The Top 20 Things Oprah Knows for Sure

Since the day the late Gene Siskel asked me, "What do you know for sure?" and I got all flustered and started stuttering and couldn't come up with an answer, I've never stopped asking myself that question. And every month I must find yet another answer. Some months I feel I hardly know a thing, and I'm always pressed to make the deadline for this column. This time around, I looked back and came up with my all-time top 20:
1. What you put out comes back all the time, no matter what. (This is my creed.)
2. You define your own life. Don't let other people write your script.
3. Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present. Only you give it power.
4. When people show you who they are, believe them the first time. (A lesson from Maya Angelou.)
5. Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy for doing something about whatever worries you.
6. What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe.
7. If the only prayer you ever say is thank you, that will be enough. (From the German theologian and humanist Meister Eckhart.)
8. The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.
9. Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.
10. If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.
11. Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn't lie.
12. Love yourself and then learn to extend that love to others in every encounter.
13. Let passion drive your profession. 
14. Find a way to get paid for doing what you love. Then every paycheck will be a bonus.
15. Love doesn't hurt. It feels really good.
16. Every day brings a chance to start over.
17. Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Women everywhere must declare it so.
18. Doubt means don't. Don't move. Don't answer. Don't rush forward.
19. When you don't know what to do, get still. The answer will come.
20. "Trouble don't last always." (A line from a Negro spiritual, which calls to mind another favorite: This, too, shall pass.) 

Source: http://www.oprah.com

This Guy Travelled The Country In A Pink Tutu Just To Make His Wife Laugh During Chemo

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maycie/this-guy-travelled-the-country-in-a-pink-tutu-just-to-make-h?bffb

Robin Sharma: 35 Fast Tips To Make This Your Best Year Yet

1. Remember that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts.
2. Keep the promises you make to others – and to yourself.
3. The project that most scares you is the project you need to do first.
4. Small daily improvements are the key to staggering long-term results.
5. Stop being busy being busy.
6. Read “The War of Art”.
7. Watch “The Fighter”.
8. In a world where technology is causing some of us to forget how to act human, become the politest person you know.
9. Remember that all great ideas were first ridiculed.
10. Remember that critics are dreamers gone scared.
11. Be “Apple-Like” in your obsession with getting the details right.
12. Take 60 minutes every weekend to craft a blueprint for the coming seven days. As Saul Bellow once said: “A plan relieves you of the torment of choice.”
13. Release your need to be liked this New Year. You can’t be a visionary if you long to be liked.
14. Disrupt or be disrupted.
15. Hire a personal trainer to get you into the best shape of your life. Superstars focus on the value they receive versus the cost of the service.
16. Give your teammates, customers and family one of the greatest gifts of all: the gift of your attention (and presence).
17. Every morning ask yourself: “How may I best serve the most people?”
18. Every night ask yourself: “What 5 good things happened to me this day?”
19. Don’t waste your most valuable hours (the morning) doing low value work.
20. Leave every project you touch at work better than you found it.
21. Your job is not just to work. Your job is to leave a trail of leaders behind you.
22. A job is not “just a job”. Every job is a gorgeous vehicle to express your gifts and talents – and to model exceptionalism for all around you.
23. Fears unfaced become your limits.
24. Get up at 5 am and take 60 minutes to prepare your mind, body, emotions and spirit to be remarkable during the hours that follow. Being a superstar is not the domain of the gifted but the prepared.
25. Write love letters to your family.
26. Smile at strangers.
27. Drink more water.
28. Keep a journal. Your life’s story is worth recording.
29. Do more than you’re paid to do and do work that leaves your teammates breathless.
30. Leave your ego at the door every morning.
31. Set 5 daily goals every morning. These small wins will lead to nearly 2000 little victories by the end of the year.
32. Say “please” and “thank you”.
33. Remember the secret to happiness is doing work that matters and being an instrument of service.
34. Don’t be the richest person in the graveyard. Health is wealth.
35. Life’s short. The greatest risk is risk-less living. And settling for average
    

Try something new for 30 days - Matt Cutts

16 Surprising Facts About Happiness

The 3 Habits of Happiness

...I told them they didn't understand life...

