5 Ways to Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy on MLK Day

On the third Monday in January, Dr. Martin Luther King Day is celebrated across the nation. Many people are given a day off from work to spend time with loved ones and remember the great leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. However, we will always make sure to make it “a day-on instead of a day-off”; a day of purpose, progression and possibilities. There are some wonderful ways to remember this great man and to help keep his dream alive. Besides parades and large-scale events, Dr. King was all about each person doing his or her small part to promote peace and justice. Here are 5 simple ways we can continue to live in Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy.

1.) Take the road less traveled if it’s the right thing to do.

Oftentimes, people like to do what is comfortable or what is popular. It seems to be human nature to go on the same path where your buddies and friends seems to be going. If this path is something that you feel is not the right place to be or thing to do, it’s ok to steer off in your own direction. That is how leaders are created. When we learn to do what is right instead of what is popular, we will reach a new level of possibilities and live the life that Dr. King fought for.

2.) Follow your dream(s) and never quit

One of Dr. Martin Luther King’s most famous speeches “I Have a Dream”, teaches us to live in a world of peace and unity. However, we can all follow in his footsteps by following a positive pursuit of our own dreams. If it is something that sheds light on an important matter or is something that you are truly passionate about, make sure to reach for your goals and dreams. Turning your dream into a reality supports Dr. King’s stance on having a dream and going after it relentlessly.

3.) Have a heart of gratefulness and thankfulness

Everyday we wake up without expectation, other than realizing we’ve been given another day, the gift of life. This thought process is living a life of gratefulness. Dr. King showed gratefulness in his steps towards reaching social justice and equality, along with the large movement he took part in for civil rights. He always prayed for things to get better, and acted on it, through necessary steps. But he always showed thankfulness. Having a spirit of gratefulness and thankfulness everyday is another we can live more like King and celebrate him on this national holiday. It’s also a wonderful way to improve our own lives and mindfulness.

4.) Don’t allow the history of hate and segregation to repeat itself

There is a saying that history often repeats itself. However, this is a part of history that is best left in the past. We can learn from our past to make our present and future better, rather than having past negative outcomes repeat itself. Dr. King fought to end segregation, hate and animosity. The way we live our lives as individuals will determine if we make the world a better one to come. Some parts of history need to stay in the past, and hatred and bigotry are a few of those parts we shouldn’t bring to the forefront of time. Living, learning and growing from history is essential for a better tomorrow.

5.) Stand for something positive and strong that you believe in

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. always stood for what he believed in. If we learn to stand for something positive, it gives us a foundation to build greatness upon. We must realize that it is easy to stand for something, but it is difficult to stand for something that is positive and right, if it’s not popular. And we must remember that a better tomorrow depends on what we do today. It’s all about taking a leap of faith and putting your heart and soul into something you truly believe in.

 

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Inspirational Quote #18: Speak Up for What’s Right

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

10 Reasons Each Day Resolutions are Better than a New Year’s Resolution

As the year quickly comes to an end, people will be ready to make their New Year’s Resolutions. However, these resolutions, although traditional, are often not kept for the entirety of the year. Some people give it a week, month or three months at most. Therefore, New Year Resolutions may not be the best idea when trying to change an unwanted habit, trait or improve on a good one. Here are 10 reasons why we should set new day resolutions to reach our utmost goal or goals.

1. It gives you 365 opportunities instead of 1.

If you think about it, when you set a yearly resolution, you are mentally telling yourself, “I have this one and only chance to make this change in my life.” However, nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. Approaching a resolution as a daily habit allows for you to take steps to reach that goal you are looking to achieve. Instead of, there’s always next year, you can tell yourself there’s always tomorrow.

 

2. Improvements on our lives should be a daily habit, not an annual one.

You may drink more water one day than the other, save more funds one day than the other, or exercise more. Realizing that these are daily habits allows for you to tell yourself it’s ok If you messed up one day, and to do better the next day instead of next year.

 

3. Each day brings new hope.

Hope gives us reason to live and a sense of well being for tomorrow. We may have had one bad day, but that should never equate to a bad week, year or life. When you are hopeful, you are putting positivity into the universe, which always returns.

