Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

Listen to episode 229 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Am I a Genius? | How the Successful Succeed. Edited and adapted from A Book of Cheerful Counsel by Nixon Waterman, published in 1909. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I’d like to start today by thanking some of our new patrons, including Margo Blake, Anna Rido Suico, Otis Irvine, and Philip Dvil. When you become a patron of our podcast, you receive exclusive access to all of the transcripts in our podcast archive, as well as access to the patron series Our Sunday Talks — and it costs as little as 3$ month. Learn more at LivingHour.org/patron. Now, on to today’s reading, which was edited and adapted from A Book of Cheerful Counsel by Nixon Waterman, published in 1909. "AM I A GENIUS?" "You hope, and perchance believe, no doubt, that when you have a full opportunity to show the world what sort of timber you are made of that people will look upon you as being a (quote) "genius." Almost every person cherishes some such aspiration. And why not? Such a trend of thought is to be encouraged. It is proper and commendable. We would all be geniuses if we could. The world admires a genius. If you are the genuine article, it seeks your autograph, prints your picture in books and magazines, and when you pass away it is likely to build a monument over your remains. Can we all be geniuses? Some say we can and some say we cannot. Some say geniuses are born and some say they are self-made. When Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, was asked for his definition of genius he answered: "Two per cent is genius and ninety-eight per cent is hard work.” This definition of genius quite agrees with that given by the American statesman, Alexander Hamilton, who said: "All the genius I have lies in just this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings; my mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I eventually make, the people are pleased to call genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought."

Listen to episode 228 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Aristotle & Wisdom | It’s a Wonderful Life. The Way of Wonder. Edited and adapted from a classic book of essays by Stephen Paget. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Make the year 2018 your best one yet with the help of our Majesty Meditation Program. In just 30 days, you’ll find yourself well along the path to greater happiness and success in your personal and professional life. The price is only 11.99, and you can get 30% off by using the coupon code: inspiration. Learn more at LivingHour.org/majesty. Now on to today’s reading, which was edited and adapted from a book of essays by Stephen Paget, published in 1911. THIS much I remember of Aristotle, that he calls Wonder the beginning of the love of Wisdom. To have a right judgment of our surroundings, we must wonder at them, and be surprised that they and we are met together. So long as we exercise this quickening sense of wonder, there is hope for us, and some justification of our presence here on earth — because we all are on the road that leads toward wisdom: and they alone are incorrigible fools to whom Nature comes natural. Once we have fallen into the bad habit of taking for granted what Nature gives us, and have ceased to be amazed, it may be fairly said that in the midst of life we are in death. For one might as well be dead as alive, to look with dull eyes at the world, not finding it wonderful. So excellent is Wonder that we must not profane its name in common use. For example, there is the phrase, “I wonder if”. You can be sure that he or she, who turns a sentence thusly, is careless in speech, and oblivious of the rights of words. It is impossible “to wonder if”: you simply are not thinking, nor even trying to think.

Listen to episode 227 of the Inspirational Living podcast: New Year’s Resolutions | How to Keep Them. Edited and Adapted from The Mind & Its Education by George Herbert Betts, published in 1906. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I’m launching today’s podcast a day early to welcome in the New Year. I’m sure many of you have made set goals for 2018 and made New Year’s resolutions to live in ways that are healthier to the mind, body, and spirit. To do this successfully is all about changing our habits — getting rid of the bad ones and creating positive new ones. So, habit formation is the subject of today’s reading, which I’ve pulled from the archive. It is edited and adapted from The Mind & Its Education by George Herbert Betts, published in 1906. Habit is our "best friend or worst enemy." We are "walking bundles of habits." Habit is a "cable which we cannot break." Such are the popular expressions linked with habitual behavior. In other words, let me know your habits of life, and you have revealed your moral standards and conduct. Let me discover your intellectual habits, and I understand your type of mind and methods of thought. In short, our lives are largely a daily round of activities dictated by our habits in this line or that. Most of our movements and acts are habitual; we think as we have formed the habit of thinking; we decide as we are in the habit of deciding; we sleep, or eat, or speak as we have grown into the habit of doing these things. But while habit may be considered a tyrant, its potential benefits far exceed the bad.

