Simple Advice For Life

"The principles of living greatly include the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and trial with humility."
- Thomas S. Monson

A book written by Billy Graham, titled The Journey came out in 2007, some eight years ago. In this book, the now 97 year old Billy Graham offers a few principles for living.

Billy is now battling the effects of old age and declining health but for the majority of his life he has been an evangelist having served as a spiritual adviser to many presidents and corporate leaders since before the 1950s.

He has also been a guiding light for millions of people around the world. A respected and admired man who helped to change the minds and hearts of many. There are many who agree and disagree with his views, including myself.

Yet I do believe he offers sound advice.

What he offers are six principles for living and I find them to be very good words to think about. To understand each one better, I would encourage you to read his book even if you do not necessarily agree with his religious beliefs for there are some very good common sense ideas.

Six principles of living as offered by Rev. Graham.

1. Make it your goal to live at peace with others.
2. Treat others as you'd want them to treat you.
3. Guard your tongue. Use it for good instead of evil.
4. Never repay evil with evil.
5. Avoid revenge. Don't be a captive of the past.
6. Practice the power of forgiveness.

Six easy but life changing ideas for living a better life.

On the surface they are simple but can be difficult to apply in your daily life. But if you take a moment each day, maybe seven minutes, to reflect and think about how these words fit into your life, you might start seeing a change for the better.

Make a decision to start today and change your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Learning to Listen

"When you are least willing to listen to others is exactly the time that you need to stop and listen." - Dean Sweetman

Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which you are moving head long into a situation while someone is trying to tell you not to? In your mind, you know exactly what you are doing and fail to see the need for anyone's advice.

All of us have had this shared experience.

My wife, two daughters and I were in Los Angeles to attend another daughter's wedding. We arrived late in the evening and after a long wait in the car rental facility, we were on our way. It was a tiring adventure due to the time change and having arrived late at night.

The goal was to find our hotel in the Burbank area. My keen sense of direction was performing fine for the first ten miles and then things started to go askew. I inexplicably missed getting onto Hwy 101 eastbound and then had a difficult time maneuvering from Hwy 134 towards the I-5 freeway.

Seems easy but unfamiliarity can breed confusion.

Getting from these freeways into Burbank and finding our hotel proved most difficult for me. My dogged pursuit kept trying to shut out the advice and direction of my wife and daughters.

It finally hit me that 'listening' might be a good thing. Once I did that, we successfully found the hotel by 12:30am or 3:30am eastern time; morning would come all too soon.

So take some advice; listening to and trusting others can have a positive impact on your life. Do not let pride or stubborn ignorance get in the way of learning something new.

Listening is an effective tool in life.

Stay inspired my friends.