How To Keep Yourself Christmas Motivated | A Book Of Commons | Motivation

 This is from 2017 but still relevant.

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Reaching Inner Peace Through Inspirational Books and Quotes

Most of us seek peace, happiness , harmony and sanctuary in our lives. Unfortunately there are those days when it appears that nothing seems to be going right and that happiness is nowhere to be found. Its at these times that inspirational quotes and books can be real handy, they not only provide inspiration, but also give a different view of situations and can be a great source of reflection. The tips below outline ways in which you can use these resources to take away the most meaningful messages and help reach the goal of inner peace.

Overall Growth Will Occur: Reading inspiration books and quotes allows you to reflect on your own life, and as many psychologists and counselors will tell you, that self reflection is the key element to personal development and growth. Inspirational quotes and books can provide a valuable framework to help you to make easy and adaptable changes in your life to achieve your overall and desired gal of true happiness. To get the most out of these resources, it is advised and is helpful to analyze each peace of information and determine if this is the right piece of information for you, and if so, why and what is the personal benefit that you will have from this. It's imperative that you read a lot of material, try to find just the quote for you and ensure that it is the one that will lead you and help you achieve happiness. A framework and personal growth can not be built on one inspirational quote, or based on a few pages of a book, research is vital for hapchange and development.

Positive Influences Bring About Good Feelings: Surrounding yourself with positive things, this does not necessarily mean inspirational quotes and books, it can be any item that brings a person joy, is said to have the most profound and positive affect on a person's well being and emotional health. Along with setting up a positive environment it is crucial that the inner, and emotional growth continues through positive and inspirational readings, this ensure that a continued positive outlook is maintained. When you find yourself feeling down and needing to feel better, turn to positive inspiration. You'd be surprised at how reading a few uplifting words will bring about good feelings and a sense of happiness.

You Will Learn How To Deal With The Negative: Everyone deals with negative and unpleasant situations, it is just a part of life, however it is what you do with that situation and/or how you grow from the experience that separates positive and negative people, and it can be said, happy from unhappy persons. If we aren't careful, negativity can creep into our inner being and bring out a lot of negativity that is detrimental both internally and externally, this gradually and unfortunately can become a habit, so one looses control over the negativity and negative outlooks. Even in negative situations, sad situations or when given negative news, if you have inner peace, if you feel that you are emotionally fulfilled, you are much better equipped to deal with these situations and perhaps help others around you, or at least be there to as someone who is not only willing, but is able to listen. Even though you might feel that you are in a god emotional place during these times, it is important to never the less turn to your tools (inspirational quotes and books) to ensure that you take care of yourself and continue on the positive path.

In summary, there are many benefits to reading inspirational quotes and books so that you can find inner peace, happiness and sanctuary. By utilizing the above tips you can not only continue to have the inner peace, but also perhaps be able to pass on your tools and knowledgeably to assist others around you to reach their goal of happiness.


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Quote - Napoleon Hill

Christmas is an arms race: Georgine Getty at TEDxXavierUniversity

This video is a must see. Start planning for Christmas 2019

Do You Need Approval?

"No matter who you are or what you did; there will always be somebody who will not approve of you. So don’t try to live your life trying to please everybody."

As babies we want to get attention, so we smile or laugh and make others laugh back at us. When they don’t give us attention we cry and then for sure we get it.

As we grow older we get a bit more sophisticated–– if we don’t get love, attention, approval or acknowledgement, we break things in the house, or we "accidently" spill milk on the floor, or we forget to take the dog for a walk and voila – the stink and the mess on the carpet gets us a LOT of attention.

Then we do things and we want people to agree with us––to tell us it was accepted, beautiful, that it was OK, and that we are wonderful. There’s nothing wrong with liking to hear compliments or a good word of support. These are all wonderful. But NEEDING praises is a different matter. Looking for approval; needing it to move on… Where does it get us? Whose life are we eventually living? Ours or those whose approval we need?

Therefore to live your life, to be who you are and who you want to be––the only approval you need is from yourself.

Be true to yourself. Don’t wait for others to give you the OK to live or how to live.
You are here! You have already gotten a driver’s license. Don’t wait for others to drive you around; you don’t know where they’ll take you and where you’ll end up.

You be the driver of your own car. Set goals, set targets, get in your car and drive on.
Go to places you want to see, drive fast or slow; don’t stop to ask people whether your driving is acceptable or if your choices are approved. Follow your own heart, follow your passion and those who don’t approve will be just another traffic light on your way to your destination.

Remember! The most successful people in the history never asked permission to follow their quest, never listened to those who disagreed with their path. They kept on going, stepping on a few stones here and there but never lost track of their path and destination.

