1) If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose.
—Bishop T.D. Jakes2) Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
— Steve Jobs3) I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.
— Georgia O’Keefe4) If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.
— Nora Roberts5) A year from now you may wish you had started today.
—Karen Lamb6) How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
— Anne Frank7) Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
— Mark Twain8) You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
— C.S. Lewis9) Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.
— Joseph Campbell10) When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
— Helen Keller11) Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
—Arthur Ashe12) There are those who work all day. Those who dream all day. And those who spend an hour dreaming before setting to work to fulfill those dreams. Go into the third category because there’s virtually no competition.
— Steven J. Ross13) The Man Who Has Confidence In Himself Gains The Confidence Of Others.
— Hasidic Proverb14) The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.
— Amelia Earhart15) Follow your own passion—not your parents’, not your teachers’—yours.
—Robert Ballard16) All progress takes place outside of your comfort zone.
— Michael Bobak17) The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
—Lao Tzu
Mark Twain
How Laughing Can Improve Your Life
“Ha. Ha. Ha.”
There are so many ways to pronounce the sounds: “ha ha ha.”
Do you say it with emphasis?
If so, where is your emphasis?
If not, well, that’s funny too.
Try it 5-10 times in different ways & tell me you aren’t feeling a little bit better.
It’s actually Science.
More research is being done in this area but here are a few relative studies and part of their conclusions discussing how even simulated laughter increases positive feelings/endorphins.
—A study on how social laughter releases endorphins in the brain
—A couple studies showing that simulated laughter had positive effects on multiple aspects of health, including heart health. (First study) (Second study)
So science shows that simulating laughter and even smiles can induce endorphins & positive feelings.
Guess who else thinks laughing is one of the most beneficial things anyone can do?
Like everyone. Literally. Well not literally, but check it out:
And after the quotes you can find a list of ways to simulate laughter into your life.
Don’t forget to laugh today! 🙂
“Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It’s more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.”
Dr. Seuss“As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. Don’t bother to brush it off. Getting a comedic view of your situation gives you spiritual distance. Having a sense of humor saves you.”
Joseph Campbell“With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.”
Abraham Lincoln“Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away.”
Benjamin Franklin“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
Charles Dickens“I never would have made it if I could not have laughed. It lifted me momentarily out of this horrible situation, just enough to make it livable.”
Viktor Frankl“Frame your mind to mirth and merriment
which bars a thousand harms
and lengthens life.”
William Shakespeare“Humor is the great thing, the saving thing after all. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations, and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.”
Mark Twain“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”
Buddha“Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.”
Horace“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.”
Maya Angelou“There is little success where there is little laughter.”
Andrew Carnegie“I’ve always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, ‘Ain’t that the truth.’”
Quincy Jones“Laughter is America’s most important export.”
Walt Disney“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.”
Elbert Hubbard“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca“The size of a man’s understanding can be justly measured by his mirth.”
Samuel Johnson“If we couldn’t laugh, we would all going to go insane.”
Jimmy Buffett“The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively know that the more laughter we have in our lives, the better.”
Wayne Dyer“A man isn’t poor if he can still laugh.”
Raymond Hitchcock“You have as much laughter as you have faith.”
Martin Luther“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
George Bernard Shaw“And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry“A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder“My focus is to forget the pain of life. Forget the pain, mock the pain, reduce it. And laugh.”
Jim Carrey“If you would not be laughed at, be the first to laugh at yourself.”
Benjamin Franklin“Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.”
Anthony Burgess“It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.”
Martin Luther King Jr.“If you’re funny, if there’s something that makes you laugh, then every day’s going to be okay.”
Tom Hanks“We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh.”
Agnes Repplier“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”
E. E. Cummings“A person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused.” Shirley MacClain
“Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.”
Vaclav Havel“God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.”
Voltaire“He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh.”
Koran“As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it.”
Lao Tsu“From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.”
Dr. Seuss“One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man’s laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky“Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.”
Ken Kesey“To make mistakes is human; to stumble is commonplace; to be able to laugh at yourself is maturity.”
William Arthur Ward“What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.”
Yiddish Proverb“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.”
Irish Proverb“You must learn to take life less seriously and to laugh.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi“The greatest prayer you could ever pray is to laugh every day.”
Ramtha“The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed.” Bennett Cerf
“Don’t take yourself too seriously. Know when to laugh at yourself, and find a way to laugh at obstacles that inevitably present themselves.”
Halle Berry“There’s power in looking silly and not caring that you do.”
Amy Poehler“If you can’t laugh, you won’t make it.”
Jennifer Love Hewitt“Fame comes and fame goes, but you have to be able to laugh about yourself and to take it with a grain of salt.”
Khloe Kardashian“If you can’t laugh at yourself, you don’t deserve to laugh at anybody else.”
Charlie Murphy“Nothing feels as good to me as laughing incredibly hard.”
Steve Carell“Life is tough; and if you have the ability to laugh at it, you have the ability to enjoy it.”
Salma Hayek“Sometimes you almost have to laugh to keep from crying to deal with the pain associated with the hood.”
Gucci Mane“I surround myself with people who make me laugh.”
Allen Iverson“I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.”
Audrey Hepburn“Wit is the key, I think, to anybody’s heart, because who doesn’t like to laugh?”
Julia Roberts“It’s important to remember that life is a joke, and that outlook grants a lot of perspective, but I don’t think comedy should change and become political due to other things. It should just laugh at that cosmic joke that life is all the time.” John Mulaney
“Laughter is a bodily exercise, precious to health.”
Aristotle“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.”
Mark Twain“He that is of a merry heart has a continual feast.”