Listen to episode 226 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Human Evolution, Intelligent Design & Limitless Possibility. Edited and adapted from “The Message of New Thought” by Abel Allen. Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. As I mentioned last time, I am currently on vacation, so this week, as a special gift to our listeners, I am sharing a couple episodes from the series Our Sunday Talks, which ordinarily is only available to our patrons. To gain full access to this weekly series of thought-provoking spiritual talks, as well as transcripts of the entire archive of the Inspirational Living podcast, please become our monthly patron by visiting LivingHour.org/patron. Today’s episode of Our Sunday Talks was edited and adapted from “Message of New Thought” by Abel Allen, published in 1914. HUMANITY has ever stalked the world like an idle sleep walker, in a dream of bewilderment, unconscious of the boundless resources of our own nature and the limitless heights that the fully developed person may reach. Limitation has always clouded our vision. Of the limitless reservoirs of mental life within ourselves, we have been totally oblivious. We are a stranger to ourselves, an unguided wanderer, ignorant of our own greatness and possibilities. We supposed we were made in an instant, the result of a fiat, and that our limitations were set by the divine decree that brought us into existence. We were never told that we were not finished, or of the slumbering possibilities within ourselves. But we are awakening from our long dream, to the realization that “The full measure of the individual has never been taken” and that the infinite path of progress stretches away before us.

Listen to episode 225 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Pray | The Art of Prayer. Edited and adapted from Prayer, the Art of Believing by Neville Goddard, published in 1945. Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I’m currently on vacation for the holidays and unable to record a new podcast this week. So, as a special holiday gift to our listeners, I am going to play for you a reading from Our Sunday Talks, a weekly series that is available exclusively to our patrons. If you enjoy today’s reading, please do consider becoming our patron. For as little as 3$ a month, you can gain full access to this series of thought-provoking spiritual talks, as well as access to over 200 transcripts of the Inspirational Living podcast. To learn more, please visit: LivingHour.org/patron. This episode of Our Sunday Talks was edited and adapted from Prayer, the Art of Believing by Neville Goddard, published in 1945. PRAYER is an art and requires practice. The first requirement is a controlled imagination. Ostentation and vain repetitions are foreign to prayer. Its exercise requires tranquility and peace of mind. The ceremonies that are customarily used in prayer are mere superstitions and have been invented to give prayer an air of solemnity. Those who do practice the art of prayer are often ignorant of the laws that control it. They attribute the results obtained to the ceremonies and mistake the letter for the spirit. The essence of prayer is faith; but faith must be permeated with understanding to be given that active quality which it does not possess when standing alone. Our Sunday Talk today is an attempt to reduce the unknown to the known, by pointing out conditions on which prayers are answered, and without which they cannot be answered.....

Listen to episode 224 of the Inspirational Living podcast: A Christmas Sermon on Meekness, Humility & Love. Edited and adapted from All These Things Added by James Allen. Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. This is our last podcast before Christmas, so I would like to wish you all a wonderful and healthy Christmas holiday with your friends, family, and everyone you hold dear. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from All These Things Added by James Allen, published in 1903. THE mountain bends not to the fiercest storm, but it shields the fledgling and the lamb; and though all people tread upon it, yet it protects them, and bears them up upon its sturdy bosom. So it is also with the meek among us, who compassionately bend to shield the lowliest creature, and, though they may be despised, lift all others up and lovingly protect them. As glorious as the mountain in its silence are the divine man and woman in their silent Meekness; like the mountainous form, their loving embrace is expansive and sublime. Truly their body, like the mountain’s base, is fixed in the valleys and the mists; but the summit of their being is eternally bathed in cloudless glory, and lives with the majestic Silence. When you have found Meekness, you have found divinity. You have realized the divine consciousness, and know yourself as divine. You also know all others as divine — though they know it not themselves, being asleep and dreaming. Meekness is a divine quality, and as such is all powerful. The meek person overcomes by not resisting, and by allowing themselves to be defeated, they attain to the Supreme Conquest. Related Christmas Podcasts: Christmas Gifts & Giving The Feast of St. Friend Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Clause

