stare at the ceiling. Remember that you wake up early to jump start your day – so exercise, have breakfast, or just simply move.

6. Do not rationalize and listen to the voice inside your head. It will tell you that a few more minutes of sleep will not hurt, but it sure will. So resist it and get up right away.

7. Be consistent. The more you do it, the more your body will be accustomed to it and maybe in the future, you will not need an alarm clock to wake you up – you simply will get up and right on time.

Omar Negron is the Co-Creator of www.PixPirations.com. A site created to share “Images That Inspire” all across the web. If you need some extra motivation and inspiration feel free to visit www.PixPirations.com and follow them on Twitter @PixPirations

Inspiration Boost - Quote of the Day, Charging Your Spirit

Life Sucks? Who Are You Compare Your Life With?

Do you always complain about your life sucks (sorry to use this word, it seems to be a bit rude, but it is the word that people use! – Life Sucks!)? Or blaming anything around is not fitting to what you want or how you wish it could be?

I see many people around me did so, and I believe most of the people do somehow complain about something in life, sometimes, or everyday.

They can complain about EVERYTHING, to “support” the facts that their life sucks! Assignments are too many to handle, boss giving out too much pressure, parents didn’t buy me the latest cool gadgets, the traffic is so jam, friends are not helpful at all, my friends all own their own car while I don’t, my cloth looks sucks, salary too low, friends are not helpful, lost 10 dollars yesterday………….

There are just too many to complain about in life, to show that you are kinda sucks at life.

My question to you is: who are you comparing your life with? What makes you feel your life seems to be so unpleasant and sucks?

Food Sucks?

Food that tastes bad? Boring with food around? Complain about drinks? Don’t like this and that?

What about 870 Million people that starve from hunger all around the world? That’s more than 5 million children die due to starvation and poor nutrition every year!

What about him?

Photograph by Kevin Carter 1994

Photo Description: A million southern Sudanese face starvation. In this image taken by Kevin Carter, a child falters en route to a feeding center, while the vulture waiting behind for the child to die, so it can eat the child.

Living Sucks?

Your house is not as big as your neighbors? Parents didn’t buy you a Ferrari as your 21st birthday present? :p Neighbors are noisy with piano training? Don’t have the latest electronic device? Don’t have a nice movie to watch this weekend? Then what is this kid complaining about every day? Life sucks? Think again.

Children in Afghanistan avoid dust in refugee camps

Photo source: Link

The kid struggles to live every day, while you might be sitting comfortable with a cup of warm coffee on the table, under a nice weather, complaining to your friends, how sucks your life is.

What about this?

Sleeping Place – Home

Photo source: Link

There are million people die of hunger, die in a war, live everyday in fear, and starve, illness and so on. How can we complain our life is sucks compared with them?

And also this:

The Pain of War

Photo Source: Link

Vietnam Napalm, Trang Bang, 1972.

Kids are crying, losing their family members in a sudden, hopeless, nobody to depend on anymore, yet the war still on going. In the coming seconds, they might die in war as well. Life sucks?

*Some photos might seem very disturbing, but if it is not, how can you feel them? By putting yourself in their situation?

Job Sucks?

Many people love to complain about their job, their boss, their colleagues, salary and so many other things. But again, how sucks your job can be compared with theirs?

Indian Sewer man

Photo source: Link

Or this:

Veterinarians

Photo source: Link

A picture tells a thousand words, seems like I don’t need to explain much and you already know that this is kinda sucks..compare with your office based job with air-conditioner and comfortable chair or whatever job you are having now.

Body Sucks?

If you are complaining about your physical body of not strong enough, not beautiful enough, not tall enough, don’t have six pack abs? Not healthy enough… What about these people?

Nick Vujicic

Nick Vujicic – Life Without Arms and Legs

Photo Source and read more about him: Link

I believe many people know who is Nick Vujicic, a man without arms and legs, yet he can be so successful today, as a motivational speaker, Director of Life Without Limbs, with a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning, travelling to over 25 countries and more.

Helen Keller

Helen Keller

Photo source: Link

Helen Keller contracted illness when she was 19 months that left her deaf and blind. Imagine, without the ability to see things, how can she listen to the world? Without the ability to listen, how can she speak? And also blind! How can she interact and communicate with the world? But she still can earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree! She was an American Author, Political Activist and also a lecturer!

What about..

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking

Photo Source: Link

Stephen Hawking was disabled by a motor neuron disease when he was 21 years old, but this does not stop him in his research and passion on physic. He is a theoretical physicist, twelve honorary degrees, and was made a Companion of Honor in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes.

I believe I do not need to explain and describe much about them, as they are so well known around the world, I can confirm that they had so much harder time in life compare with all tiny problems you’re facing and complaining about everyday, life.. sucks? I believe at least you are so much better than lots of people around the globe. They still can live life to the fullest with the “sucks” part happens in their life, why not you?

I personally respect them so much, respect their attitude towards life. I can complain about how sucks my life is and especially for the pass, of having a weak body since young, asthma when I was a kid, nose bleeding every few days, faint easily after exercise (now much better, as I train my body more, with more exercise and care of my body =D )….. But compare with them, how sucks my life can be? In another way round, I am grateful of who I am today, and thankful for everything in life. It is a shame for me to bring up all these tiny problems and start complaining that my life is sucks due to this and that.

Some people might argue that we shouldn’t compare our own life with others, as each of us comes from a different background and environment, but if you see the world inside you, and not you inside the world, then you are locking yourself in a tiny + pity cage where you only see 4 walls where only you yourself matter most all the time.

This writing is a combination of viewing life in a different angle, and through different people, to provoke and brings up the facts that, your life isn’t that sucks. Now you are viewing this article through a computer or a mobile device or whatever tablet, so you are much luckier than the millions that don’t! That your financial is so much better than many that can’t even afford to own these electronic devices, or even affording a meal to kill hunger!

If it sucks, that is simply because of you yourself that judge it so and make it happen (and worst, continue to suck at it). If you complain life to improve and changing it, that’s cool; but if you complain for the sake of complaining… you know what I mean.

Be grateful with everything in your life. We come to life with empty hands and leave without taking anything away, we should be grateful with everything that comes into our life, even a cup of hot coffee to warm up your lovely morning, taking a refreshing bath with cold clean water every day, a meal that keeps hunger away every day…

If you can read my writing here and able to complain about life, it means your life isn’t that sucks, and you have a choice to make things around better (while many don’t even have the choice). Some people out there might not even have time to complain, as they’re struggling to survive & stay living right at this moment, where you’re reading my writing now. If you still think your life is sucks, at least you have a choice to change and improve, instead of continuing to sit comfortable there complaining about how sucks life is.

