Fear thought is planning to worry.

Forethought is planning ahead.

Why plan to worry when you can think about success?

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Most folks don’t have a prayer of starting the day in a positive way once their narrative is hijacked and taken from them.

Bad news on the morning shows, radio or online.

Emails and text messages that present problems and upset.

Then we bump into people who through some sort of osmosis transfer their anxiety to us.

Resist the bad news of the day.

Reject the problems of others – even to listen to them can cause more anxiety.

Stick to your goals for the day ahead and not be detoured by someone else’s negative narrative. 

Change the narrative from bad news to hope. 

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Find something you love to do and get someone to pay you to do it.

Find people you admire and make friends with them.

Find a problem you can’t solve and let it go.

Find a mirror, stare right into it and love what you’re looking at.

Find a challenge bigger than you and grow with it.

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Don’t become the person who has hurt you.

Never allow them to get you so upset that striking back is more important than pulling away.

Letting someone in so close has risks and rewards.

The hurt will lessen, the friendship may be damaged but you don’t have to keep coming back for more.

Erase the hurtful thoughts, repeating them becomes permanent damage.

Above all, self-love is a counterbalance to people who for one reason or the other fail to treat you with love and consideration.

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Mister Rogers (Fred Rogers) in his own gentle but authentic way offered advice for children to deal with horrific things that happen in our world.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” 

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Education is the only thing that people want the least of for their money.

How many classes am I allowed to miss? 

Once you get the job, it becomes just a job.

Looking forward to hump day, long weekends, vacations. 

The best grades don’t always get the best jobs and the most money.

Luck only takes you so far, then you have to manufacture your own good luck.

The hardest worker wins.

Luck is a result of a good plan and hard work.

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Read some sample chapters of my book Out of Bad Comes Good, The Advantages of Disadvantages here.

You can watch the highlights in minutes instead of hours.

There is always a reset button.

Everything can be fast-forwarded.

Social media sites focus on just seconds of engagement at a time.

YouTube viewers make decisions on what to watch in less than 10 seconds – usually far less.

So how are we supposed to live in the present when there are so many shortcuts?

We learn a lot from real time experiences.

Sometimes “suffering” through the entire game makes us appreciate the victory more.

It doesn’t take meditation to live in the now.

Sometimes it means not taking the many shortcuts we now have.

I am always amazed when I visit Longwood Gardens, the DuPont arboretum on the Pennsylvania/Delaware border.

Phones are used for taking pictures of the fauna and flora, less texting.

Strangers talk to each other.

Long walks in the meadow allow people to be alone with their thoughts.

Take a new way to work and call it meditation.

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99% of what we fear or worry about will never happen.

99%.

The fear is almost always worse than what we’re afraid of.

Getting control of anxiety thoughts out of the gate when we first have them is a way to get ahead of what is likely to turn out to be an unlikely fear.

If someone told you, you have a 1% chance of having your anxieties actually play out you might be a lot less worried from the start.

Focusing on that 1% gets a jump on controlling anxiety.

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That it will descend upon us like a butterfly because we deserve it.

It doesn’t really work that way.

We are responsible for our own happiness.

Happiness is generated from gratitude.

Gratitude for little things.

Even winning the lottery gets old (and the money disappears) but repeated small steps of appreciation accomplish basically the same thing.

The wealthy are psychiatrists’ best customers because money alone cannot buy happiness.

Staring at our phones will not make us happier, but social interaction with others face to face does – it’s a choice.

Here’s a re-set:

There is always someone worse off than how I feel today so I will be grateful. 

We have to be open to happiness or we will focus on what we don’t have instead of what we are grateful for. 

Pick a person every day to appreciate (it can be the same person tomorrow).

Money doesn’t equal happiness – how much of your life, then, is in pursuit of money?

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Barry Trotz is a Stanley Cup winning hockey coach.

Last year he won it directing the Washington Capitals.

This year he took over the New York Islanders and helped lead a young team into the playoffs.

Trotz could honestly say he enjoyed the year — this one even when he didn’t winthe Cup.

“I always tell my kids find something you enjoy and you never work a day in your life”.

People often hate their jobs, dislike their bosses and want better pay – not a prescription for happiness.

It’s never too late to find something you really like to do and get paid for it.

Today’s a good day to begin.

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