Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise happiness today!

Last week’s post got me thinking about and digging deeper into happiness. Many of history’s greatest minds, from the ancient Greeks to modern thinkers, have ruminated on the root of such a state. Some striking observations can make us to stop and think – could this be the key?

Then, I realize it’s probably through the weaving of notions that common threads to happiness might be found. Perhaps many diverse filaments can be entwined to form one’s own personal tapestry. These, for example, interwoven, are worth consideration:

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. – James Oppenheim

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. – Mahatma Gandhi

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. – Frederick Koenig

Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions. – Dalai Lama

Yep, I think that’s the key for me . . . weaving together the threads of wisdom and APPLYNG what I’ve learned.

For, the value of an idea is in the USE of it.  – Thomas Edison

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise happiness today!

Although happiness may be universally described by feelings of joy and contentment, the roadmaps we use to arrive are unique for each of us. For some, being happy seems like a fleeting concept, a passing feeling brought on by circumstances, success or good fortune. For others, cultivating happiness from within is the most worthy pursuit, whether it’s by slowing down to appreciate the present moment, developing a meditation practice, or reconnecting to your purpose. To German-Swiss author and poet Herman Hesse:

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.

Hummm . . . a talent: 

Merriam-Webster definition: a marked innate ability; natural endowment or ability of a superior quality

Cambridge Dictionary definition: a natural ability to be good at something, especially without being taught

I can resonate with happiness being a how rather than a what, yet I need to breathe deeply at the notion of happiness being a natural ability, without being taught – since, I want to learn! Therefore, I ruminated on ideas like:

Happiness is not a goal… it’s a by-product.   ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.   ~ Alice Walker

Thank you Herman Hesse. I appreciate your words that triggered my thinking. Right now, I need to consider happiness as a skill rather than a talent and see where I can go from there!

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise happiness today!

For centuries, humans around the globe have lived lives abundant with opportunities to learn. The actions of Mahatma Gandhi, a civil rights activist and leader of independence, made a significant impact on his nation, our global society, and definitely me, in my youth. In his words:

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Researching his life, studying his practices, and visiting his historic home in India, one can understand and feel the clarity of the alignment of his beliefs, teachings, and actions. To Gandhi, the path to happiness is not fame or fortune, rather something more humble, more challenging, and more difficult – living an honest and authentic life. Today’s a good day to take inventory of our substance.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise happiness today!

Having read about Pope Francis’s notions of happiness recently, I remembered Eckhart Tolle’s comment about our experience with unhappiness:

The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.

Hummm . . . not so much what’s unfolding in front of us, rather the story we’re creating about it. This is true not only about what we’re experiencing in our lives, it also applies to how we judge others as well as situations. If unhappiness seems to be the mode you’ve imprisoned yourself with lately, perhaps it’s time to reframe – to change the stories.

We can start by changing the back story: Life is a gift, life is remarkable, amazing, and glorious, rather than life sucks, is full of misery, and impossible to maneuver. Every person is magnificent, doing their best with the resources they possess, to navigate their lives, often with struggles we’ll never know. To quote Ted Lasso: Remain curious rather than judgmental. Traverse life with compassionate inquiry to understand and it could unfold differently.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise plant enjoyment today!

I open the door, take one look at the earth, and immediately smile! Even on raining, gloomy, lacking sunshine days, new growth from the ground makes my heart sing. So, every fall we bury dozens of bulbs to adorn their surrounding plants as the ground wakes up in the spring. I understand what Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

Earth laughs in flowers.

Good morning tulips, daffodils, alliums, crocuses, and hyacinths! Are you waiting for the blooms of your neighboring friends as I am?  How glorious to invest time and energy in the soil that yields happiness 7 months later, with perennial returns on your investment! Happy Spring!

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise happiness today!

One more week of reflecting upon Pope Francis’s insights on happiness:

 . . . When you make a mistake, start over. Because only then will you be in love with life. You will find out that being happy isn’t about having a perfect life. But use tears to irrigate the tolerance. Use your defeats to train your patience.

We can see mistakes as life’s feedback to help us reflect and recalibrate, with new information. Errors, imperfection, and defeats become gifts rather than curses. In quietude we can practice patience and humbly transcend intolerances into charity. Let’s not recklessly react to our own errors, rather embrace life’s contradictions and clashes with resilience and grace.

