Make the days count

“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.” - Seneca

Two weeks ago, my cousin brother died of pancreas cancer. Then, my colleague's father passed away due to sickness. A couple of days later, another of my colleague's father also passed away after stroke for a couple of days. Indeed, we must live life fully because it is appointed for everybody to die eventually. We must learn to make every act count, since we are going to be here for only a short while.

Many people are fond of counting their troubles. However, you will be much better when you start to count your joys.

Abraham Lincoln said, "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." He was right. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. I will chase them out of my mind and replace them with happy thoughts.

What You Can and Cannot Control
You cannot control the length of you life; but you can control its width and depth.
You cannot control the contour of your face; but you can control its expression.
You cannot control the weather; but you can control the atmosphere of your mind.

Why worry about things you cannot control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?

Let us not count the days but make the days count! Do not waste another day.

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Remember to always Think Positive!

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.” - W. Clement Stone

When we are feeling blue and depressed, does it really make sense to say: "I am joyous, happy, glad, etc."? Yes, it surely does.

Forcing positive thoughts drives away our negatives. We can't think two opposite thoughts at the same time. By changing your thoughts, you change your attitude and your feeling. Even the Bible says: Let the weak say I am strong.

Keep your mind filled with positive thoughts and there'll be no room for negatives. That's the whole purpose of affirmations - to keep our minds positive.

Finding positive out of every negative - which we don't always often do.

• For the husband or wife who snores all night, because he or she is at home asleep with me and not with someone else.
• For the taxes that I pay because it means that I am employed.
• For the mess to clean after a party because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.
• For the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
• For a floor that needs mopping, and windows that need cleaning because it means I have a home.
• For all the complaining I hear about the government because it means that we have the freedom of speech.
• For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.
• For the pile of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear.
• For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I am still alive.

Don't just stop at Positive Thinking
However, you'll develop more power, physical, mental, or any skill in 30 minutes of practice than in 20 years of positive thinking.

No one ever became a champion athlete or master musician in 20 years of positive thinking about music or athletics UNLESS he ALSO PRACTICED. Likewise, your living will only improves when you do all that is necessary for the positive change!

Photo 1 by Shadowhut taken from this source
Photo 2 by natesmama0214 taken from this source

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Emotional Intelligence versus I.Q.

In this last decade, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that emotional awareness and the abilities to handle feelings are much more important than I.Q.

Either you control your emotions, or they control you.

Studies have shown there was very little correlation between a child's success in examinations and his/her success in adult life.

At best, I.Q. contributes 20% to the factors that determine life's success, which leaves 80% to other forces - Emotional Intelligence.

"Emotional Intelligence is a way of recognizing, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. It defines how and what we learn; it allows us to set priorities; it drives many of our daily actions." - Freedman et al.

"What really matters for success, character, happiness and life long achievements is a definite set of emotional skills - your EQ - not just purely cognitive abilities that are measured by conventional IQ tests." - Daniel Goleman, Ph.D.

Below is an I.Q. game. If you are interested, try it out. Do share the lessons you had acquired from this IQ game!

Can you help them cross over the river?

(I had adapted this IQ game post with permission from this source)

Below are the rules that apply for this IQ game.

1. Only 2 persons on the raft at a time
2. The father can not stay with any of the daughters without their mother’s presence
3. The mother can not stay with any of the sons without their father’s presence
4. The thief (striped shirt) can not stay with any family member if the Policeman is not there
5. Only the Father, the Mother and the Policeman know how to operate the raft
6. To start click on the big blue circle on the right.
7. To move the people click on them.
8. To move the raft click on the pole on the opposite side of the river.

Click the above screen to load the game and then 開始 button to start the game.

Photo by slark taken from this source

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The Power of Expectation

"Patients tend to heal in accordance with their expectations."

Research is showing the power of expectations, that they have physical not just psychological effects on your health. - CBS News

A doctor can take a placebo and tell a patient that it is a powerful medicine, and the patient will react as though the actual medicine had been taken. Of course, this does not work all of the time. If it did, no one would need to take any medicine at all. It does, however, work with a significant percentage of success.

"Life is largely a matter of expectation." - Horace

"Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy." - Brian Tracy

"Your expectation opens or closes the doors of your supply. If you expect grand things, and work honestly for them, they will come to you, your supply will correspond with your expectation." - Orison Swett Marden

"We tend to live up to our expectations." - Earl Nightingale

“Don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.” - Ralph Marston

Photo 1 by Rigor & Samnooshka taken from this source
Photo 2 by stylishjo taken from this source

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Listen with your Hands, Mind and Eyes

Listen with your hands
When you take note, you experience everything twice, and understand it a thousand times better.

Listen with your mind
Even after a conversation, it pays to think about it. Indeed listening without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

Listen with your eyes
There is a road from the eye to the heart and mind that does not go through the ears.

Listen with 100% attention
When you focus all your senses to the task of listening, you'll be able to pick up little nuances that can make all the difference.

Photo 1 by stevegarfield taken from this source
Photo 2 by freeflight046 taken from this source

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Have you come to realization?

One of the reasons people do not take the time to improve the quality of their life, is that they think things will just get better.

They go through each day hoping that their job will 'somehow' improve. They hope that some lucky combination of circumstances will come about and as a result, they will finally be recognised by their employer and rewarded with more responsibility and a bigger salary.

You need to realize that It doesn't get better...You have to!

There is an old saying that goes like this; "If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!" How very true that is.

The starting point of all change is in the mind – or more precisely, how you think!

Here's how it works:
1. Your success comes from your results.
2. Your results come from your actions.
3. Your actions come from your thoughts.

