Change your narrative
Your life as you remember it is a narrative you keep telling yourself. At any time you can reinterpret what happened in a more positive way and start running a new narrative of your life - a new story that has less victim and more positivity that you can feel…
Fear of Death
Think about this quote from Mark Twain - "The fear of death comes from the fear of life. A man who has lived fully is prepared to die at any time. - Mark Twain Do you think this is true? I think that if a person has gone all out…
Nature heals and restores you
I love the woods. I love being outside long enough without distraction to take in the natural rhythms and peace of the wild outdoors. It clears my head and refreshes my soul. In some crowded places like Singapore they call a walk or sitting in a little patch of trees…
Top regrets in the end
I wish I let myself be happier. I wish I stayed in touch with my friends. I wish I had the courage to express my feelings. I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself and followed my dreams. Our inactions trouble us with regret more…
Together
It was our wedding anniversary recently (ok, last month). I love this poem I picked up from a wedding card, and I wanted to use it somehow in Think Daily because I thought many would love it too. So I'll just put it out there. "Someday when the pictures have…
Resisting Models of Bad Character
Bad character is all around us. TV, Movies, and Social Media. The classic good storyline is good against evil. so we see evil in most stories, unfortunately. The news sells it to us. We go see movies to see people doing terrible things. We have to resist becoming one of…
1% better each day
1% of your day is 14 minutes and 24 seconds. If you get 1% better each day, that's powerful over time. 1% + 1% + 1%.... How will you get 1% better today?
Good Character Traits – Do you have these?
Character - the inherent complex of attributes that determine a person's moral and ethical actions and reactions. I'm willing to bet that 99.9 % of Think Daily subscribers would say they have good character. But like a recipe that has all the right ingredients but is missing something, what would…
Character is Destiny
Good character determines the outcome of your life. We should talk about it more with others and with kids. The dictionary says - Character - the inherent complex of attributes that determine a person's moral and ethical actions and reactions. I think it's more than moral and ethical reactions. It's…
Self-control is strength
Calmness is mastery. When your mood doesn't shift based on the insignificant actions of others, you are mastering yourself. Don't allow others to control the direction of your days and life. Don't allow your emotions to overpower your intelligence. Self-control is strength.
Change your narrative
Your life as you remember it is a narrative you keep telling yourself.
At any time you can reinterpret what happened in a more positive way and start running a new narrative of your life – a new story that has less victim and more positivity that you can feel better about and build off of.
How can you reframe what happened, and start running a new story?
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Fear of Death
Think about this quote from Mark Twain –
“The fear of death comes from the fear of life. A man who has lived fully is prepared to die at any time. – Mark Twain
Do you think this is true? I think that if a person has gone all out and lived fully and in their later years, they will be far less afraid of death. I can see this to be true in my life. And coincidentally, if you have less fear, you are more likely to live fully.
How is this playing out in your life?
I do believe that we are to live daily life to the fullest. And will say as a believer in Jesus, he came so we can live a life full of joy.
This quote from Mark Twain is one of my favorite quotes. We had this on our grade school wall outside our principal’s office. I have lived and believed in this quote since I was a very young child. I have always lived life as I wanted to, hit life head on and made it what I wanted to make it. As a result, I have never been in fear of death. Love this quote, thank you for sharing it today.
Best piece of advice ever
I have a lot of friends that enjoy having philosophical questions with me. Whenever I ask if they’d want to live forever or how long they would want to live healthfully, most answers are sharply the same. They don’t want to outlive the people that they love. What I take from this is most people that I’ve asked want to live to see the people that they love prosper and engage with them. What and how much someone loves seems to also be the determining factor for most, what and how much they are willing to sacrifice as well. By creating and sustaining loving and positive relationships with people, you can give them the desire to live. Proverbs 18:21 is a good reference for this.