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you...

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you
If you're young at heart.
For it's hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind
If you're young at heart.

You can go to extremes with impossible schemes.
You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams.
And life gets more exciting with each passing day.
And love is either in your heart, or on it's way.

Don't you know that it's worth every treasure on earth
To be young at heart.
For as rich as you are, it's much better by far
To be young at heart.

And if you should survive to 105,
Look at all you'll derive out of being alive!
And here is the best part, you have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart.

And if you should survive to 105,
Look at all you'll derive out of being alive!
And here is the best part, you have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG7suS4YJWk

Daily dose of LSD (Laughter, Singing and Dancing) :)

Writer, coach and public speaker Steve Chandler advocates a daily dose of LSD (Laughter, Singing and Dancing). "Laughing, singing, and dancing can be added to every day you live. In fact, count each day that you don't do all three a lost day. Be strict with yourself about this. Reinvent yourself as a laugher, a singer, and a dancer. Insist on learning to have fun."

What are you waiting for?! :)

EXERCISE: Your Thankful List

What are you grateful for today? Can you make a list? Write at least 10 things in your life that you are grateful for and that you really appreciate! Do it every morning. You can do it, I know you can! :)

Life is meant to be fun! (+ tip how to deal with those who tells you otherwise :) )

The Habits of Happiness by Leo Babauta

"I’m not one who believes you can be happy all the time, but I have learned you can be happy much of the time. And that’s not something that depends on how your day is going or how others treat you — it depends on what you do on a regular basis. I remember being unhappy most days, at one point in my life. It wasn’t because I hated the people in my life — I had a lovely wife, great kids, other wonderful family members and friends. It was because I was unhappy with myself, and that caused growing debt problems, unhappiness with my job, health problems and more. I felt like I couldn’t change any of that.
Then one day I sat down and made a list. I make a lot of lists — it’s one of my favorite habits — but this list seemed to have a magical power. It was a list of the things I was grateful for. Amazingly, there were a lot of things on the list, from things about my wife, kids, relatives, and friends, to things about my job, about nature around me, about my life. This list was magical because I went from feeling a bit depressed about everything, and hopeless and helpless, to much happier. My mindset shifted from the things I didn’t like or didn’t have, to the things I was really happy I had. And I was in control.
Since then I’ve experimented with a number of habits and have found a couple things to be true:

1. A handful of activities can actually make you happy.
2. If you incorporate them into your life on a regular basis (make them into habits), you’ll be happier regularly.

And those might seem to be small realizations, but actually they’re huge.

The Habits That Make You Happy

So what habits make you happy? Try doing these on a daily basis, and see if you get the same results:

1. List 3 Good Things. Eva & I started a daily evening ritual, at about 7pm each day, where we take a moment to tell each other three good things about our day. We didn’t invent this, but it serves as at least one time in your day when you focus on what you’re grateful for. This can create a mental habit of gratitude that you can use other times in your day, when you’re focused on the things you don’t like or have — when you feel this, think about something you do have, that you love. Find a way to be grateful, and you’re happier.
2. Help Someone. When we focus on ourselves, and the woeful state of our lives, we are self-centered. This shrinks the world to one little place with one little unhappy person. But what if we can expand that worldview, and expand our heart to include at least one other person? Maybe even a few others? Then we see that others are suffering too, even if that just means they’re stressed out. Then we can reach out, and do something to reduce their stress, put a smile on their face, make their lives easier. Help at least one person each day, and you’ll find your entire perspective shifted.
3. Meditate. I’ve called this the Fundamental Habit, because it affects everything else. Meditate for just 2 minutes a day, and you’ll create a habit that will allow you to notice your thoughts throughout the rest of the day, that will help you to be more present (unhappiness comes from not being present), that will help you notice the source of anxiety and distraction. That’s a lot that can be accomplished in 2 minutes! Sit every morning when you wake, and just notice your body, and then your breath. Notice when your mind wanders, and gently return to your breath. You become the watcher of your mind, and you’ll learn some useful things, I promise.
4. Exercise. Everyone knows you should exercise, so I’m not going to belabor this point. But it really does make you happier, both in the moment of exercise (I’m exerting myself, I’m alive!) and throughout the rest of the day. Exercise lightly, if you’re not in the habit yet, and just for a few minutes a day to start out. Who doesn’t have a few minutes a day? If you don’t, you need to loosen up your schedule a bit.

