“View yourself as actively capable of making changes in your life, rather than as a passive, helpless victim. Make use of your own agency. Take responsibility for being the architect of much of your own misery, and choose to build success instead.” —Dr. Stephen Marmer; December 9, 2022; The Dennis Prager Show
5 Behaviors Guaranteed to Increase Happiness: #2 of 5
“Keep positive thoughts and perceptions about others, even when they disappoint you.” —Dr. Stephen Marmer; December 9, 2022; The Dennis Prager Show
5 Behaviors Guaranteed to Increase Happiness: #1 of 5
“Learn to tolerate increased anxiety and stress without acting out.” —Dr. Stephen Marmer; December 22, 2022; The Dennis Prager Show
The Art of Being Happy
The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. --Henry Ward Beecher
Pessimist, Optimist, Realist
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” --William Arthur Ward
Difficult Families
“With difficult families, the therapist must be predictable enough to be relied on by the family, but not so predictable that he can be easily anticipated, thus he can bring about change. One must be predictable in one’s commitment to solving the family problem but unpredictable and inconsistent in moment-to-moment maneuvers.” --Jay Haley in Leaving Home: the Therapy of Disturbed Young People, pg. 276
Up and Down
“The man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down.” —Frederick Douglass
Learn from Defeat
“If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.” —Zig Ziglar
Motion and Action
“Never mistake motion for action.” —Ernest Hemmingway
Discipline and Wisdom
Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. Punish them with the rod and save them from death.
My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad indeed; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
—Proverbs 23:12-16
If I Am
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” —Rabbi Hillel
Getting Things Done
“The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone.” —Oswald Chambers
Today's Problems
“Today’s problems are yesterday’s solutions.” —Peter Senge