The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
—Mark Twain, American author and humorist(1835–1910)

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IvysxHaven
01:39 Apr 28 2020

Love that hun...

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“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
—Earl Nightingale, American motivational speaker and author (1921-1989)

Remember that no one is ever rewarded or promoted because of a bad disposition and a negative mental attitude.

If you really examine any well-managed organization, you will find that the people who are most successful are those who are positive and helpful, people who always find the time to offer encouragement and praise when it is deserved. The people who occupy the top positions are almost always happy, enthusiastic people who encourage others to behave in the same way. Yet there are always a few individuals who never seem to get the message and behave as though they can complain their way to the top. There isn’t a single situation in your career, your relationships with others, or in your personal life that benefits from a negative attitude. All will be greatly improved if you make it a practice to approach life in a positive way. -- Napoleon Hill

Watch for symptoms
People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported – ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness.

These symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus:

Fever
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Chills
Repeated shaking with chills
Muscle pain
Headache
Sore throat
New loss of taste or smell
When to Seek Medical Attention
If you develop any of these emergency warning signs* for COVID-19 get medical attention immediately:

Trouble breathing
Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
New confusion or inability to arouse
Bluish lips or face
*This list is not all inclusive. Please consult your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning to you.

Call 911 if you have a medical emergency: Notify the operator that you have, or think you might have, COVID-19. If possible, put on a cloth face covering before medical help arrives.

You will come to the point, sooner or later, at which you will want to do something bigger and better than you have ever done before. When you do, you are going to be discouraged by those around you who know you best, and who will say the plan you have is foolish or beyond your power to carry out. You will find more people willing to tear you down by discouragement than you will find sympathizing with you and helping you to build your ego.

The best way to avoid such discouragement is to confide only in those who have a genuine sympathy with your cause and an understand­ing of your possibilities. Otherwise, keep your plans to yourself and let your actions speak. Adopt the motto Deeds-Not Words. It is a good motto for everyone.

It may not be in the best taste for you to overestimate your abilities, but it is better than to underestimate, and it will do less harm. If you aim at a very big achievement and attain only a moderate achievement, you will still have attained something. If you allow yourself to be held back before you even begin, you will have sold yourself short and will attain nothing.

Maybe you are a man with a big idea. You have nursed this idea for a long time. You have made an experimental model, or have worked it out on paper and refined it over a period of time until you know it will work. But you haven't really done anything about it. Perhaps the reason you haven't acted is that you lack the self-confidence sufficient to start you looking for a mastermind ally to help you carry out your idea.

The thing for you to do is take hold of the principles of this phil­osophy and apply them to yourself. It will do you no good to read these lessons and think, "That's a wonderful lesson! I'll bet it really works for somebody else." Why not start building up your self-confidence through mastery and application of these time-tested principles which have lifted others from poverty to places of eminence? The rules will work for you as well as for anyone else, but you have to take the initiative. No one else will do it for you.

When a man can manage himself, he
is ready to start managing others.

You have every quality in the world that it takes to succeed if you will organize what you have according to the seventeen principles of this philosophy. To do that requires self-discipline, faith in yourself and concentration on your objective. Your success or failure is entirely a matter of how you discipline your mind.

Source: PMA: The Science of Success by Napoleon Hill. The chapter on Self-Discipline.

“Do not go where the path may lead;
go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and poet (1803–1882)

“To think is easy. To act is difficult.
To act as one thinks is the most difficult.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet and politician (1749–1832)

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Amaranthine
20:59 Apr 22 2020

💜

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In April 46 BCE, 1,974 years ago, Cato the Younger died. In one sense, you might say he died willingly, as he chose death by his own hand rather than life under the tyranny of Julius Caesar. But no one who ever met Cato, nor anyone who reads of his death, should see anything resigned in the man.

