Motivational Quotes for Emotional & Mental Happiness

Inspirational Quotes to Improve Emotional and Mental Health 

What you are and who you are today is not necessarily what you ought to become.

In fact, it is almost assuredly not so. Otherwise, you would have no room for further growth and development, nor any need for further human experiences. 

Success in Living A Determined Life comes mostly through developing a deeper self-understanding and honing your "inner talk" skills and the conversations you hold with yourself. This also requires you to know, understand, and accept the reality of the way you are at any given point in time, starting with now. 

Once you fully know yourself, you are better able to be true to who you truly are by striving to become what your soul wants you to be across all elements of your. This is the path to emotional and mental happiness. 

We all occasionally struggle with controlling our emotions and dealing with down periods in our lives. It is not possible to always be emotionally up and mentally strong. And we all need motivational pointers to help us overcome our emotional weights and negative thoughts. That's why we wrote 365 Motivational Quotes for Emotional & Mental Happiness. 

Here are some of our favorite quotations you'll find in the book:

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.

Swedish Proverb

Guilt is anger directed at ourselves.

Peter McWilliams

Loving people live in loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world.

Wayne Dyer

He who angers you conquers you.

Elizabeth Kenny

Life reflects your own thoughts back to you.

Napoleon Hill

We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what's wrong in your life, or you can focus on what's right.

Marianne Williamson

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; they can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by them.

Epictetus

Make it a rule of life never to regret. Regret is an appalling waste of energy — you can't build on it; it's only for wallowing in.

Katherine Mansfield 

The motivational quotations in this book will provide you with a wealth of beliefs and ideas for overcoming emotional and mental challenges, enabling you to live a life framed through self-awareness, mindfulness, authentic happiness, being present, peace and peacefulness, love, attaining goals, and being connected with your spiritual self. 

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Emotional & Mental Happiness is available on Amazon in paperback ($4.88) and Kindle ($2.99) formats. 

Being Happy vs. Happiness

You Have A Right To Determine Your Own Happiness 

There is a significant difference between being happy and authentic happiness, as discussed in the Project You Life blog earlier this month.

Being happy is akin to joy, pleasure, elation, delight and other short-term feelings. Such experiential feelings of being happy are like a drug. As soon as the effect of one happy incident wears off, you go in search of the next thing, person or event that will bring another temporary feeling of enjoyment, gratification or being happy.

For many people, the main cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what they truly and deeply want most (authentic happiness) for something that they want at a particular moment, in the hopes of gaining immediate pleasure or happiness. This is a sure recipe for trouble. As the Indian spiritual teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj said, "All search for happiness is misery and leads to more misery."

Happiness does not come from the outside world. Only you can make yourself happy ── through your reactions, thoughts and other feelings. In fact, it is often said that it takes the same amount of work and effort to make one's self happy as it does to be unhappy.

You have a right to determine your own happiness, and the best way to attain true happiness is to be yourself and live A Determined Life based on your values. If others do not like it, then let them be. Happiness is a choice. Life, especially A Determined Life, is not about pleasing everybody.

As Ralph Martson, writer and publisher of The Daily Motivator website, newsletter and associated products, said, "You don't need anyone else's permission to be happy. Your life is magnificent not because someone else says it is, but because you choose to see it as such." 

As we often say and write: true happiness comes from within and dwells in each of us.

Additionally, because you live in an interdependent world in an interconnected universe, authentic happiness is often attained by helping others or being deeply involved in something bigger than yourself. 

Hence, sometimes the best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer up somebody else. As the old adage goes, "When you see a person without a smile, give them one of yours."

The simple reality of life is that you cannot always be happy. Part of the human journey is to experience the sad parts of life: rejection, disappointment, love that flames out, pain, wishes that go unfulfilled, death, tragedy, conflict, remorse, etc.

However, through the living of A Determined Life, you can attain and maintain Authentic Happiness. 

This article has been partially excerpted from our top-selling book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

The Road Map to Authentic Happiness

Compassion, Kindness and Giving Are the Keys to True Happiness 

There is a lot of truth in the old proverb "it is better to give than to receive." 