 

4. Embrace change each day.

You won’t have to wait an entire year to see things changing around you. If the seasons had New Year resolutions, we’d experience the same weather each day. Even in a year, there are four seasons. And within those seasons, each day brings different, unique weather. We’ve experienced warm days in winter, and chilly summer days. However, just like seasons change, so does each new day. And to force a one-year change is too much pressure to put on yourself.

 

5. Failure is part of success and not antonymous to it.

If you set a New Year’s resolution and don’t complete it, you often deem your resolution, or worse, yourself, a failure at it. This thought process is dangerous because it doesn’t let you see your daily failures and successes as part of the progress towards reaching your goal. You only see the negative factors at the end of the year. You view what goal you didn’t reach and what resolution you didn’t accomplish, instead of the daily hills and valleys you had to go through to try and reach that goal. If you set daily resolutions, you will start to see yourself as making progress, and view failures as a stepping stone to success. A quote by Winston Churchill states “success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” We must never give one failure that much power over us to convince us that we failed for an entire year.

 

6. The sun rises and sets each day, not each year.

We should follow its example. We don’t live in a world where the sun decides to just shine once a year. And we, too, should learn to shine daily. We should love ourselves, imperfection and all, and not see the end or beginning of the year as the only time to rise to an occasion. Each new day that presents itself is a new time to rise and shine and realize that there is another chance.

 

7. There is beauty in each new day.

I know that we all have our own way of ringing in the New Year. However, wouldn’t it be great if we could celebrate every new day with that same vigor and excitement mentally and spiritually? The enthusiasm that we have at the start of each new year should also be felt daily. There is so much to be thankful for at the start of each new day. And that, in of itself, is beautiful.

 

8. To think about a New Year Resolution takes the past, present and future into account at once.

Why add more stress to life by thinking about what has happened, what is happening and what is about to happen all at once? That is what occurs when you set New Year Resolutions. When you have a resolution for each day, you are taking things one step at a time.

 

9. Daily resolutions become habits that grow over time.

The whole purpose of a resolution is to have intent or determination to start (or if negative, stop) something. If you do these things every day, it will become a habit for you. If you do it every year, it may start to feel more like an annual burden that you cannot keep.

 

10. We must keep the faith each day, not only once a year.

It is so important to have faith daily to achieve any goal in life. Faith is what gives us a clearer vision for tomorrow and gets us through today. If we were just to have faith one time a year, it would be nearly impossible to look at all the great things we have achieved daily throughout the year. Keeping the faith everyday is another reason why we must see things from a daily perspective in terms of resolutions.

There are many reasons why New Day resolutions are more reliable and achievable than New Year resolutions. If you believe in positive affirmations, you start to see how these daily thoughts can shape out your year for the better.

 

Inspirational Quote #17: Daily Resolutions

“Everyday is a new start, not just every new year.”

– Anonymous

5 Things We Can Learn from the Harvest

Harvest can be defined as a gathering of crops; to reap a large supply. There is a positive connotation to the word. When you think of harvest season, you think of a time of plenty or a large surplus. But that harvest doesn’t always have to be corn or wheat, it can also relate to us. Here is how the term can relate to everyday life in this season of thankfulness.

1. A Harvest of Faith

Faith is a necessity in life. We sometimes may lose our sense of direction, passion or even optimism. But we just need a small amount of faith to reap the upcoming harvest. When you have faith, you are trusting in something you may not see physically, but your spirit can already touch it. Your mind is already harvesting the crops of the future, despite it physically being just planted. When your mind and spirit are harvesting positivity, your subconscious is already gathering the harvest. Keeping the faith is essential because it allows us to put our trust in something we cannot see. And relatively, as it takes a season for the harvest to grow, it also takes time for your spirit of faith to grow. But just as you feed the crop, you must continue to feed your faith. And then you will be able to harvest that greatness which has grown within you.