After all, life isn’t that sucks isn’t it?

*Images are all from online sources, if it’s not allowed to use, feel free to contact me and I shall remove it immediately.

P.S. These images are selected because it is great to help conveying & support the message of my writing.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Daily Inspiration and Motivation

1) The best way to change your life always starts from changing your way of thinking and your attitude.

2) The best way to attain happiness is none other than giving.

3) The best way to earn a good friend, to whom you can reveal your true self all the time is to put down the mask and be yourself.

4) The best way to build trust is to always honor your promise.

5) The best way to time management is to prioritize important and urgent task first.

6) The best way to cope with procrastination is to keep reminding yourself that life is too short.

7) The best ways to keep fit is always healthy diet and exercise.

8) The 3 best ways to be really good in anything you want is to practice, practice and practice.

9) The 3 fastest way to learn something is to get a mentor, to read books, and to get your hands dirty.

10) The best and only way to achieve success is to take action, massive action.

11) The best way to push yourself to take massive action is to visualize how such action will have a profound impact in your life.

12) The best way to keep someone you love with you is to love them more each day.

13) The best way to understand what people want and need is to listen.

14) The best way to communicate is to listen first before you talk.

15) The best way to pinpoint your passion is to allow yourself wandering in the library and then see which section draws all your     attention quietly.

16) The best way to make people remember you is to first remember their names.

17) The best way to make people feel that you’re friendly is to smile.

18) The best way to earn respect and love is to respect and love yourself first.

19) The best and only way to be extraordinary is daring to be different.

20) The best way to regain confidence in life is to watch how other little giants make impossible possible.

21) The best way to avoid regrets is to always give your best shot. Even if it doesn’t work out as you have expected, you know you have done your best.

22) The best way to reduce stress is to avoid procrastination.

23) The best way to stop worrying is to just stop worrying. Worrying does not change a thing.

24) The best way to control your anger is to stop looking at small matters with a magnifying glass.

25) The best way to know whether if there’s improvement is to keep track of your progress.

26) The best way to handle stress is to put it behind you and let it push you forward, not in front of you and be your obstacle.

27) The best way to achieve great success is to understand that great success is not a point but a long journey. As long as you achieve all the little successes along the way, great success will take care of itself.

If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to our newsletter.
Get daily inspiration, please like our Facebook Page

Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Daily Inspiration and Motivation

This is a guest post by Courtney Gordner, blogger/journalist of www.talkviral.com. Sharing what’s important in this viral world.

How to Stay Focused on Your Hopes and Dreams

It’s in there somewhere, whether it’s deep beneath the surface or on your mind all the time, you have a hope or a dream that drives you, something that pushes you toward finding fulfillment in what life has to offer.

For some people, these dreams are motivators that are at the core of every one of their decisions, to others, dreams are considered farfetched, wishful thinking that they like to think about now and then but not focus on completely.

Whatever your situation, having a hope or a dream for something more can be a positive driver to accomplish your full potential. But, they can easily be pushed aside for things that are considered certainties in life, must-haves – food, clothing, shelter – or even distractions. The ideas, certainties and dreams, don’t have to be in conflict. Below are a few ways to stay focused on your hopes and dreams while living a fulfilled life that covers all the bases.

1. De-clutter

One of the biggest hindrances to making hopes and dreams come true is clutter. It’s not hard to understand why. We live in a mobile society. From our tablets, Smartphones to the technology that follows us everywhere, we are bombarded with messages regarding what we should strive for, what our passions should be, and what it means to live a successful lifestyle.

However, these messages can vary from what we view as successful, things we feel we should strive for. Because of this, the first step to making a hope or dream happen is to de-clutter your life. Look at the messages you’re faced with daily and make an effort to block out the negatives. Take time for yourself, take a yoga or meditation class, strive to sit in silence for ten minutes a day, take a walk or read a book. Whatever makes you feel at peace is a great place to start.

2. Create a Vision Board

Once you’ve made it part of your daily routine to unplug and make time for yourself, think about what drives you. What are some hopes and dreams you have for yourself. If you’re unsure, try to find ways to discover some. Look in magazines, online, start a Pinterest account, whatever it takes. Print our photos that relate to your dreams, think about where you want your life to go in the next ten years and beyond. Post those ideas onto a vision board that you place somewhere you see regularly: a bathroom mirror, your bedroom wall, your family’s kitchen, the living room… anywhere you spend time. Make an effort to add to the board whenever you feel something pull at your heart.

3. Choose Your Passions

From your dream board, think about what ideas you feel the most passionate about and find ways to convert those ideas into specific dreams. Do you want to open homeless shelters or drug rehab centers to help people move on with their lives? Would you like to travel and see the world? What about making it to the next level in a specific sport or activity? Passions vary from one person to the next. Find yours and you’ll find your dreams.

4. Set Goals and Deadlines

Once you know your dreams, decide to make them happen. To do this, set specific goals and benchmarks with deadlines. Think about what steps are required to turn your dreams into your reality. Do you need to take a few business courses? Maybe save a little extra money? Move to a new location?

Whatever it takes, think about small goals that are doable as steps toward achieving your dreams. Making them happen may be easier than you think.

5. Find an Accountability Partner

If there is one thing in life that is certain, it’s that support makes anything a lot easier. This is especially true of fulfilling hopes and dreams that may seem completely farfetched from the get-go. Surround yourself with support. Find friends or family members that understand your vision without laughing about it, who are willing to take it seriously. Ask them to hold you accountable. Share your small steps and deadlines and ask them to check in from time to time. When you’re accountable for something, you’re more likely to make it happen.

Hopes and dreams can be exciting motivators for real actions. Consider yours and take the steps above to start turning yours into reality.

Courtney Gordner is a blogger/journalist with a passion for life! She enjoys writing about everything and anything, read more from her on her blog, www.talkviral.com

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Daily Inspiration and Motivation

1)      Wake up 30 minutes earlier each day. Enjoy the fresh air & avoid the mad rush.

2)      After you open your eyes, tell yourself today is going to be another wonderful day.

3)      Sit on the bed and feel the ground. Then, think about your future/ long term goal. Tell yourself that today you are going to be one step closer to your dream.

