"The ability to create oneself"

“People often say that this or that person hasn’t yet found themselves. But the self of not something one finds.  It is something one creates.” – Thomas Szasz

Are you creating your life intentionally?

"Under Oath"

With your speech, act as if you are under oath at all times.

Be impeccable with your word.

Your life will not get better until you do.

How are you getting better today?

Are you learning?  How?

Are you trying something new?  What?

Are you spending time with new people who are smarter/better than you?  Who?

Afraid? Worried? Get on it!

“We generate fears while we sit.  We overcome them by action.  Fear is nature’s way of warning us to get busy.” – Dr. Henry Link

What are you afraid of now? 

Get to work and stop being vulnerable to it.

Plans are great, until they don't work anymore

“Everybody has a plan, until they get in the ring and get punched in the face” – Mike Tyson

New information, new decisions.  When it doesn’t go like you had hoped, you better be courageous, flexible, and persistent.

Stay true to the fundamental goal, not the plan. 

The Master in the Art of Living

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.  He hardly knows which is which.  He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.  To him, he’s always doing both.” – James Michener

Pro Choice

When you don’t have any money, you don’t have any choices.

So one of the things we have to be good at is creating value that others want and getting paid for it.

How are you doing on that?

Self-acceptance

If we don’t accept who we are, we walk around petrified that someone else will notice or even point out what we don’t like about ourselves.

“Nothing I accept about myself can be used to diminish me.” – Audre Lorde

Take away fear, and the power you are giving others over you.

Courageous Convictions

“Courageous convictions will drag these dreams into existence.” – Rush, Vital Signs/Moving Pictures, 1981 

I’ve had more than a few dreams come true, and I can tell you it always involves towering courage and unwavering belief.

What is inside you?

Pain

It’s telling us something.  Pain is important.

How we avoid it.

How we accept it and deal with it when it comes.

How we get better and transcend it.

Have you allowed it to teach you?