My wife Marcia and I, along with several members of our family were having dinner at a restaurant. After we placed our order, I noticed a mother and her young daughter having dinner together in a booth not far from us.
This is the beginning of a quote from Mark Twain. The full quote reads, “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and the beat you with experience.”
Recently, I called a friend of mine who had been experiencing health issues for several weeks. When he answered his phone, he sounded like he was not doing well at all.
In their book, The Good Life, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz point out that human beings are social creatures which means that each of us, as individuals, cannot provide everything we need for ourselves.
Sometimes, when you share a dream that you’re excited about with those around you, you’ll find their responses to be less than encouraging. For example, if you’re thinking about changing careers, starting your own business or going after a promotion, some of your friends and colleagues may try to talk you out of it by saying things like: “Are you sure you want to do that?”
Author and speaker Brian Tracy had this to say about success: “Success is not necessarily determined by material possessions or accomplishments.
Taking a risk is one of the few “no lose” situations that life has to offer—if we succeed, we’re happy and excited, and if we fail, we have the opportunity to learn from the experience which makes it much more probable that we’ll succeed the next time around.
English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley (author of Brave New World written in 1932) was often asked, “What is the most effective technique for transforming my life (meaning what can I do to make changes leading to a noticeably better or more fulfilling version of myself).”
When it comes to impacting people’s lives, nothing is more powerful than kindness. As Albert Schweitzer once said: “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.”
My friend Patricia shared the following story. On her way to work on the morning I saw her, she pulled up to a stop light alongside another car.