When Cato grabbed his sword and said, “Now I am my own master,” then plunged it into his chest, that should have been the end of any debate. Reeling from the blow, Cato fell from the bench he had been leaning on. The wound should have been mortal, but even Roman steel could not kill Rome’s Iron Man. Instead, Cato passed out and was soon discovered by his sons, who rushed in a doctor to save him. As they finished stitching him up, Cato awoke and began to tear the wound apart. That would be how he died: literally disemboweling himself with his own hands.

The point of this story is not to glorify suicide, not at all. In fact, Cato’s story shows a man who clung to life with almost superhuman tenacity. Cato had always fought for life, and especially so in death. For him, the choice he faced was between living as Caesar’s slave—and propaganda tool—or dying as his own man. In a way, it was not really a choice at all. He refused to betray the Republic for which he had lived, even if that meant the loss of his life, though he fought like hell for years before it came to this.

Indeed, in his old age Cato embodied those beautiful lines in the Dylan Thomas poem: He did not go quietly into that good night. He raged, raged against the dying of the light. When Caesar wanted him to roll over, he would not be moved. When death first arrived to claim him, he would not simply follow. No, Cato was such a fighter—had such life force—that even suicide could not take him on the first try.

Death wins over all of us, that is inevitable. Dylan Thomas knew that. He just thought we should fight hard, as Cato did, while we still can. Or as Plutarch said of Cato: even if we can’t beat fate, we can “nevertheless give Fortune a hard contest.”..Daily Stoic

Right now, we’re looking at this all up close. It’s in our face. Being stuck at home. Watching business—and money—evaporate. Our plans are cancelled. Opportunities that we so looked forward to are gone, never to return again.

How long will this last? Another month? Another year? How long will we be in the hurt? No one can say.

A couple weeks ago, we interviewed Chris Guillebeau for Ask Daily Stoic, our Saturday podcast, while he was feeling the fresh sting of having to cancel a 40-city tour for his new book, The Money Tree. But instead of feeling sorry for himself, Chris said he was trying to focus on that old idea from Epictetus: go to what you control. Look for the positive. See what you can do with what’s in front of you.

“Everyone is going to remember this,” he said. “We’re all going to have very sharp memories of this time.” The question, he said, is will you be proud of how you used it? How will you feel about who you were in this moment?

Flashing forward like that is a great way to hold your current self accountable. It can be easy to let yourself drift when suddenly the structure and routine of your life is torn away. It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself when your plans are wrecked (imagine being Chris—all the work and preparation and expense lost). But a Stoic has to be stronger than that. A Stoic knows they can’t afford to waste the present—because they know tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

No, we must seize this moment. We must turn this down time, this dead time, into “alive time” (here’s our challenge to you about that). We can’t get lost in the chaos or the despair or the unpleasantness. We have to get back to work. We have to make the most of what we have. We don’t control what has happened, but we do control how we respond.

And so we will respond well. We will keep going. We will be proud of what we did, and who we were, in this moment. We will make it so we can look back at ourselves—and this experience—fondly.

We can start to earn that pride and positive memory… today --Daily Stoic

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IvysxHaven
18:54 Apr 20 2020

Positive and inspirational words and Ideas, thanks for sharing hun.

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It is a curious quirk of human nature that some people can see opportunities, while others only see problems. When you train your mind to seek out opportunities, you will find that every day literally presents you with more opportunities than you can take advantage of. They will be all around you. Instead of your seeking opportunities, they will seek you out. Your biggest problem will be choosing the best ones. The first step in making sure you are ready to recognize opportunities when they occur is to make sure you have a clear understanding of your own core competencies. Realistically assess your strengths and weaknesses as though you were reviewing the credentials of a total stranger. Identify what areas you’re best in and those where you need improvement. Work on your weaknesses and build upon your strengths so that when you recognize opportunities you are prepared to capitalize upon them. --Napoleon Hill Thought of the Day

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LORDMOGY
03:04 Apr 20 2020

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You Have A Gun To Your Head
It’s one of the most surprising scenes in literature and film. In Fight Club, Tyler Durden walks into a 24-hour convenience store and puts a gun to the head of the cashier. It’s an act of disturbing violence and cruelty.