There are a number of other habits that also help: mindful eating, drinking tea, doing yoga, socializing with others. But these incorporate meditation (they’re more active forms of meditation), and exercise and helping others and gratitude (if you’re doing it right). So I wanted to list the most basic habits, and then you can expand to other areas. How do you form these habits? One at a time, starting as small as possible, with some social accountability. Set these habits in motion. You’ll notice yourself becoming more present, more grateful, more other-focused. The shift that results is nothing short of a miracle."

Kako pronaci srecu tamo gde je nema?

"Ne možemo da očekujemo da se svet promeni da bismo mi konačno postali zadovoljni, ne treba da čekamo da se promene političari, zemlja u kojoj živimo ili ponašanje naših najbližih da bismo mi konačno bili srećni. Jedino što možemo jeste da menjamo sebe i da upravo u sebi potražimo rešenje, putokaz ili snagu. Ukoliko želimo da budemo srećni, jedino mesto na kom možemo da potražimo sreću jeste unutar nas samih. Ali kako pronaći sreću u sebi ako u ovom trenutku nismo srećni? Kako pronaći nešto za šta u ovom trenutku mislimo da ga nema? Na koju stranu se zagledati i šta praktično znači pronaći svoju unutrašnju sreću?

Prvi korak ka otkrivanju unutrašnje sreće jeste definisanje sopstvenih potreba. Kao što ni auto ne može da stigne do cilja ukoliko u njemu nema goriva isto tako i mi ako dugo ne dobijamo ono što nam je potrebno, polako zaboravljamo ko smo, sve teže nam je da stignemo do odredišta. Zaboravljamo da su sreća i radost suština našeg postojanja. Da bismo ponovo iskusili upravo tu sreću i radost, važno je da razmislimo o svojim stvarnim potrebama. Važno je da pronađemo način da obezbedimo sebi zadovoljenje tih naših potreba.

Divno je biti tu za druge, divno je činiti druge srećnima, divno je biti na raspolaganju onima kojima je naša podrška potrebna, ali najvažnije od svega je da pri svemu tome ne zanemarimo sebe i sopstvene potrebe. I mi kao i svi drugi zaslužujemo pažnju, odmor i negu. Svi zaslužujemo ljubav i podršku. Ukoliko je ne nalazimo, jedina osoba kojoj možemo da se obratimo da bismo sve to dobili, jesmo upravo mi sami. Kada ste poslednji put pohvalili sebe zbog nečega što ste uradili? Kada ste poslednji put počastili sebe od zarade koju ste primili? Kada ste poslednji put stavili svoje potrebe na prvo mesto? Razmislite o ovome i sledeći put kada se nađete u situaciji da učinite nešto što prelazi granice vaših snaga i želja, zapitajte se: "Da li je ovo što upravo radim zaista ono što želim u ovom trenutku da radim?" Ukoliko je vaš odgovor NE, razmislite o onome što bi vas istinski u tom momentu usrećilo. I učinite upravo TO što bi vam vratilo osmeh na lice!"

Autor: Siniša Ubović

10 Ways To Get What You Want In Life

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-9733/10-ways-to-get-what-you-want-in-life.html

And that is why I succeed.

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Michael Jordan 

You're your problem and you're also your solution

10 Lessons from Einstein

http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/03/16/10-lessons-from-einstein/

22 Things Happy People Do Differently

http://successify.net/2012/10/31/22-things-happy-people-do-differently/

My vocation is my vacation.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”