4)      Check today’s schedule

5)      Have your yummy breakfast

6)      Before you leave the house, look into the mirror once more and tell yourself you look awesome

7)      Smile to everyone you meet

8)      Help at least 3 people without expecting any return

9)      Give compliments to people when people around you have done a great job

10)   Focus on one thing at a time

11)   Leave the company on time. It’s time for yourself and your family

12)   Feel the sky the moment you step out the building. There’s no need to rush.

13)   Listen to the music and read a book that touches your heart

14)   Give yourself some “me time”. Review your day. Ask yourself “what have you done well today?” & “what can be improved in the future?”.

15)   Complete your schedule for the next day

16)   Prepare everything you need for the next day to avoid rush

17)   Enjoy the precious moments: bedtime story for your kids/ a little chat with your loved one

18)   Hug and say good night to your loved ones

19)   Count all the wonderful things you have encountered today, one by one

20)  Leave tomorrow’s worries for tomorrow. Close your eyes and sleep with a smile =)

 “The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” ― Audrey Hepburn

I believe happiness is simple & you certainly do not need 1000 tips to be happy.
If you want to open the door to ultimate happiness in life, then perhaps gratitude is the only key you need.

Share this post with the one you care. Happiness is contagious =)

Get daily inspiration, please like our Facebook Page

Darren Chow writes at www.InspirationBoost.com. He truly believes that positivity is contagious, so does your smile. Thus, he founded Inspiration Boost with a core vision: to spread inspiration to as many people as possible.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Daily Inspiration and Motivation

Click here to view the embedded video.

Transcript of the talk of Dr. Richard Teo, who was a 40-year-old millionaire and cosmetic surgeon with a stage-4 lung cancer, sharing at a Dental Christian Fellowship Meeting. He would have liked to share this with you too.

HIS BACKGROUND

“Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse from the chemotherapy, so please bear with me. I thought I’ll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I’m a friend of Danny’s, who invited me here.

I’d just begin to say that I’m a typical product of today’s society. Before this, I was talking about how the media influences us etc. So I’m a typical product of what the media portrays. From young, I’ve always been under the influence and impression that to be happy, is to be successful. And to be successful, is to be wealthy. So I led my life according to this motto.

Coming from a poor average family, back in those days, I was highly competitive, whether in sports, studies, leadership. I wanted it all. I’ve been there, done that. But at the end of the day, it’s still about money.

So in my recent last years, I was a trainee in ophthalmology, but I was getting impatient, cos I had friends of mine who were going out into private practise, making tonnes of money. And there I was, stuck in a traineeship. So I said, ‘Enough, it’s getting too long.’ At that time, there was a surge in protégés of aesthetic medicine. I’m sure you’re aware, aesthetic medicine had peaked over the last few years, and I saw good money in there. So much so that I said, ‘Forget about ophthalmology, I’m gonna do aesthetic medicine.’ So that’s what I did.

The truth is, nobody makes heroes out of the average GP in the neighbourhood. They don’t. They make heroes out of rich celebrities, politicians, rich and famous people. So I wanted to be one of these. I dived straight into aesthetic medicine. People were not willing to pay when I was doing locum back in those days. Anything more than $30, they would complain that “Wah, this lo kun (doctor) jing qwee (very expensive)”. They made noise and they were not happy. But the same people were willing to pay $10 000 for a liposuction. So I said, ‘Well, let’s stop healing the sick, I’m gonna become a beautician; a medically-trained beautician.’

And that was what I did – liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgeries, you name it, we do it. It was very good money. My clinic, when we started off, waiting time was 1 week; 1 month; became 2 months; became 3 months. There was so much demand that people were literally queuing up to have aesthetic work done on them. Vain women – easy life!

So the clinic grew. I was so overwhelmed, from 1 doctor, I employed 2, then 3, then 4 doctors, and carried on. Nothing is ever enough. I wanted more and more and more. So much so that we set up shop in Indonesia to lure all the Indonesian tai tai’s. We set up shop, set up a team of people there, to get more Indonesian patients to come in.

So, things were doing well. I’m there, my time has arrived.

Around some time in February last year, I said, ‘OK, I have so much spare cash, it’s time to get my first Ferrari. So there I was, getting ready for the deposit. ‘OK! There comes my first Ferrari!’ I was looking for land, to share with some of my friends. I have a banker friend who makes $5 million a year. So I thought, ‘Come, let’s come together. Let’s buy some land and build our houses.’

I was at my prime, getting ready to enjoy. At the same time, my friend Danny had a revival. They were going back to church, some of my close friends. They told me, ‘Richard, come, join us, come back to church.’

I have been a Christian for 20 years; I was baptised 20 years ago, but it was because it was fashionable to be a Christian then. All my friends were becoming Christians then. It was fashionable! I wanted to be baptised, so that when I filled in a form, I could put there “Christian” – feels good. In truth, I had never had a bible; I don’t know what the bible is all about.

I went to church for a while, after some time, I got tired. I said it’s time to go to NUS, stop going to church. I had a lot more things to pursue in NUS – girls, studies, sports etc. After all, I had achieved all these things without God today, so who needs God? I myself can achieve anything I want.

In my arrogance, I told them, “You know what? You go tell your pastor to change your sermon to 2pm. I will consider coming to church.” Such arrogance! And I said 1 statement in addition to that – till date, I don’t know I’ve regretted saying that – I told Danny and my friends, “If God really wanted me to come back to church, He will give me a sign.”. Lo and behold, 3 weeks later, I was back at church.

THE DIAGNOSIS

In March 2011, out of the blues – I was still running around, ‘cause I’m a gym freak and I always go to the gym training, running, swimming 6 days a week. I had some backache, and that’s all I had, but it was persistent. And so I went for an MRI to exclude prolapsed disc. And the day before I had my scan, I was still in the gym, lifting heavy weights, doing my squats. And the next day, they found that half my spine had bone marrow replacement. I said, “Woah, sorry, what’s that?”

We had a PET scan the next day, and they diagnosed that I had terminal lung cancer, stage 4B. It had spread to the brain, half the spine, whole of my lungs were filled with tumour, liver, adrenals…

I said, “Can’t be, I was just at the gym last night, what’s going on?” I’m sure you know how it feels – though I’m not sure if you know how it feels. One moment I was there at the peak, the next day, this news came and I was totally devastated. My whole world just turned upside down.

