The great Roman Empire philosopher, Marcus Aurelius Antonius said it first. Then motivational writer Dale Carnegie brought it back to life. Eight little words.

"Eight words that can transform your life," Carnegie said.

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Carnegie called it the biggest lesson he had ever learned. He quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, "A man is what he thinks all day long."

Mental attitude matters, so it important to focus on the positive instead of the negative. It is also important to keep things in perspective. Most things in life are just fine. Are you going to let a small percentage set the tone for how you would go about your business?

James Allen in As a Man Thinketh wrote, "A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him...Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life."

One more thing. Courage comes with every new day. Problems at nightfall look better, or disappear with the rising sun. Even when facing life's greatest challenges, look to the sun.

As Frances Rodman once said, "Courage is sometimes frail as hope is frail: a fragile shoot between two stones that grows brave toward the sun though warmth and brightness fail, striving and faith the only strength it knows."

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Lift up your thoughts. Celebrate Life.