Perhaps receiving is surface and transient happiness, while giving is deeper and more permanent happiness. After all, anyone who shares, smiles and gives hugs receives a greater happiness through giving than their recipients. 

As the Chinese proverb says, "A bit of perfume always clings to the hand that gives the rose."

You have, no doubt, been exposed to the pithy saying "money cannot buy happiness." As the theologian William Barclay wrote, "The one thing that all men need to learn about joy is that joy has nothing to do with material things, or with a man's outward circumstances. It is the simple fact of human experience that a man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy." Substitute the word "happiness" for the word "joy" and Barclay's words are equally resolute.

Since happiness is truly self generated, it is simply a waste of time and effort to try and make other people happy. This is not to say you should not do things for other people that gives them momentary pleasures and happy memories. Far from it. Rather, it is usually not worth the effort to try and change a truly unhappy person into a happy one. This is something which only they can do.

You are never responsible for their unhappiness, nor should you ever shoulder the guilt for another person's unhappiness. If they want to go through a period of their life being unhappy with their circumstances and all that befalls them, you have no choice but to let them do so (painful as this is when it happens to a loved one).

Remember, only those who search within will find the root causes of their happiness. Likewise, only those who search within will discover the underlying causes of their unhappiness. Your role in such situations is to help people look within themselves, but you cannot do this for them.

The best approach in dealing with chronic or constant unhappiness is with compassion. In fact, as The Dalai Lama says, "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

Don't worry. (Be happy!) This is not to suggest that you should not enjoy the pleasures and happy moments that life brings. Nor is this a suggestion that you should never give joy, happiness and pleasures to others. You simply need to be aware that these temporary enjoyments are not the ultimate happiness you (or they) want to experience.

Also, this is not to say that you should never offer comfort or support to other people. In fact, it is the opposite. Through kindness and providing comfort to others you are more likely to discover the deep-seated happiness within you.

How you seek out your own happiness will be, naturally, up to you. 

There is really no road map anyone can provide you, though living the principles of a Project You Life Journey will be a good start. This journey will help you discover the true happiness that dwells within you.

This article is excerpted from the top-selling personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback ($7.89) and Kindle ($6.88) formats. 

Happiness vs. Being Happy

There is a difference between the state of happiness and being happy. 

Seeking happiness through experiences and pleasures rarely works. 

As the social writer and philosopher Eric Hoffer noted, "The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness." 

Adds English novelist C. P. Snow, "The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it."

Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne described the search for happiness this way: "Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

There is a difference between the state of happiness and being happy, having pleasure and experiencing enjoyment. The latter are short-term, temporary feelings based on experiences and thoughts. To put it simply: going to the movies can make you happy, but it has nothing to do with true happiness.

Helen Keller said that true happiness "is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." 

From a Project You Life perspective, that worthy purpose of which she wrote is living a meaningful and full life, as defined by Dr. Seligman:

The meaningful life: using your signature strengths and virtues in the service of something much larger than you are.

A full life: experience the positive emotions about the past and future, savoring positive feelings from the pleasures, deriving abundant gratification from your signature strengths, and using these strengths in the service of something larger to obtain meaning.

The Greek philosopher Democritus said, "Happiness resides not in possessions or gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul."

What else dwells in the soul? 

Caring, giving and kindness are all inherent characteristics of our souls. 

Perhaps, therefore, a key path to happiness comes from caring about others and giving kindness and help to others. 

Could these be the fundamental causes of real happiness? 

The greater our giving and kindness, the greater is our spiritual and innate happiness. Hence, increase your giving and kindness and you are likely to be rewarded with greater spiritual and authentic happiness. 

Uncertain about such a connection? Well, it won't hurt you to try!  

This article is partially excerpted from the top-selling personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle ($6.88) and paperback ($7.89) formats. 

True Happiness Comes From Within

Authentic Happiness Dwells Within Each of Us 

Where does true happiness come from? Here are two perspectives:

It is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes are within our power. A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly, rather than hostile. Bertrand Russell

Dr. Martin Seligman, the best-selling author and University of Pennsylvania psychologist, has greatly advanced the thinking on happiness in recent years. In his book Authentic Happiness he shows how happiness can be cultivated by identifying, understanding and augmenting traits we already possess ── such as kindness, originality, humor, optimism, and generosity. He calls these "signature strengths" that can guide individuals to make positive choices that result in more meaningful, and therefore more authentically happy, lives.

