Hi everyone. Here’s a collection of some of my favorite ‘pearls’ of wisdom and inspiration, which I find helpful to review often. If you’re interested in learning more about any of the below mentioned authors, quotes, or lists, I encourage you to do an on-line search for more information and historical background. (Oh, and please give any suggestions you have for more ‘pearls’ that you think I should add to this list.) Okay, here goes:
Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw
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Miguel Ruiz’ The Four Agreements
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best
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Byron Katie’s The Work
Use the following four questions to investigate a stressful recurring thought or belief – for example, “My mother doesn’t love me.”
1. Is it true? (Close your eyes, be still, go deeply as you contemplate your answer. If your answer is no, continue to Question 3.)
2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true?
3. How do you react when you think or believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without that thought?
Final step: ‘Turn the thought around’* – find a minimum of three genuine examples in your life where each turnaround is as true or truer than your original statement.
The key to experiencing The Work is to go beyond the quick answers of the intellect and tap into a deeper wisdom. Ask, then be still and wait for an inner voice to respond. With practice, this will become easier.
* Note: ‘Turning the thought around’ means experimenting with various other ways to state the thought which are different than or which are opposite to it in some way. Examples include the following: “My mother does love me”; “I don’t love my mother”; “I love my mother”, etc.
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Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles of Success
1. Definiteness of Purpose
2. Mastermind Alliance
3. Applied Faith
4. Going the Extra Mile
5. Pleasing Personality
6. Personal Initiative
7. Positive Mental Attitude
8. Enthusiasm
9. Self-Discipline
10. Accurate Thinking
11. Controlled Attention
12. Teamwork
13. Adversity & Defeat
14. Creative Vision
15. Health
16. Budgeting Time & Money
17. Cosmic Habit Force
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Deepak Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
1. The Law of Pure Potentiality
2. The Law of Giving
3. The Law of Karma
4. The Law of Least Effort
5. The Law of Intention and Desire
6. The Law of Detachment
7. The Law of Dharma
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John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success
Base Tier: Industriousness, Friendship, Loyalty, Cooperation, Enthusiasm
Second Tier: Self-Control, Alertness, Initiative, Intentness
Third Tier: Condition, Skill, Team Spirit
Fourth Tier: Poise, Confidence
Top Tier: Competitive Greatness
Diagonal Side One: Faith
Diagonal Side Two: Patience
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John Wooden’s Seven Point Creed
Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.
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The 23rd Psalm
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’ sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou anointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
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Prayer of St Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon:
where there is doubt, faith ;
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where there is sadness, joy
O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen
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Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things that I can [and that I need to change];
And the wisdom to know the difference.
– Reinhold Niebuhr
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Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
– Max Ehrmann
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IF (by Rudyard Kipling)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on;”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
[And you’ll be a Woman…my daughter!]
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Invictus (by William Ernest Henley)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
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(A note about the below poem: Some sources say that the “Anyway” poem was written on the wall in Mother Teresa’s own room.
The words seem to be based on a composition originally by Kent Keith, known as the “Paradoxical Commandments,” but in the below version much of the second half has been re-written in a more spiritual sense.
In any case, the association of these words with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity has made them popular worldwide, expressing as they do, the spirit in which they lived their lives.)
The “Anyway” Poem
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
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Unleash Your Inner Strength ™ 
Thanks for putting these together, I almost forgot about some of them.
Great list! Thank you!!
Nice compilation, thanks for sharing it. Out of all of these books, which one do you believe has the best impact on your inner strength/frame?
Thanks. It’s hard to pick one above the rest. I think everyone would benefit, though, from reading Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.”
The 7 habits of highly effective people taught me a valuable lesson – That to be empowered you need to be independent and not have a dependency.. that way you can avoid words like response, necessity heartbroken, helpless, victim or weak etc and adopt words like
Power, Free, Fearless, Dominant, Authority, Cognitive..
another really good book to EMBODY is the 50th law by Robert Greene.
Just my 2cents, thanks for the recommendations.
Thank you for your recommendation of the book ‘The 50th Law,’ by Robert Greene and 50 Cent. I will check it out. I have read Greene’s book ‘The 48 Laws of Power,’ and learned a lot from it.
Best regards.
I have been examinating out many of your posts and i can claim pretty good stuff. I will definitely bookmark your website.
You saved the best for last! Thank you!!