15 truly inspirational quotes that are thoughtful and deep

03/20/2025 by

We can all use a little inspiration occasionally; I’m sure you’ll agree, dear reader. So here are what I believe to be 15 truly inspirational quotes.

Certainly, I think they’re thought-provoking and worth a few minutes of your time.

Enjoy them all and feel free to pass them on.

TRULY INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

Truly Inspirational Quotes (1-5):

  1. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Mead
  2. If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down. ~Mary Pickford
  3. It’s really important for children to have good morals and good manners, and that they’re thoughtful of other people and that they learn the consequences of their actions. ~Jerry Hall
  4. Gay people are the sweetest, kindest, most artistic, warmest and most thoughtful people in the world. And since the beginning of time, all they’ve ever been is kicked. ~Little Richard
  5. Before you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid. ~Bernard Meltzer

Truly Inspirational Quotes (6-10):

  1. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. ~Helen Keller
  2. We must protect the very things that make America so special – most certainly including our civil liberties. But we cannot do so without strong national security and thoughtful and informed discourse. ~Mike Pompeo
  3. Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them and every day begin the task anew. ~Saint Francis de Sales
  4. I used to hear on the radio people like Jack Benny or Bob Hope, but I never had any interest in their type of humour. I thought that I could do something more substantially meaningful with significant, thoughtful, analytical reflections on real-life situations. ~Jackie Mason
  5. In a president, character is everything. A president doesn’t have to be brilliant. He doesn’t have to be clever; you can hire clever. You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can’t buy courage and decency. You can’t rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him. He needs to have, in that much-maligned word, but a good one nonetheless, a vision of the future he wishes to create. But a vision is worth little if a president doesn’t have the character – the courage and heart – to see it through.  ~Peggy Noonan

Truly Inspirational Quotes (11-15):

  1. My guiding principles in life are to be honest, genuine, thoughtful, and caring. ~Prince William
  2. Writing in a journal reminds you of your goals and of your learning in life. It offers a place where you can hold a deliberate, thoughtful conversation with yourself. ~Robin S. Sharma
  3. This year, I will be more thoughtful of my fellow man; exert more effort in each of my endeavours professionally as well as personally; take love wherever I find it and offer it to everyone who will take it. ~Duane Allman
  4. We are losing sight of civility in government and politics. Debate and dialogue is taking a back seat to the politics of destruction and anger and control. Dogma has replaced thoughtful discussion between people of differing views. ~James McGreevey
  5. There are many who are not guilty of doing anything wrong but very guilty of sins of omission – the things they neglect to do – the good things – the kind, thoughtful words, compassionate thoughts, and hopeful attitudes they might have had towards their neighbour. ~Mother Angelica

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65 facts about life that few people ever mention

03/17/2025 by

If you’re looking for facts about life, dear reader, this post is for you. Here are some facts that rarely, if ever, get a mention.

Some people will argue that this list is subjective. However, in my experience, the facts I offer you today are all true.

Take a look at them all and see what you think. And please feel free to pass them on.

Facts About Life

Facts about life (1-20):

  1. There’s no such thing as easy money.
  2. If you don’t go for it, you won’t get it.
  3. You cannot debate with those who despise you.
  4. Your opinion is just as valid as the next person’s.
  5. In wanting to appeal to everyone, you’ll appeal to no one.
  6. Sometimes, the road less travelled is less travelled for a reason.
  7. You’ll be remembered not for what you got but for what you gave.
  8. Create your own job, and you’ll never be threatened by layoffs again.
  9. Life’s tough for everyone, and for many people, it’s very tough indeed.
  10. Free speech is the right to express opinions to which others may object.
  11. Rarely do people appreciate what they have until they no longer have it.
  12. If a lie is repeated often enough, eventually it becomes accepted as the truth.
  13. Just because it matters to you, it doesn’t mean it must matter to me, too.
  14. People should be judged by their character and the contribution they make.
  15. The public will get what it tolerates. An easy life comes at a significant price.
  16. We live on in the hearts we touched and within the people for whom we mattered.
  17. You don’t decide your future. You make choices, and your choices decide your future.
  18. By definition, a fact is a fact, and ignoring a fact doesn’t mean it ceases to exist.
  19. You won’t find true happiness in material things. Happiness lies in love and laughter.
  20. Blessed are the young, and those not born yet, for they shall inherit the national debt.
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Facts about life (21-35):

