Inspiration

Empowering stories and advice from our friends to keep you on the pathway to success.

  • Rethinking Productivity: Less Hustle, More...

    “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.” ~Lao Tzu I can hear the voices now: “You should be disappointed in yourself” (for not taking the SATs in seventh grade). “Don’t be lazy like [fill in a not-so-studious sibling/cousin]!” “You need to work harder or […]

  • If You Haven’t Found Your Purpose: How to Feel...

    “The person who lives life fully, glowing with life’s energy, is the person who lives a successful life.” ~Daisaku Ikeda We’ve all heard the phrase “find your life purpose.” It gets thrown around so much nowadays. Many of us have been in what feels like an eternal quest to find it, […]

  • How to Start Saying No When You’re Afraid of...

    “Sometimes what you’re most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free.” ~Robert Tew When I say that my need for people to like me has been one of the hidden rulers of my life, I’m not kidding! Ever since I was a kid, I wanted everyone to like me, and I had significant anxiety […]

  • How I Found the Good Within the Difficult

    “Inner strengths are the supplies you’ve got in your pack as you make your way down the twisting and often hard road of life.” ~Rick Hanson “I had a rough day. Can we talk?” I asked my husband in 2015 after coming home from work. He nodded, and we sat down on the couch. I continued: “I […]

  • How to Wake Up from the Painful Trance of...

    “When we experience our lives through this lens of personal insufficiency, we are imprisoned in what I call the trance of unworthiness. Trapped in this trance, we are unable to perceive the truth of who we really are.” ~Tara Brach Breaking free from the trance of unworthiness is a key part of […]

  • 4 Tips for Failing Better in Your Spiritual...

    “Ever tried, ever failed, no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better.” ~Samuel Beckett I felt an enormous sense of relief when I discovered that he was a total mess! I’m talking about one of the most revered Buddhist monks of our time. I learned this from a short autobiography, A Mountain […]

  • 4 Practical Techniques to Heal from Childhood...

    “It is important for people to know that no matter what lies in their past, they can overcome the dark side and press on to a brighter world.” ~Dave Pelzer, A Child Called “It” I grew up in the shadow of my pathologically narcissistic father. From a very young age, my role in the family was […]

  • How I Found Purpose When I Lost It at Work

    “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” ~Fyodor Dostoyevsky When I was in my last semester of college in 2016, I got my first paid job working in libraries as a children’s library assistant. I can remember the passion and sense of […]

  • 20 Self-Care Quotes to Keep You Mentally and...

    It’s a new week, and that can bring with it a sense of excitement and possibility or a sense of dread about your overwhelming responsibilities. Sometimes for me it’s both. And not just because I have a lot to do, but also because, like most of us, I have a lot going in my head and my heart at […]

  • Tiny Buddha’s Self-Care Course: Buy One, Give...

    As we get older, we tend to get clearer on what matters most to us in life. For me, it’s self-care and relationships. If you share my top values, you’re in luck, because today’s special offer honors both of those things! In my experience, self-care and relationships have been deeply […]

  • 11 Old-Fashioned Relationship Habits We Should...

    Love is great when spoken, but greatest when shown. Do little things daily to show your loved ones you care. Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on a park bench in the early afternoon when an elderly couple pulled their car up under a nearby oak tree. They rolled down the windows and turned up some

  • 20 Essential Things to Start Doing for Your Own...

    Patience isn’t about waiting; it’s the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard for what you believe in. As you move through the days and weeks ahead, remind yourself that it takes roughly 66 days to form a habit on average. So for the next nine and a half weeks, consciously leverage […]

  • 10 Life Choices Too Many of Us Will Regret in 10...

    In the end, more than anything else, we regret the little things we wish we’d done differently. “If only…” Those two words paired together create one of the saddest phrases in the English language. Here are ten life choices that ultimately lead to that phrase of regret, and how to elude […]

  • 6 Secret Habits of Highly Optimistic People: The...

    It takes roughly 66 days to form a habit. So for 9 weeks look at the bright side of your life, and you will rewire your brain. If the grass looks greener on the other side… Stop staring. Stop comparing. Stop complaining. And START watering the grass you’re standing on… Truly, the most […]

  • 20 Calming Affirmations We Should All Tell...

    Let’s cut to the chase today. What you ultimately do comes out of who you believe you are. You have to practice believing in yourself and ignoring the naysayers. Because while you may not be able to control the impolite and unfair things some people say and do, you can press forward and decide not

  • 10 Daily Habits that Often Waste 90 Percent of...

    Patience is not about waiting, it’s the ability to maintain a positive outlook while working hard for what you believe in. Have you ever told yourself that you’re going to make something happen and then nothing happened? All details aside, it’s because you didn’t have the right habits in […]

  • 5 Thoughts 90 Percent of Us Struggle With Almost...

    Your thoughts can carry you forward. But weak thoughts don’t have the strength to carry you far. Attaching to the wrong thoughts and acting on them is one of the most common barriers to living a relatively happy and productive life. If you allow these thoughts to dwell for too long, they will […]

  • 3 Little Morning Rituals that Will Change the...

    A good morning, and thus a good day, aren’t just experiences that magically happen — they are created consciously. Most of us are distracted from the get-go every morning. Trivial activities like checking social media, watching TV, and worrying about things we can’t control often set the tone […]

  • 40 Meaningful Questions to Calm Your Mind and...

    Asking the right questions is often the answer. In a recent email newsletter I wrote, “Calm your mind today. Don’t just think outside the box; think like there is no box.” And to my surprise, 97 people quoted that line and responded with the same general question: “How?” I’ve spent the […]

  • 7 Daily Expectations that Often Drain 90 Percent...

    “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.” — Bruce Lee The biggest and most draining disappointments in our daily lives are often the result of misplaced expectations. This is especially true when it comes to our relationships […]

  • 52 Good Morning Quotes that Will Bring You Daily...

    “What day is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet. “My favorite day,” said Pooh. When you first awake, be mindful and take a second to think about what a privilege it is to simply be alive and relatively healthy. Breathe onto the bathroom mirror just to see how amazing your […]

  • 10 Hard Things We Should All Start Doing for...

    Even when the struggle is real, remind yourself that it feels better to be exhausted from taking small steps forward, than it does to be tired of doing nothing. In 1911 two explorers, Amundsen and Scott, embarked on a race against each other to become the first known human being to set foot upon the

  • 10 Wake-Up Calls We Receive Too Late in Life

    There’s a big difference between empty fatigue and gratifying exhaustion. Life is too short not to focus more on what matters most. Before you know it you will be asking, “How did it get so late so soon?” Perhaps you can already relate. So take time to reflect. Take time to realize what you […]

  • 10 Ways to Remain Mindful and Calm When Others...

    You can’t calm the storm. What you can do is calm yourself, and the storm will gradually pass. Over the past decade, there’s a way of being I’ve gradually been cultivating in myself — I’ve been taming my tendency to get riled up and argue with people when their behavior doesn’t match my […]

  • 5 Painfully Clear Truths We Always Forget Too...

    The truth does not cease to exist when it’s forgotten. You know how you can hear or read something several times in various ways before it finally sinks in? The truths listed below fall firmly into that category — timeless lessons that many of us probably learned years ago, and have been […]

  • 40 Quotes for Letting Go and Coping with Things...

    The goal each and every day is to gradually grow stronger on the inside, so that less and less on the outside can affect your inner wellness without your conscious permission. Truth be told, how you cope with unexpected problems and frustrations can easily be the difference between living a good […]

  • 10 Things We Often Wait Way Too Long to Do for...

    Opportunities are like sunrises — if we wait too long, we miss them. Too often we waste our time waiting for the ideal path to appear. But it never does of course. Because we forget that paths are made by walking, not waiting. Let this be your wake-up call today! If we always sit around

  • 3 Fundamental Lessons Most of Us Learn Too Late...

    “In elementary school my parents told me it didn’t matter what I did when I grew up, so long as it made me happy. ‘Happiness is the whole point of life,’ my father said. ‘But it doesn’t always come easy. Your mother loves to help people in need, so she became a psychiatric nurse. I

  • 10 Hard Realities that Actually Help Us Grow in...

    “The world is full of struggle. It is also full of overcoming.” Character and wisdom are both sculpted over time. These qualities come with loss, lessons, and triumphs. They come after doubts, second guesses, and exploring unknowns. If there was a definitive path to personal growth, everyone […]

  • 20 Things My 90-Year-Old Grandma Told Me to Stop...

    Worry gives small things a big shadow. Some people wait all day for 5pm, all week for Friday, all year for the holidays, all their lives for happiness. Don’t be one of them. Don’t wait until your life is almost over to realize how good it has been. The secret to happiness and peace on

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