Thank you for such engaging thoughts in the morning Larry! 😁
I love this and really needed this today. After the recent passing of a close family member, my 6-year-old has been asking me a lot about death and conveying fears that he has. He didn’t quite grasp the permanence of it until about a week ago, and now it’s setting in and becoming real to him. Some say that the fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all, but I think it’s what we do know that holds us back. This is a good learning opportunity for me as a parent to teach him (and myself) to replace fear with curiosity, and it will open the door to countless opportunities. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Larry, have a great day 🙂
Thank you Larry! That truly means a lot to me! I hope you have a beautiful and blessed day! 🙂
Love that saying
And I believe that part of living life fully is to accept the gift of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ! Only then can we have true peace and NO fear of death. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. John 3:16 ESV
Thank you Larry for your daily posts!
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Nature heals and restores you
I love the woods. I love being outside long enough without distraction to take in the natural rhythms and peace of the wild outdoors. It clears my head and refreshes my soul.
In some crowded places like Singapore they call a walk or sitting in a little patch of trees “Forest Therapy”. So funny. I guess I am fortunate to not live in a big city.
You don’t have to wait for a vacation. When you are stressed out or feel like you had enough for now or need a break, go for a walk by yourself in the woods, or mountains, or field, or desert, or beach. It works.
“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” – Rachel Carson
Where do you like to go?
Good morning Larry, I to love the outdoors when life gets a little to crazy I he’d to a stream or river for what I call Stream therapy.
Heading out alone and thinking things through is a great reset for me.
I hope you go for a walk today ✌️
Totally agree. A walk among trees is restorative. I walked through the woods and along the Pequonnock River yesterday in Trumbull, CT. Beautiful waterfalls!
Good Morning Larry!!! I very often restore my soul at the beach or in my gardens. Have a beautiful day!!!
In the woods in Northern Minnesota. If I can’t get there I take my dirt bike out and ride around Land Between the Lakes in KY.
5 years ago we bought a 30 acres in the Nantahala Mountains of Western North Carolina. Started building a trail in February to our small mountain bald with views of Clingman’s Dome and the Great Smoky Mountains. Tending to the land, developing my “camping shed” and working (as a form of fitness building) brings an incredible amount of satisfaction and connection. When in town where I live I take moments to appreciate the breeze, the sounds, the light to retain that connection in between my visits.
I love the beaches of the Caribbean. The feeling of sand under my feet has a calming effect on me.
For me the same is true but it is on the water. Issues and troubles wash away when I get to spend time on the water
Snowmobiling in the woods of northern NH, toes in the sand on the beach in Fairfield, or getting on the water in a motor boat or sail boat.
I go home to my wife and kids! They bring me immense joy!
P.S. We live in the middle of very peaceful country!
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Top regrets in the end
I wish I let myself be happier.
I wish I stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish I had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself and followed my dreams.
Our inactions trouble us with regret more than our actions.
“In delay, there is no plenty.” – Shakespeare
Today I am thankful for Contractor Nation and Larry Janesky!
My wife, daughters and I went to Iceland when they were younger and visited that same waterfall (I think).
Your blogs help me be a better leader, and it is so interesting watching myself grow into a better leader! Thank you!
I intend to have no regrets! It’s fear that brings us to the final regret… we all die at the end! What are we trying to avoid with fear?
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Together
It was our wedding anniversary recently (ok, last month). I love this poem I picked up from a wedding card, and I wanted to use it somehow in Think Daily because I thought many would love it too. So I’ll just put it out there.
“Someday when the pictures have faded, the cake is long gone, and the flower girl is grown, you’ll know each other’s secrets, tell each other’s stories, finish each other’s sentences….and you’ll look back on today as the beautiful day that started it all.”
Happy Anniversary Marie! – And to all the married couples out there!
17 years this October. Great poem, thanks for sharing.
If you are blessed, your spouse completes you. It took me some time to figure out she was my ally; not my adversary. Compromise and love and forgiveness make up for lots of chaos and confusion.
