Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness
byThe Living Hour
EducationSelf-ImprovementHealthFitnessMentalReligionSpirituality
With 25+ million downloads, the Inspirational Living has been offering motivational broadcasts for the mind, body, and spirit since 2016. If you want to find a free online life coach, look no further than the most motivational self-help authors of the past. Each self-development podcast is edited & adapted from the books and essays of classic inspirational writers, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Helen Keller, Booker T. Washington, James Allen, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Orison Swett Marden, Neville Goddard, and Frederick Douglass, as well as self-development authors who have largely been lost to history but deserve to be re-discovered again and enjoyed. Subscribe to...
Episodes(40 episodes)
Harmony is the Key to Success
Listen to episode 1159 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Harmony is the Key Success. Edited and adapted from Success Through Thought Habit by Benjamin Johnson.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Success means different things to everyone. But they all must share something in common. Philosophers, poets, and religious seekers have for ages struggled to discover that mysterious something that will make the problem of living a simpler and more enjoyable process. And, ultimately, they have all arrived at the same conclusion: that the one thing necessary to the living of a perfect life is the possession of the quality familiar...
Published: Sep 24, 2026Duration: 15m 27s
How to Build the Perfect Personality
Listen to episode 1158 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Improve Your Personality. Edited and adapted from Laugh and Live by Douglas Fairbanks.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: A healthy and robust personality is the fulfillment of self-development — physically, mentally, and spiritually. But all robust personalities are not healthy, for it often shows in the faces of those who are selfish at heart. Therefore, all personality is not for the good of the world. It is only of the healthy and generous kind that we speak. And to those who possess it, the goal is divine.--------------------- Get our popular 3 books of Lif...
Published: Sep 22, 2026Duration: 15m 2s
How to Live a Fulfilled Life | Our Sunday Talks
Welcome to Our Sunday Talks. Today’s talk was edited and adapted from Love’s Way by Orison Swett Marden, published in 1918. Gain access to more episodes (ad-free) by becoming our patron for as little as $3 a month.By becoming a patron, you'll also gain access to our entire archive of Inspirational Living podcasts, plus full transcripts. Learn about the benefits our patrons receive by going to https://livinghour.org/patron. Thank you.Podcast Excerpt: AN old world legend tells of a powerful giant whose motto was "I serve the strongest." At first he served the...
Published: Sep 20, 2026Duration: 10m 0s
Why the Older Should be Happier
Listen to episode 1157 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Benefits of Growing Older. Edited and adapted from Essays of an Optimist by John William Kaye.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: One of the great advantages of age is that we are not wont to disturb ourselves by doing things that we do not like, simply for the look of the thing. There is absolute misery in pretentiousness of all kinds, and youth is infinitely more pretentious than age. There are some people who never outlive their vanity; but, as a general rule, it may be maintained that the longer...
Published: Sep 17, 2026Duration: 16m 23s
Inspiration from Lao Tzu | Wisdom of the Tao Te Ching
Listen to episode 1156 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Tao Te Ching. Edited and adapted from Dwight Goddard’s translation of the Lao Tzu’s classic book Tao Te Ching.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The Tao that can be understood cannot be the primal, or cosmic, Tao, just as an idea that can be expressed in words cannot be the infinite idea.And yet this ineffable Tao is the source of all spirit and matter, and being expressed is the mother of all created things.Therefore not to desire the things of sense is to know...
Published: Sep 15, 2026Duration: 18m 7s
Building Up a Heroic Soul | Our Sunday Talks
Welcome to Our Sunday Talks. Today’s talk was edited and adapted from How to Get On in the World by Major A.R. Calhoun, published in 1895. Gain access to more episodes (ad-free) by becoming our patron for as little as $3 a month.By becoming a patron, you'll also gain access to our entire archive of Inspirational Living podcasts, plus full transcripts. Learn about the benefits our patrons receive by going to https://livinghour.org/patron. Thank you.Podcast Excerpt: No person gives themselves up to the spirit of helpfulness without strengthening their own life to...
