JORGE RODRIGUES SIMAO

Laura Pausini & Lara Fabian - La Solitudine (Live)

Throughout the ages many accomplished individuals have sung the praises of being alone. Henry David Thoreau, for instance, boasted, "I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." This leads into the all-important question: Can you enjoy spending a lot of time alone? If you can't, it's likely a sign that you aren't able to discover quality in your own character.

Many - perhaps most - people on their deathbeds reflect upon their lives with deep regrets. Ashley Montagu articulated this so well: "The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become." If you are getting no satisfaction in your life, you undoubtedly know that the ache of unfulfilled dreams can be the worst pain you will ever experience. If you experiment with a rat by consistently placing cheese in the third of several tunnels, the rat will eventually figure out the cheese is always in the third tunnel. The rat will go directly to the third tunnel without looking in other tunnels.

There aren't many things on this planet that are more precious that true friends. It was the Greek writer Euripides who said, "One loyal friend is worth 10,000 relatives." Fortunately, we get to choose our friends as opposed to relatives, who are forced upon us. When choosing new friends, however, much care should be taken. The key to optimizing happiness is to cultivate quality friendships with a few happy and interesting individuals. Quality is more important than quantity. In this regard, we can rephrase the above words of Euripides to "One true friend is worth more than 10,000 superficial ones."

Most individuals expect that they can't accomplish anything of value in their lives - and they are seldom disappointed.  The sad thing is they could make a big difference in this world if they didn't anticipate failure. "There isn't a person anywhere," asserted Henry Ford, "who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can." Even the most gifted individuals - whether plumbers, poets, or pediatricians - will not accomplish much in this world, however, unless they free themselves from their self-imposed limitations. Confidence is everything when it comes to achieving success.