Proverbs 15:15“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:3“Anything with the power to make you laugh over thirty years later isn’t a waste of time. I think something like that is very close to immortality.”
Stephen King“If you become silent after your laughter, one day you will hear God also laughing, you will hear the whole existence laughing — trees and stones and stars with you.”
Osho“The point is seeing that THIS — the immediate, everyday and present experience — is IT, the entire and ultimate point for the existence of a universe. I believe that if this state of consciousness could become more universal, the pretentious nonsense which passes for the serious business of the world would dissolve in laughter… “
Alan Watts“Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.”
Mark Twain
Ways to create and simulate laughter
“When you are totally depressed, you should try giggling. Just make yourself laugh. Force yourself to laugh.”
Yoko Ono
**Smile for 5 minutes
**Surround yourself with positive and fun people
**Count your blessings
**Watch funny videos/Read funny stories & jokes
(Rodney Dangerfield jokes below)
**Schedule time for fun activities
**Bring humor into conversations
(Ask someone “what’s the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?”)
**Go to a laughter yoga class
(I went to a few of these in college and it was awesome!)
*Remember funny things that have happened recently
**Remember fun times from your childhood
**Laugh at yourself.
**Remind self to laugh
**Laugh every day! 🙂
“Whenever I want to laugh, I read a wonderful book, ‘Children’s Letters to God.’ You can open it anywhere. One I read recently said, ‘Dear God, thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.’”
Maya Angelou
Some quite funny Rodney Dangerfield’s jokes:
“I asked my old man if I could go ice-skating on the lake. He told me, ‘Wait til it gets warmer.’”
“I could tell that my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio.”
“Last Halloween a kid tried to rip my face off. He thought it was a mask. Now it’s different when I open the door the kids hand me candy.”
“My father carries around the picture of the kid who came with his wallet.”
“My uncle’s dying wish was to have me sitting on his lap. He was in the electric chair.”
“One night I came home. I figured, let my wife come on. I’ll play it cool. Let her make the first move. She went to Florida.”
“My wife isn’t very bright. The other day she was at the store, and just as she was heading for our car, someone stole it! I said, ‘Did you see the guy that did it?’ She said, ‘No, but I got the license plate.’”
“I tell you, with my doctor, I don’t get no respect. I told him, ‘I’ve swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills.’ He told me to have a few drinks and get some rest.”
“I had a lot of pimples too. One day I fell asleep in a library. I woke up and a blind man was reading my face.”
“A travel agent told I could spend 7 nights in HAWAII no days just nights.”
What is something that makes you laugh? 🙂
In All Things, Use what Works for You
“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”
Bruce Lee
How often have you been told what to do with your life?
Most people who give you unsolicited advice have good intentions but it doesn’t mean that what has worked for them will work for you.
“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
Paulo Coelho
It’s easy to get lost in all the things you “should do,” as people will tell you, while forgetting about what you actually want to do.
It can be extremely difficult when it seems like everyone else is doing what people say you “should do”, like going to college, but it’s not for everyone.
Here are some people who didn’t go or dropped out of college:
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Ted Turner, Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, Ellen DeGeneres, Rachael Ray, Michael Dell, Jack Dorsey, Russell Simmons, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and many others. Find a list of 100 here.
Remember this quote from Mark Twain whenever you are thinking that you should be doing what others are doing:
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
If you’re struggling in an area where you see others succeeding in, it doesn’t make you dumb, it just tells you that that area is not for you, unless you’re passionate about it. You can learn & master any skill you want through relentless practice.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
Albert Einstein
A variety of life experiences & hobbies can help you figure out your passion.
Maybe it’s writing, acting, speaking, athletics, designer, teacher, attendant, horse trainer.
But people say, “you can’t do that, no one makes money doing that.”
Except they do…
If there is anyone doing what you would love to do, you can do it too.
You may have to take some side jobs as you focus on getting paid to do what you love, but if you are passionate enough about it, you will find a way.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Steve Jobs
You are unique.
People find the most happiness when they embrace their uniqueness instead of trying to please people & fit in.
Maybe you learn best visually while someone else learns best verbally.
Or aurally, physically, logically, socially, or solitary.
Which way is best?
There is no “best.” There is only what is best for you.
Find out how you learn best & don’t judge yourself.
I think I learn best visually—I like demonstrations especially when I am able to get involved.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
Benjamin Franklin
There are many crossroads in life, leaving you with multiple choices. The easy path is to follow what others are doing.
A nurse who spent years working in palliative care, taking care of people in the last 12 weeks of their lives, researched and wrote the top five regrets people have on their deathbeds.
The most common regret was “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Find the article here.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Use what works for you, not what works for someone else.
Here are 3 more ways to live life you won’t regret
Quotes to help find and follow your bliss
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”
Maya Angelou“If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.“The people who make it to the top – whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos – are addicted to their calling … [they] are the ones who’d be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren’t being paid.”
Quincy Jones“There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?”
Warren Buffet“I think the foremost quality – there’s no success without it – is really loving what you do. If you love it, you do it well, and there’s no success if you don’t do well what you’re working at.”
Malcolm Forbes“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
Patanjali“The law of work seems unfair, but nothing can change it; the more enjoyment you get out of your work, the more money you will make.”
Mark Twain“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”
Rumi“Yes, I’ve made a great deal of dough from my fiction, but I never set a single word down on paper with the thought of being paid for it … I have written because it fulfilled me. Maybe it paid off the mortgage on the house and got the kids through college, but those things were on the side—I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for the joy, you can do it forever.”
Stephen King“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
Steve Jobs
With Ken Thompson 