The Power Of Habit

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I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.

I am completely at your command.

 

Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me.

 

 

Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great men. And, alas, of all failures as well.

 

 

Those who are great, I have made great.

I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine. Plus, the intelligence of man.

You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin; it makes no difference to me.

 

 

Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet.

Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.

 

Who am I? 

 

I am habit.

 

Author Unknown

Steps To Happiness

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Everybody Knows: You can’t be all things to all people.

 

You can’t do all things at once.

 

You can’t do all things equally well.

 

You can’t do all things better than everyone else.

 

Your humanity is showing just like everyone else’s.

 

So:

 

You have to find out who you are, and be that.

 

You have to decide what comes first, and do that.

 

You have to discover your strengths, and use them.

 

You have to learn not to compete with others,

 

Because no one else is in the contest of being you.

 

Then:

 

You will have learned to accept your own uniqueness.

 

You will have learned to set priorities and make decisions.

 

You will have learned to live with your limitations.

 

You will have learned to give yourself the respect that is due.

 

And you’ll be a most vital mortal.

 

Dare To Believe:

 

That you are a wonderful, unique person.

 

That you are a once-in-all-history event.

 

That it’s more than a right, it’s your duty, to be who you are.

 

That life is not a problem to solve, but a gift to cherish.

 

And you’ll be able to stay one up on what used to get you down.

 

Author Unknown

On Parenting By Kahlil Gilbran

By

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

 

They come through you but not from you,

 

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

 

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

 

For they have their own thoughts.

 

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

 

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

 

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you,

 

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

 

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

 

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends with you His might that His arrows might go swift and far.

 

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

 

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

 

Kahlil Gibran

On the Subject of Money

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Money will buy a bed, but not sleep;

 

Books, but not brains;

 

Food, but not appetite;

 

Finery, but not beauty;

 

A house, but not a home;

 

Medicine, but not health;

 

Luxuries, but not culture;

 

Amusement, but not happiness;

 

Religion, but not salvation;

 

A passport to everywhere but heaven.

 

Author Unknown

People By Mother Theresa (Originally By Kent M Keith)

By

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centred;

 

Forgive them anyway.

 

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

 

Be kind anyway.

 

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

 

Succeed anyway.

 

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

 

Be honest and frank anyway.

 

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

 

Build anyway.

 

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

 

Be happy anyway.

 

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

 

Do good anyway.

 

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

 

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

 

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and GOD.

 

It was never between you and them anyway.

 

Popularly attributed to Mother Theresa, but actually by Kent M Keith and read by Mother Theresa.

I Am Me And I’m OK

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I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it – I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself.

 

I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts.

 

I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know – but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me.

 

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded.

 

I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me.

 

I am me, and I am Okay.

 

From Self Esteem by Virginia Satir

The Invitation

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It doesn’t matter what you do for a living.

 

I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

 

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

 

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool

 

for love,

 

for dreams,

 

for the adventure of being alive.

 

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.

 

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow,

if you have been opened by life’s betrayals

 

or have become shrivelled and closed

 

from fear of further pain!

 

I want to know if you can sit with pain,

 

mine or your own,

without moving to hide it

 

or fade it

 

or fix it.

 

I want to know if you can be with joy,

mine or your own;

if you can dance with wildness

 

and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes

 

without cautioning us to

 

be careful,

be realistic,

remember the limitations of being a human.

 

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me

 

is true.

 

I want to know if you can

 

 disappoint another

 

to be true to yourself;

if you can bear the accusation of betrayal

 

and not betray your own soul.

 

 

If you can be faithless

 

and therefore trustworthy.

 

I want to know if you can see beauty

 

even when it’s not pretty every day.

And if you can source your life

 

from its presence.

 

 

I want to know if you can live with failure,

yours and mine,

 

and still stand on the edge of the lake

 

 and shout to the silver of the full moon,

‘Yes!’

 

It doesn’t interest me

 

to know where you live or how much money you have.

 

I want to know if you can get up

 

after the night of grief and despair,

 

weary and bruised to the bone,

 

and do what needs to be done

 

to feed the children.

 

It doesn’t interest me who you know,

 

or how you came to be here.

 

I want to know if you will stand

 

in the centre of the fire

 

with me

 

and not shrink back.

 

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom

 

you have studied.

 

I want to know what sustains you

 

from the inside,

 

when all else falls away.

 

I want to know if you can be alone

 

with yourself;

and if you truly like the company you keep

 

in the empty moments.

 

(c) copyright 1999 by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. From the book, The Invitation, published by Harper San Francisco, 1999. All rights reserved.

If By Rudyard Kipling

By

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

 

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

 

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream

and not make dreams your master;

 

If you can think

and not make thoughts your aim,

 

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

 

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

 

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss;

 

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew,

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings–nor lose the common touch,

 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

 

If all men count with you, but none too much;

 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

 

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

 

And…which is more…

you’ll be a Man, my son.

 

Rudyard Kipling

Happiness Poems

By

I am classifying happiness poems as poems that either clarify what happiness is or teach us something about becoming happy.

 

Each poem here, has something important to tell us about life and happiness. 

 

Different people have different tastes and respond to different stimuli. To cater for a variety I have included the poems below and you will find quotes and inspiring stories on the resource pages.

 

Here are a selection of happiness poems or the path to happiness.

 

I hope you enjoy them.

 

The One

 

 Unconditional Love

 

 The Power of Habit

 

 Find Something Beautiful

 

The Wise Woman’s Stone

 

 The Carpenter’s House

 

In God We Trust

 

The Butterfly

 

 Maybe

 

 The Cracked Pot

 

 The Invitation

 

 The Man By The Window

 

 The Power of Perspective

 

 Steps To Happiness

 

 People By Mother Theresa

 

 If by Rudyard Kipling

 

 On Parenting By Kahlil Gilbran

 

 Happiness Story: Why do so many of us delay happiness

 

 Anything is possible.

 

 A Heart For Children

 

 On the Subject of Money…

 

 Happiness Poems

 

 Happiness Quotes

 

 Happy Life Quotes

 

 Happy Love Quotes

Happiness Inspiration

By

ll growth begins with wanting something more. When we see an example, of something or someone, that we want to emulate, we are inspired to grow.

 

 

 

Inspiration is that sight at the top of the mountain or over the horizon. It is out of reach for now. But if we can just keep on striving it’s where we’ll reach.

 

It is inspiration in all of it’s forms that pulls us to go beyond our capabilities and explore the boundaries of our existence.

 

Below you will find links to stories, poems and quotes that may inspire you to further growth and happiness.

 

All around us are buildings, monuments and artifacts that inspire us. These have been left, like footprints, by those who went before us

 

 Happiness Quotes

 

 Happy Life Quotes

 

 Happy Love Quotes

 

 Happiness Poems

 

 The Invitation

 

 Steps To Happiness

 

 People By Mother Theresa

 

 If by Rudyard Kipling

 

 On Parenting By Kahlil Gilbran

 

 Happiness Story: Why do so many of us delay happiness

 

 Anything is possible.

 

 A Heart For Children

 

 On the Subject of Money….