"So don’t try to live your life trying to please everybody." (excerpt from I Hate to Say Goodbye.)


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Quote from Success.com

Jose Miguel Sokoloff: How we used Christmas lights to fight a war

Quote - Milo Ventimglia

Dalai Lama: "Anger, hatred, fear, is very bad for our health"

How to Have a Stress-Less Holiday! 5 Tips to Survive & Thrive This Holiday Season

"Tis the season to be jolly," but if you're like a lot of folks this year, "Bah humbug" may describe your feelings more accurately. Let's be honest: For many of you the holiday season equals stress. Well let's see if we can reframe that, and also find some humor strategies to help you not only survive, but thrive this (hopefully) joyous season!

1. Decorating, shopping, parties, travel plans, holiday cards... If thinking about these things makes you want to tightly cinch your winter scarf around Santa's neck, then set aside that overwhelming To Do List. Take a calming breath, and think about your happy memories from holidays past. (And if your previous holidays were lousy, try on some memories and feelings generated by some feel-good holiday movies: The tear jerker closing scene of It's a Wonderful Life; the phrase, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" from A Christmas Story; the scene in Elf when Buddy sings, "I love you, I love you, I love you" to his bewildered father.)

2. The task of holiday decorating can cause even the hardiest souls to tighten their shoulders and clench their teeth. The tree, the ornaments, the tangled ball of lights the size of a beach ball, etc. Consider downsizing a little bit. Pull out the decorations that make you smile, and those that are meaningful to you-and store the rest (or donate them). And if a family member fusses over the absence of that 10,000-piece Bethlehem diorama, simply smile and say, "I'm glad you love it so much. I hope you'll enjoy assembling it."

3. Are you feeling stressed by all those holiday cards you're obligated to send? Remember that it's not an obligation. Look through your list, and send cards only to those people who make you smile. For those who make the short list, skip the serious/traditional cards. Go for funny and everyone will be the better for it.

4. Holiday traffic can turn the best of us into a Grinch. Use this opportunity to reframe. Take a deep breath and visualize the guy who's blasting his horn driving in his tighty-whities. Imagine the look on his face when he unwraps a sack full of coal and rocks. Gives new meaning to "go play in traffic."

5. And keep your eyes open for holiday humor. (If you don't look for it, you won't see it!) You can double your fun by sharing your observations. Tell your friends and family about that lady in Wal-Mart who carried a teetering tower of gifts to her car; about the Worst Santa of All Time you saw on a street corner; the funniest holiday card you received; the wackiest paragraph from one of those "The-Annual-Newsletter-to-Catch-You-Up-on-How-Wonderful-My-Life-and-Children-Are"!

Stress isn't just a result of things going badly. It's a cumulation of changes-even good ones. Be proactive-manage what you can, and reframe the rest. Using humor intentionally can help make this holiday season a merry one.


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Top 25 Christmas Quotes | Beautiful & Inspiring

Choosing a Path

Reading in the airport while waiting for a flight to Houston, a housekeeper was tidying around me when approached by another facilities employee. After a few minutes of easily overheard chit-chat, she received coaching from her now apparent supervisor.

"You know," he said "I'd like you to pace yourself." Intrigued by his words, I stopped reading to eavesdrop and heard as he told her, "You're doing too good a job. You don't need to work this hard." "I like my area clean and looking good for everyone," she said, confused by his direction. "Anyway, I get all my work done."

When they parted several minutes later, her body language was not one of relief, but despair. Clearly a person taking pride in her work, the boss's unfolding message was not about a perfectionist who didn't get her work completed, but someone setting the standard too high for everyone else.

It reminded me of a young man who approach me after a conference speech. He told me he was doing well at work and was up for promotion. But it bothered him that his friends weren't progressing too, and the dynamics between them had shifted. Conflicted about leaving his teammates behind, he wasn't sure about the promotion.

There are two choices to your work. You can fit in and stay comfortably in the pack, nourished by mediocre sameness where your gifts and talents may remain on life's unfilled-potential-shelf for fear of out-shining or outperforming those you work with; or you can realize people are not the same and show up as who you are.

People who are winning at working choose the second path. As they do, they raise the bar for all of us. They push us, challenge us, and inspire us to show up with our passions, skills, abilities and dreams. They have the courage to shine, and their modeling encourages us to bring our own gifts to this challenging world.

For people who are winning at working, their work is about becoming who they are capable of becoming, and they help others do the same.

Your talents are different from mine which are different from his and from hers. You do some things better than others; others do some things better than you. And the powerful, and exciting part is this: when we use our individual differences we collectively shine.