Published: Sep 13, 2026Duration: 5m 2s
You Have Tremendous Hidden Powers
Listen to episode 1154 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Unchain the Giant Within. Edited and adapted from New Thought Healing Made Plain by Kate Atkinson Boehme.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The human being has always had many hitherto undiscovered powers, the horizon of the Impossible continually receding as we advance upon it. Let your limit line of belief, separating the possible from the impossible, be to you like the horizon line, which is really no line at all. It is merely where your sight stops, and depends upon the point where you stand.--------------------- Get our popular 3 books of Life Lesso...
Published: Sep 10, 2026Duration: 15m 54s
How to Accomplish the Most in Your Life
Listen to episode 1153 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Accomplish the Most in Your Life. Edited and adapted from Character Building by Booker T. Washington.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: In thought, in talk, in action, I think you will find that you can separate life into these two divisions: the dark side and the bright side, the discouraging side and the encouraging side. You will find, too, that there are two classes of people. There is one class that is schooling itself, and constantly training itself, to look upon the dark side of life; and there is...
Published: Sep 8, 2026Duration: 13m 8s
The Call of the Upper Road
Welcome to Our Sunday Talks. Today’s talk was edited and adapted from Nature & The Call of the Upper Road by Kathrine Ross Logan, published in 1924. Gain access to more episodes (ad-free) by becoming our patron for as little as $3 a month.By becoming a patron, you'll also gain access to our entire archive of Inspirational Living podcasts, plus full transcripts. Learn about the benefits our patrons receive by going to https://livinghour.org/patron. Thank you.Podcast Excerpt: Voices are everywhere calling in nature. There is ever all about you something that calls to you...
Published: Sep 6, 2026Duration: 5m 30s
Becoming a Person of Original Power
Listen to episode 1152 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Become a Well Rounded Person. Edited and adapted from Essays on Work and Culture by Hamilton Wright Mabie.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: A person of original power can never be confined within the limits of a single field of interest, nor can they ever be content to use the skills of a single occupation. They cannot pour their whole force into one channel; there is always a reserve of power beyond the demands of the work which they have in hand at the moment. If you w...
Published: Sep 4, 2026Duration: 14m 35s
Gaining a Grander Vision of Life | Motivational Podcasts
Listen to episode 1151 of the Inspirational Living podcast: What is Your Ambition? Edited and adapted from Personal Efficiency by James Samuel Knox.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The tragedy of life is to be found in the young individual who drifts aimlessly out into life's elements, only to be destroyed by the very forces which he or she, by divine right, should harness, master, and utilize in advancing them on their course. A ship that is going in the wrong direction can be turned because it is guided by a driving force. But you can do nothing w...
Published: Sep 1, 2026Duration: 14m 43s
Welcome Your Difficulties!
Welcome to Our Sunday Talks. Today’s talk was edited and adapted from Character Sketches for Boys and Girls by Henry Davenport Northrop. Gain access to more episodes (ad-free) by becoming our patron for as little as $3 a month.By becoming a patron, you'll also gain access to our entire archive of Inspirational Living podcasts, plus full transcripts. Learn about the benefits our patrons receive by going to https://livinghour.org/patron. Thank you.Podcast Excerpt: The school of difficulty is the best school of moral discipline — for nations and for individuals. Indeed, the history of di...
Published: Aug 30, 2026Duration: 4m 45s
Your Supreme Responsibility
Listen to episode 1150 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Your Supreme Responsibility. Edited and adapted from The Majesty of Calmness by William George Jordan.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The only responsibility that we cannot evade in this life is the one we think of least — our personal influence. Our conscious influence, when posing to impress those around us, is woefully small. But our UNconscious influence, the silent, subtle radiation of our personality, the effect of our words and acts, the trifles we never consider — is tremendous. In every moment of life, we are changing to a degree the l...