2. A Spirit of Thankfulness

Often, people find it easy to be thankful in good times. However, we must learn to be thankful in difficult times as well. Similarly, when there is a full harvest and good crops in excess, it is simple to be in good spirits of overabundance. Not only must we have a spirit of thankfulness in what has yet to come, but also in what is set to come. We cannot only be thankful in what we see in the present time, but being thankful now, about the future, is planting a seed of hope for tomorrow. That is why it is so important to believe in yourself and be thankful in what is, and what will be.

3. Patience until the Harvest is Ripe

The harvest season is reflective of life because it teaches us to wait and be patient. Waiting isn’t stopping or giving up or allowing the fruit to overripen and be inedible. Waiting is the ability to be patient until it is time. Whether this is relevant to learning something new, a relationship, wanting something or achieving one’s dreams, sometimes you must wait for the right moment. That doesn’t mean to be stagnate. Water your harvest, learn new things, focus on your goals and take action. But patience is important to make sure you don’t rush a ripening harvest.

4. Reap what you Sow

When you work hard in life, you learn to appreciate the many blessings bestowed upon you. With enough determination, perseverance and hard work, you can achieve anything. Just as you must be willing to water your crop, tend to it, protect it from harsh conditions and do whatever it may take for the survival of the crop, you must learn to be that strong, driven and determined in your work and passions. Then, just as you pick the crop of the harvest, you too, can reap what you sow.

5. Reach for Greatness as the Wheat Reaches Towards the Sun

There are many images where you see the harvest grains reaching for the sun, metaphorically speaking. Despite what temperatures they may have been through, they still reach upward to embrace the light and warmth. There is a higher reaching, outstretching and limitless sense of determination. Like the crop, we must outstretch our arms towards the sun and embrace whatever may come our way. Life won’t always be easy or fair, but it’s better to reach towards the light than to shrink into darkness. If you learn to reach towards the sun and embrace positivity, you will automatically start to attract the brighter things in life. You attract what you believe in. So, keep reaching for the sunlight and embrace its warmth this harvest season.

 

 

 

 

Inspirational Quote #16: Plant Seeds in Your Life

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

 

The Lessons of Fall in Living

The seasons seem to change so quickly. One can recall the summer heat and promises to never leave the sandy beaches, only to have bone-chilling cold and snow sneak up on us a few months later. It is amazing how we can experience the full capacity of the seasons in all their extremities. It also is one of life’s best teachers to be able to live through such drastic changes and find some form of gratefulness in each season.

That in of itself, may be the first lesson fall teaches us; the act of being grateful despite any situation. In the summer, we make sure to put on the sunscreen for protection, only to want more sun in the winter. In winter, we layer up practically, only to remove all layers within modesty in the summer heat. We never seem to find comfort. But the fall shows us that despite the changes, we can be thankful for the change and learn to make it through.

The next lesson is that of transition. There is a reason summer and winter do not occur chronologically one after the other. There must be a transition from one season to the next. And this transition is where fall comes into place. It gives us just enough time to appreciate the change in weather, hours of daylight and nature, without happening so drastically. In life, it is important to remember that things do not happen overnight. Like seasons must transition, we, too, must learn to transition from our own season to the next. It won’t always be easy or quick, but it is always a step in the right direction.

The term fall itself is also a lesson in living. We all must learn to accept failures as stepping stones for the next phase in our lives. As Albert Einstein one stated, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” To fall is to temporarily fail, but failure is a part of success. Besides the season itself, fall can be defined as “move downward, typically rapidly and freely without control, from a higher to a lower level.” It is a descension that is sometimes out of our control. We all fall, which is not the failure in of itself; but the refusal to get back up after a fall is the true failure. To be antonymous with fall is to rise, and know who you are and what you’re capable of. It’s not about the fall, but what you do when it occurs and how you learn from it.

Another lesson fall teaches us in living is that days won’t always be sunshine when we want, all the time. We are reminded of that the moment Daylight Savings Time begins. Having the sunset an hour earlier may seem like a burden but think of the sun also rising an hour earlier. It’s always been a bit difficult having to see the days getting darker earlier, however that is a part of life and living. Fall shows us that we must learn to accept what we’ve got and to learn to accept the earlier darkness, but to also realize that means the stars shine an hour earlier as well.