24 years this month!! Happy Anniversary to you and Marie ❤
25 years and still feel like it was yesterday…well except for the kids and grandkids 😎
45 years
On Sept 21st it will be 21 years. And I still love her!!
Happy belated anniversary. Kelly and I will have been married for 30 years in Dec.
Happy Anniversary! 30 yrs for us next April.
Married 21 years last month to my favorite person in the world. Happy Anniversary! I love LOVE and I love this post Larry!
Married 5 years May this year. Happy Anniversary Larry!
Happy belated Anniversary!!! Jan and I will hit our 20th this September. Dated for 9 years prior.
~ Happy Anniversary Larry & Marie ~ ♥
Cheers to many years of happiness!
46 years in sept
We hit 19 years in October!
36 years!
Happy Anniversary to you two!!!
July 8 marked 17 yrs married and together for 31….It seems to me in most long marriages there is usually a very patient, loving and forgiving woman (talk about character!) and then after a while hopefully the dude gets it.
Happy Anniversary Larry! whish you and your wife happy and healthy life.
31 years
Happy Anniversary Adolia and Larry!! Brendan and I have been married 7 years and I love this poem, it’s so true! God Bless you both.
My wife Laura and I will celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary on August 9th! We’ve been together for 40 years and plan on another 40!
Congrats Larry and Marie! And thank you….. 32 years! 🍾💍
My husband and I have been married for 4 years.
Happy Anniversary, so happy for you & that poem is so great! I get married in 86 days!
6 years next month. Happy anniversary!
Happy belated anniversary!!! Mu husband and I have been happily married for a little over 16 years (together for 18 years).
22 years this past May. Happy Anniversary
Congratulations! Seems like an awesome match when Marie will ride navigator in your Baja buggy!
39 years this month
35 years this coming December 17th – as long as she doesn’t get mad at me 🤞😄
36 years in October
Hi Larry,
Happy Anniversary, loved the poem! I have been married 26 years, we were also married in July.
Happy Anniversary! So happy for you both! Layne and I hit 41 yrs on Monday! He’s the luckiest man ever! **wink**
Happy Anniversary! Darrin and I will be married 35 years on August 13th!
36 years for Dave and I. Happy Anniversary!
Bill and I have been happily married for 42 years. We’ve been together since we were 13- that’s 50 years! How can that be possible? 🙂
37 years for us – Happy Anniversary!
I’m stealing that and sending it to my wife the way I stole perfectus!
Word for word! 😂
She said it made her cry! Larry’s improving my relationship too. 🤣
1-congratulations Larry on your anniversary. Great poem. 2-Tricia & I celebrated 33 years in February. 3-My favorite thinkdaily was the story of the 2 wolves. Happy Thursday!
26 Years, Happy Anniversary to you and Marie! 🙂
Beautiful!! Happy Anniversary❤️
43 years in December… gee I feel really old when I say that!😀 Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary! You two are awesome!
43 years!
We’ll be married 21 years in just a few days from now! Past that point I will be married for longer than I was single! I highly recommend marriage, to the right person!
Will be married 49 years in October
It doesn’t feel that it has been that long.,with God our lives we went through it all .We are grateful to be together and trying to stay healthy and keep on going.
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Resisting Models of Bad Character
Bad character is all around us. TV, Movies, and Social Media. The classic good storyline is good against evil. so we see evil in most stories, unfortunately. The news sells it to us. We go see movies to see people doing terrible things. We have to resist becoming one of the evil ones, which is not easy to do when we are being wronged (we think) or in stressful situations.
I heard a story recently where a guy was waiting in a long line at a bakery. A woman had three boxes on top of each other and made for the door. He stepped out of line to open the door for her, and the rest of the people in line watched, and started clapping for him.
Is good character so rarely on display that we revere it? Maybe so. But whether anyone claps or anyone is even watching at all, the world needs as much displays of good character as we can get.
I am grateful for you!
