It’s impossible to live without failing at something unless you are the type of person who never leaves their comfort zone to try anything new or different. If that is you, you have actually failed in life by default.  Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life.  Keep the faith because things usually work out right in the end.  If they don’t, that just means you haven’t come to the end yet. Have faith that things will work out, maybe not how you planned but how it’s meant to be.  All of your days have already been written in God’s book.  When you go through a disappointment don’t stop on that page.  Hold steady. Keep believing. You may be discouraged, frustrated and a little bit tired but don’t give up on your future. Sometimes it might not make sense to let go of something you have had for a long time, but it also doesn’t make sense to hold onto something that no longer serves a purpose in your life.

Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the choice of how you are going to live through it.  It’s your job to turn your mess into a message and never regret a day of your life. Every day up to this point has contributed to who you are today. Don’t waste your time mourning over what you thought your life was going to be like.  Let it go.  Don’t look backwards for very long. Keep moving forward opening up new doors and doing new things because you never know what opportunities these new things will create in your life.  Learn to get back on track.  When things go wrong, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have failed.  You will have days when you make mistakes but that’s okay.  Your strength lies in your ability to forgive yourself, and no matter how far you have gone in the wrong direction, you always have the chance to turn things around.

The path in front of you may not be easy.  At times your journey may be long and winding filled with dips and turns around every corner. The climb may be steeper than you expected and your dreams might have to be put on hold but there is one thing I know for sure.  If you stay on course, believe in yourself and have good friends who support you, you will survive the trip and be happy in the end. Everything will work out in the end. You don’t have to know how. You just have to trust that it will. Stop worrying, wondering, and doubting yourself. You will know when and if it is time to start something new.  If you need to start over, have the courage to start and be thankful for the opportunity of a new beginning.  You will never find what’s right for you if you continue to chase the things that are all wrong for you.

You are strong today because yesterday you had to be.  You have wisdom today because of the mistakes you made in the past.  You are happier today because of the pain you have already endured. You are much wiser because you have learned that wisdom and happiness come with a price tag of hard work and not giving up after failures.  Purpose in your heart to live the life that makes you happy. Care less about what other people think of you.  The people who criticize your life have no idea of the price you had to pay to get there.  Pay attention to the people who love and support you.  They have a purpose in your life. There will always be a reason why you meet people.  Either you need to change your life, or you’re the one that will change theirs.  Enjoy your life and believe that your best days are ahead and may you have amazing experiences that you haven’t even imagined yet.

Work hard for what you want because it won’t come to you without a fight.  You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to.  If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive.  Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life.  There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.  You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror.  I can take the next thing that comes along.’  Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.  Helen Keller said “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.  Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”

There are no secrets to success.  It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.  Success is no accident.  It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.  Live a life of action.  Don’t wait for it to happen.  Make it happen.  Make your future the future you truly desire.  Obstacles are there to see if you are willing to fight for what you want.  If you don’t fight for what you want, then what you don’t want will automatically happen.  Life is not great because there are little or no problems.  Life becomes great when people do whatever it takes to overcome the problems they face.  If you can’t change your situation, then change the way you deal with it.

Don’t miss out on something that could be great just because it could also be difficult.  Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.  The past is your lesson.  The present is a gift and the future should be your motivation.  Cling to what is good in your life.  Love the people who love you.  In this life everything is temporary; that is why when good things happen to you cherish them before they are gone.  Don’t waste your time being in competition with anyone.  A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it.  It just blooms.  Don’t change so people will like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love who you really are.  Be selective and pick your battles carefully for sometimes peace is better than being right.  Life isn’t about avoiding the bruises. It’s about collecting the scars to prove you showed up for it.  Don’t watch the clock; do what it does – keep going.

It’s so easy to forget what’s important in life. One day you will realize that the most important things in life are not things! What’s important is to be content in life, not with things. Sometimes you have to take a step back and realize what’s important in your life – what you can live with and more importantly what you can’t live without. It’s not the material things we have accummulated that will define us when we are gone. What people will remember is how you treated them.