I couldn’t accept it. I have a hundred relatives on both sides, my mom and my dad. 100 of them. And not a single one has cancer. To me, in my mind, I have good genes, I’m not supposed to be having this! Some of my relatives are heavy chain smokers. Why am I having lung cancer? I was in denial.

HIS ENCOUNTER WITH GOD

So the next day, I was still in a state of denial, still unable to accept what was going on. There I was lying in an operating theatre in a hospital, for a needle biopsy (for histology). There I was, just completed the biopsy, and lying in the operating theatre. The nurses and doctors had left; told me I had to wait for 15 minutes to do a check X-ray to make sure there’s no pneumothorax (a complication).

And there I was, lying on the operating table, staring blankly at the ceiling in a cold, quiet operating theatre. Suddenly I just heard an inner voice; it was not like coming from outside. It was inside. This small inner voice that I had never felt before. And it said very specifically, it said, “This has to happen to you, at your prime, because it’s the only way you can understand.”

I said, “Woah, why did that come from?” You know, when you speak to yourself, you’d say, “OK, what time should I leave this place? Where shall I have dinner after this?” You’d speak from a first person point of view. You don’t say, “Where should YOU go after this?” Whereas the voice that came spoke as a third party. It said, “This has to happen to YOU, at YOUR prime, because this is the only way YOU can understand.” At that time, my emotions just overflowed and I broke down and cried, alone there. And I knew then, subsequently, what it means to understand that why this is the only way.

Because I had been so proud of myself, my whole life, I needed nobody else. I was gifted with things that I could do, why do I need anybody else? I was just so full of myself that there was no other way I could have turned back to God.

In fact, if I were diagnosed with stage 1 or 2, I would have been looking around busily for the best cardiothoracic surgeon, remove a section of the lobe (do a lobectomy), do preventive chemotherapy…The chances of it being cured is extremely high. Who needs God? But I had stage 4B. No man can help, only God can.

A series of events happened after that. I wasn’t sold after that, because of the inner voice, I became believing, prayers, all that. No I wasn’t. To me, it was just ‘maybe there was a voice; or maybe that was just me talking to myself.’ I didn’t buy the story.

What happened next was that I was being prepared for chemotherapy. I started off with a whole brain radiation therapy first; takes about 2 -3 weeks. In the meantime they prepared me for chemotherapy, supplements etc. One of the things they used for chemo was a thing called Zometa. Zometa – they use it to strengthen the bones; once the bone marrow (replacement) is cured of cancer cells, it becomes hollow, so we need Zometa to strengthen the bone to prevent compression fractures.

One of the side effects of Zometa is that it can cause osteonecrosis (bone death) of the jaw, and I had to have my wisdom teeth removed. Years ago, I had my upper wisdom teeth removed, cos it was giving me trouble. The lower ones didn’t give me trouble so I said, “Forget it, just leave it.” So of cause, Danny volunteered to remove it for me.

So there I was, lying there in a dental chair, asking myself, suffering all the side effects of radiotherapy, and now I have to go through wisdom tooth surgery. As if I’ve not had enough to suffer! So I asked Danny, “Eh, bro, is there any other way? Can I not go though this?” He said, “Yes, you can pray.”

I said, “What’s there to lose? Ok lah, pray lah!” And so we prayed. And we did an X-ray after that. Everything was all there, all the appliances and everything. And lo and behold, the Xray showed that there was no wisdom teeth in the lower jaw. I know most people have 4 wisdom teeth, maybe some have none, but to be missing one or 2, as I understand – I’m not too sure, as I understand – is not that common.

Still I was, “Nah, I don’t care about that.” To me, as long as I didn’t have to take out the tooth, I was happy. At that point, I still wasn’t sold on prayers. Maybe it was just a coincidence – for whatever it’s worth.

I continued meeting my oncologist, asking him, “How long do I have?” I asked him. He said, not more than 6 months. I said, “Even with chemotherapy?” About 3 – 4 months, he said.

I couldn’t grasp that. It was difficult to come to terms. And even as I went through radiotherapy, I was struggling everyday, especially when I wake up, hoping that it’s just a nightmare; when I wake up, it’s all over.

As I was struggling, day after day, I went into depression, which is the typical denial, depression blah blah blah that you go through. But for 1 reason, I don’t know why, there was this specific day that I was supposed to meet my oncologist. At about 2pm, I felt this sudden surge of peace, comfort, and in fact, a little happiness. It was just overflowing. For no rhyme or reason, it just came about 2pm, as I was getting ready, dressing up to meet my oncologist. So much so that I whats-apped all my friends that, “Bros, I just feel so good suddenly! I don’t know why, it just came!”

And it was only days, or was it weeks after, that Danny revealed to me that he had fasted for 2 days for me, and he was bargaining with God, and fasted for 2 dyas, and he ended his fast at that exact same point, about 2pm thereabouts, that this surge of sensation came to me for no rhyme or reason. And I didn’t know that he was fasting for me. And when he ended the fast, I felt that sensation!

Whoa, things were getting a bit too coincidental. I was starting to buy a bit of the story, but still I wasn’t sold. As days passed by, I completed my radiotherapy, about 2 weeks plus. Getting ready for chemo, so they let me rest for a few days.

See, the mortality rate of lung cancer : Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate. If you add up breast, colorectal (colon) cancer, and prostate cancer (the top few cancers in Singapore for men and women), if you add up the mortality rate of these 3, it still doesn’t add up to lung cancer. Simply because, you understand, you can remove the prostate, the colon, the breast, but you cannot remove your lungs.

But there’s about 10% of lung cancer patients who do pretty well for some reasons, because they have this specific mutation; we call it the EGFR mutation. And it happens, only 90% of the time, in Asian ladies who never smoked in their lives. Me, first of all, I’m male. 2ndly, I’m a social smoker. I take one a day after dinner; weekends, when my friends offer me, I take it as well. I’m a light smoker, not a social smoker. But still, my oncologist was still not hopeful for me to have this mutation.

The chances of it happening for me was maybe 3-4% for me to get it. That’s why I was being primed to go for chemo. But through all the intense prayers, friends like Danny, people that I don’t even know, it turned out that, during my waiting for chemo, the results came back that I was EGFR positive. I was like, “Woah, good news!” Cos now I don’t have to undergo chemo at that time, because there’s this oral tablet that you can use to control this disease.

Just to share with you some idea – this is a CT scan – thorax – of my lungs, before treatment.

