Give me 5 minutes a day and I'll give you a happier, more successful life

Many years ago I took a boat from Macau to Hong Kong in the South China Sea. Due to a typhoon that had passed by not long before that, I delayed the trip for a whole day, hoping that the sea would be smooth by the time I left. It wasn’t. Luckily I was in the middle of the boat, which is much better than being in the front. The sea was so rough that the bow would rise up higher and higher and fall back down. Each time that happened I would begin to wonder how much higher it would go. Then it would drop and people would scream. That made it even scarier.

It was a terrifying trip. Needless to say I did a lot of praying.

One thing I learned from that trip is that no matter how bad the situation is, I didn’t need to be afraid.

Are you in a difficult situation? Maybe you are worried about your job, or maybe you are single and want to be married. Maybe you can’t get pregnant or you are not married and find yourself pregnant. Maybe you have been working for a long time on your goals and dreams and it seems you won’t be able to achieve them.

In Mark 4:40 Jesus said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The apostles were terrified that they would drown because a storm ravaged the boat they were in. They said “Jesus, don’t you care if we drown?”

Many of us have said that to God. “God, don’t you care about my job, my marriage, my test scores, my sick child? Don’t you care that a person walked out of my life? Don’t you care about my finances” Maybe God would say the same thing to us “Do you still have no faith?”

At first it may seem a little harsh that Jesus told them they lacked faith. But actually it is very comforting. That means that no matter what is bothering you in life, you can be sure it will work out right if you have faith and rely on God.

My books.

Strong faith can change your life.

Links to most commonly visited posts on my blog during the last couple of weeks are below:

Charles Dickens changed the world

A shoe salesman was sent to a country where no one wore shoes. He arrived there, looked around and immediately asked his company to send him back home. “I can’t sell shoes here!” He said. “No one wears them.”

The next shoe salesman the company sent arrived at the same location. He looked around and sent back a message “Send ten times the amount of shoes as usual! This is the best place to sell shoes! No one wears them here so I can sell them to everyone.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty”

Click to read some ideas for a better life. Many people write books about this, but I found some ideas from Brian Tracy who is one of the top experts on this subject.

click here

A special message for anyone who might be discouraged or know someone who is…

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Gratitude journal

The power of words

Our words have a lot of power to affect our mood. When we say “I love you” it probably helps us just as much as the person we are saying it to. Try it sometime, tell someone you love them and think about how good it makes you feel. You will almost certainly feel happier.

Many people teach their children to say “please” and “thank you.” If a child says “I want more milk” the parent says “What are the magic words?” The child says “please” and after the milk is poured says thank you.

Start the day right for a happier day

I don’t know who began calling them the magic words, but there is a lot more truth to that than we realize. Most people realize that when you start your day in a good mood, the whole day goes well. But if something goes wrong in the morning, like stubbing your toe as you walk half asleep to the bathroom, it can make the day go badly, unless you shake it off and think about things you are grateful for. Being grateful puts us on a higher plane, so to speak, and sets the tone for the entire day.

Some people say thank you as their feet hit the floor getting out of bed. They stop and think about how happy and grateful they are that they have a job to go to, or they have a bed to sleep in, food to eat for breakfast, a toothbrush, running water, and a myriad of other things.

Today we live like kings

Just one hundred years ago most people in the world did not have indoor plumbing, electricity, air-conditioning and many other things that we take for granted. In fact, even today hundreds of millions of people don’t have these things.

Today we have good transportation that can bring us a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, meats and other good things to eat. It was not that way one hundred years ago.

It is so easy to forget about the hundreds of blessings we have and think about the few problems we have. But when we say thank you for every blessing we can think of as we start the morning, it brings about good feelings and makes the day go better. When we are grateful we begin to see more things to be grateful for and it actually brings about good things because our brain can see opportunities that it would not have seen otherwise.

So, “thank you” and “please” really are magic words that have a lot of power.