A former student of mine posted the following quote on Facebook: “Happiness comes a lot easier when you stop complaining about the problems you do have, and you start being grateful for all the problems you don’t have.”

I came across a Facebook post by a radio talk show host in Phoenix who recently fostered then adopted a six-year-old girl whom he refers to as “Sister” in his post.

When you go to places like a doctor’s office, an airport or a tire shop, chances are you’re going to do some waiting.

Validation reinforces a positive sense of worth in people and makes them feel really good about who they are. Furthermore, people who feel good about themselves do good things. One of the ways that we can all help make the world a better place is to serve as an instrument of validation.

Few people will argue with the old adage that, “Experience is the best teacher.” Experience is all about trying something new, failing, learning from that failure, and then trying again until you get it right. When you think about it, that’s how most of us learned how to ride a bicycle.

In today’s fast paced world, unexpected delays and interruptions are anything but welcome—in fact, they can be downright stressful. I’m talking about delayed flights, waiting to have a flat tire fixed and long lines at the Post Office.

Young children begin life with absolutely no fear of failure. Take learning how to walk, for example. We repeatedly failed over and over in our initial attempts, but we got back up and tried again with smiles on our faces.

If you expect to achieve anything during your lifetime that is worthy of note, it’s important to remember one thing: you can’t do it by yourself, you need all the help you can get.

If you want to get others excited about going the extra mile for you over and over again, all you need to do is to make them feel special when they do.  Merely saying thank you is not enough.