To live means to experience--through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience takes place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have. Over the years, the content of experience will determine the quality of life. Therefore one of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life
Categories: time balance planner planning priorities balance life living experiences choices

If we could learn how to balance rest against effort, calmness against strain, quiet against turmoil, we would assure ourselves of joy in living and psychological health for life.
Josephine Rathbone The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: wellness balance stress sleep anxiety happiness balance wellness mental health

As more people achieve some degree of mental calm, insight, or the ability to transform negative emotions into positive ones, there will be a natural reinforcement of basic human values and consequently a great chance for peace and happiness for all.
The Dalai Lama Living in Balance
Categories: inner peace self-awareness spirituality self-control values happiness calm serenity emotional balance morals ethics relationships joy serenity emotional balance

I've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time.
Oprah Winfrey O Magazine, April 2003
Categories: balance

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.
Euripides
Categories: balance

We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves.
Francis J. Braceland O Magazine, April 2003
Categories: balance

What I dream of is an art of balance.
Henri Matisse O Magazine, April 2003
Categories: balance

So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Categories: balance

Order is not pressure which is imposed on society from without, but an equilibrium which is set up from within.
Jose Ortega y Gasset
Categories: balance

I grieve over how tired we can become in our common life. Trying too much, meeting too long, undertaking more projects than true wisdom would allow, we weary ourselves.
Stephen V. Doughty "A Benediction from Communal Time" by Stephen V. Doughty, Weavings, January/February 1999.
Categories: balance

There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with 4 rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.
Rumer Godden Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Categories: balance wellness

It is time that we give up the habits which separate feelings and action, home and work. They originate in old-fashioned and unhelpful stereotypes.
Gillian Butler, PhD and Tony Hope, MD Managing Your Mind
Categories: balance emotions

Life is to be enjoyed, not saddled with.
Tasha Tudor Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Categories: balance stress joy

It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and any animals rhythm of rest and activity.
Thomas Moore The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life
Categories: self-nurture soul balance

While slight attention to the soul can go a long way, it isn't enough to maintain the active life and give the soul mere morsels.
Thomas Moore The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life
Categories: self-nurture balance soul

A life with a single Grand Goal robs you of your freedom, because a life devoted to a single Goal demands that every action must serve that single end.
James Ogilvy Living Without a Goal: Finding the Freedom to Live a Creative and Innovative Life by James Ogilvy
Categories: goal priorities balance

If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work.
William Shakespeare (King Henry IV) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: work leisure balance

Walk in balance with one foot in your spiritual understanding and one foot in your physical world of accomplishment.
Lynn V. Andrews Walk in Balance
Categories: balance spirituality success

Our latest moment is always our supreme moment. Five minutes delay in dinner now is more important than a great sorrow ten years gone.
Samuel Butler The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: perspective life balance

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: balance beauty appreciation

You can do anything -- but not everything. The universe is full of creative projects that are waiting to be done. So, if you really care about quality of life, if you want to relax, then don't focus on values, just control your aspirations. That will simplify things. Learning to set boundaries is incredibly difficult for most people.
David Allen "You can do anything -- but not everything "by Keith H. Hammonds, Fast Company, May 2000
Categories: priorities balance stress

If you haven't attained clear true vision, this causes you to lapse into extremes, so that you lose contact with reality.
Zen Master Yuanwu Zen Essence: The Science of Freedom
Categories: vision reality balance

Don't hurry, don't worry. You're only here for a short visit. So be sure to stop and smell the flowers.
Walter Hagen American Quotations
Categories: joy happiness relaxation balance

Men's minds, once unbalanced, are ready to believe anything...
Tacitus The Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus
Categories: balance perspective values

I think that a lot of people are in love with stress. It's the dirty little secret of Western civilization. People often mistakes stress for fuel.... to me, stress is just another bad drug that I don't want to do.
Jerry Stahl "Unit of One"Fast Company, May 2000
Categories: stress burn-out balance

To be happy requires knowledge about how to achieve happiness (i.e. wisdom) and hard work and self-discipline to put that knowledge into practice.
Dennis Prager Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual
Categories: happiness balance self-discipline self-nurture

Be not simply good; be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau Walden
Categories: usefulness character work balance

For if a man's mind move under the sway of errant senses they sweep away his wisdom, as the winds sweep away an unmanned ship on the waters.
Hindu scripture Categories: emotions feelings balance self-control

