A young woman went to see her mother and told her about all her troubles. Life was hard, and she felt like giving up. No sooner had one problem been resolved, it seemed, than a new one took its place. She was tired of the constant struggle.

I went to see a friend the other day. I passed through two sets of polished doors and a gleaming elevator to get to his office. The secretary offered me a cup of gourmet coffee before ushering me into a spacious conference room, where personal mementos, souvenirs from world travels, and numerous awards competed for space on teak shelves.

A long time ago in China, a girl named Li-Li got married and went to live with her husband and mother-in-law. In a very short time, Li-Li found that she couldn't get along with her mother-in-law at all.

Their personalities were very different, and Li-Li was angered by many of her mother-in-law's habits. In addition, the woman criticized Li-Li constantly.

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20 g to 500 g. The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it."

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

A couple of years ago I started running for exercise, and I've tried to be consistent with it. I quickly built up to longer distances and durations than when I started, but then I hit a plateau and stayed there for a year or more. I found it difficult to increase my endurance beyond a certain point, and I found it particularly difficult to increase my speed.

The other day a bumper sticker caught my attention. Resigned Alcoholic. It was meant as a joke, I'm sure, and it got a smile out of me, but as I thought about it more I realized how easy it is to resign ourselves to weaknesses or circumstances that hold us back from becoming all we could be. We may not think of ourselves as defeatists, but if we accept that rationale, we're defeated. When we start excusing ourselves, we stop progressing.

The waiting room in the hospital is crowded with people waiting to see doctors.

An elderly woman, who looks like she's in pain, keeps rubbing her body.

A girl who looks like a junior high school student sits with her head down. "I had to be absent from school again. I'll never catch up with the rest of my class," she mumbles to herself.

A middle-aged man talks loudly to the person next to him, presumably a friend who has come along to offer moral support. "This relapse is probably going to cost me the new job that took me months to find. I worry for my family."

I felt gloomy the other day. The weather had been dark and rainy, and I just didn't feel so positive. It happens to us all, I guess.

As I was sitting at my desk, I remembered it was the birthday of a dear long-time friend-a single, middle-aged woman who has dedicated the past 30 years to nursing and loves her work.

Knowing that she doesn't have family in town, I decided to give her a call.

Most of us have within ourselves the emotional resources to endure true calamities—the death of a loved one, a natural disaster, etc. Yet some of us come unglued when confronted with traffic jams, misplaced keys, rude colleagues, and other everyday annoyances.

Sound familiar? Read on for ways to stop overreacting.

How did I get myself into this? My knees felt as though ice picks were stabbing them from every side. I passed the 10-km marker. Only 11.243 km to go—only!

I had taken up running after a friend had run his first marathon. "It will be a great experience!" he assured me. "It" was the 15th Rio International Half-Marathon. I wasn't so sure. I'd always preferred adrenaline-pumping team sports to slow, laborious distance running and the monotonous sound of my own feet pounding pavement.

Finally my friend persuaded me to meet him at the registration office. There I saw hundreds of runners who had come from all corners of Brazil and many other countries to register for and take part in this event, and I spoke with a few of them. One man had been running marathons for over 30 years. He told me about some of his experiences, and his enthusiasm was contagious.

There is an “as is” kind of love that says:

We don’t have to look good

say the right things,

be in the right places,

have the right money or power. ...

Rather, we can be loved for just being ourselves.

Today is life—the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Shake yourself awake. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto. - Dale Carnegie

The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today. - Les Brown

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. - Albert Einstein

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. - James Lane Allen