AFTER BEFORE

Every single dot there is a tumour. You can see all the mets (metastasis) there. This is just one single plane. Literally I had it in both lungs, and I had literally tens of thousands of tumour. That’s why the oncologist told me, even with chemo, at most 3-4 months.

But because of this mutation, they have this oral medication. This is what happened after 2 months of treatment. As you can see over here; this is what God can do. And that’s why I’m still here having this opportunity to share with you. As you can see over here, the difference between before and after treatment.

At that point, I said, “Well, it’s to be expected, isn’t it? The medicine is good.” I’m still not buying the story. Well, the guys prayed for me and the tumour markers started to come down. 90% of the tumours were wiped out, and the tumour markers came down to more than 90% over the next few months.

But still, you know, once you have the clinical knowledge, you know the statistics. One year survival, two year survival; having all this knowledge is not a good thing. Cos you live with the knowledge that even with all this, the cancer cells are so unstable, they keep mutating. They will overcome and become resistant to the drugs, and eventually you’re gonna run out of medication.

So living with this knowledge is a huge mental struggle, a huge mental torture. Cancer is not just about a physical struggle, it’s a huge mental torture. How do you live with no hope? How do you live with not being able to plan for the next few years? The oncologist tells you to bear with it for the next 1 – 2 months. So it’s a lot of struggles as I went through: March, then April. April was my lowest point, in deep depression, struggling even as I was recovering.

HIS ACCEPTANCE & PEACE

And one of those days, I was there in bed, struggling in the afternoon, asking God, “Why? Why do I have to go through this suffering? Why do I have to endure this hardship, this struggle? Why me?”

As I fell asleep, in my dreamy state, a vision just came, that says Hebrews 12:7-8.

Now mind you, at this time, I had not read the bible. I have no clue what’s Hebrews, I don’t even know how many chapters there are. Totally clueless.

But it says Hebrews 12:7-8, very specifically.

I didn’t think too much of it. I just continued sleeping. Then I woke up, and I said, “What’s there to lose? I’d just check it out lah!” Danny had bought me a bible; it’s still quite new. I said, “It’s ok, just try.” So I flipped to the Old Testament. Hebrews to me sounds like something ancient, so it should be in the Old Testament right? So I flipped through the Old Testament. No Hebrews there. I was so disappointed.

Then I said, “Maybe New Testament, let’s have a look!”. WOW – New Testament, there’s Hebrew’s!! It says Hebrews 12:7-8. It says, “Endure hardship as discipline as God is treating you as His children.”

I said, “WAH!! Where did that come from?” I was getting goose pimples all over my body. I said, “This can’t be, right?” I mean, what’s the chance of somebody, who has never read the bible, to have a vision of a chapter of a specific verse, that answers my question directly?

I think God called to me directly as I was there sleeping, struggling with it, asking God, “Why do I have to suffer? Why do I have to suffer this?” And God says “Endure hardship as discipline as God is treating you as His child.”

At this point, the chance of that happening is even lesser than my EGFR being positive. There’s just no way; there’s so many millions of thousands of verses in the bible, how can I just conjure up something like that?

So at that point, I was sold I said, “YOU WIN! YOU WIN!!”

Ok , I was convinced. And so from that day onwards, I started believing in my God. And the last time I heard that inner voice was the end of April. And that inner voice, same thing, in the afternoon, as I was sleeping (this time I wasn’t struggling, just going to sleep). In a dreamy state I just heard Him say, “Help others in hardship.”

It was more like a command, rather than a statement. And that’s when I embarked on this journey, helping others in hardship. And I realised that hardship is not just about being poor. In fact, I think a lot of poor people are probably happier than a lot of us here. They are so easily contented with whatever they have, they’re probably pretty happy.

Hardship can happen to rich people; it can be physical hardship, mental hardship, social, etc. And also over the last few months, I started to understand what this true joy is about. In the past, I substituted true joy with the pursuing of wealth. I thought true joy is about pursuing wealth. Why? Cos let me put it to you this way, in my death bed, I found no joy whatsoever in whatever objects I had – my Ferrari, thinking of the land I was going to buy to build my bungalow etc, having a successful business.

It brought me ZERO comfort, ZERO joy, nothing at all. Do you think I can hold onto this piece of metal and it’s going to give true joy? Nah, it’s not going to happen.

True joy comes from interaction with other people. And at a lot of times, it is a short term pride, the past. When you pursue your wealth, Chinese New Year is the best time to do it. Drive my Ferrari, show off to my relatives, show off to my friends, do my rounds, and then you thought that was true joy? You really think that those guys who sold you your Ferrari, they share their joy with you? And your relatives, wow, they share this joy with you? In truth, what you have done is just to illicit envy, jealousy, and even hatred. They are not sharing the joy with you, and what I have is that short-term pride that wow, I have something you don’t have! And I thought that was joy!

So what we have is basically a short-term pride at the expense of somebody else. And that wasn’t true joy. And I found no joy at all on my deathbed, thinking of my Ferrari – to hold on to it, sayang it?!?

True joy I discovered comes from interaction. Over the last few months I was so down. Interaction with my loved ones, my friends, my brothers in Christ, my sisters in Christ, and only then was I able to be motivated, able to be uplifted. To share your sorrow, to share your happiness – that’s true joy.

And you know what makes you smile? True joy comes from helping others in hardship, and because I’ve gone through this, I know what hardship entails. In fact, there’re some cancer patients who tell me a lot of times, people come up to them and tell them, “Stay positive. Stay positive.” Yah, right. You come in my shoes and you try to stay positive! You don’t know what you’re talking about!

But I have the licence. So I’ve been going out to meet other fellow cancer patients, to share with them, encourage them. And I know, because I’ve been through it, and it’s easier for me to talk to them.

And most importantly, I think true joy comes from knowing God. Not knowing about God – I mean, you can read the bible and know about God – but knowing God personally; getting a relationship with God. I think that’s the most important. That’s what I’ve learnt.

So if I were to sum it up, I’d say that the earlier we sort out the priorities in our lives, the better it is. Don’t be like me – I had no other way. I had to learn it through the hard way. I had to come back to God to thank Him for this opportunity because I’ve had 3 major accidents in my past – car accidents. You know, these sports car accidents – I was always speeding , but somehow I always came out alive, even with the car almost being overturned. And I wouldn’t have had a chance. Who knows, I don’t know where else I’d be going to! Even though I was baptised it was just a show, but the fact that this has happened, it gave me a chance to come back to God.