Published: Aug 27, 2026Duration: 17m 6s
The Creative Power in Ourselves
Listen to episode 1149 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Spirit of Opulence & Beauty. Adapted from The Hidden Power by Thomas Troward.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Many of our problems in life are due to a misapprehension of the nature of our own power. If we clearly realize that the creative power in ourselves is unlimited, then there is no reason to limit the extent of what we can enjoy by means of this power. When we are drawing from the infinite, we need never be afraid of taking more than our share. That is not where...
Published: Aug 25, 2026Duration: 14m 15s
A Powerful Daily Meditation
Welcome to Our Sunday Talks. Today’s talk was edited and adapted from Dynamic Thought by Henry Thomas Hamblin. Gain access to more episodes (ad-free) by becoming our patron for as little as $3 a month.By becoming a patron, you'll also gain access to our entire archive of Inspirational Living podcasts, plus full transcripts. Learn about the benefits our patrons receive by going to https://livinghour.org/patron. Thank you.Podcast Excerpt: II am going to share with you a powerful meditation that can be used every day or twice a day if possible (once upo...
Published: Aug 23, 2026Duration: 9m 0s
The Lost Art of Lying in Bed | Literary Podcasts
Listen to episode 1148 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Lost Art of Lying in Bed. Edited and Adapted from an essay by G.K. Chesterton.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience, if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling. This, however, is not generally a part of the domestic apparatus. I have fancied that it might be accomplished with several buckets of paint and a broom. But if one worked in a really sweeping and masterly way, and laid on the...
Published: Aug 20, 2026Duration: 7m 59s
Building Courage for Success in Life
Listen to episode 1147 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Building Courage for Success in Life. Edited and adapted from Assuming Responsibilities by Douglas Fairbanks. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: With courage we order our own lives and take orders only from those of superior wisdom. This we can never afford not to do. The courageous person of largest vision takes command by their power to reason logically, and therefore assumes the air of comradeship rather than "overseer" or "boss." Only through lack of moral and physical courage are we to become the slaves of anxiety. Courage — the child of H...
Published: Aug 18, 2026Duration: 15m 53s
All that is Great is Within You
Welcome to Our Sunday Talks. Today’s talk was edited and adapted from Life in its Fullness by Charles Thomas Parnell, published in 1922. Gain access to more episodes (ad-free) by becoming our patron for as little as $3 a month.By becoming a patron, you'll also gain access to our entire archive of Inspirational Living podcasts, plus full transcripts. Learn about the benefits our patrons receive by going to https://livinghour.org/patron. Thank you.Podcast Excerpt: In the smallest particle of matter is mirrored the infinitely great. The atom (with its ever busy group of el...
Published: Aug 16, 2026Duration: 5m 33s
How to See the Beauty in Life | Inspirational Podcasts
Listen to episode 1146 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to See the Beauty in Life. Edited and adapted from The Realisation of Life by Rabindranath Tagore, published in 1916.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt:The Upanishads have said that all things are created and sustained by an infinite joy. To realize this principle of creation, we have to start with a division — the division into the beautiful and the non-beautiful. The apprehension of beauty has to come to us with a vigorous blow to awaken our consciousness from its primitive lethargy, and it attains its goal by the urgency of th...
Published: Aug 13, 2026Duration: 14m 3s
The Necessity of Poetry in Life
Listen to episode 1145 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Importance of Poetry in Life. Edited and adapted from Life's Enthusiasms by David Starr Jordan.Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Poetry is truth expressed in the fewest possible words, in words which are inevitable, in words which could not be changed without weakening the meaning or throwing discord into the melody. To choose the right word and to discard all others, this is the chief factor in good writing. To learn good poetry by heart is to acquire help toward doing this instinctively, automatically as other habits are a...
Published: Aug 11, 2026Duration: 16m 53s