Dr. Seligman makes it clear that there is a difference between authentic happiness and the pop culture kind, which tells you, in the beautiful lyrics of Carole King:

You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face and show the world all the love in your heart.

Then people are going to treat you better.

You're going to find, yes you will, that you're beautiful as you feel.

While there is a ring of truth to what King sings, it does not correlate with true happiness. 

Yes, there is nothing wrong with having a positive and happy attitude and showing the world a smile on your face. In fact, such an approach has numerous benefits. However, this merely results in surface happiness, not the deep spiritual kind that comes from living one's values and achieving one's desires.

Happiness that results from life experiences is like a drug. As soon as the effects of one happy incident wears off, you go in search of the next thing that will bring another temporary feeling of enjoyment or being happy.

This is what leads the Charlie Sheens and Tiger Woods of the world astray. Those who cannot find peace and happiness within are doomed to constantly fill their personal enjoyment quotients with on-going, meaningless experiences that keep their happy tanks full.

Pleasure, of course, is a powerful source of motivation. Unfortunately, pleasure does not produce long-lasting change. Rather, it is a disruptive force that builds upon itself and drives our desires to satisfy current (temporary) needs or to simply want to enjoy creature comfort and relaxation, through more short-term pleasures and experiences.

If you cannot find happiness in watching children play in a park, in a beautiful sunrise or in the peace and quiet of a still day, it is unlikely you will find happiness within. 

How you seek out your own happiness will be, naturally, up to you. There is really no road map anyone can provide you, though living the principles of a Project You Life Journey will be a good start. This journey will help you discover the true happiness that dwells within you. 

This article is excerpted from the top-selling personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle ($6.88) and paperback ($7.89) formats.  

Happiness Is Solely Within Your Domain and Control

Your Happiness Does Not Depend On Others, Things or Events 

Bob Marley tells us "don't worry, be happy" in his song of the same name, and being happy seems to be one of the key focal points of today's human experience.

Being unhappy also now seems to be a valid reason for quitting anything that isn't working out the way one wants (i.e. don't stay in a marriage if it does not make you happy, change jobs if you are not happy with the current one).

If Marley's lyrics are not a philosophy of life for most, then certainly the desire to "have a nice day" seems to reign imperative for many.

It is interesting to note that happiness has not always been a central tenet in philosophy or religious teaching. Back in the mid 1600s, Thomas Hobbes, in his seminal work Leviathan, wrote that the natural condition of man is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." Few in civil society today would depict life so harshly, though undoubtedly many in Africa, India and other regions would.

There is a significant difference between happiness and being happy. Happiness, like all feelings, is found within. And it is created and infiltrated by your thoughts and attitude.

The Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus was one of the first to understand this concept. He wrote: "The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things." Ideally this is how a Project You Life would be lived.

The very wise Epictetus also propounded that: "Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: some things are within your control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental role and learned to distinguish between what you can and cannot control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible."

In essence, what Epictetus and many others since him postulate is that happiness is enhanced and enriched by others, but does not depend on others. 

This is an important notion to grasp. Your happiness does not depend on any other person, thing or event! It is solely within your domain and control.

This makes a great deal of sense when you stop and think about it. 

After all, external sources of pleasure, enjoyment and happiness are typically brief, fleeting, inconsistent, precarious, ephemeral, and highly subject to change. 

Looking for peace, contentment or happiness from the outside world is a wasted effort, particularly once you realize that true happiness resides within you.

This article is excerpted from the top-selling personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback ($7.89) and Kindle ($6.88) formats. 

Authentic Satisfaction and Happiness

Be All That You Can Be 

Authentic satisfaction and happiness comes partially through reaching your full potential. Some tips for achieving this:

·         Live in "prime time" rather than watching prime time TV.

·         Life is a collection of memories, not of material things. Collect what truly matters.