“Give me your wallet,” Tyler says as he presses the barrel against the man’s temple. Then he reads off his name and address: Raymond K. Hessel, 1329 SE Benning, Apartment A. “What did you want to be, Raymond K. Hessel?” Tyler asks, seeing the expired student ID card in the wallet. Then he cocks the pistol. “The question, Raymond, was what did you want to be?”

You start to squirm in your seat as you witness this. Please don’t kill him, please don’t kill him. Because up to this point, Tyler Durden has been clever and cool. He has not been a murderer. Is that going to change? Finally, to our relief, Hessel, panicking, manages to stammer out an answer. A vet, he wanted to be a veterinarian, he says, but gave up because it was too hard, too much school. And now here he is, working behind a counter. Tyler, still holding the gun to his head, makes this promise: If Hessel isn’t back in school by the time he returns in a year, he’s going to kill him.

It’s a dark scene, for sure. But it’s also beautiful. “Tyler is practicing a form of tough love,” Fight Club’s author Chuck Palahniuk writes in his new book, Consider This. “Tyler reminds the man of his mortality.” He is doing what the Stoics tried to do to themselves constantly: To remember that there is a gun pointed at our heads always—that we do not have time to waste or fritter away.

“You could leave life right now,” Marcus Aurelius wrote, “Let that determine what you do and say and think.” Do everything as if it was the last thing you were doing in your life, he said. Seneca even tells us a story of an emperor who did have the power to kill, as Tyler Durden did in fiction, and said to a weeping prisoner, Is the life you’re living really all that different than being dead?

Well, that’s the question and command today: Do not be Raymond K. Hessel. Do not give up on your dreams or live a kind of living death. You have to seize this moment. You have to let your awareness of your mortality give you urgency and purpose. You have to show up. You have to live each second as if it was the last thing you were doing in your life.

Because Tyler Durden or not, it just might be. Daily stoic

Something happened. You got pissed. Now two bad things have happened. That’s just a fact.

Because getting angry rarely makes things better—even if it helps you get what you thought you wanted. It taxes your heart. It causes you to be mean to other people. To “win” you had to lose your self-control.

This is not to say you should merely accept everything in life. The Stoics were not passive weaklings. It’s that they preferred persuasion, patience, and persistence to yelling. They focused on addressing root causes, not catharsis.

How much worse getting mad is than the things that caused it, Seneca said. “Anger always outlasts hurt,” he advised. “Best to take the opposite course. Would anyone think it normal to return a kick to a mule or a bite to a dog?”

So if you want to win—at life, at philosophy, at accomplishing what you have set out to accomplish—you’ll need to rein in your temper. You’ll need to figure out the opposite course, develop more than one kind of response to things you don’t like. It’s easy to get angry, but it’s more effective to remain calm and come up with solutions.

Tame your temper. Don’t make problems worse by getting angry. -- Daily Stoic

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IvysxHaven
22:28 Apr 15 2020

Love this hun, you are very wire. The teacher learning from the student:)...

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IvysxHaven
01:06 Apr 16 2020

Sorry mean WISE...LOL

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“Success consists of going from failure to failure
without loss of enthusiasm.”
—Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister (1874–1965)

A Disease Called More
by Jim Stovall
Years of success and prosperity in our economy have created a consumer-based society. We are no longer worried about our physical or financial survival; therefore, we have undertaken a new challenge. As a people, we have embraced the elusive challenge of accumulating more. Please understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying material possessions. It is important, however, to draw a distinction between the possessions we have and those possessions that have us.

If your goal is to acquire a certain standard of living or lifestyle for you and your family or for your future security, this is admirable. However, if it is your burning desire to keep up with the image portrayed by the commercials on television or in the glamour magazines, you have been afflicted with the dreaded disease called more, discussed briefly toward the beginning of the book.

More is a disease that feeds upon itself like a thirst that can never be quenched. As we rush about aimlessly trying to accumulate more, we become aware of even a greater number of things we don’t have and must obtain. Instead of seeking the impossible goal of reaching more, we should, instead, seek the internal goal called enough.

