Motivation Quotation: “People spend a lifetime searching for happiness, looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.” –Ramona L. Anderson

Motivational Search For Happiness: People search for happiness in all sorts of ways and all sorts of places – some people even google for it. But so much of what we find doesn’t really satisfy us with long-term happiness. Oh, we may find some temporary pleasure here and there, but not deep, long-lasting fulfillment. Why?

Could it be that we search in the wrong places? We tend to focus our pursuit of happiness on exterior things rather than on interior things — on the internet rather than on the innernet.

So, why don’t we search our own innernet, our own heart, mind, and spirit? Happiness is an inside job. Until we are happy in our own skin, we can never really be satisfied or fulfilled with anything outside of us.

So, how do we find inner happiness? We win our inner battles. We overcome the inner enemies that destroy our happiness and peace — compulsions, fears, worries, cravings, insecurity, selfishness, tormenting and destructive thoughts, hatred and bitterness. Unless we aggressively attack and remove those inner happiness killers, we will practice the pursuit of happiness in vain.

Our society, nowadays, needs some genuinely happy people. Why don’t you become one? William Booth said: “The bulk of the people around us are unsatisfied and unhappy, if not positively miserable. Nothing impressed them like the appearance of a glad and happy spirit in others.”

May you create for yourself a glad and happy spirit!

Two of the most famous prochoice institutions in world history are the modern abortion clinic and the Roman Coliseum. In both of these institutions people have (or had) the right to decide whether other humans beings lived or were killed. This choice is symbolized by the thumbs up sign (let him or her live) and the thumbs down sign (take his or her life).

I believe in the power of good. If you do good to someone it touches them spiritually and emotionally. It encourages them and actually motivates them to pass on the good to others.

I heard a preacher recently say that a Starbucks customer was waiting at the drive thru recently and the guy behind him was honking. The man decided to show kindness and paid for the order for the honking man. This man was touched and paid for the next guy’s order. The preacher said that this went on more than 500 times as each customer paid for the customer behind him or her.

I searched the internet and couldn’t find that story, but I did find this one. Last year, on Dec. 12, in Bloomington, Indiana, 142 people at a Starbucks paid for the order of the person behind them. This kindness was passed on for more than 3 hours.

Employee Erik Zambrano said that a customer told him that she wanted to pay for the person behind her in the drive thru line “to wish them a Merry Christmas.” Eric said that after that: “I explained to each person that the person in front of them had paid for their order. Customers would then offer to pay for the next person. Typically, they were estatic that the person had paid for their order.”

We all have the power to start a trend. We can start a chain of frustration and anger. Or we can start a chain of goodness and kindness. Why don’t we pass on some good today?

People like to glorify war, but war is anything but glorious. It is the most evil and cruel thing that human beings do to one another. Yet human myth paints war as noble.

People talk about war atrocities forgetting that war, itself, is a terrible atrocity. War brings out the worst in human beings. It is blood and guts, the attempted wholesale slaughter of all human life defined as an enemy combatant. It is the killing of innocent civilians — men, women, and children.

War slays millions of soldiers. It makes widows and fatherless children and grieving parents. It cripples people. It inflicts sever mental and emotional pain on all involved in any way in combat.

War destroys fuel, food, land, the environment, homes, and other resources. The financial costs are huge.

War destroys human morality. As humans aggressively massacre each other their hearts and minds are opened up to every type of evil urge and impulse.

Yet as horrible as war is, few people will speak out against war in general. (Some may speak against a specific war, but not against the concept of war itself.) If anyone speaks against the concept of war, he or she is criticized and called unpatriotic or crazy.

But what’s crazy about believing in peace? Christ taught peace — “love your enemies.” Was He crazy?

In a recent letter to the Tennessean Charles Kraft spoke out against war. He said: In my opinion, there is no such thing as a ‘good’ or ‘moral’ war. As a soldier in Vietnam, I witnessed the horrors of war as all soldiers have.” He also said: “Omar N. Bradley, a sagacious five-star general and hero of World War II, said it best on his deathbed: ‘War is immoral.’ He was correct.”

Motivation Quotation: “I’ll tell you a secret; then you’ll never need to be scared again. Everyone on earth is shy, self-conscious and unsure of himself. Everybody’s timid about meeting strangers. So if you’ll just spend the first minute you’re in the presence of a stranger trying to help him feel comfortable, you’ll never suffer from self-consciousness again. Try it!” –Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Motivation Help: As human beings we are all made of the same material. The way you feel in a room full of strangers is the way other people feel. So instead of focusing on your uncomfortable feelings, begin to try to help other people feel comfortable and welcome.

FDR was right. This really works wonders. The next time you meet someone and feel awkward, think to yourself: “This person probably feels uncomfortable so I am going to help him/her feel better about meeting me.” Then go out of your way to help the other person feel good about your encounter.

It is amazing how much better we feel when we take the focus off of ourself and put it on someone else. Why not give this technique a genuine try today?