Sometimes it really hard to focus on what’s important in our lives. We tend to let the petty, every day nonsense blue the view of what’s important at the moment. Don’t lose the passion for your dreams by letting doubt creep. Don’t compromise the future that you really want for what’s easy and available to you today. When everything around us changes, we find out who we really are. You don’t need to lose everything before you realize what really matters in life. You really don’t have to announce what’s important to you. How you spend your time says it all.

Life is like a camera. Focus on what’s important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t turn out the way you wanted, don’t give up – just try again. Be thankful for the bad things you have experienced in life. The bad things in life opened your eyes to the good things you weren’t paying attention to before. Remember that material things can be replaced but important people can’t. Spend time with the people who are important to you. “Too busy” is a myth. People will always make time for the things that are important to them.  Become a person that other people want to be around. Be known for the way you love, for your honesty and integrity. These qualities are important for all of us to strive for.

Life is short. Focus on what matters and let go of what doesn’t. None of us remember the headliners of yesterday. One day the applause will die and someone else will come along and exceed the previous achievements. Realize that the people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care. With these things in mind, I think it is important to try and find balance in our life. It is important to take time from all of our achievement-oriented tasks to focus on those things that will add so much more to our lives. Tell those who mean so much to you how much you care and love them. Do little things to make your family and friends recognize how much you appreciate them. Recognize that life is about sharing and not about what others can do for you.

As you get older you find out that true happiness is not in how much you make or how many degrees you have or how big your house is. It’s finding peace and joy and contentment in your life that matters most. When you focus on what’s really important everything else will fall into place. The two most important things to remember is:
1) Use things – not people
2) Love people – not things

Ask yourself the question ‘what’s important to me’ and then have the courage to build your life around your answer.

Dionne Warwick recorded a song with the words:

What the world needs now is love sweet love,
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of,
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.…

How true!

In other words this world needs:

• A little more compassion.
• A little less anger.
• More smiles, hugs, and handshakes.
• A greater number of people willing to listen to others, empathize with them, and lend a shoulder for them to cry on.
• No prejudice and more unity, peace and understanding.
• Greater tolerance and acceptance of other people’s personalities, choices, and peculiarities.
• Last but not least, the elimination of hate.

This world might not be perfect, but it’s the only one we’ve got and if you look closely, it indeed is wonderful.  This wonderful world is, unfortunately, tainted with the negative issues some people bring to it.  The problem is not with our world but with the choices we make to not love the way we should.  Whatever we don’t like about the world we live in, whatever doesn’t work the way we think it should, will not be resolved until we become a people of unity and choose to love.  By living in unity and love we will make the world a better place.  No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, background or his religion.  People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love because love comes more naturally to the human heart than hate.  Teach your child how to love. You should not teach them how to hate.

This is a plea for love not hate.  Whatever your beliefs spread love and not hate.  We are here to heal, not harm.  We are here to love not hate.  We are here to create and not destroy.  A heart filled with love has no room for hate.  It’s our differences that make us unique and beautiful.  Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and values.  If you don’t like it why make a person miserable? Kindness matters. You don’t need a reason to be kind to another person.  The late poet Maya Angelou said “hate has caused a lot of problems in this world but it has not solved one problem yet. “ Throughout your life you will find people who will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad.  It takes a mature person to not carrying hate in their heart because hate will consume you.    Hate is too great a burden to bare.

Choose to love rather than hate.  Choose to smile rather than frown. Choose to build rather than destroy.  Choose to praise rather than gossip. Choose to forgive rather than curse.  The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards real freedom.   Getting through tough times together strengthens relationships.  No matter what our differences might be choose to stand together.  No one is perfect but we must be willing to let another person express their views and opinions without thinking that they are bad.  Being different doesn’t mean that someone is wrong.  Let’s enjoy this world.  Let’s enjoy one another.  We are meant to love one another not to hate one another. In the end nothing we do or say in this lifetime will matter as much as the way we have loved one another.

Keep your heart free from hate and your mind free from worry. Give much and expect little.  Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Be a blessing and walk in love.  Don’t be envious of another person’s blessings.  Count your own.  You will find that you receive more when you are grateful for what you already have.  Do not let the world make you hard.  Don’t allow the pain in your life make you bitter.  Even though the world seems to be filled with anger and hatred, wherever you go take love with you and give it away. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate and adds more darkness to an already dark world. Hate cannot drive out hate – only love can do that.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)