  1. The unquestioning acceptance of fashionable dogma is not the mark of great intellect.
  2. To believe is to accept unquestionably as fact that which cannot be demonstrated to be fact.
  3. People will believe what they want to believe, regardless of whether they can be sure it’s true.
  4. People who demand tolerance from others are frequently the most intolerant themselves.
  5. You’ll be judged not on what you say but on what you do. Talk is cheap, but only results matter.
  6. We’re not defined by the circumstances into which we were born. Life can be better if we make it so.
  7. Your years on this earth will teach you far more than you could learn in any university or college.
  8. All good ideas are eventually infiltrated and ruined by the attention-seeking few with their own agenda.
  9. In the po-faced, new-puritanical era in which we now live, we’re losing the ability to laugh at ourselves.
  10. With gambling, there’s only one winner consistently, and that’s the casino. That’s why they’re in business.
  11. It doesn’t matter what you do or how well you do it, there’ll always be someone who will criticise you.
  12. Success is enjoying what you do while having sufficient money to live your preferred lifestyle comfortably.
  13. Being too nice is not virtuous; it’s naive, bordering on foolishness, and it creates more problems than it solves.
  14. As long as we’re not hurting anyone else, then how we choose to live our lives is no one’s business but our own.
  15. If something cannot be subjected to scrutiny and criticism, then it’s probably not a good idea in the first place.

Facts about life (36-45):

  1. People will always have problems in need of solutions. If you can be that solution, you can make a good living.
  2. When your opinions run counter to the fashionable dogma of the day, you’re unlikely to get a fair hearing in the media.
  3. Past wrongs cannot be righted. All we can do is learn from any mistakes made and endeavour to do better next time.
  4. No job is more important than being a good parent because parents nurture the next generation, and children are the future.
  5. A promotion at work is not a reward for what you’ve done in the past; it’s an opportunity to show what you can do in the future.
  6. When everything’s going well and you’re feeling like you can do no wrong, think twice. You’re more vulnerable than you realise.
  7. We live in a world of Orwellian ‘newspeak’ where we’re expected to accept as fact that which everyone knows is complete nonsense.
  8. The world is full of Charlatans and con artists, all claiming to know what’s best for the rest of us. They should all be challenged constantly.
  9. Having a fancy job title doesn’t mean you’re more important than someone else. A job is just a job, and we all add value in our own way.
  10. We have to deal with reality as it is and not how we like it to be. So, we must protect ourselves and our interests because no one will do it for us.

Facts about life (46-54):

  1. Extreme political movements are usually a lot of useful idiots led by a few sinister people with an agenda that’s in no one’s interests but theirs.
  2. We’ll keep making the same mistake until we learn the lesson the mistake was intended to teach us. Life is a classroom, and the lessons never stop.
  3. A question asked comes with no obligation to provide anything other than a polite response. Remember that should you ever be grilled by the media.
  4. Remaining loyal to the circumstances into which you were born is not a noble act. Just because you were born poor doesn’t mean you have to remain poor.
  5. We live in an age when a lack of knowledge or expertise doesn’t mean people will not have an opinion on a given issue that they expect to be taken seriously.
  6. It’s for us to give our lives meaning. To leave a legacy by doing something that’ll add a little value to the lives of others and make the world a slightly better place.
  7. If you don’t tend to your own garden regularly, it will be quickly attacked by noxious weeds. Life’s like that too. We must all take good care of that which is precious to us.
  8. An employer will replace you in a heartbeat, should you pass away, but to your loved ones you can never be replaced. That should tell you where your priority should be.
  9. History serves as a series of lessons to us all. We cannot be selective about what we include in our history, otherwise, we risk forgetting the lessons and making the same mistakes again.

Facts about life (55-60):

  1. Drawing attention to injustices, wherever they are, really can make a difference. So don’t be afraid to call out those who seek to harm others for doing nothing other than expressing an opinion.
  2. To remain silent is to be irrelevant. A quiet life will come at a cost to you. The cost is people with louder voices moving the world in a direction you may not like. Speak up or live with the consequences.
  3. In a totalitarian world dissenting voices must be crushed ruthlessly or they might influence others to express dissent too. Political ideologues demand subservience and dogma accepted without question.
  4. If your job can be done from anywhere, then someone anywhere can do your job? So, if a company is looking to reduce costs, in order to increase their profits, jobs will be moved to wherever in the world labour is cheapest.
  5. Extreme ideology can pass into the mainstream and take hold if we’re all too complacent to stay on top of what’s going on. If we’re asleep at the wheel, life can quickly become a car crash and we’ll only have ourselves to blame.
  6. If we judge previous generations through the prism of modern sensibilities, they’ll always look bad. They lived in their time and we live in ours. We cannot know what their lives were really like, so we cannot judge them fairly, nor should we try.

