Don’t allow expectations to get too high.

Amp up your motivation to succeed.

Avoid the ups and downs of missed expectations.

The power to make choices is always the way back from adversity.

Whatever it was – however it hurts – it happened.

Now what are you going to do about it?

The past is the past but where you go from here is the power to choose.

When a baseball player is in a slump and they fail to get on base, strike out a lot or see their batting average decline, you would think they would dread their next at-bat.

But it works the other way.

They can’t wait to get a crack at it again – even if they fail some more until they figure out how to get back on track.

Now that’s worth borrowing in our everyday lives.

Avram Alpert sees it as a more reachable option than personal quests for greatness – in a sense it is about aiming lower for more happiness; you don’t have to pursue greatness to live a good life.

Another option is to look at life like a sporting event.

You wouldn’t play a major league baseball game to play less than your best, give 100%, learning when you lose, taking satisfaction when you win – relishing what’s next.

“…over time I learned that I can choose how to respond to the past. I can be miserable, or I can be hopeful — I can be depressed, or I can be happy.  We always have that choice, that opportunity for control.  I’m here, this is now, I have learned to tell myself, over and over, until the panicky feeling begins to ease” – Edith Eger

NOTE:  I am going to take a few days off to recharge my batteries before NYU resumes classes again in a few weeks.  This seems like a good time.  See you in a few days — Monday August 22.

The winner of the recent $1.28 billion Mega Millions Jackpot can take it in a lump sum of $433 million after taxes.

Financial consultant Don McNay who wrote Life Lessons from the Lottery says even large sums of money cause unhappiness, winners wind up broke, commit suicide, run through their money (easy come, easy go) and go through divorce”.

Happiness does not come from the outside, but from the inside.

All the money, success and recognition in the world can’t buy happiness — searching for happiness externally will always deliver disappointment.

The happiness lottery is won by every person with a losing ticket who can be grateful for all they have.

Why is it that when connected to an automated message, they often advise you to listen carefully to the menu because the options have recently changed – it’s not believable, but they probably want to get you to listen to all the options.

Why not tell the truth – one of the 9 options may help you get connected faster.  Here’s the list.

Being authentic and honest is a better way to work with people.

Before asking someone to believe in you or what you are proposing, the biggest believer must be you.

Karl Rove was the bulldog presidential advisor to President George W. Bush.

David Axelrod, President Barack Obama’s bare knuckles advisor.

The two couldn’t be further apart on just about everything but when you look for common ground, you find your opening.

Both Rove and Axelrod lost parents by suicide while they were young saying “if you probe people’s stories, it’s hard to hate”.  While disagreeing in politics, they have worked together on suicide prevention projects.

“Sometimes you talk to people who you think you don’t admire …. and then, there are elements of them that you learn that you do.”

78-year old Folk singer Joni Mitchell survived a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 2015 – she had to learn to walk again, relearn the guitar and find her voice once more which she did triumphantly at the Newport Folk Festival recently where she got up and sang.

But one highlight among many was her singing of “Both Sides Now”, a song she wrote, performed at Newport in 1967 and for which she then received criticism – what could a girl in her 20’s know about two sides of life.

New York Times critic Lindsay Zoladz said of the rendition “she seemed to sing it this time with a grinning shrug: I really don’t know life at alI.  As if to say:  You never know – anything can happen.  Even this”.

Anyone who has had a brush with death knows life never looks the same again.

Overcoming obstacles is why we exist and it has its rewards.