Sad people clap for someone doing the right thing while they just stand there. Recently my sister in law who is a young 64 fell entering a grocery store on a slippery floor caused by rain. Not 1 person helped her to feet. Disgraceful if you ask me. We need to bring manners back and not this woke BS. Sorry my days of being politically correct are OVER
“God laid down this law, saying: if you want some good, get it from yourself.” -Epictetus 1.29.4
This quote translates into “do what’s right even when nobody is looking”, for me. That is to say, we expect people to behave in a manner that is courteous, kind and understanding…we become frustrated when we see examples of the opposite. The best place to start in bringing about positive change is within yourself.
DES for life!!!!!
Awesome content!
Being planted in a company that invites growth into my life. As always the choice is mine. And on this day as all of my days being here, I choose life.
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1% better each day
1% of your day is 14 minutes and 24 seconds.
If you get 1% better each day, that’s powerful over time.
1% + 1% + 1%….
How will you get 1% better today?
That’s an awesome perspective, Larry! Gonna figure out how to apply this!! Thanks as always!!!
Self- Improvement is a lifelong Journey.
You must be crystal clear on who you wish to become. Then it’s just a simple matter of learning and adjusting along the way
Today I will listen to an audiobook on a subject which I have yet to master.
Hey think daily subscribers, check this out.
https://youtu.be/l8nXG_A8clY
Masterpiece, by Larry Janesky
J.Kay
Actually, 1% better each day is much better than that. It’s not 1% + 1% + 1% + 1%…., it’s compounded. So it’s really 101% x 101% x 101% x 101%…. etc. If you could improve by 1% every day, after 1 year, you’d be at 3678% better! After 10 years, 592,944,857,206,937,000% better! Compound interest on yourself.
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Good Character Traits – Do you have these?
Character – the inherent complex of attributes that determine a person’s moral and ethical actions and reactions.
I’m willing to bet that 99.9 % of Think Daily subscribers would say they have good character. But like a recipe that has all the right ingredients but is missing something, what would you say you are missing to move forward?
As an Eagle Scout, let me give you the Scout Law and you can think about what measure of each of these you may be somewhat deficient in –
Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean
Reverent
That’s 12 traits. It’s complex. There are so many more that weigh in on your overall character. Let me add a few more character traits I think are really important.
Ambitious
Resilient
Self-Disciplined (To me this one is very very high on the list)
Mentally strong
Self-Motivated
Empathetic
Caring
Physically strong (energetic)
How do you rate yourself in these areas?
What other character traits are important to living a fulfilling, meaningful, fully actualized life?
Tell me with the orange button!
It seems like you have about covered them all, when we incorporate those with these we definitely can’t lose……..”love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.” Gal 5:22
Generous
I watched “until the wheels fall off” yesterday, a documentary about a bike race I think you’d enjoy. Reminded me of you and your racing endeavors.
All of those traits listed in a man without HUMILITY (empathetic/caring) and/or from one who fails to encourage others (helpful – by Speaking Life into the world) loses all value to a society.
Aware
Grateful
I too was a Boy Scout and like the Scout Law. I have fallen short in each of these areas at various times, but am continually striving to improve in each of these areas.
Thanks for the daily posts Larry. I’d venture to say 90% of the folks reading this are getting after it, but we all know excellence lies in the last 10%. For me, these typically call out the 10% (sometimes 30) I need to tighten up.
The Scout Law and Oath are timeless! From one Eagle to another thank you for raising these attributes to all. It’s like “doing a good deed daily”!!
Good Morning to you as well Larry!! Currently, I lack in the physical/energy category and probably need more spirituality in my life. We must also always stay HUMBLE. Thank you for the shout out today! Have a great Monday!
Good morning Larry,
we like to have Peace of mind, think for others.
Do something nice for someone, and then don’t tell anyone.
My definition of character is
What you do when the only one watching is GOD
Being Truthful is on the top of my list. I can’t stand liars. It’s slightly different from being Trustworthy which is also very important to me.