Listen to episode 223 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Do Your Best at All Times | Success at Any Age. Edited and adapted from “Self-Control: It’s Kingship & Majesty” by William George Jordan. Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift, don’t forget that our books Evergreen: 50 Inspirational Life Lessons and Everest: 50 Motivational Life Lessons are now available in e-book, and easily purchased by our listeners worldwide. To buy your copies today, please visit the website InspirationalLifeLessons.com. Now on to today’s reading, which was edited and adapted from “Self-Control: It’s Kingship & Majesty” by William George Jordan, published in 1898. Life is a wondrously complex problem for each one of us, until, one day, in a moment of illumination, we awaken to the great realization that we can make it simple — never quite simple, but always simpler. There are a thousand mysteries of right and wrong that have baffled the wise ones of the ages. There are depths in the great fundamental question of the human race that no plummet of philosophy has ever sounded. There are wild cries of honest hunger for truth that seek to pierce the silence beyond the grave, but ever echo back only a repetition of these unanswered cries. To us all, there comes, at times, a great note of questioning despair that darkens our horizon and paralyzes our effort: We say to ourselves, “If there really be a God, if eternal justice really rules the world, why should life be as it is? Why do some people starve while others feast; why does virtue often languish in the shadow while vice triumphs in the sunshine; why does failure so often dog the footsteps of honest effort, while the success that comes from trickery and dishonor is greeted with the world’s applause? How is it that the loving parent of one family is taken by death, while the worthless one of another is spared? Why is there so much unnecessary pain, sorrow, and suffering in the world — why, indeed, should there be any at all?”

Listen to episode 222 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Art of Public Speaking | Success Talks. Edited and adapted from the book Self-Investment by Orison Swett Marden, published in 1911. Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you value our podcast and would like to help support us with a one-time donation this holiday season, please visit LivingHour.org/donate. Your donations are greatly appreciated and will help ensure the continued production of our podcast. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Self-Investment by Orison Swett Marden, published in 1911. It does not matter whether you want to be a public speaker or not. A person should have such complete control of themselves, should be so self-reliant and self-poised, that they can get up in front of any audience, no matter how large or formidable, and express their thoughts clearly and distinctly. Self-expression in some manner is the only means of developing mental power. It may be in music; it may be on canvas; it may be through oratory; it may come through selling goods or writing a book; but it must come through self-expression. Self-expression in any legitimate form tends to call out what is in us, our resourcefulness and inventiveness. But no other form of self-expression develops us so thoroughly and so effectively, and so quickly unfolds all of our powers, as speaking before an audience. It is doubtful whether anyone can reach the highest standard of culture without studying the art of expression, especially public vocal expression. In all ages, public speaking has been regarded as the highest expression of human achievement. Young people, no matter what they intend to be, whether mechanic or farmer, merchant or physician, should make it a study.

Listen to episode 221 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Pathways to a Beautiful Life | Our Sunday Talks. Edited and adapted from The Pathway of Roses by Christian D. Larson, published in 1910. Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you have someone on your Christmas shopping list who is interested in spiritual growth and who might describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” I have a gift idea for you. Give them exclusive patron access to our series Our Sunday Talks, which features talks dedicated to spirituality and spiritual growth. To learn how you can give access as a special Christmas gift, please visit LivingHour.org/Christmas. To give you a better idea of the kind of talks that we deliver in Our Sunday Talks, I am going to play for you today a talk that we delivered this past Sunday (December 10th), which was edited and adapted from The Pathway of Roses by Christian D. Larson, published in 1910. We are searching for pathways to a beautiful life. But often we don’t know where to begin, and what guideposts we should use to navigate our journey. The first thing to do is to recognize the great truth that every individual can live their own life exactly as they wish to. You are the real master of your own existence, and it is you who may determine how perfect and how beautiful that existence is to be. Your life is in your own hands. You may live as you wish. You may secure from life whatever you desire, because there is no limit to life, and no limit to your capacity to live. The elements of life can be modified, changed, developed and perfected to comply with your own supreme demand. The increase of life can be realized in the exact measure of your largest need. You are in living touch with Infinite life, and there is neither limit nor end to the source of your supply. To live in the constant recognition of this great truth, is to rise continually into higher and higher degrees of that mastery of life that gives us the power to live our lives according to our most perfect ideals.

