Back Soon

Back soon folks. Visiting family back in Nebraska and simply enjoying it too much to write. Look for a new update on Thursday of this week.

Until then, keep your chin up, a smile on your face and inspired.

Smile More

“Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.” -Andre Maurois

"A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a." -William Shakespeare

“The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days.” -Sirach 30:22

“The days that make us happy make us wise.” - John Masefield

In an article published by the American Psychological Association titled, The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?, it finds that "happy people show more frequent positive affect and specific adaptive characteristics." In other words, being happy and having a positive attitude will place you in a better frame of mind to accept new opportunity.

As you make your way through life, towards a more positive life style, opportunity will seem to just appear. What you probably did not realize that opportunity was there all along. But having the wrong attitude you simply did not see it.

As you take on this new opportunity, additional change occurs and success begins to unfold around you. Of course, success generates more happiness and good feeling within. Your spirit tends to rise dramatically. This spirit also gets stored within you and it carries you through many of the downward cycles that can occur.

So can a smile actually cause success? Maybe not immediately, but it can start a ripple effect on your life. Smile once in a while, carry happiness with you more often and experience a change.

Stay inspired my friends.

Building Up

"There are a million reasons you can find to tear someone down. Work to find that one reason to build them up." -Dean Sweetman

It seems so easy to find what is wrong in this world or in people. The weather is too hot or too cold, the government is too over bearing and my co-worker is lazy. So much we could go on about and it does not mean that it isn't true. A lot of bad in this world is actually bad.

Yet we should also attempt to find something good around us. This is especially true with the people we come in contact with. Again, bad is bad and I'm referring to your everyday contact with family, friends and people in general. It may be perceived as a "can't we all just get along" type of statement.

No, what I'm referring to is our inclination to be critical of others as it draws attention away from our own shortcomings. As you tear others down, you are really tearing yourself down. The whole "reap what you sow" idea comes to mind. Think about your spouse or children and how you interact with them. Do you find that conversations begin with, "why didn't you" or "how could you"?

When was the last time you praised them for just being them, for a small talent or gift that they have? Or a son, like many other teens, trying to "just get through" his last year of high school. Most parents will know what this struggle is like. But you build him up and encourage him allowing him to push through. Your kids need you to help lift them when they are down. To encourage them to seek out their dreams, just like you and I need.

So try to find those good things and praise the person for them. It doesn't take a whole lot to find goodness in someone, it only takes you trying. The goodness will come back around to you in due course. Build up others and you will build yourself up as well.

Faith in Tomorrow

photo taken by Steven Ainsworth

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” -Victor Hugo

People ask me, "how do you manage to travel so easily in different countries?" My only answer is to just take it as it comes. It does not mean I don't plan and prepare for each trip. There is plenty of checking into what and where I am going.

When it comes down to it though, I see tomorrow through faith as opposed to worry. Faith that I did my preparation and faith that things will work out. I take the positive approach that things will go well, that if they don't I'm prepared to handle them. Much of this is believing in yourself and your own ability to overcome anything.

Those that see tomorrow through worried eyes will forever be destined to spend more time in the negative worrying and less time in being prepared. When things do not work out as planned, these people will expend their energy in complaint and worry. The reality is that energy is better used to resolve and carry through with life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely.”

Take on the new day in a positive way. Stop worrying so much and trust in your own ability to accomplish great things in your life.

The sun continues to rise each day, no matter what life sends our way. Approach it with great faith and a great attitude.