Indifference puts a slow stranglehold on the throat of potential. It is what separates those who accomplish great things in life from those who wait for governments or luck to give them what they lack. It is the difference between those who are self-directed and those who see themselves as victims to a hostile world or painful personal history or the vagaries of fortune.

Life is in constant flux. Its in constant motion, growing and shrinking, lifting and falling in undulating waves of constant change. To simply stay on course, therefore, requires internal mobility—a willingness to bend and adapt, to learn and grow.

Life has a way of getting in the way of our plans and mixing things up a bit. And that’s okay. What matters most about life’s little sucker punches is the way we deal with them and the lessons we learn because of them. Here are 4 life-lessons I’ve recently been thinking about since a special event in our lives.

As a high school teacher, I send almost 200 kids off into the world every year to try figure out where they fit in the world. But if I’ve merely taught them the finer points of the subjects I teach, I believe I’ve failed them. The following words are a more polished version of what I share with them each year on the last day of class.

Why do we start paying so much attention to things like wrinkles and nose lengths and freckles and blemishes and all our perceived imperfections? Why do we look so closely at the so-called blemishes that we miss the beauty that surrounds the “blemish” entirely?

It’s often the simplest things that have the most profound effects on our lives. It’s also often the case that those simple things—especially if the effects of doing them are not immediately apparent—get put off most regularly.

You are limited only by the limits you place on your imagination. But once you open the door to any possibility, you free yourself of self-imposed confines and restrictions.

Sometimes we need a step-by-step how-to manual of 101 Ways to live Happier Lives to get us through the vicissitudes of life. Other times, all we need is a reminder, inspiration to look anew at the old to start making changes. I invite you to begin now to become who you most want to

To say I’ve been unfocused in the wilderness of new ideas is an understatement. But as the old proverb goes, if you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either one. I would add that if you’re chasing 20 rabbits, a raccoon and a squirrel or two, you might as well say goodbye to everything else you used to do. And so am simplifying the online clutter I’ve been creating of late. See how…

It’s my birthday today and was going to post another installment of “Things you don’t know about me” when I decided on a whim to share my personal happiness story with you instead. Here are 22 reasons I’m happy.

Today is a blank canvas waiting for you to paint your personal masterpiece onto it. It is your unfinished Sistine Chapel, your David and Mona Lisa. This very day is waiting to be fashioned and formed into something beautiful, breathtaking and sublime.

Why do we wait for anniversaries to celebrate marriage? Why do we wait for birthdays to celebrate births? And why do we wait for funerals to celebrate life? Why wait for the day of the event or the end of a life to celebrate what we could be celebrating daily?

Has life been one unbearable trial after another? Have you been beaten up and chewed up and spit out by a history that has left you maimed, scarred and bloodied? Have you ever considered that the very pain of life has fertilized the soil of your heart to yield fruit it could have produced in no other way?

Life is really an accumulation of daily small stuff that adds up to one huge thing called living. It’s also called love … and kindness … and family.

  The great thing about having children is that you get instant feedback on how Read More.

For me, personal development is all about self-respect. It’s an expression of faith in one’s own potential. But it also reflects the sense of moral responsibility I feel to improve on the raw materials God and parents gave me. In a way, it’s an expression of the seriousness with which I believe in the inherent worth and value of humanity. In fact, personal development is to humanity what sharpening is to a knife.

When so many worry about the rising generation, inundated with sex and violence, self-indulgent, seemingly concerned too much with what doesn’t matter, impatient, disrespectful, vulgar and ungrateful, its heartening to get a glimpse into their hearts and see that our impressions of modern youth culture may not be so bad as we thought.

“Who you want to be is irrelevant to who you are if who you daily choose to be is different than who you wish you were.” Who we are and who we believe we should be are not always one and the same. Your Ideal You is likely somewhat higher than your Actual You. And so we read posts like this one looking for inspiration to nudge us down that path. Come see three areas we can improve on to become better people.

Do you have an extra 5 hours a day you could devote to doing what you love? If you could find 5 hours, that would translate to and extra 34 hours a week, or 136 hours most months and 1,768 hours a year. That’s a whopping 8,840 hours in just 5 years’ time and 17,680 hours in a decade you can devote to learning something, overcoming something, developing something, to creating an amazing life. If you are anything like the national average, I can offer you the gift of those 5 extra hours, free of charge.

Are you addicted to your smart phone? Do you spend a significant chunk of the day online? Or playing games? Or watching TV? How long can you go without checking status updates or text messages or your twitter feed? The more we rely on electronic media and electronic forms of interaction, ironically, the more disconnected we become. This challenge is to unplug and reconnect.