Listen to episode 220 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Success & The Self-Development Habit. Edited and adapted from the book Self-Investment by Orson Swett Marden, published in 1911. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Education, as commonly understood, is the process of developing the mind by means of books and teachers. When education has been neglected, either by reason of lack of opportunity, or because advantage was not taken of the opportunities afforded, the one remaining hope is self-improvement. Opportunities for self-improvement surround us; the helps to self-improvement are abundant, and in this day of cheap books, free libraries, evening schools, and the internet, there can be no good excuse for neglecting to use these faculties for self-development which are so abundantly supplied. When we look at the difficulties which hindered the acquisition of knowledge long ago (the scarcity and the costliness of books, the long hours of work and toil which left so little time for study), we may well marvel at the giants of scholarship those days of hardship produced. And when we add to these limitations, the physical disabilities, blindness, deformity, and ill-health which many contended against, we may feel shame as we contemplate the fullness of our modern opportunities, and the helps and incentives to study and self-development which are so lavishly provided for our use and inspiration, and of which we avail ourselves so little. Today is the final day to get our hardcover books Everest (50 Motivational Life Lessons) & Evergreen (50 Inspirational Life Lessons) at a 30% discount. Order your copies by midnight tonight to get them on sale and in time for Christmas!

Listen to episode 219 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Toastmasters | International Toast for Every Occasion. Edited & adapted from the book Stories and Toasts for After Dinner by Nathaniel C. Fowler, published in 1914. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I’d like to start off by thanking everyone who has purchased our new book Everest: 50 Motivational Life Lessons, as well as last year’s book Evergreen: 50 Inspirational Life Lessons. Time is running out for you to purchase our hardcover books for the special holiday sales price of $15.34 and get them in time for Christmas. The sale ends in a few days on December 7th. To get your copies today, visit our book website: InspirationalLifeLessons.com. Now, on to today’s reading, which was edited and adapted from the book Stories and Toasts for After Dinner by Nathaniel C. Fowler, published in 1914. May the sparks of love brighten into a flame. May we kiss whom we please and please whom we kiss. Here is to Love in every breast, liberty in every heart, and learning in every head. To The three F's: Friendship, Feeling, and Fidelity; Friendship without interest, Feeling for the depressed, Fidelity to truth. May Love and Reason be friends, and Beauty and Prudence marry. May those who escape the quick sands of jealousy never find themselves on the shoals of indifference. In the voyage of life, may Contentment be our fellow passenger. May we be happy, and our enemies know it. May our counsels be wise, and our commerce increase, and may we ever experience the blessings of peace. Our inspirational books are also now available as e-books for our international listeners and anyone who would like a digital copy. Choose from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or the iTunes Store by visiting one of the following links: Evergreen (50 Inspirational Life Lessons): http://books2read.com/inspiration Everest (50 Motivational Life Lessons): http://books2read.com/motivation

Listen to episode 218 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Duty to Be Happy | Joy Civics 101. Edited and adapted from the book Happiness by Hugh Black, published in 1911. Podcast Excerpt: If it can be said, with any truth, that we have a right to be happy, this right can also be stated as a duty — a duty to others, as well as ourselves. The mere exercise and cultivation of any faculty is a source of pleasure, and such cultivation is surely also a duty, unless it conflicts with some still higher duty. There is a common notion among many people that duty is precisely what we do not like. If we are in any doubt, they say that the safe rule is to find out what will be pleasant, and then do the opposite! It is true that duty often asks for sacrifice and demands the hard thing rather than the easy one, but to make pain a test of duty is to turn the world topsy-turvy. Too much sickly sentiment has passed for wisdom and religion over years, as if life was only a Vale of Tears, and man was made to mourn, and the world was but a scene of woe. In such a universe it would be a duty to be unhappy, even if by a freak of fortune it were possible to avoid the regular lot. Disease and sorrow do exist, but health is the normal, and joy is the natural, and it is a privilege to live. Problems abound, but the strong and healthy view is that they exist to be bravely faced, and (if possible) solved. Announcement: Our inspirational books are now available as e-books for our international listeners and anyone who would like a digital copy. Choose from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or the iTunes Store by visiting one of the following links: Evergreen (50 Inspirational Life Lessons): http://books2read.com/inspiration Everest (50 Motivational Life Lessons): http://books2read.com/motivation

