Born Joyce Diane Bauer on this day in New York City, television celebrity psychologist and motivational speaker Dr. Joyce Brothers (1928-) has shared her wisdom and advice for over 30 years.

A graduate of Cornell, she became the two-time winner of television's The $64,000 Question (1950s), when correctly answering questions about boxing.

Known for compassion and strength, she once said, "Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success."

For years this familiar blonde has given the world upbeat advice on television/radio talk shows, daily syndicated newspapers, and monthly magazine columns. A United Press International poll named her one of the 10 Most Admired Women in America.

"Children of strict parents are generally happier, better adjusted and higher achievers than children of permissive parents," she once observed. "They feel secure and loved, believing that their parents care about what they do and what they become."

"Children of permissive parents interpret their parents' attitude not as greater love but as lack of concern."

In 1989, she lost her husband of 39 years after an 18-month battle with cancer. Her book Widowed (1992) dealt honestly with the loss, what she called her "dark tunnel of grief."

"I thought my life was over," she said. "I was full of tears and self-pity." Brothers opened her heart and shared her subsequent grieving process of denial, anger, and loneliness and emergence "into the light" of recovery.

"Pain is necessary," she said. "Only by experiencing it to its full degree can you heal yourself."

Press the limits and get ready to succeed...