Know yourself and be true to who and what you are.
Here’s why……
Your success and your happiness in life are in direct proportion to your ability to accept the unvarnished truth about yourself.
(and remember to enjoy yourself)
Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC
Live now. Live in the moment.
Live
now. Live in the moment. Throw yourself in it. Drench yourself in every drop of
now because now is where eternity is. Thoreau, God bless him, said it best “Fools
stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is
no other land; there is no other life but this.” So live
now. Live in the moment….and enjoy yourself too. That’s the important part.
Quiet pleasures
Quiet
pleasures seem to last longer and leave better memories because, I think, maybe
we’re just not made to bear the enormous burden of great joy.
Walk and talk
But
be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. [James 1:22]
I.E:
Don’t talk the talk and not walk the walk because then you’re only lying to
yourself.
The way of life
Here
is one sure, absolute way to fail in life; be untrue to the best you know.
Here
is the way to lead a successful life. Always
to the right thing. That means do what you know is right in your heart.
That’s
pretty much all there is to it.
Life is boring
Life
is boring. Know that. And in knowing that, recognize your daily routine, as predictable
as it may be, is the true rhyme of life.
Understand
that even in the hum-drum steps of daily life there is a kind of suspense in
the story of living from day to day.
Always
make yourself the hero of that story. It’s a simple but noble and honorable goal.
Fear
The
thing that frightens people is the new experience, the fear of facing what is
different for the first time. And it’s a universal fear.
Do
it anyway.
But
it won’t be an easy path. It takes guts to live a life that is always evolving,
to live a life that willfully goes to those places that are new and unknown, and
to test our limits.
Strive
to live that life and to hell with the risks. If you are true to your mission
you will find that the risk that it takes to remain safe and unchallenged is
more painful and costly than the risk you took to grow as a human being.
True success
Success
in life doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the positions we reach or don’t
reach. Nor does it have anything to do with wealth or material goods.
Those earthly things are cheap because they
are easily had. They are common place and usually held in high esteem by common
people.
Be
kind to yourself and measure you’re success by the obstacles you had to
overcome in this life.
Measure
your success in how many times you wanted to give up the fight but didn’t.
Measure
your success in how far you have come along in the journey of trying to be a
rational, decent human being.
Drive,
determination, the refusal to quit in a worthy cause, decency. These things are not easily had and there is not
any fortune on this earth that can match their value heavenly value.
A single day.
A
bad day doesn’t make or change your life any more than a good day does because the
effect of a single day on our lives fluctuates. One day can make you feel stronger
or wiser or better. The next moment or the next day can make you feel weak and drawn,
even defeated. Things change. Don’t
worry about it. Examine the situation because our attitude has a lot to do with how we see things. Stay focused and take the day as it comes. You're going to be just fine.
Be an optimist
Be an optimist because it gets
better. Life always gets better.
I was born in a slum. Placed into foster care
at age 7, lived in the back of a car at 17. I had no worldly good but I had
imagination and imagination is strong weapon in the right hands.
I dreamed a lot because I
understood the power dreams could have over the harsh reality that was my life.
I learned to hope because hope
can carry us through the worst of it.
I laughed and laughed often and
loud because laughter always defeats grief and sadness and so very much of my
childhood was drenched in grief and sadness.
I believed with all of my heart,
my soul and my mind that one day I would find happiness.
Imagination, refusing to let go
of the myth, dreams over tragedy, hope in place of despair, laughter in the
face of desperation, to continue to hold out for something better in spite of
it all, those are the things that will kept me alive. Those are the things that moved me forward.
With all that behind me, I cannot,
I will not, take the pessimists view because I am a witness to the provable
fact that no matter what happens, no matter how unbearable it gets or how dark
it becomes, life goes on, you always get a second chance and things do get
better. Be an optimist
Everybody on the planet is a little bit nuts
Just remember
that everybody on the planet is a little bit nuts. Remember that and every now
and then a lot of life’s weirdness will make sense.
We are not randomly tossed into this life
We are not randomly tossed into
this life. We are not an irrelevant, haphazard chance of the universe. Nothing
is. There is a purpose to all things, a progression, and a sequence of events
that all happen for a reason.
You and I are a part of that
grand rhythm but we are more than that. We are children God placed on this
earth by him with the mission to lead an honorable life, to have compassion, to
be useful in the world and to have made a difference in the world.
Pay attention to your loved ones.
When you have a family of your
own make sure you don’t lose them by becoming lost in the world. The job will
be there tomorrow, but if it isn’t there, there will always be another job and
another appointment and another career thing you absolutely have to do…those
things will always be there….. but your
family may not be there. People grow, they change and sometimes they move
along. Pay attention to your loved ones. Help them grow. See them through a
change. Don’t let them move along without you. Don’t lose them.
