One of the common diseases in our time is pessimism. No matter young or old, people are only seeing the bad sides of life in all fields. They lost hope in life, God, luck, and worst of all, they lost hope in themselves. They surrender to sickness, they give up their dream of success, they stop fighting for their rights and they simply forget about any possibility of making things better.
Abraham Licoln said: “ people are just as happy as they make up their minds to be”, and I totally agree. Because the strong will works wonders. So the first step to take in the road of happiness is having a strong will to lead a happy life. And I believe we can all revive the will inside us and give it the green light to take control of our dreams and performances. Yet will alone isn’t enough for us to reach our goals, we also need to have hope and never give up even if we make mistakes. Let’s learn from the great Marie Curie and her determination when she said: “I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.” Despite the mistakes you make, and the obstacles you face, the important thing is to move on, let nothing stop you from fulfilling your dreams. No matter how complicated the situation you’re put in is, there’s always something left to be done. With some thinking, with some focus, you’ll work things out. Just don’t give up, and don’t surrender to failure. Then again, will, determination and hope are not enough, you need to take care of those around you. Mark Twain suggests you should “keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” That doesn’t mean you should abandon all those who criticize you, no, but you have to distinguish between those who criticize positively, and those who are trying to destruct your confidence. You must know those who appreciate you, and those who underestimate you. Be selective, and if you had no choice of selecting those around you for any reason, then at least don’t let their words ruin your evaluation of your own self. Draw some limits and tell them to mind their own business and save their bad comments for themselves.
And to make things perfect, do your best to be optimistic. No matter how dark things may seem, know that there’s always a bright side to look at, only we have to find it. Being optimistic supports your confidence in yourself and opens more doors to your own interest, just as Winston Churchill once explained: “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Being optimistic kills the fear of risk, but this doesn’t mean you should go on risking your life in the name of optimism, you have to be optimistic, realistic and rational at the same time.
And finally know that “being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means you have decided to look beyond imperfection”.

One of the things I learned throughout the years is the fact that facial expressions are not just a reaction to a certain mental or psychological status, but also an action, when created, forces a certain desired reaction.
I don’t mean to be complicated, but looking at facial expressions as reflects does not mean they can’t actually reflect an action we create. Let’s take the smile for example, a smile is a reflection of happiness, or kindness, or appreciation, or love, or peace of mind. In short, it’s a reflection of a positive feeling.
But what I learned is, we can make the reflection an action by forcing a smile on our face to create a positive feeling 🙂 Try it out yourself. When you wake up, force a smile on your face, you’ll feel calm and peaceful. When you answer the phone, draw a smile on your face, you’ll immediately feel that your voice has this happy tone in it. While you’re walking down the street, a smile on your face will make you feel more confident. But if you have a frown, your tone will be more serious, you’ll look sadder and your day wont be as happy as it’d be when you have a smiley face!
This brings us to acting. Acting is about creating reflects to certain actions and situations, actors force the facial expressions to convince the audience that these expressions are reflects to certain actions. So the audience sees the expressions as reaction although they are actually actions!
Which means facial expressions could be both actions and reactions, not at the same time though.
I really encourage people to force some positive expressions on their faces in order to be happier and to support others around them, but I’m certainly 100% against taking advantage of this and turning it into cheap acting to lie to someone, trick someone or hurt someone.
If you still have no smile on your face then what the hell are you waiting for? Force one big smile on your face, this will take care of the most complicated problems and the worst moods you might be having 🙂

Words are not simply some letters combined together with ink to decorate paper. Words are not meaningless sounds united to be uttered for nothing but fun. Words are not some signs put together as forms to be seen on screens and monitors. Words are much more important than that, words are magic.
With words, you can express your feelings, show your intentions and translate your ideas. With words you can show who you truly are, or, if you wish, you can create a character you wish you’d be. With words you can help someone, draw the attention of someone, get close to someone, support someone, trick someone, hurt someone, win someone, and even lose someone. Words can reflect reality, fiction, imagination, truth, and lies. Words do not force themselves into our minds, we force them out of our mouths. We can make words funny, serious, boring, helpful or destructive. It’s us who apply the magic of words, and unfortunately most of us prefer the evil magic.
A Bulgarian proverb says: “ a gentle word opens an iron gate”. Use words the right and most profitable way, not by taking advantage of someone’s kindness or stupidity, but by favoring your good side. Don’t let the evil in you take control of your thoughts, encourage your good soul, your kind heart and your loving nature. The more gentle your words become, the more gates you’ll open; the more gates you’ll open, the more chances you’ll get; and the more chances you’ll get, the more meaningful your life will be.
Let’s take the “F” word for example, it might trick you into thinking you’re cool, it might loosen up the tension you feel for some reason, but it’s all nothing useful. All of us can simply say that word, and all of us will feel the temporary satisfaction, but soon we realize it didn’t solve a problem, it didn’t sound appropriate to some people around us, and didn’t succeed winning the right kind of people’s attention.
Therefore, whenever you want to react to a certain situation using words, be selective; pick only the words that can be transformed into positive response and constructive action. Words that are waiting for humanity to re-discover and use to improve the quality of life and reflect a more gentle, more tolerant and more educated generation.