Listen to episode 217 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Web of Life | Inspirational Biology. Edited and adapted from the Adventure of Life by Robert W. Mackenna, published in 1919. Podcast Excerpt: Life is the most wonderful thing in the world. We find it everywhere, abundant, prodigal, and luxuriant. Earth, sea, and sky teem with it. The grass in the fields, the flowers on the hillside, the trees in the forest, the birds in the air, the fish in the water, and all things that creep or walk are quick with life. We turn over a stone with our stick and sack a city, for underneath it is a seething colony of ants, which scurry hither and thither in no purposeless panic, but intent on saving themselves, their young, and their hoarded food from destruction by the invader. We look abroad and discover that wherever life can find a foothold it has established itself. Not far from where I write there is a great range of limestone hills. Their summits are crowned by vegetation of many kinds, and pine-trees stand defiant in the blast; but all along the precipitous sides, wherever niche or cranny has afforded a lodgment, some tree has grown, and, hanging between the earth and the sky, where no cragsman would ever venture to tread, it proclaims the triumph of life over death, and the urgency of nature's demand for life, and yet more life. Announcement: Our inspirational books are now available as e-books for our international listeners and anyone who would like a digital copy. Choose from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or the iTunes Store by visiting one of the following links: Evergreen (50 Inspirational Life Lessons): http://books2read.com/inspiration Everest (50 Motivational Life Lessons): http://books2read.com/motivation

Listen to episode 216 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Inspirational Quotes for Daily Life. Excerpts from our new book Evergreen: 50 Inspirational Life Lessons. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I would like you to imagine something. Imagine a new American renaissance. Imagine a strong American spirit, revitalized by the common-sense virtues and success principles of the past. Imagine that you have an important, essential role to play in making it happen. Our book Evergreen (50 Inspirational Life Lessons) is your guidebook. Get 30% off the sales price now by visiting InspirationalLifeLessons.com, and using the coupon code LIVINGHOUR30. On today’s podcast we are going to read some of our favorite inspirational quotes from the book. But before we begin just let me take a moment to wish our listeners a happy Thanksgiving. I am truly grateful that you take the time to join me each week for this podcast. And a special word of gratitude to all of our monthly patrons, whose financial support helps to make this podcast happen. Thank you so much. ----------- NOBODY can hand you a ready-made key to open the door of success. You must fashion your own key and find the combination of the lock for yourself. No magician can waft you to the heights of fortune and fame. You cannot fly there on the wings of an airplane. The road, often rocky, has to be traversed on foot. You, and you alone, can supply the motive power. You, and you alone, must put forth the necessary exertion. No one can remove from your shoulders the burden of the effort. You must do your own climbing....

Listen to episode 215 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Motivational Quotes for Success. Excerpts from our new book Everest: 50 Motivational Life Lessons. Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Are you read to conquer your fears? Are you ready to overcome your limiting beliefs to achieve greater things? Our new book Everest: 50 Motivational Life Lessons is ready power that success. Get 30% off the sales price now by using the coupon code LIVINGHOUR30. Visit the website InspirationalLifeLessons.com to learn more. To give you a sneak peak of some of the material that’s included in Everest, we’ll be reading for you today some of our favorite motivational quotes from the book..... The men and women who have blazed new paths for civilization have always been precedent breakers. It is ever the individual who believes in their own idea; who can think and act without a crowd to back them; who is not afraid to stand alone; who is bold, original, resourceful; who has the courage to go where others have never been, to do what others have never done, that accomplishes things, that leaves their mark on their times. Do not be afraid of being original. Do not be a copy of your father, your mother, your grandparents; which would be as foolish as it would be for the violet to try to be a rose. Every person is born to do a certain work. If you try to do some other person’s work, you will be a failure.