Fall is a season that shows us a lot about living. It is a time of gratitude, layering up, and of course pumpkin spice. But more importantly, it teaches us to never stop living and loving because of a fall. Always remember to fall is simply necessary to rise higher than you were before. And we can thank the fall season for these lessons in life.

 

 

Inspirational Quote #15: Fall and Change

“Don’t be afraid of change because it is leading you to a new beginning. ”

~Joyce Meyer

5 Ways A Rainy Day Can Teach You About Life

Rain is one of those weather forecasts that we don’t necessarily cheer for, unless there has been a massive heat wave or some sort of necessity for it. Everyday, we always anticipate sunny skies. Some even fret just when it is overcast, and the clouds start hovering through. However, just as the plants and animals need water to survive, we too, cannot survive without it. But when it comes to a rainy day, some people view it as more burdensome than a blessing. Here are 5 ways that rainy day can teach us about life.

1. Preparation, Even for the Unexpected

We often will watch the news to see if there will be rain the next day, allowing us to leave our place prepared with rainboots, an umbrella, a raincoat. However, there comes days when either we miss that forecast, or the forecast misses it and doesn’t forewarn us of the rain. In cases like these, we must either be prepared or prepare ourselves. Whether we carry a spare umbrella on us or must improvise with something else, unexpected rainy days teach us that we must prepare or learn to improvise if things don’t go our way.

2. Change Your Thinking if you Can’t Change the Situation

When we see that it will be a rainy day in the forecast, many of us will look and think in a negative way. You can’t wear that certain outfit or meetup with friends outside in the local park. You can’t do certain things. But that’s also with life. It is about perspective and thinking of things you can do instead. You may not be able to change the situation of the rainstorms of your life, but you can change the way you think of how you get through it. It’s not always going to be blue skies and sunny days. But if we change the way we think about the rain, it becomes more opportunistic instead of pessimistic, which is healthy for your mind and soul.

3. You Need Both Sun and Rain to Grow a Flower, and in Life, for You to Grow

We all know what would happen if a flower had direct sun rays shining on it incessantly, without watering the soil. Just as a flower needs both sun and rain to grow into it’s beautiful full potential, we too need both wonderful life experiences and unpropitious situations to help us to grow and learn. It is a necessity to go through certain situations to mold and shape us into who we need to be, and hopefully a better person today than yesterday. If we never went through rainy days, we would cease from growing, and wither.

4. Listen

This is a less obvious factor of the rain, but it teaches us to listen. When is the last time you can recall the peaceful sounds of raindrops running across a window, or the pure sound of the falling rain? We must learn to listen sometimes, and rain provides that serenity and escape to hear nature, when so often we are bombarded with the sounds of technology and other modernities that make us less liable to listen as a society. We often hear, but we don’t take the time to listen. And the rain teaches us to take a pause and listen in life.

5. It Won’t Rain, Always

The beautiful thing about the rain is that it is temporary. It won’t last forever. And whatever you make the rain synonymous to, whether it’s hardships, breakups, trauma, stress, negativity, loss, tears, bad vibes; Always remember, it won’t rain always. The sun is hiding just above the clouds, which are just above the rainy situation you’re experiencing. It is a wonderful and comforting thing to know that the clouds will clear, the rain will cease, and the sunshine will come through again, every time. Knowing this, about the rainy days in life, makes you realize that just on the other side of rain, there is sunshine waiting to peak through. The rain provides us with the mentality of hopefulness and faithfulness, knowing better things are on the other side a downpour. And each new day brings you that much closer to that sunny place in life, where you needed to go through the showers to prosper and grow.

When you look at life in general, you will realize that every other day there is not a rainstorm. Across the globe, most of our days are not filled with despair. It is getting through those days, that we learn to see that there are more sunny days in this short life of ours. And when we see the lessons that we can learn from going through our rainy days, only then can we grow and see that facing toward the sun is just as significant as surmounting the rain.