Facts about life (61-65):

  1. It doesn’t matter how good a job you do, others will take credit for your contribution long after you’ve gone, but you’ll be the person responsible for any problems, regardless of whether you actually had anything to do with any of them or not.
  2. Celebrities are nothing more than skilled media manipulators who profit from the public’s gullibility by constantly maintaining an image with the aim of creating the illusion that they’re something special when in fact they’re nothing special at all.
  3. The problem with social media today is that far too many people feel the need to express opinions consistent with the latest fashionable dogma currently trending regardless of whether they actually have any significant knowledge of the subject at all.
  4. Unless your ambition is to secure a job for which having a degree is mandatory, then you’re probably wasting three years of your life and $75,000 of debt by going to university nowadays. You’re unlikely to get a return on the debt you incur, so consider your options carefully.
  5. They say that those with the gold make the rules. Well, if you’re not being served in the way you feel you should be, then whoever’s providing you with that service can be reminded of the purchasing power you hold in your hands by a simple boycott. You don’t have to accept the unacceptable.

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10 tips for improving self-esteem 

03/09/2025 by

If tips for improving self-esteem are what you seek, dear reader, then you might find this article helpful.

Self-esteem is an important aspect of life as it affects how we think, feel, and behave. It is the confidence we have in ourselves and our abilities. And it’s the respect we have for ourselves too.

People with high self-esteem tend to have positive outlooks on life, while those with low self-esteem may struggle with insecurity and self-doubt.

Improving self-esteem can be a challenging task, but it is not impossible.

Here are 10 tips for how to improve your self-esteem:

Tips For Improving Self-Esteem
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10 TIPS FOR IMPROVING SELF-ESTEEM

1. Stop comparing yourself to others:

Everyone is on their unique journey through life, and you’re on yours. There is no comparison.

A major issue for people today is the way social media makes it almost inevitable that we compare ourselves to others. We see so much of what they’re doing every time we pick up our smartphones.

It can be easy to believe that they’re doing better than us. Then we fall into the trap of feeling inadequate or not good enough.

Remember, social media creates a false view of reality.

The idea that everyone is doing well except you is simply misleading. Everyone has their fair share of life’s problems, despite anything social media might suggest. Everyone struggles from time to time.

So, don’t compare yourself to what you believe others are doing. Instead, focus on your progress and accomplishments.

2. Embrace your flaws:

No one is perfect, and it’s important to remember that everyone has flaws.

Instead of focusing on your flaws and feeling bad about them, try to find ways to embrace them.

For example, if you have freckles, embrace them as a unique feature of your face.

Perhaps you’re not good with words. So what? There are plenty of people who are not good with words. So, make a joke about it rather than let it bother you. Make it part of your authenticity and personal charm.

3. Focus on the positive:

We can all find ourselves thinking about all the negative things in our lives. It’s human nature really, but focusing on the negative can have a detrimental effect on self-esteem.

So, instead, make a habit of focusing on the positive things in your life.

This can be as simple as writing down three things you are grateful for daily. There’s always something for which we can be grateful, even if it’s just a favourite television show or enjoying coffee with a friend.

4. Surround yourself with positive people:

We are the people with whom we mix. Human beings are social animals, and we live within groups. The people within those groups can have a significant impact on our self-esteem.

Being accepted by the group requires us to be a reflection of the other members. If they’re cynical, sarcastic, and negative, then we gradually become the same, if only to fit in. However, that negativity is not good for our self-esteem.

So, we need to spend time with people who uplift us and make us feel good about ourselves. Therefore, we must avoid those people who bring us down or make us feel bad about ourselves.

5. Treat yourself with kindness:

The way we talk to ourselves can have a big impact on self-esteem.

We must be kind to ourselves and avoid negative self-talk.

We must talk to ourselves as we would to a friend. If a friend came to us with a problem, we would be supportive and understanding, right?

So, why wouldn’t we want to treat ourselves with the same kindness?

We must always be kind to ourselves.