Ahhh! The 12 points of the Scout law, I like it. I’m an old scouter myself. Scoutmaster for Troop 122 Newark NY
I’m pretty good on most if not all the points.
Another great think daily post! I look forward to receiving every day!
Curiosity
Humility
Honesty
Responsible
The think daily which talked about character traits made me think of rapport and what it means to me when building relationships with people.
Rapport is defined as a good sense of understanding and trust e.g. If you have good rapport with your neighbors, they won’t mind if you kick your ball onto their property every now and then. If you have rapport with someone, you two communicate with trust and sympathy. *
I think rapport really defines what a good relationship is, whether it is professional or personal. When you say you have rapport with someone, it’s more than just ‘getting along with them’ or that ‘you know them’ I believe it implies something deeper, an intrinsic value of relationships that are closer than an acquaintance. Trust is an intrinsic part of good relationships so when you say you have good ‘rapport’ with someone, you are saying a lot more about that relationship than simply signifying that ‘you know that person.’
*vocabulary.com
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Character is Destiny
Good character determines the outcome of your life. We should talk about it more with others and with kids.
The dictionary says – Character – the inherent complex of attributes that determine a person’s moral and ethical actions and reactions.
I think it’s more than moral and ethical reactions. It’s how you show up in life – with yourself and others.
It is complex. We could have lots of good character traits – honesty, loyalty, cleanliness, but missing something such as kindness, and people think we are unapproachable and we don’t get opportunities because they don’t like us.
Or we could be trustworthy, reliable, helpful, friendly, and cheerful but not brave, and we don’t step out of our comfort zone and we play small and don’t learn new things and break new ground in our lives.
How would you assess your character? Can you see how it explains a lot about where you are today?
Thank you for the valuable share. This brings clarity in how we show up in the lives of others. Self awareness is found when inventory is taken, we strive for being authentic but we must know first who the author of our character is. Finding him will give us a better understanding of who we are and how we should be. Have a blessed day.
We also sometimes have a character trait that we would like to show more often – mine is integrity, which I make an effort to display daily.
“Good Character” is very much relative to the person observing. Often they will admire certain character traits, abhor others and see the rest as inconsequential. The ONE character trait that I believe is essential in every person is trustworthiness. Even trustworthiness is defined differently by different people. My definition of trustworthy is that you do what you say you will do and do not lie, steal or cheat. And if you do slip up (usually by accident) you do your best to make it right as soon as possible. I have found that once you have a reputation for being trustworthy the number of opportunities in life explodes!
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Self-control is strength
Calmness is mastery.
When your mood doesn’t shift based on the insignificant actions of others, you are mastering yourself.
Don’t allow others to control the direction of your days and life.
Don’t allow your emotions to overpower your intelligence.
Self-control is strength.
Totally agree and great point. Devout reason can be made stronger than emotion.
Calmness is Mastery.. so simple–so true..
Emotions are not facts! Needed this today, thanks Larry
I needed to hear this today…Thanks LJ
Thank you Larry. I believe this is the biggest lesson I learned from you. Not by reading this blog, but by observing you… I am lucky to have such a friend!
Well timed advice. Took control before I become influenced by others emotions
Steve – Western Australia
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I have to comment on this one. This is an exemplary piece of advice! This simple excerpt equates to PERSONAL POWERR. It’s an eye-opener, an “aha” moment if you will…
I advise folks who complain about their current circumstances, “Where you are right now, right this very moment, is an accumulation of all the decisions YOU MADE yesterday! That’s not insulting. That’s empowering! If i don’t like where I am in my life from my past decisions, then logic says I can DECISION my way to a bettter tomorrow. This is where I quit blaming my family for my misfortunes. I realized I was not a victim, but a person with the POWER to change my life into what I desired it to be…
It worked! I was no longer the misfortunate kid without ti h parents to put me thru college. I decisioned my way into a person with 3 college degrees! One more & Im a doctor! I like knowing that I can affect my own outcome. That’s what this says to me.