Few things I’d learnt though:
1. Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart – this is so important.
2. Is to love and serve others, not just ourselves.

There is nothing wrong with being rich or wealthy. I think it’s absolutely alright, cos God has blessed. So many people are blessed with good wealth, but the trouble is I think a lot of us can’t handle it. The more we have, the more we want. I’ve gone through it, the deeper the hole we dig, the more we get sucked into it, so much so that we worship wealth and lose focus. Instead of worshipping God, we worship wealth. It’s just a human instinct. It’s just so difficult to get out of it.

We are all professionals, and when we go into private practise, we start to build up our wealth – inevitably. So my thought are, when you start to build up wealth and when the opportunity comes, do remember that all these things don’t belong to us. We don’t really own it nor have rights to this wealth. It’s actually God’s gift to us. Remember that it’s more important to further His Kingdom rather than to further ourselves.

Anyway I think that I’ve gone through it, and I know that wealth without God is empty. It is more important that you fill up the wealth, as you build it up subsequently, as professionals and all, you need to fill it up with the wealth of God.

I think that’s about it. It’s good to share. Thanks.”

Source: Heaven Address – Dr Richard Teo Keng Siang

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Daily Inspiration and Motivation

This is a guest post by Sandra Mills freelance health, career, and travel writer. She enjoys traveling and learning about different cultures.

Why do you want to travel? Popular reasons include relaxing, seeing famous sights and broadening your horizons. Excuses can keep you from pursuing your dreams, though. Address these excuses head and then stop making them as you make travel plans today.

Travel Takes Too Much Time

Job, family and other commitments can keep you from traveling for pleasure. But you know that it’s possible to tweak your schedule and make time to pursue relaxing and fulfilling travel.

1. Plan weekend getaways. Short weekend trips allow you to travel in short spurts. If possible, take a three-day weekend several times a year as you indulge your passion for sightseeing and exploration.
2. Schedule long vacations at least a year in advance. This extended planning time ensures you obtain your passport and other travel documents, buy travel tickets and arrange reliable pet sitting months or weeks in advance instead of at the last minute.

Travel Jeopardizes Work

Your job is important, but it shouldn’t keep you from enjoying life. Whether you recently started a new job or work in an established career, these are three things to consider that will give you time to travel this year.

1. Ask your boss about ways to increase available vacation time. Working a few extra overtime hours each week, trading days with coworkers or combining sick and vacation time could boost your available vacation days.
2. Spend part of your vacation working. Ideally, vacations are for getting away from the office, but you may need to agree to check in via email at the very least. Be sure to set boundaries for how much time you’ll work and what tasks you’ll do so that you’re not spending all your travel time at work.
3. Consider quitting your job. If you’re unhappy in your career and longing to travel, this seemingly drastic option may be one to think about. Shaking things up by leaving your current position will give you a fresh start when you return. Likewise, use your marketable skills to work while you travel, whether that means you perform manual labor, waitress or consulting online.

Travel Neglects the House

A home can become an invisible tether since it requires regular upkeep. You can maintain your home and travel, though, with creative solutions.

1. Hire a house sitter. He or she can keep up with the lawn maintenance and perform other small tasks around the house as you travel.
2. Swap houses. You live in someone else’s home, and they live in yours as you get to see the world and know that your home is cared for.
3. Hire a caretaker. Maintenance, repairs and snow removal occur on schedule thanks to a live-in caretaker, neighbor, or a worker you’ve hired through a service.

Travel Costs Too Much Money

Vacations can be expensive as you pay for transportation to your destination, delicious local food and comfortable accommodations. You can afford the things you prioritize, however, so you’ll be able to afford to travel this year when you try a few money saving tips from Nomadic Matt.

1. Cut expenses. Brew coffee at home, stop eating out so often, downsize your car and shop secondhand for clothing and home goods. Place the money you save into your travel fund.
2. Increase your income. Take a second job at nights or on the weekends for extra cash. If you want to travel for weeks or months at a time, find a job in your host country where you bartend, work on farms or babysit.
3. Couch surf. Thousands of people across the globe participate in couch surfing. It provides affordable accommodations and can be a lot of fun!
4. Use a rail pass. If your destination allows for rail travel, buy a pass. It gives you flexible travel options and you’ll save the money you would have spent on individual trips, cab rides, etc. if you purchase one ahead of time, or at the station.

How many excuses do you have for not traveling? Put that energy into finding a workable solution instead. Stop making excuses and start planning your dream vacation today.

Sandra Mills is a freelance health, career, and travel writer. She enjoys traveling and learning about different cultures.

 

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Inspiration and Motivation

This is a guest post by Dora Houston, working as an essay writing specialist at academic essay purchase. 

One should have big dreams and should aim high in life. Goal setting is the most important part in life for every individual. Ambitious people set high goals and strive to reach them, yet some others just let their life take its own course without doing anything proactively. Every activity needs proper planning. Any business enterprise no matter whether it is big or small presupposes excellent planning. Setting short term goals are the prerequisites for long term goals later in life.

1. It is desirable to write our plans, dreams, hopes and values. One can think with paper and pen in hand to jot down whatever comes to mind immediately. Writing your goals down helps you to segregate them later into the possible and  impossible ones. One does not have to worry if some of the goals sound difficult at the first glance. Once you have written everything down, the next step is to rule out those ones who seem highly impossible to you or those who you feel do not have much value.

2. Once everything is on paper in terms of black and white, one has to choose the most important goals. Select two or three which need not be very specific in nature. Those which sound a little vague at the present moment would become very clear sometime later in life.

3. Under each goal you can write the probable ideas using which you would achieve your goals.

4. Be specific in the next step and write down the ways to achieve each of those goals. Under each goal you should have the ways to go about doing it.

5. Segregate short term goals and write them down on a separate sheet of paper. Short term goals must have a date by which you should achieve them. Fixing a deadline this way also helps us to work towards achieving them. We should also be dedicated and committed to it.

6. Each short term goal should be listed along with the steps to go about achieving it and also the date by which you think it should be accomplished.

Not having long term goals in life is a major point of concern and it would exactly be a void. Let the goals be very basic, but it is extremely important to have long term goals. Setting long term goals is like planning for your future. Once you planned future goals, your present becomes clearer. As you go on achieving short term goals and also a few initial steps towards some long term goals, you will start feeling contented. You would have lot of achievements to your credit as days go by. Therefore, it is highly essential to have short term goals which help us in setting and achieving our long term goals. Just as failure is the stepping stone to success, short term goals are the entry points through which you traverse a longer path and achieve your long term goals in life.