6. Set goals and achieve them:

Nothing boosts our confidence and self-esteem like an achievement.

So, setting and achieving goals can be a great way to boost self-esteem.

We start by setting small, achievable goals and work our way up to bigger ones.

As we achieve our goals, we start to feel more confident in ourselves and our abilities. It’s a virtuous circle.

7. Take care of yourself physically:

Our physical health and well-being are essential to self-esteem.

Taking care of ourselves is important for our overall well-being and can also help improve our self-esteem.

So, we must make sure we are getting enough sleep, eating well, and getting regular exercise. When we take care of ourselves, we feel better both physically and mentally.

8. Practice emotional self-care:

Our emotional well-being is as important as our physical health.

So, we must learn to take care of ourselves emotionally by taking time to relax and do the things we enjoy.

This can be anything from reading a book to taking a long bath, going for a walk, or listening to a favourite piece of music.

9. Learn something new:

When we possess knowledge, we tend to get the respect of others. And obviously, that’s good for our self-esteem.

So, learning something new can be a great way to boost self-esteem.

It can be something small, like learning a new recipe, or something bigger, like taking a class.

The act of learning something new can make you feel accomplished and can help to build self-confidence.

10. Give it time:

Remember this: self-esteem is not something that can be improved overnight.

It takes time and effort to build self-esteem, but by incorporating these tips into our daily lives, we can improve.

10 TIPS FOR IMPROVING SELF-ESTEEM
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Conclusion:

As readers will recognize, self-esteem is an important aspect of our lives, and it can be challenging to improve it.

However, if you follow these tips, you will start to feel better about yourself, and your self-esteem will improve.

And remember this: if you can only do one thing, be kind to yourself.

You’re better than you think you are, and the world is a better place with you in it.

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Types of debt and why they matter

03/02/2025 by

If you’re just starting your financial education, then a good starting point would be to understand the different types of debt and why they matter.

I categorize debt as either good debt or bad debt.

Understanding the difference between the two is essential if you don’t want to remain poor all your life.

Do you carry some debt, dear reader? If you do, you’re not alone.

Now you may think that debt is just part of life, and you may even believe that debt can’t be avoided.

Debt is certainly very hard to avoid; that much is true.

However, don’t forget that personal debt is a burden on us because it has to be serviced and eventually repaid.

Yes, it may be a burden you can’t avoid, but it’s no less stressful potentially for that technicality.

For emphasis, let me repeat, in my opinion, there’s good debt and then there’s bad debt.

The obvious question is: when is a debt considered bad debt? To put it another way, when is debt a bad idea?

Let’s consider some examples of debt.

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1. Secured Debt:

Buying a house is an example of secured debt.

When buying a house, most people need a mortgage, which is of course debt.

However, as long as you don’t overstretch yourself, mortgage debt is usually manageable for most people. And a lender will rarely allow you to overextend yourself these days.

With a mortgage, the debt is secured against your property, so the risk for the lender is small.

If you fail to repay the mortgage loan, a lender simply repossesses the property and sells it to recover their money.

So because the associated risk to the lender is low, interest rates on secured debt are low too.

Coupled with long repayment periods, typically around 25 years, the monthly repayments on a mortgage are not significantly different from what you might pay if you rent a property.

So, borrowing to purchase a property is good debt because eventually you’ll repay the debt and own the property, assuming you repay in full.

It’s good debt because it results in the long-term acquisition of a valuable asset.

You need a roof over your head, of course, so buying with a mortgage makes good financial sense because at least you’ll own the property in the future.

And with luck, you’ll enjoy some capital appreciation on the value of the property too. That’s not guaranteed, of course, but historically, that’s been the trend for those holding property assets for an extended period, certainly in the United Kingdom.

In summary, secured debt bears the lowest interest rates and leads to the acquisition of a valuable asset. So in my opinion, that makes it a good form of debt.

2. Unsecured debt:

When is debt a bad idea? The simple answer is that when it’s an unsecured debt.

And what’s unsecured debt?

It’s a debt against which nothing valuable has been put up as security.

If the borrower fails to repay, the lender has nothing it can repossess to sell on to recover the balance outstanding. So for the lender, that represents increased risk.

And because unsecured debt has no form of security to compensate, the interest rate charged by the lender will be high, and sometimes very high.

The interest rate charged reflects the risk to the lender. The higher the risk, the higher the interest rate applied.

