Welcome to Litsy!

According to ancient Eastern thinking, to live a fulfilling life, you must do three

things: have a son, write a book and plant a tree. By doing so, the thinking goes,

you will have three legacies that will live on long after you die.

First, he advises, a walk should never have a specific purpose. Rather
than having a destination, you should simply immerse yourself in the beauty of

the walk itself. Second, you must never take your worries with you on the walk.
Leave them at home, for if you don‘t, they will become even more deeply rooted
in your mind by the end of the walk. And finally, be fully aware. Train yourself
to pay complete attention to the sights, sounds and smells.

“God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the

things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be

changed, and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.”

It's not what you are that is holding

you back in life. It‘s what you think you‘re not. It is what is going on in your

inner world that is preventing you from having all that you want. And the

moment you fully understand this insight and set about ridding your mind of all

its limiting thoughts, you will see almost immediate improvements in your

personal circumstances.

As Seneca observed, “It is not

because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that

they are difficult.”

The British statesman Benjamin Disraeli once said, “Nurture your mind with

great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.”

“fake it till you make it.” In other

words, you can pretend to be the kind of person you wish to be. By consistently

acting as a highly enthusiastic person might or as a truly confident person would,

you will eventually take on these personal attributes.

Strive for less time in bed but a richer, deeper sleep.Understand that fatigue is often a mental creation that stems from doing things
you do not like to do. And remember Henry Wadsworth Longfellow‘s wise

words:
The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night.

“How much have you heard in the last twenty-four hours that you

couldn‘t do without?” He then added with a smile, “A man who has to shout can
never tell a lie.” But what I remember the most about this special man was his

rare ability to thrive on only four hours of sleep. “Sleep is like a drug,” he

explained. “Take too much at a time and it makes you dopey. You lose time,

vitality and opportunities.”

As Plato noted, “My belief is not that the good body by any

bodily excellence improves the soul, but, on the contrary, that the good soul, by

her own excellence, improves the body as far as this may be possible.” Effective

recreation then must involve some pursuit that soothes your soul.

An excellent way to rise to a higher level of enlightenment and personal

wisdom is to make a list of the ten biggest mistakes you have made in your life

on the left-hand side of a page within your journal. Then, on the righthand side,

write down the corresponding lessons you have learned from every mistake and

the benefits that actually flowed into your life as a result of those so-called

failures.

If you find that after reading the first three chapters of a book, you have not

gained any worthwhile information or that the book has failed to keep your

attention, do yourself a favor: put the book away and make better use of your

time (like reading the next book in your pile).

As

Francis Bacon said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and

some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in

parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few books to be read

wholly, and with diligence and attention.”

The more you are as

a person, the less you need to prove yourself to others.

One of the traits I respect most in people is humility. “The tree that has the most

fruit is the tree that bends to the ground,” my father taught me as I was growing

up. And though there are some exceptions, I have found in my own experience

that it is true—the people who know the most, who have achieved the most and

who have lived the most are also the people closest to the ground. In a word,

they are humble.

All effective CEOs

realize that “if it‘s going to be, it‘s up to me” and act as the catalysts of their own

dreams. Similarly, if you want something done, rather than waiting for luck to

look your way, take steps to get it done. If there is someone you know could help

you solve a problem or seize an opportunity, pick up the phone and call him or

her. Remember, you can make excuses or you can make progress, but you

cannot do both.

we need to keep our ears

and eyes open to the realities of life. If we don‘t act on life and take action to

make things happen, it will act on us and give us results we might not want

Often, we perceive in others the weaknesses we most need to address

within ourselves. Stop blaming and condemning. Accept complete responsibility

for the way things are and resolve to work on changing yourself before seeking

to change others. This is one of the truest measures of a person of strong

character. As Erica Jong said, “Take your life into your own hands and what

happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

The French mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote, “All man‘s miseries derive from
not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.” We have become experts at filling
our lives with noise and activities. We wake up to the sound of the radio blaring
and dress while the television news is on. We drive to work listening to the latest
traffic report and spend the next eight hours in a bustling office.

first-
class environment is an investment, not an expense.

Take a good, hard look at your environment. Your thoughts are shaped by

the people you associate with, by the books you read, by the words you speak

and by your daily physical surroundings.

your

thoughts form your world. What you focus on in your life grows, what you think

about expands and what you dwell on determines your destiny. Life is a self-

fulfilling prophecy—it gives you just about what you expect from it.

As novelist Saul Bellow once observed,
“A clear plan relieves you of the torment of

choice.”
Or as author Glenn Bland wrote,
“Goals and plans take the worry out of

living.”
If you set goals, the actions you take will be based on your life‘s mission
rather than on your day-to-day mood

Remember, the person who asks for what he wants at least has a
chance of getting what he wants. The person who does not ask has no chance.