·         Aim not for what you are. Aim not for what you can be without effort. Aim for what you could be.

·         The most important thing about motivation is goal setting. You have to have a goal, a desired outcome, in mind.

·         The achievement of one goal is simply the starting point for another. Build upon each achievement to climb your own personal ladder of success.

·         Successful people are opportunity minded. Do not be problem minded. Problems are merely opportunities clothed to deceive. Nourish your opportunities and give sufficient attention to problems to turn them into recognizable and attainable opportunities.

·         Expect greatness of yourself. In the words of John Steinbeck, "It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him."

Every one of us has options about what we will do with our lives and what we will make of ourselves along our respective journeys. However, no matter what paths we each choose and whatever options we each select, once our individual decisions are made we all have basically two choices:

1)      to be less than what we have the capacity to become, or

2)     to be all that we can be, to strive as best we can with the skills we have and the circumstances given.

The first option leads to an empty life, even if material reward and recognition are gleaned.

The second option leads to a life fulfilled with an abundance of true self satisfaction and authentic happiness that no man or woman can ever take away. It is what we call Living A Determined Life. 

Which option will you choose? 

This article is excerpted from the top-selling personal and professional development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle ($6.88) and paperback ($7.89) formats. 

Reaching Your Full Potential

Leverage Your Desire to Become More and More of What You Are 

In the Project You philosophy, success is the on-going process of becoming better, of striving to become the best that you are truly capable of being, in whatever endeavors you choose. 

Project You people are always expanding themselves ── intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, or even physically (at least health wise). Doing so rewards them with the authentic satisfaction and happiness they seek.

You will not find directional signs, helpful hint cards or a detailed map when you choose your path to success. The road to success is a progressive journey full of bumps, hurdles, helpful people, intermittent small victories, occasional spurts of unbridled happiness, unexpected setbacks, and other things both good and bad.

As you pass each milestone and marker along the way, and overcome the hurdles and obstacles placed before you, the journey becomes easier ── provided the lessons of experience are learned and followed.

In many ways, the journey to success correlates with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs pyramid, which he developed as part of a paper on human motivation. People stop at the level they feel most comfortable with, which for most seems to be satisfying their need for love and belonging through friendships, family and sexual intimacy. A handful will progress to the higher level of self-esteem and having the respect of others. Only the very few proceed to the peak of his pyramid, which is known as the self-actualization level.

You will rise to the level at which you feel most comfortable, which is fine. This is not a competition and the pyramid structure does not define a finish line for everyone atop the peak. We all have different needs and thus reach our own authentic level of satisfaction based on the fulfillment of those personalized needs.

Maslow described self-actualization as "the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming." 

Thus, the person who wants to be an ideal parent is on par with one who wishes to be an exemplary teacher. Both will achieve self-actualization if they reach their full potential in their chosen aspirations. 

Do you have a desire to become more of what you are? Our 30-60-90 Day Personal Action plan may help:  http://www.livingadeterminedlife.com/personal-change-action-plan 

This article is excerpted from the top-selling personal and professional development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

Success, Satisfaction and Happiness

Expanding and Growing Yourself is a path to the authentic happiness and satisfaction you seek. 

Thanks to the self-help and personal development industries, there are probably more words written on success than any other subject.

As you might imagine, there are as many definitions of success as there are authors. Here's a substantive sampling:

Success is doing your own thing, for the benefit of others. Denis Waitley

A life isn't significant save for its impact on other lives. Jackie Robinson

Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do. Brian Tracy

If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all. Anna Quindlen

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: try to please everybody. Herbert Bayward Swope

Be yourself, be tenacious, be kind and be thankful. This is the short recipe for success and happiness in life. Chris Widener

Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are. Jim Rohn

Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves, to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our today.  Stewart B. Johnson

You are successful when others benefit from your efforts. You are unsuccessful when others are diminished by what you do. Arthur Dobrin

Meaningful success needs a very personal definition. It is built from the inside out. The success of others has nothing to do with your own success. Denis Waitley

We believe one of the best definition of success comes from legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden: "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

In the Project You philosophy, success is the on-going process of becoming better, of striving to become the best that you are truly capable of being, in whatever endeavors you choose. 