Motivation is the highly essential thing in life. One should have high levels of motivation in order to aim and achieve big things in life. With motivation one would be able to take a few steps every day towards realizing their dreams in life which will ultimately give them a sense of contentedness.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Inspiration and Motivation

A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. | John Burroughs

1. Stop Blaming

When you start blaming,

• You start pointing all your mistakes to someone else.
• You tend to avoid all the mistakes made by yourself
• You start to avoid facing yourself and become a fake you
• You will still the same while others are keep growing, including those you point your fingers at

2. Stop Complaining

Life sucks? Trust me, your life isn’t as sucks as you might think, so stop complaining and appreciate life. Complaining about life won’t lead you to a better life, yet wasting your time and energy on that. Instead, take action and make your life better so you get fewer things to complain about in life.

3. Stop Rationalize Things

Do you always hear someone explain a lot to you, just to get you to agree with him on something? Especially on how the other factors cause the failure of themselves in anything, making them “still” look great in front of people despite of their failure.

4. Stop Criticizing Others

If you comment and giving suggestion to that particular person you are criticizing on so that he can improve and grow from mistake and be a better person, go for it. But if you criticize just to criticize, stop it right away. When your job every day is to criticize people, you leave a negative impact on people’s mind, that you will always put a negative mark on people’s head. Instead, change it to be motivating, positive and supporting comment that makes a real impact and help on others.

5. Stop Backstabbing Others

It won’t make either yours or others’ life to be better; it’s just a waste of time with negative energy field around.  Believe it or not, people will rather choose to stay away from you and not getting close to you. Why? It is because they won’t know when they’ll be in the backstabbing list of yours and getting lots of negative and mostly one side opinion about them! Nobody loves the feel of being backstabbed by someone else and getting a fake bad name (the problem is, people somehow did believe in what these “backstabber” talking about their negativity).

6. Stop Finding Excuses

Excuses are like the temporary shelter you made for yourself to avoid the rain, it won’t last long and you need to build it, repair it again and again, more and more to cover yourself from more “rain”. We human are relating and connecting to one another, people will surely find out that all you know is getting excuse follow with another excuse without any real capability.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. | Carl Sandburg

7. Stop Wasting Time

Try analysis your 24 hours of time, does it pass too fast without you able to do anything significant or important? Where had you waste your time? Stop wasting your time on things that does not important and needed at all. Always question yourself this question: “Does it important? Can I skip it or deduct time spent on this, so that I can have more time on other important task?”

Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you. | Unknown

8. Stop Comparing

No one is exactly the same, so stop comparing about how great you are or how weak you are compared with someone else. It will only lead you to egoistic or other way round, de-motivate. Instead of comparing the good and bad, why not learn from each other, or even better team up to produce greater power? Isn’t it awesome?

9. Stop Showing Off

You might feel that bragging about what you got and what you achieve that others don’t is great, but that will only make you feel great, for a while; while others don’t feel any great thing about it, yet dislike it. It is like you do self-promote telling others how great you are, even a tiny bit of an achievement that you are proud of (which might not always looks “WOW” for other people). If your “success story” inspiring others to strive harder in life and achieve more in life, that’s great; but most of the time people loves to showing off just to compare what they got and look down on what others don’t. Is it necessary? Be humble.

10. Stop the Negative Mind

Nothing is perfect in this world. If you pursue perfection, you will never get there; only better and better. So don’t be de-motivate on every tiny thing and be sad. As an example, for negative people, failure means the big stone in front of them that stop them from keeping moving; while positive minded people will treat it as the brick stone building the stairway to success. There’ll never be only one solution to any question or problem in this world; how you treat it is within your own mindset.

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear. | Brian Tracy

11. Stop Living in Your Past

People always looking at their past, remember the past failures, fear and stop moving forward; or proud of the past achievement and keep talking, thinking, bragging about it, and lost the opportunity to build a better present and future. If you stop moving forward, you’re actually moving backward, as time, society, surrounding will keep changing; you will get eliminated very soon. Just learn from the past, and live the best out of your present, for achieving the better future.

12. Stop Thinking Like You Know Everything

Egoistic will lead you to nowhere; it will only set a small square box fitting you inside and fake voice praising how great you are. The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know, so don’t stop learning and growing.

13. Stop Telling People What to Do

Even if you are the King or the Queen, you shouldn’t control people’s life, you live yours and they live theirs. Nobody like to be bossed around, I believe the same goes to you. Instead, change it to sharing knowledge and motivate each other would achieve the best result, empowering others while the environment fill with positive charge. Respect others’ life and decision, and they will respect you.

14. Stop the Hatred

Do remember that hatred will only hurt you yourself; it won’t affect people you hate. Let go and forgive, as everyone did mistakes sometimes, no one is perfect. It’s better to have more friends than the enemy, isn’t it?

15. Stop Delay

The only thing matter is NOW, the power of now. Stop dragging things to tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Burden and tasks will get heavier if you get things delay. You could definitely able to imagine (or did experience before) how the delay of flight affect your schedule, miss an important meeting, lost a million dollar contract. Same goes for your life, if you delay things on and on, things will get worse, leaving troubles for the future.

16. Stop Eating LOUD

This seems like a joke, but it annoys people around you lots more than you think. Many people around eating with lots of sound from mouth (you know what I mean), nom nom nom nom… yam yam yam yam… It is so annoying to people around. We are human, but some might claim they’re still consist mostly animal part in them, so eating with so much sound consider reasonable for them. Do control self’s behavior, you might not notice it, but people around will experience it deeply, annoy, lost focus, distract. Please shut your mouth when chewing, you can be better looking in front of girls or even guys with just a little more polite when eating.

17. Stop Checking Social Media Websites Constantly

Perhaps deep inside your heart, you feel great when there’s a new message send to you, as that means you are important to someone out there; or you just love to hang on Facebook, Twitter, keep refreshing your browser hoping to see new content, what your friends talking about the last few minutes, what new videos they shared few seconds ago, stalking people’s profile and new pictures. It’s the biggest distraction in your daily life, and you won’t be able to get many important things done with that with you. After all, it is not your full time job to keep refreshing your browser. :p

18. Stop Checking Mail Constantly

New offers, latest promotion, new article written by blogger send to your mail, junk mail, spam mail, and a little important email. Many people will allow it to pop up on the desktop or ring on mobile device right the next seconds it reached. You will end up open your mailbox for more than 10 times per day, and get distracted every hour. Stay focus and you can achieve more.

