This is the month we make resolutions and promises for the new year. This time instead of making a list of twenty resolutions, simply make one promise to keep.

On success

Most people search high and wide for the keys to success. If they only knew, the key to their dreams lies within.
—George Washington Carver

If you have achieved any level of success, then pour it into someone else. Success is not success without a successor.
—T.D. Jakes

There are no secrets to success. Don’t waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.
—Colin Powell

On perseverance

There are pearls in the deep sea, but one must hazard all to find them. If diving once does not bring you pearls, you need not therefore conclude that the sea is without them. Dive again and again. You are sure to be rewarded in the end…. If your first attempt proves fruitless, do not lose heart. Persevere in your efforts….
—Sri Ramakrishna


On genius

Genius is nothing but a power of sustained attention.
—William James


On idleness

Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind.
-Henry Ford


On compassion for the self

Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves.
—Pema Chodron


On unhappiness

It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.
—Dale Carnegie

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
—John Milton


On love

Love. What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons and made mincemeat of kings.
—Diane Ackerman

Love to faults is always blind,
Always is to joy inclin’d,
Lawless, wing’d and unconfin’d,
And breaks all chains from every mind.
—William Blake

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13)


On advice

Give not advice without being ask’d, and when desired, do it briefly.
—George Washington

Hone your skills for work and family and you hone them for living life to the fullest