“It‘s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the
best, you very often get it.”
( Somerset
Maugham)

“He who asks may be a fool for five minutes. He who doesn‘t is a fool for a

lifetime,” goes the wise Chinese proverb.

Three Gate Test.” The ancient sages would only speak if the words they
utter passed three gates. At the 1st gate, they asked themselves,
Are these words truthful? If so, the words could then pass on to the 2nd gate.
At the 2nd gate, the sages asked, Are these words necessary? If so, they

would then pass on to the third gate, where they would ask, Are these words
kind? If so, then only would they leave their lips and be sent out into the world.

“Anyone can become angry—that‘s easy. But to be angry with the right person,

to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—

that is not easy,” taught Aristotle

“Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

The smallest of actions is always better than the boldest of intentions.

Once and for all, come to realize that pain is a

teacher and failure is the highway to success.

Here are four tips to help you sleep more deeply:

1.Don‘t rehearse the activities of your day while you are lying in bed trying to
get to sleep.

2.Don‘t eat after 8 P.M. (If you have to eat something, have soup.)

3.Don‘t watch the news before you go to sleep.

4.Don‘t read in bed.

Joining the “Five o‘Clock Club” will allow you

to start controlling your day rather than letting your day control you. Winning

the “Battle of the Bed” and putting “mind over mattress” by rising early will

provide you with at least one quiet hour for yourself during the most crucial part

of your day: the beginning. If spent wisely, the rest of your day will unfold in a
wonderful way.

Thoreau said: “It is not enough to be

busy, so are the ants. The question is what are you so busy about?”

One

study of 18,000 Harvard alumni found that every hour spent on exercise added

three hours to the participants‘ lives. Few investments will yield a better return

than time spent on physical fitness. And remember: “Those who don‘t make

time for exercise must eventually make time for illness.”

Repeat your mantras softly as you wash the dishes to fill otherwise unproductive times of
your day with a powerful life improvement forceTry to say your personal
phrase at least two hundred times a day for at least four weeks. The results will
be profound as you take one giant step to finding the peace, prosperity and

purpose your life requires. As Hazrat Inayat Khan said, “The words that

enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.”

If

it is inner peace and calm you seek, the phrase, known as a mantra, might be, “I

am so grateful that I am a serene and tranquil person.” If it is more confidence

that you want, your mantra could be, “I am delighted that I am full of confidence

and boundless courage.” If it is material prosperity you are after, your saying

might be, “I am so grateful that money and opportunity is flowing into my life.”

I call
the first thirty minutes after you wake up “The Platinum 30” since they are truly

the most valuable moments of your day and have a profound influence on the
quality of every minute that follows. If you have the wisdom and self-discipline
to ensure that, during this key period, you think only the purest of thoughts and
take only the finest of actions, you will notice that your days will consistently
unfold in the most marvelous ways.

When you promise someone you will do something, do

it. Be a person of your word rather than being “all talk and no action.” As

Mother Teresa said, “there should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting

point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone‘s house. That says enough. "

To develop an honesty philosophy, begin to monitor how many small

untruths you tell over the course of a week. Go on what I call a “truth fast” for

the next seven days and vow to be completely honest in all your dealings with

others—and with yourself. Every time you fail to do the right thing, you fuel the

habit of doing the wrong thing. Every time you do not tell the truth, you feed the

habit of being untruthful.

Medical researchers have even found that

writing in a private journal for as little time as 15 minutes a day can improve

health, functioning of your immune system and your overall attitude.
Remember,

If your life is worth thinking about, it is worth writing about.

“If your priorities don‘t get scheduled into your planner, other people‘s priorities

will get put into your planner.” The solution is to be clear about your life‘s

highest objectives and then to learn to say no with grace.

The real problem is that when you don‘t keep your word, you lose

credibility. When you lose credibility, you break the bonds of trust. And

breaking the bonds of trust ultimately leads to a string of broken relationships.

If your life is worth thinking about, it is worth writing about.

And Aristotle made this point of wisdom in yet

another way: “Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it: men come

to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players, by playing the harp. In

the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled

acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we come to be

brave.”

The nineteenth-century English writer Thomas Henry Huxley arrived

at a similar conclusion, noting: “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education

is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be

done, whether you like it or not".

The tougher you

are on yourself, the easier life will be on you. The quality of your life ultimately

is shaped by the quality of your choices and decisions, ones that range from the

career you choose to pursue to the books you read, the time that you wake up

every morning and the thoughts you think during the hours of your days. When

you consistently flex your willpower by making those choices that you know are

“Be the change that you wish to see most in your world.” And once you do, your

life will change. (Mahatma Gandhi)

If you don't act on life, life has a habit of acting on you.

The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let inside of us while we live. - Norman Cousins