Project You people are always expanding themselves ── intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, or even physically (at least health wise). Doing so rewards them with the authentic satisfaction and happiness they seek. 

How are you expanding yourself today? If you're feeling a bit off-track, read about our Mid-Year Resolutions initiative and have a look at our 4-step process for re-igniting your dreams and personal development goals. 

This article is partially excerpted from the Amazon top-ranked motivational ebook Project You: Words of Wisdom, available in Kindle ($3.88) and paperback ($6.45) formats.  

Passion Leads to Authentic Happiness and Greater Self Satisfaction

Keep Rekindling Your Passion

There will be times when your inner fire goes out. 

At such times you will need to reflect and resolve whether it is the passion for a particular project, event, person, or thing that has gone out, or if it is something on a larger scale. It may, in fact, be an overall cloud impacting numerous aspects of your life. This happens.

Whatever the cause, reflection, reading inspirational and thought-provoking authors, and increasing your health and fitness will combine to supply you with the spiritual, emotional and physical energy needed to help you through such periods of waning passion. The most important thing is for you to know how to rekindle your flames of passion, as the method for each of us differs.

Passion will help you through good times and bad. When there is no passion the deep-down desire to do a thing is lacking. When there is passion, the desire to do something often becomes the power to do it.

As Anthony Robbins says, "There is no greatness without a passion to be great, whether it's the aspiration of an athlete or artist, a scientist, a parent or a business person."

Here is one of the beauties of life. Greatness does not require performing on a world stage, or even a national one. Greatness is equal whether found in a superior athlete like Michael Jordan, in a scientist like Albert Einstein, in a chef in a local restaurant, or in a school teacher who unearths or triggers the imagination and creativity of her students.

The key to all such greatness is the passion found in the inner core of these people. Their greatness results from their passions. 

As the great 19th century American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Nothing great has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm." 

What are you passionate about? Which of your passions needs rekindling at this moment? 

Today is a great time to stop and reflect on your passions, and how to spend more time on the things for which you are most passionate. 

Doing so will help keep you on the path of Living A Determined Life. 

This article is partially excerpted from our top-selling personal and professional development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback ($7.90) and Kindle ($6.88) formats.  

Be Passionate. Be Enthusiastic. About Your Life.

Ask Yourself What Makes You Come Alive 

Nido Qubein, a noted motivational speaker, often tells his audiences, "Enthusiastic people experience life from the inside out." 

When you bring your passion to life you impact your own world, rather than letting outside influences impact you.

Almost all of us have greater passion as children, or young adults, than during our later years. Fortunately it is not difficult to rekindle that youthful passion. It simply takes knowing what burns inside you and concentrating on methods for bringing your passion to the surface and into the world. 

One key to success comes from the writer John Eldredge: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who come alive."

Your passions are your inner truths. Understand this and rely on this knowledge. 

Also, as Benjamin Disraeli wrote, "Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth."

Passion is at the opposite extreme of indifference. Here is a great anonymous quote on indifference that may help you cast off the shackles of lethargy and use your inner passion to help you strive for authentic satisfaction and happiness:

Indifference never wrote great works, nor thought out striking inventions, nor reared the solemn architecture that awes the soul, nor breathed sublime music, nor painted glorious pictures, nor undertook heroic philanthropies. All these grandeurs are born of enthusiasm, and are done heartily.

Life is not a spectator sport, but a participatory one. This is what Living A Determined Life is all about. 

It matters not if you are involved in something big or small, globally grandiose or locally rooted. As long as you have a passion for it, and this passion drives you to be fully engaged and involved, you will be closer to achieving authentic satisfaction and happiness.

As Denis Waitley wrote, "Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire ─ you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away." He also wrote, "Chase your passion, not your pension." 

That is very good advice indeed.

This article is partially excerpted from our top-selling personal and professional development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback ($7.89) and Kindle ($6.88) formats. 

Striving For Authentic Happiness and Personal Satisfaction

Passion Will Help You Through the Good Times and Bad

A Project You Life is a self-driven journey for the creation of Living A Determined Life.

