Circumstances don’t make the man; they only reveal him to himself.” – Epictetus.
Your past dominates your potential. You don’t live a life of “anything is possible”; you live a life of “some things are possible, given my past.
A big part of living the life you want is taking ownership of your choices, now and in the future.
You’re never going achieve your true potential if you’re hooked by what other people think.
We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.” – Aristotle.
Uncertainty is where things happen. Uncertainty is your personal pathway to opportunity. It’s the environment in which you grow, experience new things and produce new, unprecedented results. Uncertainty is where new happens.
That’s your personal assertion: “I embrace the uncertainty.” Meet it head on. Cherish it. Enjoy it.
Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant. Either you control your destiny, or your destiny will control you. Life won’t pause for your pauses and procrastinations. It won’t stop for your confusions and fear. It will continue right along without you.
We are all building things only to burn them right back down. And we’re tired of it.
You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” – Carl Jung.
When you are free to be open and available, with nothing held back, no lies, no withholds or half-truths, you really are your most expressive, most alive self.
When the responsibility for the quality of your life lies with anyone but you, you become the victim.
The next time you’re feeling or experiencing any sort of negative or diminishing thought that disempowers you, move on immediately. Act independently of that thought. More specifically, act in a way that’s in your best interests rather than in a way that is dominated by how you automatically think and feel.
You’re never going achieve your true potential if you’re hooked by what other people think. In fact, you could change your life overnight if you simply abandoned the notion that other people’s opinions matter.
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
We are wired to win – we just have to point ourselves in the right direction so we can win at something we consciously choose.
Not all mountaineers make the summit; sometimes they turn back, retool, keep coming at it. They’re just never satisfied with standing at the bottom, hanging out with all the other nonclimbers and explaining their lack of ascent. No, they packed up their tent and moved forward, and they will pass from this world knowing they gave every ounce of their effort. That they played full out. They loved the climb.
Uncertainty is where new happens.
Often the reason you can’t see the solution is because you’re too close to the problem. Zoom out a little, zoom out a LOT and look at the big picture. This is a phenomenon similar to what psychologists call “cognitive restructuring” – shifting the way in which your problems are presenting themselves in your life.
Don’t know what to do or where to start? Good, that’s your first action. Find out, understand. Trawl the internet, read books, ask questions, take courses, seek advice, do whatever you need to do to unfuck yourself and get into your life.
There’s nothing quite so damaging as the human desire to be right.