Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world. – Helen Keller
With apologize to Ms. Keller, there are other grave threats to ability to anything wise in the world, self-deception chief among them.
But feeling sorry for your self, for more than five or so minutes is a killer.
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trial. – Confucius If everything is easy, nothing is valued. If nothing is valued, life has little meaning. A life without meaning is the greatest misery a human can know. * * * Work hard. Get your hands dirty. Fail,* regularly. Fall down and…
Not everything requires (just) “action.” So often the result of considering a problem or goal is asking: “What are you going to do about it?” It’s a useful question, for the most part. But it’s a micro strategy. Long-standing problems or significant goals require something more than micro – they require a combination of mindset,…
Being honest may not always get you many friends, but it’ll always get you the right ones. – John Lennon I’ve heard Jim Rohn say that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. It’s true. It’s also true that sometimes there are things you need to hear that most…
Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe. – Oprah Winfrey Let’s imagine that the “truth” of life is that you’ll fall somewhat short of what you aim for? I don’t necessarily believe that, but just for sugar and giggles, let’s pretend . . . . What should…
Everybody’s heard the saying “That which does not kill you makes you stronger,” Nietzsche I believe said it, or something very similar. It’s wrong though, or at least woefully incomplete. (Or, it’s incomplete in the way we use the words these days.) Nowadays people think that if bad stuff happens to you, you get stronger….
I saw this in a recent post from Seth Godin: And building a fortress cripples us. It turns people into spies and informants. And spies and informants are so busy being afraid that they fail to actually build anything of value. Not to mention that doing the right thing, doing it in a way we’re…