Author: The Eternally Hopeful

Greatest Gift

My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself. I don’t use special creams or treatments – I’ll use a little bit of everything. It’s a mistake to think you are what you put on yourself. I believe that a lot of how you look is to do with how you feel about yourself and your life. Happiness is the greatest beauty secret.

– Tina Turner

           There is no greater gift than self-love. When you truly love and embrace who you are, this radiance and happiness shows on the outside in your every move. It shows up in the way you carry yourself…Simply put, true happiness coming from within, transcends your very being.

Follow Your Path

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

– Steve Jobs

          Live your truth. Don’t get trapped by the expectations and judgment of others. Make sure that every decision you make and every step you take leads you forward down your path. Be bold, be brave, and follow your heart and intuition.

Strive for Balance

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.

– Reba McEntire

          The key to a good and fulfilling life is balance. You need to be able to balance the seriousness of life with everlasting hope that you can achieve your dreams and with a good sense of humor that allows you to enjoy everyday life. For success in life is more than merely finishing the race but rather it’s about the memories created along the way.

Make it Happen

“Infuse your life with action. Don’t wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen… yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.”

– Bradley Whitford

          You can’t spend your entire life waiting for life to happen to you. No, if you want to change and move forward, then you must get up and make it happen. Or, you may very well spend your entire life waiting instead of living. So, decide the type of life you want and then go out there and make it a reality. The only person holding you back is you.

Believe in Yourself

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”

Norman Vincent Peale

          If you don’t have faith in yourself, then who will? So, no matter what you choose to do in this life, you must have confidence in yourself and your abilities. Believe that you are capable of achieving your goals and making your dreams a reality.

The Present

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

― Henry David Thoreau

         At all times, you should strive to be present in the here and now. For it’s important to reflect on the past and dream of the future, but you must not forget to live in the present.

Choose to Live

“Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices – today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.”

– Kevyn Aucoin

      Each day you have the power to choose life. You can choose to embrace joy and positivity. You can choose to embrace all that life has to offer – including the good and bad. Because to truly be alive, it means you must choose to feel and not be numb to the world.

Move Closer

“Ask yourself if what you’re doing today will get you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.”

—Anonymous

        Every step you take should lead you down the path you want to travel. Every decision you make should put you closer to reaching your goals. Be mindful of every action you take and constantly reflect to make sure you are moving toward your future and not away from it.

Life’s Balancing Act

“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”

—Doctor Who

         Life is a balance. We all know it has its ups and downs, but you must remember that all the good doesn’t outweigh all the bad things and the bad things shouldn’t overshadow the good aspects of life. For life is all about perspective and how you choose to react to what is before you. So, appreciate the good times when they come and don’t give up or lose faith during a stormy night.

Do What Feels Right

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.”

—Eleanor Roosevelt

        At the end of the day, you should do what you feel is right. Don’t concern yourself with the opinions of others. For no matter what decisions you make, there will always be someone there to judge and criticize. So, focus on making choices that are good for you and your family and the rest will work itself out.