Get a piece of paper and a pen, consider today your last day of life, make a list of the things you’re really proud of in your life, the things that you consider the source of your happiness.

You might write job, but you wont write salary, you might write home but you wont write house, you might write blog but you wont write PC, you might write family but you wont write fights, you might write friends but you wont write enemies… In short, you’ll be listing the basic elements of satisfaction, warmth, love, and happiness. You’ll be listing healthy relationships, things you did and made a positive difference in your life or the life of others, things that symbolize the perfect balance between giving and receiving. You wont be mentioning your TV, or the size of your home, or your car.
Therefore never mix between what’s really important and what most of people use to evaluate your importance with. The real meaning of success is never what and how much you’re able to collect in your life, but unfortunately a lot of people waste their lives believing this is success… don’t be like them, and keep in mind that after you die nothing will really mean anything, your possessions will be thrown away, or, if valuable, they’ll be inherited by people who will die sooner or later and will mean nothing any more. The only thing that will make you remembered and will keep you alive after your death is your good deeds, your achievements. The nice words you said, the amount of smiles you forced on people’s faces, being there to help and support and being able to protect healthy relationships from being lost.
Reconsider your life, see the real important things. Don’t be ashamed of the small house of yours, or of the fact that you have no car. Instead, work on the real important matters. It’s never too late to start a list of proud achievements, and there’s nothing better than making this list bigger and bigger…

“I can –so easily- tell others what to do, but I find it always so difficult to figure out what I should do” – a client.

Aside of war, massacres and unfair sanctions, people are enjoying watching other people suffering, starving, being tortured and humiliated. Not only this, but somehow a person can no longer enjoy this life unless he/she kills or at least hurts someone else.
Evil is growing stronger and stronger, till this whole life is totally destroyed, which, I assume, will happen soon.
Now the main concern of people is to compete: who wins, who gets paid more, who looks better, who has more friends, who’s funnier, who has more affaires, who’s sexier, who has a better position…etc. I’m never against healthy competition; competing to improve, make progress, and make this world a better place. But unfortunately, this is not the case in most of the occasions. Competition nowadays is anything but healthy and good. It’s mostly for one of two reasons: a personal interest, OR hurting someone out of envy and jealousy.
This evil competition is present in all fields of life, specially at work.
Employees, instead of working as a team, they trick each other, steal each others’ opportunities, stand in the way of one’s success, spread rumors about each other, cause fights between each other, and are ready to hurt any one just to win the complete confidence of the big boss. The boss, who spares no effort in annoying his/her employees, underpaying them and underestimating their abilities and talents. Employers nowadays can never be happy unless they show disrespect.
I really don’t understand this! Work is a relationship of mutual need. Employers need employees and vice versa. And just like hundreds of employees are killing themselves to get a job, hundreds of employers are killing themselves to hire qualified and good mannered people.
Look around you, why isn’t work done in the right way and on time! Why should employees go begging for a raise when they do their work perfectly? Why should employers have their own “office-spies” to keep things under control? Why must clients threaten not to pay so that they’ll get their work on time? Why, why, why?!!
It’s all because of the cause-effect equation. Treat employees right, they’ll work hard, you’ll get work done on time, client pays you, all are happy, they work harder, you reward them, they trust you, work with loyalty, and things go perfectly. In such an environment, there will be no space but for healthy competition.
Don’t wait for others to start the cause, no, you be the cause, work hard, and give your best, if not appreciated, then move from the cause status to the effect status and look for the place where you’ll be appreciated.

“It’s so easy to stick to your principles and defend your opinion when you’re a responsibility-free employee. Moreover you’ll be called brave and strong. But when you have bills to pay, a family to support, and a house owner waiting at your door in the end of every month, then it becomes safer and more logical for you to compromise your principles and simply follow orders; fighting for your principles -in this case- will be considered insanity and carelessness.” – a former coworker.

HELP!

Many of us have gone through a lot of bad experiences, and many others are facing more and more problems in their lives. They lose hope, start blaming the ones around them and start behaving really mean, making their lives even worse.
A famous saying says: “The only thing in the world you can change is yourself, and that makes all the difference in the world”. Never try to change others, that doesn’t work, you have to look deep inside yourself and find what’s wrong, fix it and then move forward. This is the only way to change your life into a better one, which will make the life of those around you better as well.
Quit your bad habits, practice some self-control, respect your decisions and be strict with yourself. Don’t just say words, believe in them, and act according to your beliefs. Making promises and swearing to God you‘ll stop this or that, then getting back to your old self will make things only worse, not only for you, but for all those around you.
Therefore, have some private time for yourself, reconsider your life, and make your own decisions following your own beliefs, not those of people who pretend to know better than you.