Use your mistakes with serenity of the sculptor.

As artists of our own lives, we can use our pain to connect to learning. In stillness we can connect to the tranquility of creating. We can use obstacles to open the windows of intelligence and errors to identify our best next steps.  

Never give up… Above all, never abandon the people who love you. Never stop being happy because life is an amazing show.

We can always increase our appreciation and acknowledgement of the supportive people in our lives. Today’s a good day to say “Thank you.”

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise happiness today!

Enter the season of reawakening. Spring mimics the spiritual notion of rebirth, reinvention, repentance, recalibration, and resurrection.

Reading about the life of Pope Francis recently, I’ve found insight from many of his words, especially about happiness:

To be happy is to let the creature that lives in us live, free, joyful and simple. You are mature enough to say, ‘I made mistakes’. Having the courage to say I’m sorry. It’s the sense of saying ‘I need you’. It’s having the ability to say, ‘I love you.’ May your life become a garden of blissful opportunities that in spring is a lover of joy and in winter a lover of wisdom.

As the signs of spring unfold with longer days and warmer breezes, plants peek to see if it’s time to emerge. May we appreciate our reflections upon wisdom that the isolation of winter allowed us and now, spring gently into blissful opportunities and new beginnings with an emergent, renewed spirit. 

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com                        

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise rainbow seeking today!

After decades of her passing, Judy Garland remains one of the most legendary and remembered entertainers of all time. She wrote of herself:

I’m always being painted a more tragic figure than I am. Actually, I get awfully bored with myself as a tragic figure.

Why are fans too often drawn to and some, actively seek the flaws, the miserable, the catastrophic, the tragic? (Think poor Princess Kate and all the rumors and conspiracy theories of her choice of privacy as she heals)

Ms. Garland asked:

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all be a little more gentle with each other, and a little more loving, have a little more empathy, and maybe we’d like each other a little bit more.

In the midst of all the coverage she experienced she responded:

As for my feelings toward “Over the Rainbow,” it’s become part of my life. It is so symbolic of all dreams and wishes that I’m sure that’s why people sometimes get tears in their eyes when they hear it . . . I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I’ve spent my entire life trying to get over it.

And, one of my favorite’s by Judy Garland:

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

Yes, decades later, Ms. Garland’s legacy is worthy of attention.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise observation today!

I stumbled upon this William Arthur Ward comment recently, and it’s been echoing in my mind ever since:

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.

What if I sought to share something exceptional with at least one person, each and every day? That means I need to show up with people, observe, listen, and learn. I’d need to understand them I ways that allow me to discover what is unique about their essence, attributes, skills, habits.

And, what if I decided I shared something I noticed with complete strangers? I’d need to be more attentive and more courageous to verbalize what I perceive as distinctive or outstanding.

What if I didn’t even need to seek the exceptional? Perhaps a behavior that is good, kind, or thoughtful in any given moment? Or, the way a person beautifully wears a color, extends a kind gesture or an act of generosity, or a spontaneous smile?

How would my life change if each and every day included this seeking of the best in others? I suppose the list would be satisfyingly abundant.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise authenticity today!

At the 2024 People’s Choice Awards, Lenny Kravitz accepted the Music Icon Award and reflected on his 35 years as a recording artist:

It’s never been about how many records I sell, or how many awards I win . . . It’s not about trying to write hits or being calculated or formulaic. It’s about enjoying and being grateful for the journey and using the gifts that God gave you. Never follow the trends. Set your own pace and recognize that the best is right here, right now, in front of you.

How often do we chase the wrong prize? The highest grade rather than the learning? (Hope this is not the case for my doctor!) The trophy, title, plaque, promotion, standing ovation? Worse, how often do we define ourselves by this external validation?  He continued:

My music wasn’t Black enough. It wasn’t white enough. It didn’t fit nicely inside a box or sound like what was on the radio at the time, and I turned down the money and the glitzy promises of fame, and stardom because I couldn’t live with myself doing something inauthentic.

May we have the insight and courage to seek our own authenticity rather than the chase accolades of others and the external “prizes” that we think somehow prove our worth.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com