...the right way is to give one's attention first to the highest good of the young, just as you expect a good gardener to give his attention first to the young plants, and after that to the others.
Socrates The Last Days of Socrates
Categories: children family priorities balance

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
Joseph Addison Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness hope love balance

Rather than focusing on things and time, focus on preserving and enhancing relationships and on accomplishing results.
Stephen Covey Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living the Seven Habits
Categories: focus priorities balance success

Each action can be the one on which all depends; what is decisive is only the strength and concentration of hallowing with which I do it. To the question of what hd been the most essential matter for his late teacher, a disciple answered, 'Always just what he was engaged in at the moment.'
Martin Buber Thoughts on Leadership
Categories: action focus balance priorities

He believed people were more important than schedules, and he would never make people feel uncomfortable by letting them feel they had come at a bad time. You only treat strangers or people you don't like that way. Friends are welcome any time, and everybody was a friend...
Joseph F. Girzone Joshua
Categories: relationships friendships balance priorities

The way living systems return to balance is by continually expanding to encompass more of whole. While fear may cause us to constrict, separate to or withdraw, this is not path the healing and balance. It is courage and love that guide us to step out and meet and befriend what we fear, to take it inside of ourselves, and learn from it in order to transform and heal ourselves.
Joel Levey and Michelle Levey Living in Balance: A Dynamic Approach for Creating Harmony & Wholeness in a Chaotic World
Categories: balance healing courage love

In a culture that has generally lost sight of the soul and has given most of its attention to the heroic and the ambitious, these values of the soul may appear more detrimental than advantageous. Yet it's clear that even in business, when soul appears in the form of emotional distress, symptomatic behavior, or failure in morale, work suffers and the economics of the business declines. An enchanted life is good for business, even though it requires a considerable turnabout in values and vision.
Thomas Moore The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life
Categories: soul work balance self-nurture

...the changes that matter most, the
Dan Baker "Enough is Enough" by Chuck Salter, Fast Company July/August 1999
Categories: change healthy habits will balance

You can always find reasons to work. There will always be one more thing to do. But when people don't take time it out, they stop being productive. They stop being happy and that affects the morale of everyone around them.
Carisa Bianchi "Unit of One," Fast Company, May 2000
Categories: balance productivity morale vacations

Do not delay;

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow American Quotations
Categories: time balance priorities success

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Frances Bacon Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: perspective attitude balance life

Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to
Stephen Covey Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living the Seven Habits
Categories: choices decisions priorities balance

How sour sweet music is
When time is broke and no proportions kept!
So it is in the music of men's lives.
William Shakespeare (King Richard II) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: balance priorities focus fulfillment

We are always getting ready to live, but never living.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life living balance priorities

I count myself in nothing else so happy
``As in a soul remembering my good friends.
William Shakespeare (King Richard II) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: happiness friendship relationships balance joy

Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: patience serenity balance character

The more balanced our lives, the more serene we feel.
Ann Smith Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: balance peace serenity life

Live a balanced life--learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Robert Fulghum All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Categories: life balance living fun creativity joy

Today, we must start to recover our sanity. The way we do this is to concentrate slowly on completing one task at a time, each hour of the date, until the day is over.
Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance
Categories: focus balance stress peace pacing

Energy, mental clarity, and positive regard for others are the three most important benchmarks of well-being.
Jeanne Segal Ph.D. Raising Your Emotional Intelligence: A Practical Guide
Categories: mental emotional health balance wellness

I never worry about the future. It comes soon enough.
Albert Einstein The Quotable Einstein
Categories: future stress anxiety worry balance

Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness with others.
Samuel Butler The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: work leisure rest balance life

Frugality is good, if liberality be joined with it. The first is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last bestowing them to the benefit of others that need. The first without the last begets covetousness; the last without the first begets prodigality. Both together make an excellent temper. Happy the place where that is found.
William Penn The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: generosity materialism greed simplicity balance

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life living action goal balance

Whether you are concerned about managing your work or your personal life or your leisure, success and satisfaction will depend on your inner thoughts. Your inner thoughts will help to determine your outer life... and your inner life will affect how you react to your experiences...
Gillian Butler, PhD and Tony Hope, MD Managing Your Mind
Categories: success relaxation balance thoughts self-control

The most important human endeavor is striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.
Albert Einstein The Quotable Einstein
Categories: morality ethics actions balance inner peace

How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.
Stephen Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Categories: priorities balance planning focus action

Another, equally important part of growing up is no
Elaine N. Aron The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
Categories: maturity focus balance priorities choice

It is a lovely thing to turn away from busy work to pay attention to our loved things and loved ones. We know how we wait to be told we are important. We should never wait to say or think something beautiful that will make someone's day easier and more secure.
Joyce Sequichie Hifler A Cherokee Feast of Days: Daily Meditations
Categories: balance priorities relationships marriage parenting

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans: it's lovely to be silly at the right moment.
Horace The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: humor perspective fun living happiness balance

Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period or other, when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other: it is our own.
Charles Caleb Cotton Light from Many Lamps
Categories: future happiness joy too busy balance priorities

When you're inundated with work and you feel completely overwhelmed, the best way to gain time is to add balance.
Julie Morgenstern "Unit of One," Fast Company, November 1999
Categories: balance priorities time managment stress

The opposite of availability is not unavailability,
Sue Monk Kidd "Live Welcoming to All" by Sue Monk Kidd
Categories: balance priorities busyness friendships relationships

We have only one reality, and that is here and now. What we miss by our evasions will never return, but if we squander ourselves, then too we lose being. Each day is precious: a moment can be everything.
Karl Jaspers Thoughts on Leadership
Categories: life present living balance purpose

Curse ruthless time! Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is the allotted span for all we must cram into it.
Winston Churchill The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: time life aging age balance priorities

The secret of what life's all about
Was answered by the sages:
Life's about one day at a time
No matter what your age is.
Robert Half The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: life age aging time present balance

Planning for happiness is rarely successful. Happiness just happens.
Robert Half The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: happy happiness joy gladness balance planning

Many people seem to think that success in one area can compensate for failure in other areas. But can it really?...True effectiveness requires balance.
Stephen Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Categories: success balance effectiveness business compartmentalization

It is in his pleasure that a man really lives.
Agnes Repplier The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: joy happiness pleasure life meaning balance

Superfluous branches
We lop away that bearing boughs may live.
William Shakespeare (King Richard II) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: growth discipline focus balance priorities

Humor and creativity are kissing cousins. If you want to develop your sense of humor, invite more creativity into your life--and vice versa. In the presence of humor, new creative perspectives naturally occur. You can't stop them.
Joel Goodman, found and director of The Humor Project Jump Start Your Brain
Categories: laughter fun humor creativity perspective balance

A human being is part of the whole called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few people nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein Living in Balance: A Dynamic Approach for Creating Harmony & Wholeness in a Chaotic World
Categories: mindfulness balance awareness love relationship compassion

One of the false dichotomies of modern life is that between work and personal time. It is widely held that there is a set of skills that we need for one and quite a different set that we need for the other. But this is not true. The skills of problem-solving, for example are of great value in our personal lives, and overcoming stress and anxiety is a key skill in our work. Being fair to yourself, and to others, helps both personal and work relationships. Low mood is a major cause of unhappiness and also reduces effectiveness at work.
Gillian Butler, PhD and Tony Hope, MD Managing Your Mind
Categories: balance life skills happiness personal effectiveness

The majority of men are bundles of beginnings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: character perseverance beginning planning priorities balance

As a principle-centered person you try to stand apart from the emotion of the situation and from other factors that would act on you, and evaluate the options. Looking at the balanced whole--the work needs, the family needs, the other needs that may be involved, and the possible implications of the various alternatives--you'll try to come up with the best solution taking all factors into consideration.
Stephen Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Categories: principles values emotion balance work family

Becoming a person of deeply grounded and rich imagination may be more desirable than being healthy, politically savvy, or well informed.
Thomas Moore The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life
Categories: priorities balance imagination wellness politics knowledge

The cost of a thing is that amount of life which must be exchanged for it.
Henry David Thoreau The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: possessions materialism life balance priorities values

Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson Simple Abundance
Categories: inner peace balance emotions harmony serenity calm

Success is not a destination that you ever reach. Success is the quality of your journey.
Jennifer James Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: success growth change life balance joy happiness

There is nothing more tragic than a person who achieves wealth, fame, power or prestige only to find he's lost the love of his family and friends, the respect of his colleagues, and above all has lost the ability to appreciate life for its own sake.
Roger Dawson The 13 Secrets of Power Performance
Categories: balance life happiness purpose meaning fulfillment

I have come to believe that a life enslaved to one Goal, no matter how noble, becomes a mechanism rather than an organism, a business plan rather than a biography, a tool rather than a gift.
James Ogilvy Living Without a Goal: Finding the Freedom to Live a Creative and Innovative Life by James Ogilvy
Categories: goal ambition balance priorities life purpose