Ironically, we can find people who are literally billionaires and who have long ago lost count of all of their possessions. However, these people are still driven on that eternal quest for more. On the other hand, there are people of seemingly modest means who have attained the admirable state of enough. They no longer judge themselves based on what they have, but instead on who they are. They have come to the conclusion that it is more important to be someone special than to have a vast accumulation of possessions. They have reached a state of being where they understand that it is not important to be a “human having.” It is only important to arrive as a “human being.”

In the final analysis, many times reaching the state of enough will give you the confidence and peace of mind to be an even better person who will attract more success, resulting in the tangible possessions that have become such an addiction in our society. Focus on who you are, and allow what you have to become a result of your personal success.

Source: Beyond Tremendous by Tracey Jones

Change your mental attitude, and the world around you will change accordingly.

Your world will become what you choose to make it. You can reach great heights of success, or you can settle for a miserable life that is devoid of hope. The choice is yours. When you choose a positive course, you set in motion an unstoppable force that will allow you to have a fulfilling career, the love of your family and friends, good physical and mental health, and all of the other true riches of life. To change your world, you must change it from the inside out. You must begin with yourself. When you choose the course that puts your life on a positive track, you will change your life for the better, and you will also positively influence the people with whom you come in contact. - Napoleon Hill Daily Word

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ZombieMLegendre
16:21 Apr 08 2020

Sorry dude, that's the biggest lie people have ever passed on.

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LORDMOGY
17:45 Apr 08 2020

@Earthgrinder

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Earthgrinder
19:44 Apr 08 2020

@ZombieMLegendre ; that is your fear wolf talking and it is a story you believe. Think of this there are other stories which are just as believable .

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Earthgrinder
19:46 Apr 08 2020

@LordMogy: Thank you.

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“Don’t believe the world owes you a living;
the world owes you nothing—it was here first.”
—Robert Jones Burdette, American cleric and humorist (1844–1914)

“Remain full of faith and optimism that things will work out,
that they happen for a purpose.”
—Anonymous

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IvysxHaven
01:37 Apr 08 2020

I agree with this very much, thanks for Sharing Grinder:)

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Anyone can quit when the going is hard, but a thoroughbred never quits until he wins.

The going is always hard on the road to greatness. If success were easy, everyone would achieve it. NFL All-Pro lineman Brian Holloway recalled that when he was playing for the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Raiders, there wasn’t a single day when he didn’t feel like giving up because the road was too tough and the sacrifices were too great. He didn’t quit, of course; he was willing to pay the price because he was determined to succeed. True thoroughbreds never quit. Competition only spurs them, and obstacles merely reinforce their determination to succeed. If you have not yet achieved greatness in your life, it is because you have been willing to settle for less. You may not cross the finish line first every time you try, but if you stay in the race, you will eventually prevail. -- NapoleonHill Thought of the Day

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ZombieMLegendre
19:42 Apr 07 2020

See smokers, drug addicts, alcoholics? Never quit, keep going, eventually you'll um...die.

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Ichika
21:52 Apr 07 2020

Quiting is will power and family support.

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IvysxHaven
01:45 Apr 08 2020

I f you fall get up and keep going, don't stop until you master and overcome every obstacle you have crossed. There are always people that show up even for a moment to remind you how strong you truly are.

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These Are The Three Most Important Words of Wisdom
Almost 50 years ago, the Beatles whispered to us some words of wisdom: Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.

One of the most relatable passages in Meditations is actually about just that. Marcus writes about sitting next to someone who smells or has bad breath. You can almost feel his frustration, as if he too has sat on an airplane center seat and had to jostle for the armrests that are clearly his. What is wrong with this person? Can’t they figure out how this works? Do they have to be so rude? And yet, he catches himself. If it’s such a problem, he says, then talk to them about it.

Or you know what? Just let it go.

