Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast.

Today's reading was edited and adapted from Character and Happiness by Alvin Edwin McGarry, published in 1924.

There is no cure for the unhappiness of regret or the sorrow of bereavement that is so effective

as a well-defined purpose.

Misery cannot live with resolution.

As soon as we make up our minds, relief comes.

A course of action is better for most cases of unhappiness than a course of medicine.

People talk of divine discontent and of ambitions holy fire, but these things are neither divine

nor holy. Discontent no more insights to action than indigestion does to appetite.

In both cases there is a gnawing hunger that can never be satisfied.

Ambition is thus often a torture, a tempter, a whip without a bridle.

The divine thing is purpose.

It is the resolute will to do which exhibits our oneness with the Creator.

We never live a better hour than that when, having brooded over our blunders and our

disappointment, we rise from our posture of ineffectual complaint with a commitment to action in our hearts.

So long as we keep that resolution and labor towards its fulfillment, we shall not be unhappy.

Now, before we can form a purpose, we must know what we want.

Blessed is the woman and man who really knows what they want, and who bravely sets themselves

on a course to get it. You will be surprised to discover when you consider the matter that there are many good

things in the world that you can very well do without. Every time you cross off something

that you consider not essential to your happiness, your chance of happiness increases.

I once met an old friend coming out of a bookstore.

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