I hope that housekeeper keeps her passion alive and her vision of a comfortable, inviting, clean respite for the weary traveler, a standard for herself. If she does, others will follow her uncommon self-leadership.

I hope that young man embraces his promotion, realizing sometimes friends change; or sometimes we best help our friends and those that we love achieve their dreams, by achieving our own.


Stress

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Your body language may shape who you are | Amy Cuddy

The Five Phrases That Can Change Your Life: Adam Braun at TEDxColumbiaCo...

5 Things You Can’t Afford Not To Know On How Your Mind Works Through Suggestions

A suggestion is like a seed...once it is thrown onto the soil of your mind, it can grow into a mighty tree; it can even create a forest, with trees bearing nothing but the fruit of that suggestion.

There are places and people that are constantly broadcasting gloom. Avoid exposure to anyone or anything promulgating pessimistic views; for their gloominess can vine onto you and in no time, the tree of pessimism will be rooted, miles deep, into your mind.

A forest cannot grow in unfriendly environments...environments of extreme cold or dryness. Make your mind so consumed with positive emotions, that it will become an unfriendly place for hopelessness to grow.

"Self-suggestion allows you to control what gets planted into your head."
~Andres Lara

Here is how you can turn your mind into an unfriendly place for dispiritedness and other negative emotions:

1-What To Say: Suggest to yourself out-loud "I’m the best at what I do. I experience abundance everyday. I am a very lucky person. Wealth is attracted to me." This is called self-suggestion, which is a great tool to plant great thoughts into your mind.

2-How You Say It: Think about the people who have had the most influence on you or society. They were influential because they believed in what they were saying. Say your suggestions with conviction, so they’re felt within the inner most chamber of your mind. It’s how you say it that counts.

3- When to Say It: The fields of your mind are the most fertile or receptive to suggestion when they are plowed...meaning when you are relaxed which is: 1-Right when you wake up because you are rested and untouched by exterior forces 2-Before you fall asleep because your conscious mind lacks the energy to disagree. Use self-suggestions at these times.

4-Limit Negativity: You can avoid strangers, but you cannot completely avoid a negative relative or coworker. Yet you can limit your interactions with them. Most importantly, you can make yourself inaccessible to them during your most receptive times (see #3). Save those times for you to plant some positive seeds with self-suggestions.

5-Picture it while you say it: Since a picture is worth a thousand words, develop a picture of each of those self-suggestions (see #1) inside your head. For instance, picture yourself being the best at what you do. What would others say about you? What kind of pay would you get? Where would you work from? Visualize and say your suggestions simultaneously.


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Give The Gift Of Understanding And Compassion...

In this day and age, especially in this culture, where success and happiness tend to be measured in terms of material accumulation, it makes sense that gifting follows the same pattern.

The holidays have become so commercialized that their true meaning is completely lost on most. Children are waiting for the toys and might not even know what the holidays are about… People are stressed over who to spend the holidays with, what to buy for loved ones, and managing all the added work that comes with all the merry-making.

But, are people celebrating the true meaning? Are people enjoying the Season? Are people more spiritually grounded, enjoying peace and love? I’m sure the answer is NO for most…

Take a moment to ponder how you celebrate the meaning of your Holidays? What does your Season look like? How do you bring the message of the Season into your merriment and gift giving? How do you share this with your Partner?

I’m not going to go as far as to suggest you don’t buy each other a gift… That would just be outrageous! (sarcasm). I’m going to suggest though, that you think about how to bring the meaning of the Season into your relating through the rest of the year, and into the New Year.

I celebrate Christmas. To me the message is that of extending forgiveness, acceptance, understanding and compassion. Love. So the Holidays are about giving from the heart to meet another’s need, and giving to the less fortunate. It’s not about accumulating material stuff, or out doing the Joneses. It’s about giving the Gift of Our Self, our presence, and of being in communion and connected.

Make the rest of this Holiday Season meaningful in your Relationship(s):

1) Have realistic expectations – some people have a lesser capacity for "Giving."

2) Don’t worry about what you are getting, focus on what you are "Giving."

3) Share with your Partner what you love about them, what you appreciate they do, what you understand they struggle with or don’t like.

4) Get your Partner’s world and accept it. You don’t have to like it, but it’s not your job to change it. Have compassion for their perspective and experience. Be their shoulder to lean on.

5) Show up to your interactions. Be with your Partner. Let your Authentic Self create a positive ritual that promotes intimacy and connection.

Let the true Spirit of the Holidays be present in your Relationship. Allow Joy, Peace, Harmony and Abundance to permeate your Season and the New Year together. Rejoice!


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Quote on love

The Power Of Visualization | Ashanti Johnson | TEDxWillowCreek