One of the vital ingredients of Living A Determined Life is satisfaction determined by the self, with authentic personal satisfaction resulting from living up to your personal values and being involved with something bigger and larger than yourself.

The Project You Life Journey focuses on developing a deep-seated comprehension of your principles, passions and life's purpose. Those who fully understand and acknowledge their principles and passions are more likely to determine their life's purpose. When your principles and life's purpose are aligned, passion becomes the multiplier effect that increases the probability of desired outcomes and leads to the living of Living A Determined Life.

Passion

I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don't do things half-heartedly because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.

Michael Jordan

This is what passion is all about ── putting your heart and soul into something.

With passion you will get as much pleasure ─ sometimes more ─ from doing something as you will get in achieving it. For example, a passionate artist can get as much pleasure while painting as he does from seeing his completed work.

When you put passion into your efforts to strive forward, in anything you do, you have a much greater chance of attaining authentic satisfaction and happiness, both from your actual endeavors and from whatever results occur.

Richard J. Leider, a Life Coach tells his clients, "Our world is incomplete until each one of us discovers what moves us ── our passions. No other person can hear our calling. We must listen and act on it for ourselves."

Passion and enthusiasm are nearly interchangeable words. Nearly, but not completely. Inherent within passion, though not within enthusiasm, is a deeply burning fire inside a person that provides greater self motivation and commitment. One will not easily give up that for which he or she has a passion.

When you can bring passion into a symbiotic relationship with your desires, you are well on your way to achieving your desires and dreams (assuming you put in the hard work, remain committed and do not allow setbacks to deter you).

Here's what two of the early founders of the self-development industry had to say about passion and enthusiasm:

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

The key that unlocks energy is desire. It's also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited.  Earl Nightingale

Passion will help you through good times and bad. When there is no passion the deep-down desire to do a thing is lacking. When there is passion, the desire to do something often becomes the power to do it.

We'll have more thoughts on passion in the next Project You Life Blog post. 

In the meantime, take 15 minutes with pen and paper and start a list of the things you are passionate about. Then, later today, spend another 30 minutes adding to this list and thinking of ways you can spend more time on these things.

This article is partially excerpted from our top-selling personal and professional development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback ($7.89) and Kindle ($6.88) formats. 

Purpose Bigger Than Self

You Make A Life By What You Give

People who lead rich lives tend to have two qualities in common: 1) they are optimistic in their outlook and approach to life, and 2) they excel at giving.

What do they give?

They give money to causes and others they believe in. They share their wisdom, skills and lessons learned freely with those willing to listen. They give their time to their communities, religious institutions, schools, neighbors and to those they mentor. And, of course, they regularly agree to help when asked; but more often than not they volunteer their assistance before they are asked.

Author Kent Nerburn wrote, "Give in any way that you can, of whatever you possess. To give is to love. To withhold is to wither. Care less for your harvest than how it is shared, and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace."

It is frightfully amazing the number of people who do not make any charitable contributions, or who make only a few each year, despite their obvious wealth or financial well being. Even though there are definite tax benefits for donating money to charities in many countries, some people just cannot be motivated to give any of their money away.

Incredibly, there are even some people who spend more money on grooming their dogs than on feeding hungry children or contributing to cancer research. Apparently such people have never been exposed to these words from P. Anthony Ridder, the former CEO of the Knight Ridder newspaper publishing group:

The bottom line about success in life isn't whether you are financially successful, but whether you have given of yourself in some way to help others less fortunate than you and to serve your community and your country.

 On the positive side, it is hard not to be amazed by the overwhelming generosity of people in reaction to natural disasters, even when these occur in remote and faraway places. Examples include the millions and millions of dollars donated in response to the Black Saturday bush fires in Victoria, Australia; the Boxing Day tsunami that hit coast lines around the Indian Ocean; and the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.

For anyone on the Project You Life Journey, the words of Sir Winston Churchill will definitely ring true: "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Major acts of generosity or giving are not required, however. Small, everyday acts also add up to make the world a better place. 

In fact, as William Wordsworth wrote, "The best portion of a good man's life is the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love." 

Plus, as Herm Albright said, "Perhaps the world little notes nor long remembers individual acts of kindness ── but people do."

