“Happy people are happy people because they do what happy people do.” Those people we know who seem to be the happiest among us are not perfect—not even in their own happiness. No one wears […]

An amateur is a person on the way up, a person working to do what they have not yet been recognized for doing. It is a person who gives their dreams everything they have and everything they are. And in the process, they break new ground and forge new paths and discover new territory.

Today’s post was written by Akash Gautam, a motivational speaker in India. Too many of us spend too little time on developing our faculties and just expect things to fall in place. Your external situation is merely a reflection of your mindset. When you develop and understand your mind, you change everything.

If you’re like 92% of those who set any goals at all, you’re looking in the mirror right about now feeling guilty and disappointed with the person you didn’t quite become. With goal-setting odds stacked overwhelmingly against you (all but a mere 8% crash and burn somewhere between January’s excitement and December’s memory lapse), it’s easy to feel those nasty little joy-suckers of shame, disappointment and regret. But maybe you don;t have to feel that way…

How many dreams have been still-born by a single rejection letter or a bad interview or a critical co-worker? How many dreams have never even been inseminated by the fertilizing agent of action because of doubt and the lack of conviction or the pull of the status quo or just plain laziness? And most importantly, what quality is missing in such circumstances and how do we develop it?

Gratitude is not reflected in what happens to us, or how others treat us, or in the good deed someone does for us. It is something we carry with us into every moment of life. It’s an attitude, a way of looking at the world and interpreting events and interacting with others. Here are ways to grow your gratitude today.

Have you searched for and grasped at happiness and found it fleeting and inconsistent? Are you tired of the effort, disappointment and frustration? Perhaps you’ve already come to the same conclusion I have, that happiness is just not for you, that, indeed, it was never meant for you. Now, before you jump to conclusions here, keep reading to see what I mean.