Alex Lickerman, M.D.

The quantity and quality of value we create for others is what contributes to our happiness the most.

...helping others can provide us with enthusiasm, encouragement, and even joy by forcing us to summon them when we’re feeling discouraged. ‘If one lights a fire for others,’ wrote Nichiren Daishonin, ‘one will brighten one’s own way.’

‘The Undefeated Mind’ is a book that exhorts us to stop hoping for easy lives and instead to focus on cultivating the inner strength we need to enjoy the difficult lives we all have. Though our ability to control what happens to us in life may be limited, our ability to establish a life state strong enough to surmount the suffering life brings us is not.

The trait most strongly associated with long-term increases in life satisfaction is, in fact, a persistent commitment to pursuing altruistic goals.

The reason optimism yields results isn’t that we necessarily try *harder* when we think a goal is achievable; rather, we tend to try *more often.* Optimism, in other words, yields persistence, for nothing seems to keep us going like believing success is possible.

The path to true success, the path we actually end up traveling whether in turning a failure into success or adversity into wisdom, is almost never what we envisioned at the outset.