As he writes, “You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”

It’s worth remembering today and every day. That we can just leave things as they are. We can let them be. We don’t have to get upset. We don’t have to have an opinion. We can listen to those words of wisdom…

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LORDMOGY
23:33 Apr 04 2020

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Everytime when I finish up at the grocery store. One of the staff asks me if I found every thing. I say yes except for the million dollars. They answer what million dollars. I answer the million dollars that I can't find. Lol.

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Spin
15:30 Apr 04 2020

I like that one LOL!

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Morning Routines

What can you do with 5 good minutes?

5 good minutes of:

-pushups is a solid workout
-sprints will leave you winded
-writing can deliver 1 good page
-reading can finish an insightful article
-meditation can reset your mood

You don’t need more time—just a little focused action.
James Clear

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Spin
15:30 Apr 04 2020

Omg can you imagine 5 solid minutes of burpees and mountain climbers? Talk about total body workout lol

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We should always be looking for mantras and epigrams. Ideas that are true and applicable in every situation, to every generation, across all time. The Stoics had more than a few they liked:

“Character is fate,” which came to them from Heraclitus.

“Life is only perception,” which Marcus got from Democritus.

“You become what you give your attention to,” which Epictetus wrote.

Even memento mori and amor fati are short little reminders of concepts we should never forget. Lincoln was fond of the expression, “And this too shall pass,” which undoubtedly helped him through the depths of all the crises he faced.

Here are three others worth keeping at hand:

The obstacle is the way—there is nothing so bad that we can’t make some good out of it. We can treat every problem as an opportunity to practice virtue.

Ego is the enemy—no problem is ever solved by introducing ego. Pride makes us complacent and intolerable and ignorant; for we cannot learn that which we think we already know.

Stillness is the key—you can speed up by slowing down. People can only focus, be happy, and see clearly when they get rid of franticness and passions and get to that state of ataraxia that the Stoics talked about.

What’s in the way is the way. Improve yourself by thinking of yourself less. Slow down to speed up.

Remember, this philosophy is about taking ideas and applying them to our lives until they turn into muscle memory. Repeating it enough times to yourself that it becomes part of who you are. That’s what a mantra is—something to come back to, something to lean on in times of trouble and stress. It’s a tool for focus. A way of living.

I wanted to share this with everyone. This is part of my daily practice and it has helped with the stress and anxiety (more on this later) Rx listen to daily. Enjoy the nature.

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IvysxHaven
19:35 Apr 04 2020

This will be added to my new routines daily, thank you:)...

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0630 wake up. Grateful for the sun and baby animals. Grateful for our health, everyone needs to take a breath. What is the worse that could happen?  I could fall down and break arms and wouldn't be able to take care of ourselves. This virus is no joke. The shelter in place is the tough one. Not being able to go to the beach. We are here till the beginning of May. What is the best that could happen? Come out of this mentally, emotionally, physically, virtually stronger. Make sure I bring my loved ones and friends along. I need to become better able to deal with the stress of this situation. Some ideas of mental hygiene. Kill the negative thoughts. You need to pay attention to. Thoughts:  lie a lot. Focus mind on what is good rather than what is scary. Your body responds to every thought you have. We need to train your brain to have the right thoughts and avoid stress which will compromise the immune system so that we become vulnerable to the virus. Here are some helpful things you can look at: some anxiety is good for you so you do the right things. Chronic stress can destroy part of the brain. The best thing is 7to 8 hours of sleep.  Wake up and say today is going to be a great day. At night ask yourself what went well today before going to sleep., whenever you are mad angry, right the thought down and see if it is true. Negative thoughts are like ants and when they link up will attack you. The chain has to be broken by looking at the thought to see if it is true or not.  Exercise.helps you get out of your head. builds energy. Avoid sugar not sleeping, alcohol, marijuana. Be the leader in your home. Become more helpful. When we are in service. We become more positive and fears goes away. We are healthier

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IvysxHaven
19:50 Apr 01 2020

Good advice hun, you still can go in your back yard or open a window and have a morning coffee or tea and take in the fresh scent of a new day or end your day the same way. hugs

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Earthgrinder
20:03 Apr 01 2020

you bet.

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