The reason why rivers and seas receive the homage of a hundred mountain streams is that they keep below them. Thus they are able to reign over all the mountain streams. - Lao Tse

it’s their idea…

An easy way to win friends and gain cooperation is to let them take credit for your idea. We all feel a need to be right. We all want to be credited justly. Does it really matter? What’s more important, that we be right, or that the right outcome be achieved? If we believe in the inherent goodness of Life, then we won’t be so concerned about gaining credit. Let the other person think it’s their idea, we win a friend and gain their cooperation for a lifetime!

life principles

16th Dale Carnegie Principle: Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.

Here’s a story from the book:

Colonel Edward M. House wielded an enormous influence in national and international affairs while Woodrow Wilson occupied the White House. Wilson leaned upon Colonel House for secret counsel and advice more than he did upon even members of his own cabinet.
What method did the Colonel use in influencing the President? Fortunately, we know, for House himself revealed it to Arthur D. Howden Smith, and Smith quoted House in an article in The Saturday Evening Post.
" ‘After I got to know the President,’ House said, ‘I learned the best way to convert him to an idea was to plant it in his mind casually, but so as to interest him in it - so as to get him thinking about it on his own account. The first time this worked it was an accident. I had been visiting him at the White House and urged a policy on him which he appeared to disapprove. But several days later, at the

dinner table, I was amazed to hear him trot out my suggestion as his own.’ "
Did House interrupt him and say, "That’s not your idea. That’s mine" ? Oh, no. Not House. He was too adroit for that. He didn’t care about credit. He wanted results. So he let Wilson continue to feel that the idea was his. House did even more than that. He gave Wilson public credit for these ideas.
Let’s remember that everyone we come in contact with is just as human as Woodrow Wilson. So let’s use Colonel House’s technique.

Daily Affirmation: Today I allow others to take credit!

Recommendation: How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.  - Henry Ford

airplane

To use this analogy, many of us are like this airplane. We’re on the runway, we’re giving it our best, the wind continues to push against us, the entire plane is now rattling, and we’re getting ready to give up because it’s tough. Life is tough.

let go

We know what we must do. We push a little harder and allow the plane to rise, then we let go. Let’s recognize our state, let’s become aware of our situation. When the time is right we must learn to let go, especially when we feel exhausted and know that we’ve struggled enough already. Let’s just go with the momentum that is Life and allow the winds to carry us. We don’t actually have to do as much as we think we do…

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM letting go…

Recommendation: Release Your Brilliance by Simon T. Bailey

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love. - Mother Teresa

the silver bullet

Love really is the answer to Life’s perplexing questions…

• Why do we exist? (to love)
• Who created us? (love did)
• What’s our Life Purpose? (to love)
• How can we be happy? (by loving)
• How can we improve relationships? (via love)

love daily

What would happen if we experienced, daily, that Love is the answer?

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM Love…

Recommendation: Love: What Life Is All About by Leo F. Buscaglia

… the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace.  - Jesus, The Urantia Papers

pleasing God

Some believers of God think that we have to go through major hoops to convince God to love us and to save us. God doesn’t need to be placated, he doesn’t need to be appeased, he already loves us. He created us to be eternal beings and this is so because we are his children. We are saved, we are safe. The only question is how do we know God and claim the peace that we deserve while still living?

fruits of spirit

We know God by simply accepting that he exists and by allowing him to participate in our lives. Once we give God permission to work with us then life begins to change. We slowly become more sure of his existence and his peace starts to hold firm in our hearts. We then tend to become lovingly service oriented, bolder, sincere, more honest and tolerant of our brothers and sisters…

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM God’s child and therefore safe…

Recommendation: The Urantia Papers

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.

- John Greenleaf Whittier

auto pilot

Thinking is a faculty we bring to bear in our lives. We initiate it, we guide it and we execute it. Because we do so much thinking it has become automatic. We’ve lost control of our own thinking, it now controls us. So the question is do we assert control over our own mind or do we behave as though it’s not up to us?? Will we seize the good and the positive around us or will we succumb to fear and negativity?

now and here

Right here and at this very moment life is focalized in and around us. Blood courses through our veins and arteries, air eases in and out of our lungs, our brain is active in more ways than one and we are alive!! The whole planet teams with life as it also sings to the tunes of the infinite. If we enjoy this beautiful melody that is life itself, playing all around and inside us, we’ll know that we’re an integral part of this great enterprise. We’ll also realize that here and now is where we must be, this is where life itself intersects with Time and Space…

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM in the Now…

Recommendation: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle