50 Quotes by Dale Carnegie to inspire you today

01/29/2026 by

Today I’ve curated some inspirational quotes By Dale Carnegie.

Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

Born into poverty on a farm in Missouri, Dale Carnegie went on to write some of the best self-help books I’ve ever read. His book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” should, in my opinion, be mandatory reading for any young person who wants to succeed in the world. If you haven’t read it yet, then you should.

Anyway, with further ado, here are 50 great quotes by Dale Carnegie, and I hope at least some of them will inspire you.

Quotes by Dale Carnegie (1-10):

Act enthusiastic, and you will be enthusiastic.

Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.

Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

Our fatigue is often caused not by work but by worry, frustration, and resentment.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

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Quotes by Dale Carnegie (11-20):

If you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.

Fear not those who argue, but those who dodge.

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.

If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

There is only one way to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.

If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.

Today is life; the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.

Quotes by Dale Carnegie (21-30):

Applause is a receipt, not a bill.

Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.

If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive.

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.

You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

Quotes by Dale Carnegie (31-40):

Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

The expression a woman wears on her face is far more important than the clothes she wears on her back.

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.

If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying.

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.

Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.

Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.

There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one, it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

Quotes by Dale Carnegie (41-50):

Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.

Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism – and wars.

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.

Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions; it is governed by our mental attitude.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.

If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.

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.

Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colourful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience.

Phil Sutton

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25 random quotes to spark your day

01/29/2026 by

Life can be a challenge, so we frequently need some inspiration. What’s better than some random quotes to spark your day?

Sometimes, the best way to navigate it all is with a little dose of wisdom. But where do you find it? Look no further than the words of others!

This collection of 25 random quotes will get you going today. Well, I hope so, anyway. They are a vibrant mix of voices and perspectives on a wide range of topics. Put another way, they are the personal philosophy of the great and the good.

So grab a coffee, settle in, and prepare to be inspired and maybe even challenged. You might find the perfect quote to bloom in your mind all day long.

Random quotes:

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Phil Sutton

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25 Quotes by Zig Ziglar to inspire you

01/29/2026 by

Today, I thought exploring some quotes by Zig Ziglar would be interesting.

Hilary Hinton Ziglar, or Zig Ziglar as he was better known, was an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker.

As a motivational speaker, he had an almost evangelical style of delivery, which, for some people, was a little disconcerting. However, for those who could get beyond his delivery style, Zig Ziglar was a great motivational speaker, and he had plenty of genuine wisdom to offer. Well, I think so anyway.

Sadly, Zig Ziglar passed away in 2012, but we still have his words of wisdom to inspire us.

So take a moment to be inspired by some of these brilliant quotes by Zig Ziglar and please feel free to pass them on.

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Quotes by Zig Ziglar:

  1. Every choice you make has an end result.
  2. Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.
  3. If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.
  4. If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost. 
  5. Remember that failure is an event, not a person.
  6. Yesterday ended last night. Today is a brand-new day. 
  7. Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.
  8. The first step in solving a problem is to recognise that it does exist. 
  9. You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
  10. When you catch a glimpse of your potential, that’s when passion is born.
  11. Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.
  12. Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.
  13. Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.
  14. Do more than you are being paid to do, and you’ll eventually be paid more for what you do. 
  15. You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want. 
  16. What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
  17. Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale.
  18. You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.
  19. People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.
  20. If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.
  21. It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.
  22. Be grateful for what you have and stop complaining. It bores everybody else, does you no good, and doesn’t solve any problems. 
  23. With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.
  24. You are who you are and what you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change who you are and what you are by changing what goes into your mind.
  25. When you encourage others, you in the process are encouraged because you’re making a commitment and difference in that person’s life. Encouragement really does make a difference.
Phil Sutton

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21 Quotes by Jay Leno that are quite amusing

01/29/2026 by

Today, I am exploring quotes by Jay Leno.

Funnyman Jay Leno is one of American television’s biggest personalities, and he is recognised as a major star around the world.

Born James Douglas Muir Leno in New Rochelle, New York, he’s a comedian, actor, writer, and producer, as well as a television host best known for his years hosting The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1992–2009.

Quick with a joke or a funny quip, he always made me smile. So today I thought it would be interesting to explore some of his wit and wisdom.

And let’s face it, wisdom is always at the heart of every witty quote.

So here are 21 quotes by Jay Leno to brighten your day.

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Quotes by Jay Leno (1-11):

  1. Politics is just show business for ugly people.
  2. You’re not famous until my mother has heard of you.
  3. You can’t stay mad at somebody who makes you laugh.
  4. The best way to ruin a comedy is to throw a lot of money at it.
  5. If I have one advantage, it’s that I will try to work harder than the next guy.
  6. People don’t mind if you have a lot of money if they know you’re working for it.
  7. In America, we like everyone to know about the good work we’re doing anonymously.
  8. Here’s something to think about: How come you never see a headline like ‘Psychic Wins Lottery’?
  9. New Year’s Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot unless, of course, those tests come back positive.
  10. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 9 out of 10 doctors agree that 1 out of 10 doctors is an idiot.
  11. I think high self-esteem is overrated. A little low self-esteem is actually quite good. Maybe you’re not the best, so you should work a little harder.

Quotes by Jay Leno (12-21):

  1. If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.
  2. Don’t forget Mother’s Day. Or as they call it in Beverly Hills, Dad’s Third Wife Day.
  3. The crime problem in New York is getting really serious. The other day the Statue of Liberty had both hands up.
  4. For the first time ever, overweight people outnumber average people in America. Doesn’t that make overweight the average then? Last month you were fat, now you’re average – hey, let’s get a pizza!
  5. Magic Johnson, a former basketball player, may run for mayor of L.A. in the next election. Remember the good ole days when only qualified people ran for office like actors and professional wrestlers?
  6. Nineteen per cent of doctors say that they’d be able to give their patients a lethal injection. But they also went on to say that the patient would have to be really, really behind on payments.
  7. The Washington Bullets are changing their name. They don’t want their team to be associated with crime. From now on, they’ll just be known as the Bullets.
  8. I went into a McDonald’s yesterday and said, ‘I’d like some fries.’ The girl at the counter said, ‘Would you like some fries with that?’ 
  9. The reason there are two senators for each state is so that one can be the designated driver.
  10. The University of Nebraska says that elderly people that drink beer or wine at least four times a week have the highest bone density. They need it – they’re the ones falling down the most.
Phil Sutton

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The secret to happiness that everyone should know

01/29/2026 by

If you’re reading this blog post, dear reader, perhaps you’ve been searching for the secret to happiness. If you have, you’re not alone. Many people search, but few find real happiness.

However, if happiness is what you seek, allow me to enlighten you.

Money’s not the answer:

When you hear news of someone winning big on a lottery, do you ever think that you’d be so much happier if only you could win big too? You’d be happy if only you had a lot of money, right?

Certainly, having money can make life comfortable. There’s no question about that. And who wouldn’t want to be comfortable?

Having money can allow you to do all sorts of things you couldn’t do otherwise. Live in a nice house, wear the finest clothes, drive a nice car, and travel first class to exotic places.

However, there’s one thing that money cannot do for you. It cannot make you happy. It’s a fact that having a lot of money by itself can never make you happy. There are plenty of very wealthy people who are miserable.

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Happiness is a state of mind:

It is also a fact that if you aren’t happy without money, then suddenly gaining a lot of money will not change the way you feel. If anything, its impact on your life will probably make you even less happy.

Happiness is a state of mind. It’s the capacity to appreciate life for what it is and not what you think you’d like it to be. It’s being content with what you have, whatever that is.

Happiness is a positive mental attitude, a willingness to see the good side of every situation, regardless of how bad it might be in reality, a determination to enjoy the moment, and being comfortable in your own skin.

Work towards creating your pot of gold, by all means, dear reader, but in doing so, never lose sight of what matters most.

The period of human life is short, and it goes by in the blink of an eye.

Yesterday has gone, and you may never know tomorrow. The here and now are the only certainties you have.

This moment is your life, so you must find a way to enjoy every moment. Get the most out of them all. For, as we say where I come from, you’ll be a long time dead.

The secret to happiness:

Enjoy simple, inexpensive pleasures like having a laugh or a coffee with a friend. That’s when you’ll be happiest. That’s how memories are made, too.

Accept that your life will be full of challenges, which is what makes it all interesting.

And recognise that by having to respond to challenges, you are growing as a person. So it makes sense to respond to every challenge with enthusiasm because you can only win, ultimately. Either you’ll succeed, or you’ll learn a lesson.

And remember this too: as your life passes, you won’t remember those expensive shoes you bought or the latest gadget, but you will remember the experiences you had with the people who mattered most to you.

Enjoy life for what it is, and don’t fret about what it isn’t. The secret to happiness is contentment.

If you can be happy without money, then having money will be a bonus.

Phil Sutton

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This is the key to success in one lesson

01/28/2026 by

Dear reader, would you like to know the key to success? It’s simple.

Success starts with making a decision. You decide what you want to achieve, and then you decide that you’re going to go out and get it.

Once your decision has been made, you pursue your objective with determination and tenacity, and you don’t allow anyone or anything to stop you.

In 1960, US President John Kennedy made a speech in which he said that by the end of that decade, the United States would put a man on the moon. And in 1969, the United States fulfilled the promise made by Kennedy.

Kennedy didn’t know how they would achieve the goal he articulated in 1960.

However, he believed in their ability to do it; he believed they could develop the technology to do it, and he made a decision that they would do it. However, ultimately, in making his promise, there was an element of risk.

Now there’s risk in everything we do, of course, and nothing exceptional will ever be achieved without some degree of risk along the way.

Lesser men and women may allow the fear of risk to stop them. However, men and women destined for great things will feel the fear, and they’ll do it anyway.

Greatness cannot be achieved without paying your dues along the way. That’s a fact.

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Be fearless:

Anything worth having comes with a price tag, namely blood, sweat, and tears. So be bold, be strong, and pursue your dream with passion.

Yes, it will be challenging mentally and emotionally. And yes, plenty of people will tell you that it’s not possible or that you’re not quite good enough.

Well, don’t listen to the naysayers and negative Nellies. It matters not what they think, but only what you think. If you believe you can do it, then that’s all that matters.

If you want it, whatever it is, just keep pushing and never, ever give up until you get to where you want to be.

Greatness can be achieved by anyone with sufficient determination. People do succeed, and so can you.

So whatever it is you want to do, just go out there and do the damn thing. Do it now. Believe you can and you will.

If you’re still not convinced, then take a look at this video, which I think is a fantastic motivational speech.

Watch it now and I promise you, you won’t be disappointed. And the bottom line is that you’ve got to be fearless.

Key to Success – Video:

Phil Sutton

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15 quotes about failure to put it into perspective

01/28/2026 by

Today I offer you 15 quotes about failure to put it into perspective.

What is failure? We hear this word frequently, but what does it mean?

It’s easy to be crushed by what we believe is failure. However, in my opinion, there is no such thing as failure. There are only outcomes that we didn’t want and lessons to be learned.

It’s not about how many times you get knocked down, dear reader; it’s how many times you can get back up again and have another go until you get it right.

You cannot truly enjoy victory if you have not first known defeat.

And you cannot achieve anything without the experience of at least the occasional failure along the way.

Lessons to be learned:

Every master of their craft started as a complete beginner.

Before anyone was a success, they started as a beginner. And the road from beginner to achiever and master of your craft is inevitably littered with mistakes and failures. These are significant only for the lessons they teach us.

If you’re determined, persistent, and hungry for success, keep trying until you get where you want to go. And if you want to succeed, you’ll learn the lessons and then find a way to achieve your goal and realize your dream. If not, you’ll make excuses.

Never allow yourself to be overwhelmed by a sense of failure. It’s never fatal; at most, it’s just a minor setback from which you can recover. Above all, never, ever give up until you get to where you were trying to go.

Success can be yours if you want it badly enough. And remember this; it is better to try and fail than never to have tried at all.

Here are 15 quotes to help you put the idea of failure into perspective.

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Quotes about failure (1-10):

  1. There is no such thing as failure. There are only results. ~Tony Robbins
  2. I can accept failure; everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. ~Michael Jordan
  3. Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~Winston Churchill 
  4. I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. ~Thomas A. Edison
  5. It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. ~Bill Gates
  6. A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. ~John Burroughs
  7. Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure. ~Paulo Coelho
  8. Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. ~Napoleon Hill
  9. A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. ~B.F. Skinner
  10. You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. ~Johnny Cash
Phil Sutton

Quotes about failure (11-15):

  1. There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. ~Colin Powell
  2. Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. ~Theodore Roosevelt
  3. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. ~Steve Jobs
  4. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. ~JK Rowling
  5. Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday. ~Wilma Rudolph
Quotes About Failure
Saily eSIM

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How to be a good parent and raise a well-balanced child

01/27/2026 by

How to be a good parent and raise a well-balanced child? Now there’s a question worthy of consideration, surely?

It’s a question that’s important because children are the adults of tomorrow. So, how you nurture your children does matter.

Parenting is one of life’s great experiences. I can tell you that from personal experience. I’ve had many fine experiences in my life so far, but none have been better or given me greater pleasure and satisfaction than being a parent.

However, parenting is also an interesting experience because nothing in life before you become a parent prepares you for the enormity of the role you’re taking on.

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How to be a good parent:

1. Your gift to the world:

Anyone beyond the age of sexual maturity can become a parent fairly easily, assuming you can find a willing partner.

And yet you don’t receive any training for the role at all. None!

You spend 12–14 years at school, and not once does the curriculum cover how to be a good parent. Even if you go on to college or university, the course will not cover parenting at any stage.

And you’ll only realise the magnitude of the task you’ve taken on the day you bring your first child home from the hospital. That’s the point at which the enormity of the challenge will begin to sink in.

Certainly, that’s the way it was for me and my wife.

Parenting is undoubtedly a great experience, but it’s also a great responsibility.

Your children are your gift to the world.

They’re the future. They’ll be the adults and taxpayers of tomorrow, and they’ll take the baton from your generation and carry it forward.

So how they’re nurtured matters, and the nurturing process must be taken seriously.

2. Your home environment matters:

Preparation begins with the place in which your children will live their early lives. Your home environment matters, both physically and emotionally.

A parent’s power to create a loving, stable home with a healthy and positive atmosphere and an environment in which children can develop, thrive, and grow is so awesome that it must be used both consciously and responsibly.

So, discipline yourself and control your emotions.

Give your children the light and warmth of love, hope, good cheer, and constant encouragement.

In your home, the physical environment matters, of course, but the emotional environment matters even more, in my opinion. If there’s a bad vibe, children will pick up on it, and it will affect them over time.

3. Be positive, enthusiastic, and supportive:

Raising children can be challenging at the best of times, but remember this: they didn’t ask to be born.

That they’re here on this earth is your responsibility, and you owe it to them to be the best parent you can be.

So you must make a conscious effort to be positive, enthusiastic, and supportive at all times.

This can have an enormously positive impact not only on the emotional well-being of your children but also on their ability to experience the joys and pains of childhood in healthy and constructive ways.

Enjoy every minute with them because the years will fly by all too quickly.

Giving them your time is far more important than any material possessions you might buy for them. Money spent is no substitute for time missed.

Happiness is created; it can’t be bought.

Fill your house with joy and laughter. That’s the soil in which healthy children will flourish and grow.

4. Ensure they have a balanced life:

Encourage your children to strike a balance between their schoolwork and the pursuit of the things they genuinely enjoy doing. In that, I’m referring to sports, games, drama, music, and all forms of creative pursuits.

Recognize the importance of an education that will both stretch them and broaden their minds.

Ensure they have a sound grasp of concept-based subjects.

Foster their creative, sporting, and vocational talents.

If something appeals to them, then encourage them to give it a try.

Yes, it might prove to be a five-minute wonder, but equally, it could prove to be something on which their entire future is built.

Just think about Elton John playing the piano or Jimmy Page learning to play the guitar. Imagine if their parents had said, “No, we’re not wasting money on that; you won’t stick with it.“

If they find something that they not only enjoy but are good at too, then that will help them build self-confidence and sociability.

And make sure you help them develop their ability to think, speak, and write clearly. These are life’s most important skills.

If they can also develop a dash of style, then that’ll really make them stand out amongst their peers.

5. Establish boundaries and a moral framework:

Set boundaries and make sure they know the penalty for any transgression. And should they cross a boundary, they must know that you’ll ensure that they pay that penalty.

However, it’s not about punishment; it’s about making sure that they learn to make good choices because, ultimately, the choices they make will dictate the quality of the life they lead.

Above all, provide them with the moral framework within which they can lead their lives respectably.

And remember, if you want them to live by the moral code you establish, then you must live by it too. Children will always notice what you do, even if they don’t hear what you say.

6. Keep expectations realistic:

Have high yet realistic expectations of your children.

It’s essential to temper expectations with realism.

Parental expectations are good for children insofar as they help motivate them to strive to achieve and do their best.

Stretching a child can help them realize their full potential, but any stretching must be consistent with the child’s natural ability. Setting them up for an obvious failure would do them more harm than good.

7. Place responsibility on their shoulders:

As they grow and mature, be sure to give them some regular chores to do and gradually place responsibility on their shoulders.

Pocket money should be earned. That ensures they realise that there’s no such thing as a free ride. Money is what we get for doing things for other people. That’s the real nature of work, and it’s a lesson they must learn as early as possible.

Placing responsibility on their shoulders and making them earn their pocket money should instil in them a strong work ethic, which they’ll need if they’re to succeed in life.

Please don’t make the mistake of making it all too easy for them.

Doing that may seem like you’re being kind to them, but in fact, you’d be doing them a great disservice.

Making it all too easy is foolish.

8. Enjoy their achievements:

Enjoy their achievements, but don’t be too disappointed if they don’t quite manage to live up to everything you expect of them.

As long as they’ve done their best, then that’s all you can reasonably expect of them.

However, never, ever let your work or your social life take precedence over you attending their parents’ evening, sports day, school plays, or any of the other significant events in their young lives.

You may not think it matters to a child, but, trust me, it does. I can tell you from my personal experience that it matters a lot to them.

9. Create that rare bird:

If you can do all of these things, you will produce that rare bird, otherwise known as the well-educated, polite, balanced, and confident young person with a strong work ethic.

Achieve that, and the world will be grateful for your contribution to the future.

Never underestimate the importance of good parenting.

Parenting is life’s most important role, and it matters far more than any career. It’s the most important work you’ll ever do, whether you’re the mother or the father.

And when you realise that your children have grown up to be decent human beings, you’ll be glad you took it all seriously.

Lessons in parenting:

At the beginning of this post, I said that we don’t receive any training in parenting.

Actually, that’s not quite true.

Once we become parents for the first time, our parents become the role models we try to emulate. We tend to follow their approach to parenting and do what they do.

So by becoming a good parent yourself, you’ll not only produce well-balanced children, but you’ll also ensure that they have a good role model to follow when they have their children.

Become a good parent, and at least two generations will benefit from you taking your role seriously.

So the world benefits twice. That’s a real legacy, surely?

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Thank you for your support.

Phil Sutton

© Mann Island Media Limited 2026. All rights reserved.

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How to break a bad habit and improve your life

01/27/2026 by

When it comes to bad habits, we can all be guilty, to some degree, at least. So people often consider the question of how to break a bad habit.

Habits are what we do on autopilot. That is, done automatically without thinking.

Do you have any bad habits, dear reader? Now, be honest with yourself.

I refer to those little, irritating patterns of behaviour you simply can’t help. Those obsessions you may have occasionally. Perhaps you have one or two bad habits you’d really like to break?

Now habits can be hard to break, of course, particularly bad ones.

So here’s another question. Could you break bad habits simply by being more curious about them?

Well, the psychiatrist Dr Judson Brewer certainly has an opinion to offer on that issue.

Dr Judson Brewer studies the relationship between mindfulness and addiction, and in the TEDTalk included in this post, he shares his views on everything from smoking to overeating to all those other things we do even though we know they’re bad for us.

If you want to learn more about the mechanism of habit development, then you’ll find this video interesting, and it’s definitely worth watching.

If you have habits you’d really like to break, then it would certainly make sense for you to learn more about how you developed those habits in the first place.

The more you understand, the better you’ll be able to take action and break those bad habits.

So take a few minutes now and listen to what Dr Brewer has to say. It’ll be well worth a little of your time, I promise.

How to break a bad habit and improve your life
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How we are damaged by our school days

01/27/2026 by

How we are damaged by our school days seems like an oxymoron. However, the idea is worth exploring, I think.

So, could our school days really have damaged us? Do you think that’s even possible?

Were they the best days of our lives, as we’re encouraged to believe, or could our school days have been detrimental to our mental well-being and self-esteem?

I think that is an interesting question.

So let’s think about it for a minute.

Certainly, many people will have had mostly good experiences during their school days.

However, there will also be some for whom their school days will have left them mentally scarred and with a sense of failure. That much is philosophically self-evident, surely?

For instance, perhaps at school, people such as those to whom I refer never quite achieved the grades their parents or teachers thought they should.

Perhaps they were the last to be picked for a sports team regularly?

In either case, how would such experiences have made them feel?

What impact would they have had on their mental well-being?

Perhaps they felt they were not quite good enough?

Possibly a little bit bruised and embarrassed by their inability to achieve what they believed was expected of them?

Adults may have thought that putting pressure on them would motivate them to do well, yet it probably left them feeling inadequate.

How we are damaged by our school days

Your birth date matters:

Do any of these ideas resonate with you, dear reader? Have you experienced such feelings?

The problem with the school experience is that the age range of our classmates is spread over a whole year. And that’s a lot more significant than it first appears when you’re young.

Someone whose birthday is at the beginning of September will be a year older than someone whose birthday is towards the end of August, despite both being in the same academic year.

Now it might not seem much, but one year at that time in our lives makes a huge difference in terms of our development, both mentally and physically.

So, what does this mean?

It means that if your birthday is at the end of the school year, then you’re at a significant disadvantage relative to some of your much older classmates.

That disadvantage carries with you right throughout your school years if you’re affected by it.

And it’s a disadvantage that extends not just to your academic studies, but also to sports and physical activity too.

Success breeds positive reinforcement:

Most importantly, it’s not just the fact that you’re behind in terms of your physical and mental development. It’s also a fact that success breeds positive reinforcement.

Older students benefit from the constant reinforcement and encouragement of being told, ‘Well done!‘, while younger students struggle to keep up unless they’re exceptionally gifted.

Even if people are of above-average ability for their age, they can still be at a disadvantage relative to older classmates during their school days, particularly if those older classmates are also of above-average ability.

Inevitably, at school, people are compared to their peers, and statistics show that the older ones tend to do better because of an inherent age advantage. That’s true with sports as well as academic subjects.

If younger students appear to perform less well frequently, that’s interpreted as them not being quite as good as their older peers.

Advantage goes with age:

And few people, least of all our parents, recognise that the system essentially does not favour younger members of the class. It puts them at a disadvantage.

The obvious question is, how many people have gone through life feeling like a bit of a loser due to their experiences of a school system that tends to work against them simply because of the month in which they were born?

And how many people never fully recover from the inevitable damage done to their confidence and self-esteem during those all-too-important developmental years?

More importantly, our school days not only affect how we feel about ourselves. They also impact how others perceive us to be as well.

A reputation for being a ‘straight A’ student beats being a bit of an academic ‘also ran’. No one questions whether the former had an inherent advantage over the latter.

How we’re perceived by others matters. Think about it. Their perception of us results in all the negative talk we often hear whenever we express ambition, which can affect our self-esteem.

I’m sure you know what I mean, as no doubt many readers will be familiar with the experience. Something like:-

You: “Oh, I’d like to be a doctor.”

Parent: “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, with your grades?”

And so on.

Our need for encouragement:

People will always give you reasons why you’re not good enough when what you need is encouragement.

With encouragement, you could make it in whatever pursuit that makes you feel truly energised.

If you’re someone who experienced disadvantage for whatever reason then let me tell you something. You’re as good as anyone and you should acknowledge that to yourself, constantly.

Schooldays represent a very small portion of life and they’re significant only in so far as they are only one of many experiences we’ll have in life. Certainly, they don’t define you.

If your schooldays were a good experience then fine. If not, so what?

You can still achieve your ambitions with sufficient hard work and determination.

It doesn’t matter whether others believe you can do it, just as long as you believe you can do it.

There’s no such thing as a failure:

Remember; there’s no such thing as a failure. That label does not belong to people.

Failure is just an unwanted outcome and a learning opportunity. It’s not a person.

You have enormous potential. We all do.

Everyone is capable of achieving much more than they could ever think possible. With determination and hard work, we can all achieve great things.

Attitude matters:

Your attitude is much more important than your aptitude when it comes to achieving your goals in life. Believe you can and you will.

However you feel about your past, it’s not too late to become something more than you are now.

You should embrace failure as nothing more than a learning opportunity. It does not define you, and nor should it.

Recognise that just because you didn’t set the world on fire during your school days, it doesn’t mean you can’t achieve great things now.

No correlation:  

Remember; there’s no correlation between success at school and success in life.

Plenty of ‘Straight A’ students fail to achieve anything significant after they’ve left education behind. Whereas plenty of the less academically successful go on to achieve great things in life.

It’s not about how many times you get knocked down that count but how many times you can get back up and keep going until you get to where you want to be.

Victory is sweeter when it has been achieved following the experience of defeat.

You cannot achieve anything without the experience of at least the occasional failure along the way.

We all start as beginners:

Before anyone achieved success, they started as a complete beginner. And along the road to success, they will have made plenty of mistakes. Anyone who suggests otherwise is either lying or deluded.

If you want to succeed, work hard, make mistakes and learn the lessons as you go.

If you’re determined you’ll find a way to achieve your goals and realise your dreams.

Failure’s not fatal:

Don’t be overwhelmed by any perceived failure. It doesn’t have to be fatal, nor does it imply that you’re not capable of achieving great things.

Never, ever give up until you get to where you want to be. Success can be yours if you want it badly enough. And remember this; it is better to try and fail than never to have tried at all.

Never be afraid to try because there are no failures, only outcomes we didn’t want and lessons to be learned.

Daily Mantra:

Reinforce self-belief by repeating this daily mantra

I’m as good as anyone; I’m better than most; I will achieve success; nothing will stop me!

Go on, get started now. Success is waiting for you.

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Please share this post with your friends:

Did you find this article interesting and useful, dear reader?

If so, then please share it on social media with your friends. When you share, everyone wins.

So please share it now. If you do, I’ll be ever so grateful, and you’ll be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you.

Phil Sutton

© Mann Island Media Limited 2026. All rights reserved.

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