Character is built little by little, over days, weeks, months, and years, with thousands of small and seemingly insignificant acts of discipline.
1. I will proactively seek out my mission in life in these four ways: by choosing the-best-version-of-myself in each moment, by doing what I can where I am right now to help others celebrate their best selves and to make the world a better place, by exploring how my talents and passions can be put to use to serve the needs of others, and by listening to the voice of God in my life.
The reason most of us fail to achieve real and sustainable change in our lives is because we focus too much on the desired outcome and not enough on the progress we are making.
So much of modern culture promotes a numbing unconsciousness rather than the vibrant consciousness that God wants us to live in each moment.
Every time you become a-better-version-of-yourself, the con-sequences of your transformation echo throughout your family, friends, business, school, neighborhood, church, marriage, nation, and beyond to people and places in the future. It is God who does the transforming, but only to the extent that we cooperate. God’s grace is constant, never lacking. So our cooperation with God’s desire to transform us is essential; it is the variable. Are you willing to let God transform you?
If you want a Coke, have water. If you want the steak, have the salmon. If you want to take a shortcut, go the long way. If you want to cut a conversation short, hear the person out. If you want to stop working, push yourself to go on for another thirty minutes. Give up the little things, not to punish yourself, but as a short prayer and to strengthen your will.
The ability to delay gratification is intimately linked with success. You cannot succeed at anything unless you are willing and able to delay gratification.
In order to have a healthy financial life that balances earning with spending, and saving with giving, one must be able to delay gratification. In order to raise children to become the-best-version-of-themselves, one must be willing to delay gratification.
On the day you decide to intentionally start denying yourself, your life will improve in a thousand ways. It is a lesson I am now trying to figure out how best to teach my children. It is not about saying no to them; it is about teaching them to say no to themselves. These.
There is no better way to honor life and God than to strive to become the-best-version-of-yourself.
When you are discouraged or caught up in procrastination, simply do the tiniest thing to move whatever you are working on forward.
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Whatever your age, if you have not yet fallen in love with learning, begin that love affair today. How? Go wherever your interests lead you. It is the perfect place to start. Rekindle a childlike curiosity. Ask why a lot. Free yourself from outcomes; you don’t need a reason and you don’t need to accomplish anything. I.
The fear of being alone is the father of many relationships that never should have been. When we choose to be with someone because we are afraid of being alone, we dishonor ourselves and the other person.
I continue to believe that we can learn more in an hour of silence than we can in a year from books.
What is a holy moment? A holy moment is a moment when you make yourself completely available to God. You set self-interest aside, you set aside what you want to do or feel like doing, and for that moment you do exactly what you sense God is calling you to do.
Not every person with their eyes closed is asleep, and not every person with their eyes open can see.
Love is a choice, not a feeling. Feelings come and go, and if we choose to base our most important relationships on how we feel at any particular moment, we are in for a rough and rocky journey. Love is a verb, not a noun. Love is something we do, not something that happens to us.
When we pretend to be somoene other than who we are, our true self hides in fear and shame; the fear of being discovered and the shame of not being enough.
You are not what happened to you.
We need. To need is to be human.