How much poorer our emotional lives would be if as soon as something happened, it was erased forever from our hearts. The nourishing, strengthening recollection of events in the past is a big part of what makes it possible for us to grow and improve.
We should be careful about confidentiality. And it is with our deepest sorrows that we should select our confidants the most carefully. We do well to share our griefs, but only with those who are utterly faithful . . . and tenderly understanding.
The most important thing we can share is our heart. We never do a finer thing than when we open up and share our innermost self with another person. “All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a twin” (Lord George Noel Gordon Byron).
Two things about attitude are amazing to me: (1) we can alter our attitudes anytime we want to, and (2) when we do alter them, our lives can change radically. As William James famously said, “People can alter their lives by altering their attitudes.”
Among the limits that must be respected are those that are moral in nature. Beyond that, however, there are many other limits that we should respect, such as our personal limits. We are finite beings, and we are at our best when we accept that fact.
In the words of Emerson, “A good intention clothes itself with sudden power.” So upgrading the quality of our aspirations is a high-leverage activity. As human beings, we grow exponentially when we improve our intentions — and then act accordingly.
Our inward characters, as well as our circumstances, are changing. We are becoming something different from what we’ve been. This time next year, we’ll all be people of a different quality than we are today. The question is: what are we becoming?
Norman Vincent Peale, who knew a good deal about this subject, said, “You can think, talk, and act yourself into dullness or into monotony or into unhappiness. By the same process you can build up inspiration, excitement, and a surging depth of joy.”
We should be more concerned about the opportunities we create for others. When I die, my sons won’t get much money, but I hope that I have opened one or two doors and given them a chance to see a few horizons beyond the limits of my own life.
If we’re not satisfied with what is being brought in from the fields of our personal endeavor, now is a profitable time to consider what it was that we sowed to produce such a crop. Now’s the time to commit ourselves to a better kind of sowing.