I was recently sitting in the dentist’s chair thinking about my mouth. I don’t usually spend much time doing that, but that day, I was. And it dawned on me that personal development is really a lot like going to the dentist. Sounds strange, but not so much as you might think.

We all have trash in our lives. We can let it pile up, rot and decay. Or we can turn it into something beautiful. There are parts of us that are not so pretty. Perhaps it’s a temper or an attitude. But we can change them. We can adapt them. They can become stepping stones by which we climb higher than ever before. They can inspire us to make something beautiful of them. They can inspire us to turn them into the music of our lives.

It’s perfectly fine to want more income or less weight, a higher degree or lower blood pressure, to overcome a habit or start a new one. But when we start stacking one accomplishment on top another on a foundation of sand, life becomes off-centered, unstable, and eventually comes tumbling down. All it takes is one good storm and we’re belly-up on the beach. This is when a firmer foundation is important.

Happiness is the byproduct of other things. It is the natural effect of the way we live, the way we think, the way we act and believe. Come take the Happiness Pledge as a commitment to those characteristics that add to happiness and start the process of living with more joy than ever before.

I’ve collected 5 of the scariest words I know. These are words that are deadlier than they seem. Their poison infects the mind and turns the heart cold and fragile. So approach with caution and use sparingly. Remember, poison taken in small enough doses builds immunity to its lethal toxicity. But if taken in larger doses will kill you. So will these words.

Are you a goal-setting flunky? A New Years Resolution drop-out? Have you set goals time and time again only to summarily fail to reach them? All of them? Well, the good news is that you didn’t waist your time trying. You even likely improved your life, becoming a subtly better person, perhaps without even realizing it. The very act of setting and pursuing goals can actually make you a better human being. Click on in to see how!

Happiness is the natural result of habitually living and thinking in certain ways. As a matter of fact, happiness is something that is quite predictable for almost all people as we develop certain habits of thought, belief, action and character. Some people are unhappy. Others are mildly or moderately happy. Some are even pretty happy. The following, however, are those principles that produce highly happy people.

Are you a Personal Development Junkie? Do you surf the web in search of your next high, the next blog with the newest twist or next fix to your personal development needs? There is a lot to choose from. Some are decent. Most fall somewhere below average. Some may be doing you more harm than good. Check out the 5 signs personal development blogs may be damaging your life.

Intolerance has a bad reputation. And with good reason too. Still, I’m not so sure it should be thrown out with the bathwater. The thing is I’m actually an advocate for having a good healthy dose of it. Surprised? Keep reading. I think you’ll agree with me. You see, the problem with intolerance is not so much the intolerance per se as much as what our intolerance is directed at.

I’m convinced that each of us has a superhero waiting to be let loose no matter where we are or who we identify with at this particular moment in our lives. I believe you are a superhero, even if the hero part hasn’t been fully identified or coaxed from its inner lair. It’s our job to discover how to release the powers already there, dormant perhaps, but waiting to be discovered, developed and unleashed.

Guest post by Tim Brownson of A Daring Adventure: Our self-talk can build and lift or it can trap, undermine and cripple. There are ways we can learn to change the very language we use to describe the obstacles we have to the life we dream of living. Try this simple change of language to experience a quantum change in your life. Self-talk matters. Come see why.

Are you an optimist? Do you see silver linings and half-full cups? Optimism is an essential quality for happiness at its potential. The pessimists refrain that “I don’t think things will work out for me” is hardly the recipe for happiness, after all. But what are the basic beliefs of the optimist? Click on in to read my take on the Optimist Creed!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live an extraordinary life? Well, extraordinary is as extraordinary does. An ordinary focus and commitment lacks the pulling power to lift you to the level of extraordinary. Extraordinary is extra-ordinary, after all. You just can’t reach it by virtue of ordinary effort. The “extra” is required. So begin to supercharge your life for an extraordinary impact of legendary proportions.

I was thinking the other day about the man I hope my son will one day be. I was imagining him with the qualities I hope he acquires. And then I wondered if I was adequately teaching him the traits I envisioned him having. Come on in and read the 31 lessons every mom and dad would do well to teach their children before they can no longer teach them.

The Olympic Games are thrilling and compelling because they embody human excellence. They remind us of tha value of determination, dedication, will and stamina, refusing to allow life to get in the way of living it at its highest, pushing for what seems impossible, reaching amazing levels of human capacity. The passion and drive, hard work, sacrifice and blood sweat and tears in every step, every jump and even in every stumble, inspires us.

The reasons for change are endless: A new career. An old habit. A new one. Acquiring a skill. Overcoming a fear. Ending procrastination. Becoming happier. But no matter the reason or the kind, all change has a starting point. This post is a tribute to the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey. Change is made possible by understanding the principles undergirding change. Covey taught those principles.

Life is an incomplete design. And we are the designers. We choose the colors, the pattern, the shape and size of the final product, a glorious finished work of amazingness. Granted, God gave us the materials and even some basic instructions to guide us, but we weave the pieces together to make of our lives what we will.

The inside of your life will always be more important than the outside in determining how happy your life will be. How you think and interpret life — how you view the world, seeing it as a cold and lonely place or one of adventure and opportunity — that will change how you feel about life. The secret to living a passionate life of happiness, then, is to start looking at life with new eyes.

Not everyone’s depression is exactly the same. The causes of it, the way it’s felt and experienced and those steps and ideas that will ultimately help to lift the cloud of depression will be in some combination different for each person struggling with that challenge. So what I’ve done is to write a sort of suicide note … in reverse. There are reasons to choose to live that may be enough to spark that same desire in someone else. My hope is that it does.

A life of emotional independence is one wherein my mood and self-esteem and self-worth and happiness are products of my own design. I am not the product of others’ opinions. My feelings are independent of theirs. Others don’t “make” me mad. I choose my emotional responses to life’s circumstances.