Lead a good life, a full life. Fight for it if you must.
Lead a good life, a full life. Fight
for it if you must. Commit to never leading a compromised life. If you do that,
know that at times the price you pay for living your life on your grounds will
seem high. But the good life, the fulfilled life, is a treasure, and at the end
of our journey we will look back, you and I, and we will realize that all we
paid to walk our own path was a mere pittance compared to the magnificence of our prize.
The common virtue of all great people is their sincerity.
The common virtue of all great
people is their sincerity.
Sincerity and authenticity
attracts people.
Sincerity, even in error, is
strength.
Sincerity is earnest and it is
honorable and makes for a highly effective life.
Sincerity is real so it is rarely chic or cool. In fact it is the opposite. It
can’t be faked. It has to be a part of you. It must permeate all of what you
are.
Work to be sincere. Push the
weakness, the hypocrisy and the insincerity out of your existence and fill that
void with sincerity.
No matter what the odds, plan to win.
Even when you are the clear
loser, start writing your victory speech. Don’t ever expect to lose. No matter
what the odds, plan to win. History is filled with victories that were stolen
from the jaws of sure defeat and it almost always happens at the last moment
when all seems lost and hope is almost gone.
Don’t make being happy the goal in your life.
Don’t make being happy the goal
in your life. If you do you that, will always be unhappy because life is hard,
it’s filled with disappointments and missed opportunities. People will let you
down and all of it will drain away your happiness.
Instead, live a life that seeks
purpose, that means to improve the world and leave it better than what we found it. Build a life
around great passions. Strive to be kind and generous and filled with
compassion. Those things are the point of the journey. Do those things and happiness will find you
and fill your life.
The house where I grew up, in Ansonia Connecticut
Google Maps
North Cliff Street, Ansonia Ct.
(Click the Google maps link to look at the house)
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North Cliff Street, Ansonia Ct.
I grew up on the left side of the house, where the ramp is.
(Although that's gone now) My bedroom was where the far left window is.
When I was a boy there were two enormous pine
trees on the front lawn and the house had wood sidings painted brown and red.
Around 1910 it was all one house but was
subdivided in the mid 1930's. The original owner was Chapel S. Carter, the son
of a Connecticut Baptist church deacon, who, in 1905 patented a finger-nail
clipper. Carter was secretary (and part
owner) of the H.C. Cook Company of Ansonia, which was incorporated in 1903 as
the H. T. Cook Machine. The company introduced the Gem Brand nail clipper in
1920.
All you need is you.
During the life long
transformation of our spirits we eventually realize that as ourselves, in our
own being, is all we need in this life.
The life less ordinary
To experience anything that is important
in this life takes courage. What is important is often not easy and nor is it
popular.
To be kind and compassionate
and decent takes courage because the world is often none of those things.
It takes courage to live a life filled with passions because society encourages uniformity, advocates the safe route, applauds the cautious and often rewards the mundane.
It takes courage to live a life filled with passions because society encourages uniformity, advocates the safe route, applauds the cautious and often rewards the mundane.
Don’t look back on your life
and try to recall how many times you failed to live a brave life. It takes time
to develop courage. You aren’t born with it but you are born with the potential
to become courageous and every day the world challenges you to put that courage
to practice. You’ll have a lot of opportunity to prove yourself to yourself.
When those instances do come,
expect to get knocked on your kester a few times because it is not easy to live
a courageous life. You’ll fail occasionally. The day will come, I assure you, when
you will compromise your convictions. That doesn’t mean you are a moral
failure, a coward, or a quitter or a bad person. It means you’re human and you
goofed up, you dropped the ball. That’s
all it means. Nothing more and nothing less.
As difficult as it is, try to build a life that is well grounded in YOUR well-being.
As difficult as it is, try to
build a life that is well grounded in YOUR well-being.
Not the other guy’s well-being,
not the world’s well-being, but your well-being.
And to do that you must be
willing to spend your entire life learning and then practicing what it takes to
grow and blossom as a person while doing your best not to merely get by in
fulfilling your own happiness and fulfillment.
It is a worthy and noble life’s pursuit.
It is a worthy and noble life’s pursuit.
Here’s one way to start. Take one hour a day and give it to
yourself as a present. Savoy it, enjoy it, relax in it, it’s yours.
"Do the thing that makes you happy" Emerson and throwing a pile of grass seems to make this guy happy.
The tension between standing apart
“The tension between standing apart and being fully involved: this is what makes a writer.” Nadine Gordimer
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