The time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely were too long.
William Shakespeare (King Henry IV) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: life priorities balance focus vision mission

...the spiritual life consists only in part in striving for the ideal. The spiritual life is also, and perhaps more profoundly, about wrestling with the real. Perhaps the dance of holiness really occurs on the narrow apron of life's stage where we find ourselves poised between what we want to be and what we are.
Wendy M. Wright "Making Things New: Thoughts on Being Stripped, Naked, and Clothed," Weavings, Jan/Feb 1996
Categories: spirituality balance choices personal growth self-improvement

Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.
Dion Boucicault The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: wasting time aging priorities balance busyness

Let us never confuse stability with stagnation.
Mary Jean LeTendre Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: change balance maturity wisdom self-awareness self-knowledge

A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments.
Samuel Johnson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: wisdom money future present balance life

You don't have to sit on top of a mountain to discover what's right for you. You always know in your heart what you need to do. But you do have to ask yourself if you're willing to make choices. Put yourself in a position where you're making choices about your life, rather than letting other people make those choices for you. That's what balance is all about.
Liz Dolan Fast Company magazine
Categories: balance responsibility free will choice self-determination independence

It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work.
Henry David Thoreau The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: relaxation leisure work values priorities balance

It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.
Margaret Thatcher The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: money wealth possessions materialism priorities balance

Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breath more; talk less, say more, and all good things will be yours.
Swedish proverb The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: moderation balance happiness fulfillment joy meaning purpose

Priorities are not written in granite. They need to be flexible and change as we do...It takes peace of mind and clarity to recognize and reorder meaningful, personal priorities. Maybe that is why so many of us procrastinate.
Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance
Categories: priorities goals planning balance procrastination time management

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon--instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
Dale Carnegie Light from Many Lamps
Categories: today present now balance joy enjoyment life living happiness

We do not want riches, we want peace and love.
Red Cloud A Cherokee Feast of Days: Daily Meditations
Categories: priorities materialism money peace love balance success

As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few points.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: focus concentration vision priorities balance success energy

What the banker sighs for, the meanest clown may have--leisure and a quiet mind.
Henry David Thoreau The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: leisure balance relaxation priorities serenity calm peace

If we had no winter the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Anne Bradstreet The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: pain joy suffering challenges problems difficulties balance gratitude

The world is too much with us. Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.
William Wordsworth Simple Abundance
Categories: materialism money possessions focus balance work career

You were intended not only to work, but to rest, laugh, play, and have proper leisure and enjoyment. To develop an all-around personality you must have interest outside of your regular vocation that will serve to balance your business responsibilities.
Grenville Kleiser The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: work play rest laughter leisure balance life

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie Simple Abundance
Categories: gratitude attitude focus balance happiness joy fulfillment meaning

You don't have to do everything and be everything for everyone else all time. If you think you can't possibly do one more thing without screaming or crying, you're probably right.
Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance
Categories: stress anxiety perfectionism supermom self-nurture balance priorities

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of everything.
Samuel Johnson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: focus concentration vision priorities mission balance success

It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.
George Lucas Lorimer Light from Many Lamps
Categories: money possessions success happiness meaning fulfillment balance joy

All work done mindfully rounds us out, helps complete us as persons.
Marsha Sinetar To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: vocation work balance fulfillment life living growth

Let nothing good or bad upset the balance of your life.
Thomas à Kempis Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: balance focus stability maturity calm serenity character

Engrossed late and soon in professional cares, getting and spending, you may so lay waste your powers that you may find, too late, with hearts given away, that there is no place in your habit-stricken souls for those gentler influences which make your life worth living.
Sir William Osler Light from Many Lamps
Categories: balance priorities too busy meaning life joy happiness work

The older I get, the more I realize the importance of exercising the various dimensions of my body, soul, mind and heart. Taken together, these aspects give me a sense of wholeness. I want to be a whole human being rather than one who limps on one leg because I don't know how to use all of my parts. Intellectual, emotional, and physical activity are not separate entities. Rather, they are dimensions of the same human being.
Robert Fulghum in the essay "Pay Attention" Handbook for the Soul
Categories: aging wisdom body soul spirit life balance wellness

The mintage of wisdom is to know that rest is rust, and that real life is in love, laughter, and work.
Elbert Hubbard Light from Many Lamps
Categories: wisdom love laughter work friendship relationships wellness balance

As we become full persons, our knack for "right actions" and good judgement blossoms.
Marsha Sinetar To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: fulfillment balance life actions judgement character growth vision

To be a philosopher is...so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.
Henry David Thoreau Walden
Categories: wisdom simplicity independence generosity trust life values balance

Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either the work of the other.
Henry David Thoreau The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: exercise work physical soul nurture spirituality meditation balance

Tomorrow will be like today. Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. Our friends and fellow-workers die off from us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Thoughts on Leadership
Categories: life living attention focus balance plans goals relationships

Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of each day and hour.
Stephen Leacock Light from Many Lamps
Categories: life happiness happy balance present now today joyous enjoyment

If a man carefully examines his thoughts, he will be surprised to find how much he lives in the future. His well-being is always ahead.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: thoughts future perspective life living goal dream vision balance

In adversity, remember to keep an even mind.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity calm serenity peace balance attitude problems challenges difficulties

I have a prescription for boosting your resistance to burnout: Get outside yourself, and do something that has nothing to do with your normal day's work... Do other things. Do things for other people, if you can. Do whatever you must to get the focus off your own problems. You need to have a diversion, particularly when times are difficult.
Ben Carson, pediatric neurosurgeon "Unit of One: Don't Burn Out", Fast Company May 2000
Categories: burnout stress adversity balance voluteerism giving sharing service ministry

You have the need and the right to spend part of your life caring for your soul. It is not easy. You have to resist the demands of the work-oriented, often defensive, element in your psyche that measures life only in terms of output -- how much you produce -- not in terms of the quality of your life experiences...To be a soulful person means to go against all the pervasive, prove-yourself values of our culture and instead treasure what is unique and internal and valuable in yourself and your own personal evolution.
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., from the essay "Windows of the Soul" Handbook for the Soul
Categories: self-nurture life soul work happiness balance self-esteem growth change

It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth--and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up--that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Simple Abundance
Categories: life age aging death meaning fulfillment living priorities priority balance

Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life...When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.
Henry David Thoreau Walden
Categories: life hurry stress balance wisdom patience serenity calm value fear

Think of the steady, reassuring rhythm of the natural world--the ebb and flow of the tides, the recurring cycle of the the four seasons, the monthly phases of the moon, and the daily progression from day into night. Rhythm needs to be the cornerstone in our personal world as well...Restoring rhythm to the way you conduct your affairs can bring you contentment and a sense of well-being that will nurture and sustain you when the cares of the world can't be left behind.
Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance
Categories: rhythm focus balance meaning fulfillment stress worry anxiety life

The forces of idealism and realism tug at each other in all human activities, personal, social and national, and real progress is made possible by the proper mix of these two ingredients, so that the clay is kept in the ideal pliable, plastic condition, half moist and half dry, not hardened and unmanageable, nor dissolving into mud.
Lin Yutang The Importance of Living
Categories: idealism realism reality dream progress growth self-improvement priorities balance

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis.
Margaret Bonnano 1911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
Categories: attitude focus balance expectations pressure present future happiness enjoyment

When we love something it is of value to us, and when something is of value to us we spend time with it, time enjoying it and time taking care of it.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: love relationships friendships priorities balance marriage parenting time planning

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.
Samuel Johnson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness family relationships parenting children ambition success priorities balance

If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time--not tomorrow, nor next year, nor in some future life after we have died. The best preparation for a better life next year is a full, complete, harmonious, joyous life this year. Our beliefs in a rich future life are of little importance unless we coin them into a rich present life. Today should always be our most wonderful day.
Thomas Dreier Light from Many Lamps
Categories: balance priorities work life meaning purpose happiness future present now

You nourish your soul by fulfilling your
Rabbi Harold Kushner in the essay "God's Fingerprints on the Soul" Handbook for the Soul
Categories: self-nurture talent gifts potential giving sharing fulfillment balance volunteerism

What if this present were the world's last night?
John Donne Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Days
Categories: balance priorities present focus choices lifestyle true north principles

Simplicity, clarity, singleness: these are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy.
Richard Halloway The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: vision mission happiness joy fulfillment balance meaning happy determination goal purpose

The feeling of being valuable--"I am a valuable person"--is essential to mental health and is a cornerstone of self-discipline...because when one considers oneself valuable one will take care of onself in all ways that are necessary. Self-discipline is self-caring.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: self-discipline self-worth self-esteem values priorities balance overeating sins of the flesh self-control

An Italian philosopher said that "time was his estate"; an estate which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly repay the labors of industry, and generally satisfy the most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to lie in waste by negligence, to be overrun with noxious plants, or laid out for show rather than for use.
Samuel Johnson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: time life work effort success goal vision planning priorities balance

If you live only for yourself, you are always in immediate danger of being bored to death with the repetition of your own views and interests.
W. Beran Wolfe Light from Many Lamps
Categories: selfishness selflessness giving sharing volunteerism volunteering meaning fulfillment happiness joy balance

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshiped.
Calvin Coolidge Power Quotes
Categories: money possessions materialism priorities focus wealth success riches prosperity balance

Sometimes we become locked into a short-term pattern of reacting to immediate needs and missing the long-term benefits of positioning ourselves to deal with more important life issues and priorities.
Eric Allenbaugh Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: choice responsibility reaction long-term future priorities planning balance vision

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.
Margaret Young Simple Abundance
Categories: happiness fulfillment meaning joy priorities balance materialism possessions authenticity transparency ambition greed

Practice easing your way along. Don't get het up or in a dither. Do your best; take it as it comes. You can handle anything if you think you can. Just keep your cool and your sense of humor.
Smiley Blanton, MD The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: anxiety stress fear flow flexibility ability attitude capability patience balance perspective

Every industrious man, in every lawful calling, is a useful man. And one principal reason why men are so often useless is that they neglect their own profession or calling, and divide and shift their attention among a multiplicity of objects and pursuits.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: work effort self-respect usefulness focus balance priorities planning vision mission success

One important source of happiness is the habit of putting off living to some fictional future date. Men and women are constantly making themselves unhappy because in deferring their lives to the future they lose sight of the present and its golden opportunities for rich living.
W. Beran Wolfe Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happy joyous enjoyment meaning purpose fulfillment now present today balance life living

Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations.
George Santayana Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: aging elderly aged spirituality balance wisdom growth self-improvement perspective vision education

When we can see past our own reflection - when we see and care beyond ourselves, when we see and learn from others - only then do we become adults.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Sevens Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: focus balance orientation community society responsibility maturity mature maturation growth service ministry

...what I focus on in life is what I get. And if I concentrate on how bad I am or how wrong I am or how inadequate I am, if I concentrate on what I can't do and how there's not enough time in which to do it, isn't that what I get every time? And when I think about how powerful I am, and when I think about what I have left to contribute, and when I think about the difference I can make on this planet, then that's what I get. You see, I recognize that it's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it.
W. Mitchell Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: focus perspective mistakes balance success failure time power ability effectiveness action effort

...true happiness stems from a quality within ourselves, from a way of thinking of life. Of all the millions of words written on happiness, this is the oldest and most enduring truth. If the principles of contentment are not within us, no material success, no pleasures or possessions, can make us happy.
Lillian Eichler Watson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness attitude depression contentment materialism sadness success joy happy focus money possessions indulgence balance character

We all have days in our lives that are marked by great moments of rejoicing and celebration...But life is not an endless round of cake and champagne. There's a lot of drudgery to most of our days...To keep our daily round from being all drudgery, we've got to savor the art of the small: discovering delights that bring us peace and pleasure.
Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance
Categories: routine boredom apathy daily grind happiness emotions meaning fulfillment authenticity joy awareness spirituality focus balance

All of the most successful human beings I've know were inwardly at war with themselves. Their turmoil was at least as great as our own, and sometimes greater. What distinguished these leaders was not some inner peace but rather how they had learned to organize their lives around a noble ambition and to focus on it.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Sevens Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: leadership excellence focus priorities balance peace purpose mission vision goal character meaning fulfillment service

...start thinking of yourself as an artist and your life as a work-in-progress. Works-in-progress are never perfect. But changes can be made...Art evolves. So does life. Art is never stagnant. Neither is life. The beautiful, authentic life you are creating for yourself is your art. It's the highest art.
Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance
Categories: life living risk stretching daring courage strength perfectionism mistakes creativity authenticity fulfillment meaning purpose balance

What are these tools, these techniques of suffering, these means of experiencing the pain of problems constructively that I call discipline? There are four: delaying of gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: pain change growth discipline gratification responsibility integrity truth honesty balance wisdom learning obstacles challenges problems

From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There's nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.
Hilaire Belloc The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: love laughter friendship relationship balance success happiness joy achievement success priorities

What's the use of worrying?
It never was worth while.
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.
George Asaf (George H. Powell) The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: attitude optimism worry stress anxiety smiling happiness enthusiasm balance joy smiles attitude positive thinking