Lenders recognize that there’s a risk that a proportion of their clients will fail to repay unsecured loans, so those who do make the repayment in full have also paid a premium to protect the lender from any losses they might have incurred due to non-payment by others.

There will be occasions when unsecured debt is unavoidable.

For instance, young people just starting out might need some basic items of furniture for their homes. A bed would be a good example. You must have one, and if you can’t afford it, then you might need to use a hire purchase arrangement. Handled with care, then this shouldn’t be a huge problem. But care is essential.

3. When is debt a bad idea?

So when is unsecured debt a bad idea?

Put simply, when you start buying with unsecured credit that which you could live without. That gadget you couldn’t resist or those shoes that looked nice in the store. Non-essentials you could have lived without until you had saved the money to pay for them.

You know the experience, I’m sure. You see something you can’t resist, out pops your flexible friend, and an impulse purchase is made before you’ve thought about whether it was a good idea or not.

The reckless use of credit cards, store cards, and payday loans can be a disaster because this type of debt is not secured against anything, so naturally, the associated interest rates applied are very high.

Credit card or store card debt can bear interest rates of around 30% or more.

In the UK, payday lenders have been known to charge interest rates equivalent to 3000%, 4000%, or even 5000%.

I find it hard to believe people fall for these loans, but they do. I guess if people are desperate sometimes, perhaps they feel they have little choice.

4. The magic of compounding:

Why does this matter? The simple answer is the magic of compound interest.

The compounding effect of high rates of interest will quickly turn small sums borrowed into enormous sums owed.

For instance, if you borrow $1,000 at 3% interest, after five years you’ll owe $1,159, assuming nothing was repaid.

However, if you borrow $1,000 at 35% interest, then after five years you’ll owe $4,484, again that’s assuming nothing was repaid.

The difference is a massive $3,325. And more importantly, the value of your debt has also quadrupled.

So when interest rates are high, even if you make minimum payments, your debt can grow rapidly if you’re not careful.

And that’s when you can become enslaved by your debts.

And that’s why it matters. Ultimately, this burden can become very stressful.

5. Manage your money:

Far too many people borrow money in the form of unsecured debt to purchase discretionary items. That’s items they could live without if push came to shove.

Wasting money in this way is a bad move. Not just bad; it’s seriously stupid.

I recommend that you follow this simple rule:

If you can live without it, never use debt to buy it.

Yes, of course, it’s nice to have the latest smartphone or the latest television or whatever but is it worth the pressure of unnecessary debt?

When high rates of interest start pushing up the sum outstanding significantly, you have to ask yourself, will the burden of this unnecessary debt still seem worth it? I doubt it.

Wouldn’t it be better to wait until you’ve saved up the money to make the purchase instead?

Wouldn’t it also be cheaper in the long term to save up and buy the product when you have the money? You’ll appreciate the item so much more too.

The message is simple:

Manage your money or your money will manage you:

6. Debt is a form of slavery:

Being indebted is just a form of slavery. It’s as simple as that. And, once again, that’s why it matters.

For as long as you owe money, you can never be truly free.

If you’re debt-free, then you’re stress-free too. Wouldn’t you prefer to be debt-free and stress-free?

Good debt will help you, but bad debt will make your life a misery.

7. Conclusion:

Put simply, there are two types of debt, good and bad.

Debt is either secured or unsecured.

Interest rates on the former will be relatively low, whereas interest rates on the latter can be very high.

Interest rates matter because of the compounding effect.

Unsecured debt can be the road to the poor house, particularly if you use it to buy the stuff you could live without with credit that bears interest rates that are very high.

The type of debt that’s bad will enslave you, and it’ll become increasingly stressful.

If you only take one message away from this article, it is to avoid bad debt.

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Thank you.

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How to make the most of your future

03/01/2025 by

How to make the most of your future? A question we all ask ourselves occasionally, I’m sure.

We worry about the future because increasingly the world seems such an uncertain place. There are times when it seems completely crazy.

In many ways, the future is uncertain, but then again, it’s a lot more predictable than you might think.

I’m often asked what I think the next 10 years will be like. The answer’s simple; the next 10 years will be pretty much like the last 10 years and the years before that, I think.

Future years:

Think about it. The next 10 years will just be a constant stream of challenges with a lot of problems to be solved.

That’s how life’s always been, surely? And that’s good news for us all. Why?

It’s good news because it’ll ensure that there’s a constant stream of opportunities for enterprising people to exploit.

