There Are Only Two Forces

There are two basic motivating forces:* fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life. – John Lennon

Self-explanatory.

* I would tweak John’s choice of language and reference A Course In Miracles and say that there are – at our core – only two emotions: love and fear. While it might be seen as nit-picking, that subtle shift in language is important.

Similar Posts

  • Be Beautiful, Really Beautiful

    The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not…

  • Where Fear Comes From

    Fear comes from the future, and discouragement comes from the past. Both obsessions are linear mistakes. – Steve Chandler The mistake we make with time is that we think it’s a linear progression, with a now and two “thens” (past and future) and all the points in-between. It’s not that. It’s just not. There is…

  • The Perfection of Being Overweight

    You may find the title of this blog post curious. How can being overweight be perfect? Because there’s no mystery about how one becomes overweight. Every person who isn’t at their Ideal Weight made a series of decisions that created their “overweight-ness.” Granted it’s a long series of small choices, but no one becomes overweight overnight….

  • Paying the Price

    “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” – Henry David Thoreau I love this quote because it reminds us that there is no such thing as something-for-nothing. Whether it be money, time or character, we trade something precious for every result we create in our lives. When we embrace…

  • Neither Swift Nor Easy

    I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy. – Marie Curie Success is simple, but hard work. There are no over-night successes or easy paths to riches. Whether it’s the “larger” progress Curie speaks of, or personal success, the truth is that the time must be devoted and the price…

  • What Are You?

    We are what we think. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world. – Buddha There’s no greater truth than we are what we think. We become what we think. We never become what we don’t believe we can. What you think? About yourself? Your potential? Your ability?…