The Official Website of Michael Corthell

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsk Everyone has the right to create their own hell as long as they can keep others out of it.  “Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.” ― Aldous Huxley

www.MichaelCorthell.com We create our own hell -- it is the sum of all our decisions (exception: sometimes we are placed there). How do we escape even if we are not the cause? The only thing anyone needs to do in order to escape hell is to love God*, his creation, each other and have faith(be positive). We are to understand that there is one God and that God created all things -- that is it. We play with fire when we claim to love God, but not all his creation. If you hate your neighbor, you hate God and you have arrived in hell. *My definition of what God is an 'all is one' belief. God is all and in all. God manifests itself in every created thing. You are a manifestation of God, as well as your dog, you cat a pine tree and a blade of grass. The spirit of God is omnipresent. All is in one, and one is in all. Of course your version of God may differ. 

  “If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre Alone, mindfully I wash dishes seeing each soap bubble. My imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is blind to my thoughts(for now). “Being alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.” ― Charles Bukowski

“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.” ― Benjamin Franklin Never take down a fence unless you know why it was constructed in the first place. “What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.”― Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

by Michael Corthell A recent study looked at several kinds of advice that people get and give to understand how likely people are to use it. Four types of advice were studied: Advice for. A recommendation to pick a particular option. Advice against.    A recommendation to avoid a particular option. Information only.   Advisor supplies a piece of information that the decision maker might not know about. Decision support.  Advisor suggests how to go about making the choice, but does not make a specific recommendation. In general, the study found, all of these types of advice were useful to some degree, however information only was the most useful kind of advice. That is, people found it most helpful when people told them about aspects of the options that they might not have known about already. ''If you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind.'' Best Advice Always get permission. If yo

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry We end up someplace else if we don't know where we're going. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin

“Heroes must see to their own fame. No one else will.” ― Gore Vidal, Julian It has been said it before, and I’ll repeat it again — don’t be afraid  to toot your own Trumpet. “We live in an age of equivocal competency: if you want, you can be a competent dictator, a competent self-promoter, a competent terrorist. Just because you can do something well does not mean you should be doing it.” ― Clifford Cohen

“Everything you can imagine is real.” ― Pablo Picasso We have no need of magic to change the world only imagination. If you try to imagine something make it a good something. “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” ― Albert Einstein

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” ― Oscar Wilde Money doesn't just talk, it screams. “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.” ― Dorothy Parker

“Harnessing likability is about uncovering what is authentically likable—in you, in the other person, in your connection.”― Michelle Tillis Lederman, 11 Laws of Likability Likability: The true you is the best you. “Popularity is just a good way of saying a lot of people lie you a little. Not that real people like you a lot.” ― Laura Greenwood, First Time's a Charm

by Michael Corthell ''I've trained myself to illuminate the things in my personality that are likable  and to hide and protect the things that are less likable.'' —Will Smith, American actor Many people believe that being likable and therefore popular comes from natural ability only—unteachable traits that belong only to the fortunate—the beautiful people, the outgoing social type, and those that are highly talented. Not true at all. It helps to have great natural social skills and unique well honed talents, but in reality, being likable is mostly under your control, and it's about having a positive mindset. Below are some of the key behaviors that positive thinkers practice that make them likable and popular with their peers and others: Likable People Ask Questions. When you are in a conversation with someone, ask question and then truly LISTEN. Don't think about what to say next. It is a common mistake. Just slow down and LIS

“Don't Gain The World & Lose Your Soul, Wisdom Is Better Than Silver Or Gold.” ― Bob Marley Money is a tool. Use all tools wisely by following all safety precautions. “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

by Michael Corthell Are you 'money conscious'? Do you appreciate the abundance of this world. Do you know in your heart that there is enough to go around? Do you have a white hot, burning desire to attain riches and be wealthy beyond your dreams? Good, then can become a very wealth person. If you are not money conscious you will have a difficult time getting much beyond your basic needs. Most people go through their lives with a negative money mindset meaning we think about the scarcity of money rather than the abundance of money. We have been brought up to believe certain derogatory things about money, which in turn, prevents us from attracting abundance into our lives. Repeating worn phrases and idioms such as 'The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.', 'Another day, another dollar', 'more money, more problems', all have a net negative effect and only hold a person back from attracting riches. Let's look at how, step by