So we can all make a good living, and all we have to do is focus on those problems we can solve for other people.

Yes, jobs may be in short supply, but there’ll always be plenty of customers with problems to be solved. Customers for goods and services yet to be invented.

If we can all learn to look for customers rather than jobs and make sure we have the skills and know-how to solve problems for those customers, we’ll always have work, and from that, over time, we can build wealth too.

The nature of work:

Work is just doing stuff for other people in return for money. It’s that simple.

Opportunities will always be there, and we can choose to take them or not. For the fleet-footed, there will always be opportunities to make money, regardless of politics and political personalities.

Create your own future:

Find customers you can serve, serve them well, and you’ll always do well.

And it doesn’t matter whether you were successful or otherwise at school either. That’s irrelevant. There are plenty of successful and wealthy people who failed to shine at school.

Skills can be learned and knowledge can be gained at any time in your life.

So look around for people you can help, improve your knowledge and skills as you go along, and gradually enhance your earning ability. It can be done; people do, and you can too.

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Today’s assignment:

So let me finish with an assignment for you.

Look around for a problem to be solved. Look carefully, and you’ll find plenty of them, I promise you.

Now, who’s the potential customer? What skills will you need if you are to solve that problem for the customer? And once you’ve identified those skills, how will you get them, and by when?

Now think about this assignment carefully.

By applying your unique talents and know-how, whose problems could you solve? To whom could you be an answer to their prayers?

This is how business people think.

How to make the most of your future:

The future’s as bright as you want to make it for yourself. It’s all down to you.

Don’t just let life happen to you.

Start right now and make it happen.

Create a future that’s right for you. Decide where you’re going, set some goals, and start taking action.

Don’t just accept whatever life throws at you; go out and get all the things you want.

Other people do, and so can you. Go on, get started, now!

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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 forever grateful and you’ll be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you.

Other articles that might appeal to you:

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George Carlin’s Top 10 Rules For Success

02/23/2025 by

If you’re seeking some rules for success, today’s post is for you.

If success is your aim, look for successful people and copy what they do. If it worked for them, there’s a good chance it could work for you. This is a firmly held belief, and I refer to it frequently in my writing.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to come up with a game plan all of your own. There are plenty of good role models out there. Just look and listen to the good and the bad; the reverent and the irreverent. And don’t forget role models can serve as a warning as well as exemplars of how something should be done. So look around and take it all in.

George Carlin would be someone who would be considered irreverent by those familiar with his work. He’s also very successful in his field. So if you’re looking for inspiration, then listening to George Carlin could be a good start. He will probably make you smile if nothing else. In this video, George highlights his Top 10 Rules for Success, and certainly, I found them inspirational.

This is an excellent series, and this episode featuring George Carlin is well worth a listen. I don’t necessarily agree with everything George says, but he’s irreverent, and he challenges your thinking, and that for me is a good thing.

So I recommend this YouTube video to you. Listen, and it’ll be time well spent, I think. George Carlin offers some great ideas here.

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George Carlin’s Top 10 Rules for Success

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4 cornerstones for how to speak so people will listen

02/16/2025 by

How to speak so people will listen is a common challenge many of us face daily.

There’s an old saying that states that it’s not just what you say but the way that you say it.

And it’s very true: how something is said is as important as the words being spoken.

Now just think about that for a second. We can use the same words in different ways and deliver completely different messages.

How something is said also has an impact on whether people listen to us or not. We’ve all met engaging people who capture our attention, and we’ve all met a few boring people too, I’m sure.

In the video included here, Julian Treasure offers some excellent insight into how to speak so people will listen to you.

His underlying message in the video is that we must learn to speak with power to get our messages across to other people.

Julian Treasure suggests that there are several habits we must avoid if we are to speak with power.

He says in his view there are Seven Deadly Sins of Speaking, albeit he does note that this is not intended to be an exhaustive list. His deadly seven are as follows:

  1. Gossip: Speaking in an unkind way about other people.
  2. Judging: People are unlikely to listen if they feel they’re being judged.
  3. Negativity: It’s hard to listen to people with a negative attitude.
  4. Complaining: It’s hard to listen to a moaner too.
  5. Excuses: You won’t be taken seriously if blame is always elsewhere.
  6. Exaggeration: This can border on lying, and who listens to a liar?
  7. Dogmatism: Where facts are confused with opinions.

So, can we change if we suffer from all or some of these deadly sins?

Yes, of course, but it does take a little work and a better understanding of how improvements can be achieved.

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How to speak so people will listen:

In the video, Julian explains four cornerstones of powerful speech. He uses the mnemonic HAIL to explain these as follows:-

  1. Honesty: Being clear and straight
  2. Authenticity: Being real and being yourself
  3. Integrity: Being true to your word
  4. Love: Wishing people well. And we all like to be appreciated, surely?

However, understanding these cornerstones is only the beginning of the process because, as stated earlier, how you say what you’ve got to say is important too.

Julian then discusses aspects of speaking such as register, timbre, prosody, pace, pitch, volume, and the use of silence. To address many of these issues, you may need the help of a voice coach, of course, but knowing about them is a good start.

Julian also suggests some simple voice warm-up exercises for you to use before you give a speech. They’re so easy you can use them immediately.

This being a TEDTalk you’d expect this video to be both interesting and useful, and it doesn’t disappoint. I found Julian Treasure’s ideas fascinating, and if you’re someone who regularly speaks in front of an audience, large or small, then I am confident that you’ll find this video helpful.

This video has had over 22 million views on YouTube, so clearly, Julian Treasure’s ideas have resonated with a significant audience already.

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27 Quotes by Steve Jobs to fire your imagination

02/12/2025 by

If you’re looking for quotes by Steve Jobs, dear reader, I’ve got some excellent ones here for you, today.

Steve Jobs was an American entrepreneur best known as the driving force behind the success of Apple Inc. Together with Steve Wozniak, he was a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.

Famously, he dropped out of college and proved, if proof were needed, that you don’t necessarily need qualifications or a college degree to make an impact and leave a genuine legacy to the world.

What you need is passion and a desire to do something well and to do it better than everyone else. And Steve Jobs had that in spades.

Sadly, Steve Jobs died, far too early, at age 56 on October 5, 2011. His death was due to respiratory arrest related to the pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour for which he was being treated at the time.

However, his influence on business and technology was enormous and his ideas resonate with people to this day.

In my opinion, he was one of life’s great thinkers, and I think his views on life and work are worth reflecting on.

So here are 27 quotes by Steve Jobs that I think are worth a few minutes of your time.

Read them; reflect on them. And then consider your life and where you’re going. Are you living your life with passion, or are you just going through the motions?

As Steve Jobs implied, our time is precious. We must live our own lives in our way. And we cannot be defined by how other people think we should be. We must be ourselves.

Quotes by Steve Jobs in Video

Quotes by Steve Jobs (1-10)

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

I want to put a ding in the universe.

We’re just enthusiastic about what we do.

Things don’t have to change the world to be important.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

I believe life is an intelligent thing; that things aren’t random.

We hire people who want to make the best things in the world.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

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Quotes by Steve Jobs (11-20)

Older people sit down and ask, ‘What is it?’ but the boy asks, ‘What can I do with it?’

Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.

My favourite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.

Sometimes, when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.

I think money is a wonderful thing because it enables you to do things. It enables you to invest in ideas that don’t have a short-term payback.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life.

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Quotes by Steve Jobs (21-23)

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Quotes by Steve Jobs (24-27)

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

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.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.

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15 Quotes by Paulo Coelho to challenge your thinking

02/10/2025 by

Today, let’s explore some quotes by Paulo Coelho.

Paulo Coelho de Souza, or Paulo Coelho as he’s better known to the wider world, is a Brazilian novelist and lyricist.

He’s best known for his novel The Alchemist.

Paulo Coelho is also known as a keen user of digital media. He posts up to three times a week on his blog, and he has millions of fans on both Facebook and Twitter.

In 2014, he also uploaded around 80,000 documents, manuscripts, diaries, photos, reader letters, and press clippings and created a virtual Paulo Coelho Foundation, along with the physical foundation, which is based in Geneva.

Here are 15 quotes by Paulo Coelho that certainly made me think, so I hope you will find them interesting too, dear reader.