This article is excerpted from the top-selling book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback ($7.90) and Kindle ($6.88) formats. 

8 More Ways to Exhibit Kindness

No Act of Kindness Is Ever Wasted

In our last blog post on kindness in our daily lives, we shared a few ways to exhibit kindness. 

Here are eight more ways to exhibit kindness: 

React to rudeness with compassion. No sense throwing oil on a raging fire and making a bad situation worse. We all have moments of emotional meltdowns, so help those in emotional pain with calm and soothing words of comfort rather than your own angry words of confrontation.

Be generous to those who look like they need it, by letting the person who seems in a rush to go ahead of you at the check-out line or by giving up your seat on public transportation to someone who looks tired and worn out.

Truly mean the words "please" and "thank you" when you say them, and be sure to smile and look the other person in the eyes so that they sense your sincerity and genuineness.

Constantly be generous with your praise of others. It's amazing how far a bit of praise goes in creating energy, passion and enthusiasm in others.

Greatly reduce your criticisms and complaints about others, particularly behind their backs. The old rule about "if you cannot say anything good about someone, don't say anything at all" is sage advice.

Remind yourself of your previous acts of kindness, which is sure to bring a slight smile to your face. Such positive memories are a good way to spark new ideas on how you can continue to exhibit kindness to others.

Be grateful for the good things and people that come your way, and remind yourself that every act of kindness you generate produces feelings of gratitude and appreciation in others.

Remember that small acts of kindness count large, especially to the recipients. So give help to the person struggling with their onboard luggage, help the elderly or infirm cross the street, ask the stranger looking lost if they need directions. And always share your umbrella with those caught out in the rain without one of their own.

Many of the examples above may appear to be small and of little impact. However, as Aesop wrote, "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." 

Or, as Kahlil Gibran put it, "The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention."

In addition to the above, you should also be kinder and more gentle with yourself. 

There is little reward to be found in being overly harsh and too critical with one's self. 

While the old saying "kindness starts at home" certainly has a ring of truth to it, it is important to remember that authentic kindness starts with one's self.

Either way, exhibiting kindness to yourself or to others, is sure to bring more authentic happiness into your life. 

This article is partially excerpted from the top-selling personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

Exhibit More Kindness Daily

Bring Additional Kindness Into the Lives of Others 

A recent blog post showed how extending kindness to others is one way of creating authentic happiness in ourselves. 

Here are several ways to easily add kindness to your personal values and to bring some additional kindness into the lives of others:

Share your knowledge and experiences with others through volunteer talks in schools and your community, or through free content you deliver via the Internet.

Donate used books, magazines, clothes, cookware, dishes, pots, and other items you rarely or never use (de-cluttering your home and your life is always a good feeling).

Provide assistance, comfort or food to those who need it the most, especially the homeless. Rather than toss unused food, bag it up and drive to an area where the homeless hang out or beg. Whenever you see a homeless or hungry person near a fast food outlet you are about to visit, add one healthy item to your order and hand it to that person as you walk to your car or drive away. The thanks you will receive will be well worth the extra few dollars you spend.

Help your neighbors with chores or watching their children so they can have a "date night" or just take some time from their own daily routines.

Make way for those who seem to be in a hurry, even if they appear rude or unfriendly. Perhaps they are dealing with a major personal or family issue, or maybe their work has them stressed. No sense in you getting stressed over their behavior. Better to step aside or allow them to rapidly pass you on the road. Who knows, you might actually be doing them a huge favor by letting them hurry on by.

Surprise your loved ones with notes of encouragement and appreciation. This works particularly well with pre-teenage children, who just love getting a surprised note of love, praise or encouragement from mom or dad in their packed lunches or hidden in their school books.

Actively engage introverts and shy people in small talk whenever you encounter them in hallways, elevators, stores, parties, or other public places. They often have great insights and a lot to say, if only asked and encouraged.

When you add kindness into your daily routine and interactions, you will quickly come to realize that extending kindness and truly felt pleasantries to others is one of the core components of authentic happiness. 

This article is partially excerpted from the top-selling personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats.