InspireRations: Bites and Bits to get you through the next hour, day or week

If you must doubt something, doubt your limits.  -- Unknown



I have always had a dread of becoming a passenger in life. -- Queen Margret II of Denmark



Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. -- Anais Nin



You miss 100% of the shots you never take. -- Wayne Gretsky



If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten. -- Steven Covey



Happiness Meditation
This exercise is very simple, safe, and yet profound. Many great Tibetan Bon masters use it as their main meditation.
Use it if you are unhappy – or if you would like to have a greater capacity for happiness.
Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Imagine a fast flowing stream of light entering your heart – this light is pure, brilliant and clear. As it touches your heart, you experience a sensation of comfort and warmth, then the first budding of happiness, which then grows stronger and stronger within you.
You know and believe that in everything you do, feel and say in this day of your life, happiness will be with you, inspiring and influencing your thoughts and deeds – as well as all of those whom you come in contact with.

The best way to predict your future is to create it.-- Unknown

True discipline isn’t on your back needling you with imperatives; it is at your side, nudging you with incentives. When you understand that discipline is self-caring, not self-castigating, you won’t cringe at its mention, but will cultivate it. -- Sybil Stanton


Finish each day
and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely and
with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson


Whether you think you can – or can’t – you’re usually right. -- Henry Ford

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" -- Mary Oliver

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -- T. S. Eliot



On Commitment

Until one is committed there is hesitancy,
the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts of initiative & creation,
there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which
kills countless ideas and splendid plans -
that the moment one definitely commits oneself,
then Providence moves, too.

All sorts of things occur to help one
that would never otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one’s favor all manner of
unforeseen incidents & meetings & material assistance
which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power & magic in it.

-- W.H. Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition


I don't worry about the storms, I am learning to sail my own ship. -- Louisa May Alcott



In all begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over – and let it go. It involves a sense of the future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving on, rather than out. -- Ellen Goodman



Last night, as I was sleeping
I dreamt – marvelous error!
That I had a beehive
here inside my heart.

And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

-- Antonio Machado


Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.-- David Whyte



In our inner work we need not create anything new. All we need is to illuminate that which is already hidden within us. -- The Rebbe of Kotsk



Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm. -- Unknown



The single greatest revelation that anyone can have is that every act has a consequence. Each day we experience the consequences of our previous choices. The decisions we make today are the consequences of tomorrow.

Do at least one thing every day – large or small – that will have a positive consequence in the future . . . reading something inspirational or professionally helpful; seeking out a role model and studying his or her life; picking up a catalogue of classes that interest you; doing something to call your creative self forth – cooking, writing, singing, painting, anything; exercising; or something as simple as paying a bills/doing paperwork instead of worrying about it or – simply taking a moment to enjoy the beauty of the day.

These are the small – and large – daily acts that add up to a more meaningful life.

If you commit three small positive acts a day that affect your future, at the end of the year you will have done a thousand positive acts that your future.

The impact on your life will be extraordinary.



The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. -- Proust

There is no scarcity of opportunity – only a shortage of imagination. -- Napoleon Hill

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. -- Martin Luther King



Instructions for life . . . from the Dalai Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three R’s - Respect for self - Respect for other’s and - Responsibility for all your actions

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go some place you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.



Only your mind sets your limits. -- THE DAILY GURU