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Quotes by Paulo Coelho in Video:

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Quotes by Paulo Coelho (1-10):

  1. We want to answer this classical question, who am I? ~Paulo Coelho
  2. We have lost contact with reality, the simplicity of life. ~Paulo Coelho
  3. The more in harmony with yourself you are, the more joyful you are. ~Paulo Coelho
  4. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise but it always takes us somewhere. ~Paulo Coelho
  5. The good old days, when each idea had an owner, are gone forever. ~Paulo Coelho
  6. One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving. ~Paulo Coelho
  7. The more violent the storm, the quicker it passes. ~Paulo Coelho
  8. Every blessing ignored becomes a curse. ~Paulo Coelho
  9. We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery. ~Paulo Coelho
  10. Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings. ~Paulo Coelho

Quotes by Paulo Coelho (11-15):

  1. Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream. ~Paulo Coelho
  2. Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that. ~Paulo Coelho
  3. You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one. Each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle. ~Paulo Coelho
  4. Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility. ~Paulo Coelho
  5. You’re always learning. The problem is, sometimes you stop and think you understand the world. This is not correct. The world is always moving. You never reach the point you can stop making an effort. ~Paulo Coelho
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You did? I hope so anyway.

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How the power of words can change lives

02/09/2025 by

Today I aim to explore the power of words.

Have you ever considered just how powerful words can be? In my experience, the power of words can have a much greater impact than you might imagine.

Let me tell you a heartwarming story to emphasize today’s point.

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The reunion:

Some time ago I had lunch with a group of old friends.

Now there’s nothing unusual about that, you might say.

Even though it was the first time we’d all been together in the same place at the same time for more than 40 years, it was nothing exceptional.

Such reunions happen all the time, don’t they?

It was a genuine pleasure to see them all again and swap stories about how our lives had progressed since those far-off days.

However, it’s the story of one of my fellow diners that day that’s worth sharing with you now because I think it’s a source of inspiration and reinforces the importance of just how powerful words can be.

Saeed’s story:

Back in the day, we were all working together for the national telecommunications operator in the Middle East.

Three of us had been young, graduate engineers on an upward career trajectory, with the future seemingly ours for the taking. We had it all.

The other member of our group, let’s call him Saeed, had been the handyman and tea boy in the department at that time.

Saeed was then just a young teenager, straight out of school.

He was a bright and willing fellow, but he had no academic qualifications, and he spoke very little English at the time.

Now Arabic was his mother tongue, of course, but in the international business we were in, a good command of spoken English was essential if you were to have any chance of career success.

Saeed came from a poor village, and his perceived failure at school had left him feeling that, at just 16, he’d blown his chances and was destined for a life filled with low-paid, low-skilled jobs.

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The power of words:

Fast forward 40+ years, and Saeed’s now every bit the poor-boy-made-good story.

Not only is he now a wealthy international businessman with two very successful businesses, he also has a string of qualifications, including two doctorate degrees. Now completing one PhD is hard work, but two? Wow.

In short, his success is impressive by any measure.

Nevertheless, how did Saeed get from where he was then to where he is now?

The simple answer, of course, is with determination and a lot of hard work.

You cannot achieve anything without those ingredients.

However, he also needed a reason to believe. He needed a spark to light the fire. And that is where the story gets interesting.

The spark that lit the fire:

Over lunch, Saeed explained that it was a kind and encouraging word, back in the day, from one of our fellow diners that had made him believe that he could make a success of his life despite a poor start.

My fellow diner, let’s call him Tom, didn’t even remember the conversation.

So, what was this kind and encouraging word?

Your past does not define your future.

The past is just a series of lessons. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter.

The future is an endless stream of opportunities we can choose to take or not.

Tom had explained these basic principles to Saeed and encouraged him to pursue his dreams.

You can make your life whatever you want it to be. That was Tom’s message. The life you want can be yours if you’re willing to work hard for it.

The impact:

The power of these well-timed words of encouragement had an impact on Saeed. It propelled him to a destiny he did not think possible. And that is today’s underlying point.

Words have power; choose them wisely.

The power of words matters. A few well-timed words can inspire young people.

And never, ever forget that young people need encouragement much more than they need criticism.

Encourage young people:

So next time you’re working with someone in the early stages of life’s journey, remember your words can have the power to encourage them.

Unfortunately, they can also have the potential to discourage them if you’re not careful.

What you say and the tone with which you say it does matter.

Always offer young people positive words of encouragement rather than harsh words of criticism.

Never, ever forget how powerful your words can be. The right words, at the right time, really can inspire young people to achieve their full potential.

Leave a legacy:

If you want to leave a legacy behind you, then it would be hard to improve on encouraging a young person to become the best and most successful person he or she could be.

Remember the power of words. You have power with your words. Use it wisely.

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Your support is appreciated. Thank you.

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