“When you are in a fix, often the fix is in you.” ― Ashok Kallarakkal Any negative situation requires that we focus on what we can do right now, not what we can't do right now. “If you wanna stay Positive, Healthy and undistracted, then leave the association of negative minded people because that's what they breathe out and you don't wanna fill your lungs with that kind of filthy air.” ― Indy Bissessur

by Michael Corthell You have your positive mindset, and things have been going pretty well, but then things 'seemingly' start to take a turn for the negative. We've all experienced day when it seems that there's nothing but problem after problem. Days like these threaten our strong, positive mindsets and may, if not dealt with immediately, stop us from moving forward. We may even tell ourselves that we should have seen it coming. Maybe we did see it coming, but didn't want to believe it. This can cause guilt. What do we do? The first thing is we accept these negatives as inevitable and don't panic. Then, we get back to basics. Understand: Everything happens for a reason and is temporary. Happiness in life is dependent on your approach to life, not what happens to you. That there are things that are going right in your life. You have people that have your back, 100%. And know what you care about most and what is expendable. That you are ult

“There is nothing in the record of the past two years when both Houses of Congress have been controlled by the Republican Party which can lead any person to believe that those promises will be fulfilled in the future. They follow the Hitler line - no matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as truth.” ― John F. Kennedy About 30% of the American electorate are free to do exactly what they are told. “You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100/Methuselah's Children

“The mind has a powerful way of attracting things that are in harmony with it, good and bad.” ― Idowu Koyenikan The Universe's power can seldom deny the demands(positive or negative) of a believing spirit. The truth is, the Universe has been responding to your thoughts your entire life. “An educated man is not, necessarily, one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.” ― Napolean Hill, Think and Grow Rich

“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays Watching a loved one suffer can teach more than suffering yourself can. “There is no beauty in sadness. No honor in suffering. No growth in fear. No relief in hate. It’s just a waste of perfectly good happiness.” ― Katerina Stoykova Klemer

by Michael Corthell What we are looking at in this article is theodicy .  Theodicy in its most accepted form, is an attempt to answer the question of why a loving God permits the manifestation of evil in the world. The short answer is theological; to teach lessons. The long answer is human. It is philosophical, convoluted and even seemingly incoherent. ''Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.'' — Helen Keller The atheist argues that if God exists, then theodicy is just scattered and incoherent and that the amount of suffering seems to be much greater than that is needed to do the job of being the contrast to goodness. And, it should follow that the more suffering there is, the more good there would be in proportion, but this is a normal for a non-believer having no Faith at all in God, and therefore no understanding of Him

MORE: Increase smiling, lessen the worrying. More compassion, practice less judgment. More blessed, be less stressed. Having more love, lessens hate. “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations No amount of regretting can change the past, and no amount of worrying can change the future.

“Be careful about reading health books. Some fine day you'll die of a misprint.” ― Markus Herz A sign of good overall health is that a person doesn't get unraveled by fear. They take fear as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening them....and do something about it. “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ― Hippocrates

“Healthy striving is self-focused: "How can I improve?" Perfectionism is other-focused:  "What will they think?” ― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection To be well learned, you've got to be willing to be a fool. “When things are perfect, that's when you need to worry most.” ― Drew Barrymore

by Michael Corthell There are two basic types of perfectionists; Adaptive and Maladaptive . Adaptive types are considered 'normal'. Researchers have found that both adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists have high personal standards, but failing to meet those standards is more stressful for the maladaptive than for the adaptive or normal folks. STRESS is the key word. Stress is not healthy for the body, mind or soul — so lets do something about it.  ''Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor with you playing the part of the suffering hero.'' — David D. Burns Being a perfectionist can: Make you have low self esteem. A perfectionist has low self esteem because he can’t accept himself as he really is – imperfect. Make you depressed and unhappy.  No one can be happy if they can't accept life on life's terms. Constantly trying to make everything perfect, which is impossible, they will fall into depression. Happiness depends on acceptance

The ''The aim of positive psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life.'' — Martin Seligman The good news is, bad things don’t affect us as profoundly as we expect them to. If positive psychology teaches us anything, it is that all of us are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. No one has it all, and no one lacks it all. — Christopher Peterson