Play is a key ingredient to success and happiness. Many people in society today have forgotten how good it feels to
play in a significant way. I’m not talking about the movement required to roll off the couch in search of a lost remote control. I’m talking about the type of play that makes life enjoyable and meaningful. I’m talking about turning the TV off, shutting down the computer and getting outside to enjoy everything and everyone around you. …
You may hear other people talking about how giving “doesn’t work.” You may begin to think these thoughts yourself.
You may even reach a point, where you begin to reason that you don’t have to give so much or that you have been giving long enough and deserve something. If you allow yourself to adopt that pattern of thinking and begin to ease up on your giving, then all of your previous generosity would have been in vain. Don’t ever stop planting seeds of generosity and giving. I know from experience that: “The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the later.”lxix …
We have all sat through a wedding ceremony, if not participated in one of our own and this is roughly what we heard,
or agreed to:
I, (name), take you (name), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.
That’s it! That’s all you have to do to have a long, happy marriage. If you are already married, start doing what you promised too. If you are not married yet, but are in a relationship with the one you intend to marry, then start doing this stuff now, before the wedding. There’s nothing wrong with getting a head start. If you’re not in a relationship now and have no plans to get married, learn this anyways because the day will come when you will meet someone who is that special to you. …
Now that we know what success is not, how do we define what it is? Maybe what you always thought was true has now been turned upside down. That’s okay. That’s more than okay; you are now at the starting point of an incredible journey. One that may even take you places that you never dreamed you would go. You may even see some old childhood dreams re-emerge. One thing is for sure, if you stay on the path you have now begun, and work at it continually, you will have real success. Most of all have fun! Dale Carnegie once said, “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” …