P.S. In most of the time, if it is less, it’s fine; but when it comes to many, like complain hundred times a day, checking mails every minute, showing off and looking down on people every single seconds; it become the “disaster” on you.

So what is the Not-to-Do-List of yours?

JJ Wong – Co-founder of Inspiration Boost is passionate in self development & improvement. He loves reading, especially on personal growth, success stories, business related and more. Dedicated in sharing the positive energy to everyone around the world.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Inspiration and Motivation

Top 101 Most Popular Quotes of All Time

1. “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”
   Lao Tzu

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2. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
   Dr. Seuss

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3. “Nothing lasts forever, so live it up, drink it down, laugh it off, avoid the bullshit, take chances & never have regrets, because at one point everything you did was exactly what you wanted.”
   Marilyn Monroe

   ---

4. “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
   Mark Twain

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5. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”
   Maya Angelou

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6. “You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the f*ck on.”
   Tupac Shakur

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7. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
   Martin Luther King Jr

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

9. ---

   “I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
   Benjamin Franklin

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10. “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
    Allen Saunders

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11. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
    Walt Disney

    ---

12. “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”
    Bob Marley

    ---

13. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
    Mahatma Gandhi

    ---

14. “Don’t expect your friend to be a perfect person. But, help your friend to become a perfect person. That’s true friendship..”
    Mother Teresa

    ---

15. “Ignore those people who’s always talking behind your back. That’s where they belong, just behind your back.”
    Unknown

    ---

16. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a Champion!”
    Muhammad Ali

    ---

17. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
    Warren Buffett

    ---

18. “I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.”
    Marilyn Monroe

    ---

19. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
    Albert Einstein

    ---

20. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
    Bernard M. Baruch

    ---

21. “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”
    George Bernard Shaw

    ---

22. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
    Oscar Wilde

    ---

23. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
    Albert Einstein

    ---

24. “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
    Helen Keller

    ---

25. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – That’s why we recommend it daily.”
    Zig Ziglar

    ---

26. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
    Helen Keller

    ---

27. “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.”
    John F. Kennedy

    ---

28. “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
    Love like you’ll never be hurt,
    Sing like there’s nobody listening,
    And live like it’s heaven on earth.”
    William Watson Purkey

    ---

29. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
    William Shakespeare

    ---

30. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
    Albert Einstein

    ---

31. “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
    Dr. Seuss

    ---

32. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
    Mae West

    ---

33. “Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt.”
    Maurice Switzer

    ---

34. “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
    Winston Churchill

    ---

35. “Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
    Mark Twain

    ---

36. “Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn’t have the courage to say “yes” to life?”
    Paulo Coelho

37. ---

    “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
    Benjamin Franklin

    ---

38. “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough”
    Oprah Winfrey

    ---

39. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
    Lao Tzu

    ---

40. “Great minds discusss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
    Eleanor Roosevelt

    ---

41. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
    Henry Ford

    ---

42. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a Champion!”
    Muhammad Ali

    ---

43. “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
    Marilyn Monroe

    ---

44. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
    Cicero

    ---

45. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
    Steve Jobs

    ---

46. “I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not…”
    Kurt Cobain

    ---

47. “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
    Abraham Lincoln

    ---

48. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
    Robert Frost

    ---

49. “You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It wont happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.”
    Joel Osteen

    ---

50. “Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.”
    Herman Hesse

    ---

51. “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”
    Gordon A. Eadie

    ---

52. “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
    Mahatma Gandhi

    ---

53. “People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
    Mother Teresa

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54. “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”
    Bob Marley

    ---

55. “Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .””
    C.S. Lewis

    ---

56. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
    Confucius

    ---

57. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”
    Bil Keane

    ---

58. “Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
    Albert Camus

    ---

59. “If you’re born poor, it’s not your mistake. But if you die poor, it’s your mistake.”
    Bill Gates

    ---

60. “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
    Mark Twain

    ---

61. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
    Gandhi

    ---

62. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
    Eleanor Roosevelt

    ---

63. “I live by ‘Go big or go home.’ That’s with everything. It’s like either commit and go for it or don’t do it at all. I apply that to everything. I apply that to relationships, I apply that to like sports, I apply that to everything. That’s what I live by. That’s how I like it.”
    Paul Walker

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64. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
    Mark Twain

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65. “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
    Buddha

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66. “Silence & smile are two powerful tools. Smile is the way to solve many problems & Silence is the way to avoid many problems.”
    Unknown

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67. “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”
    Elbert Hubbard

    ---

68. “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
    J.K. Rowling

    ---

69. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
    Oscar Wilde

    ---

70. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
    Mahatma Gandhi

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71. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
    Aristotle

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72. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
    Friedrich Nietzsche

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73. “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
    Marilyn Monroe

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74. “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
    John Lennon

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75. “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”
    Albert Einsten

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76. “You never know what you have until you lose it, and once you lose it, you can never get it back…”
    Unknown

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77. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
    Maya Angelou

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78. “Two things define you. Your patience when you have nothing, and your attitude when you have everything.”
    Unknown

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79. “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
    Albert Einstein

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80. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
    Oscar Wilde

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81. “The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”
    Napoleon Hill

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82. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
    Ralph Waldo Emerson

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83. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
    H. Jackson Brown Jr.

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84. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
    Martin Luther King Jr

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85. “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”
    Muhammad Ali

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86. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
    Winston Churchill

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87. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
    Mahatma Gandhi

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88. “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
    Mark Twain

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89. ”I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
    Thomas Edison

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90. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
    George Bernard Shaw

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91. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
    Henry Ford

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92. “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
    André Gide

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93. “I don’t dislike my haters, they dislike me. I’m doing nothing wrong, I’m just being me.”
    Jamie Lopez

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94. “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
    Maurice Switzer

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95. “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs!”
    Dhirubhai Ambani

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96. “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”
    Aristotle

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97. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
    Confucius

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98. “Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it can. And just when you think it can’t get any better, it can.”
    Nicholas Sparks

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99. “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”
    William Shakespeare

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100. “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
     Winston Churchill

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101. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
     Michael Jordan

*So what’s your favorite quote? Share it in comment.

Inspiration Boost - Quote of Life, Inspiration and Motivation