So, when you think more effectively, you take better actions, which leads to better results. As you are the only person who is responsible for your thoughts, you decide how successful your career and life will be. It is always up to you, because only you have control of your mind.

Photo by cassetteject taken from this source

Condition your mind for success

In some mysterious way the subconscious mind tends to actualize what we visualize. So, even when the roof is caving in, picture yourself as a giant success.

"To win a race, you must first win it in your mind."

“Great athletes train their minds as well as their bodies. There are various mental conditioning techniques many use when preparing for an event. Perhaps the best known technique is visualization, creating a mental image not only of the desired result (the gold medal, a new world record, a hole-in-one), but also of every move that will be taken en route to the ultimate goal.”

I had started another blog with this objective; that is to help you condition your mind using images or photos. For example, if you were to mimic this photo and you will feel like laughing. Try it!

Photo by frogarythm taken from this source

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Sharpen your mind

"Many complain of their looks, but none of their brains" - Yiddish

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax” - Abraham Lincoln

“If you have ability in a certain area, why not capitalize on it and improve it and use it?” - Wilt Chamberlain

“You are doing your best only when you are trying to improve what you are doing”

You spend 16 hours working and sleeping every day. Why not 30 minutes sharpening your mind?

Photo by bowbrick taken from this source

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The Power of Imagination

“I am imagination. I can see what the eyes cannot see. I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel.” - Peter Nivio Zarlenga

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” - Albert Einstein

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.” - Albert Einstein

“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” - Jamie Paolinetti

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.” - Jesse Jackson

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” - George Bernard Shaw

“This world is but a canvas to our imaginations.” - Henry David Thoreau

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” - Albert Einstein

Photo by martin_kelley taken from this source

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Your heart is your compass in life

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart... pursue those.” - Michael Nolan

“If your head tells you one thing, and your heart tells you another, before you do anything, you should first decide whether you have a better head or a better heart” - Marilyn vos Savant

It is chance that makes brothers but hearts that make friends. Use you head to handle yourself; your heart to handle others. You change your life by changing your heart.

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all” - Aristotle

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“Let your heart guide you. It whispers softly, so listen closely.”

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” - Confucius

“Only do what your heart tells you.” - Princess Diana

Photo by mozzercork taken from this source

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Stay healthy

Health is not valued till sickness comes.

“Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.” - Socrates

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” - Buddha

“To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” - Buddha

You are what you eat.

He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well.

Photo by bert_m_b taken from this source

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Pay attention to your thinking

The wise man thinks before acting and the fool thinks after it.

Whenever a man falls, it is usually at the point where he thinks he is strong.

The higher a man goes the narrower becomes his thinking. Therefore, watch out.

“A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes. Those who know how to think need no teachers.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Thought is action in rehearsal. Invest a few moments in thinking. It will pay good interest.

Every thought we think is creating our future.

A change for the better always starts with a change of thinking.

Photo by The Albanian taken from this source

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Winners vs Losers

Be a Winner

The Winner says "Let me do it for you;
The Loser says "That's not my job."

The Winner says "It may be difficult but it's possible";
The Loser says "It may be possible but it's difficult."

When a Winner makes a mistake, he says "I was wrong";
When a Loser makes a mistake, he says "It wasn't my fault."

A Winner makes commitments;
A Loser makes promises.

Winners say "I must do something";
Losers say "Something must be done."

Winners see the gain;
Losers see the pain.

Winners see possibilities;
Losers see problems.

Winners choose what they say;
Losers say what they choose.

Winners stand firm on values but compromise on petty things;
Losers stand firm on petty things but compromise on values.

Winners make it happen;
Loser let it happen.

Photo by premasagar taken from this source

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Master your mind

"The mind is like the stomach. It not how much you put into it, but how much it digests." - Albert Jay Nock

"What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." - Napolean Hill

To sharpen your mind, select a topic and force yourself to keep talking about it for 10 minutes without stopping. That develops concentration, observation, memory, will power and fluency.

My mind is my greatest gift but it is also my worst enemy.

A great improvement can be achieved as long as we spend some time to improve our mental skills and building our mind.

Photo by jm3 taken from this source

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Classes of people

"People can be divided into three groups: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened." - John W. Newbern.

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds, events and happenings; Small minds, people and things.

Make sure you join the right group!

Photo by aak taken from this source

Renew your mind

Your mind is a "Thoughts Factory". You are the production manager. It can produce either positive or negative thoughts. Ideas of others are your raw materials.

Let new thoughts make you a new man. Be ye renewed by the renewing of your mind.

Changing our thoughts and attitudes requires effort. But anything that doesn't require effort isn't worth having.

Photo by Tub Gurnard taken from this source

Did you really use your eyes?

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend." - Henri Bergson

The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing. There are none so blind as those, that will not see.

"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." - Helen Keller

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Have an open mind

An open mind collects more riches than an open purse.

The human mind is like a parachute it only works when it is open. "A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood"- Chinese Proverbs

Nothing dies faster than a new idea in a closed mind.

You cannot teach new tricks to an old dog. True. But you and we are not dogs.

Photo by Mitja Mavsar taken from this source

Thinking is hard work

When Albert Schweitzer was asked what's wrong with the world, he replied: "They don't think enough." Thinking is the highest faculty of the human mind -- the key to all progress.

History shows in every soil, that those who think rule those who toil.

"Our greatest need is to teach people how to think -- not what, but HOW." - Edison

Many people read a lot because reading is easier than thinking. Thinking is hard work.

Photo by obenson taken from this source

Use Your Head

A great improvement can be achieved as long as we spend some time to improve our mental skills and building our mind.

The more you use your brain, the more you have. Using it, wakes up idle brain cells. Below is Sudoku game which makes us use more of our head.