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My son is a Navy veteran battling PTS (Post Traumatic Stress). Untreated PTSD from any trauma is unlikely to disappear and can contribute to chronic pain, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, sleep problems and even suicide. Everyday, 22 veterans take their own lives. That’s 22 suicides too many a day. One every 65 minutes is incomprehensible. All curated content comes from some of the greatest minds that inspired me to change my life: Admiral William H. McRaven, John C. Maxwell, Shawn Blanc, ...
We should be remembered for the things we do. The things we do are the most important things of all. They are more important than what we say or what we look like. The things we do outlast are mortality.
Success to me is giving full effort, knowing that was the best I was capable of. Full effort means nothing if day-to-day preparation was not all I had. Success to me is giving everything I have into each and every day, each and every moment, training, recovery, family, friends, giving back, inspiring, loving what I do.…
You are an artist, and your own architect. Not talking or explaining or promising, but simply showing, leading, earning respect from yourself, attention from the masses, and a place in history.
You have everything you need. And life is not always perfect, but it is always what you make it. How things are, it’s not how they should be or need to be. But how you’ve allow them to be.
Be quiet, still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. If you’re willing to experience the grace and power of solitude.
Normal was every second you wanted to take that easy road, and did not. And from those moments from the normalcy of the day to day, from the very heart of the unspectacular, the extraordinary, is born from this process.
You’ve missed your shot at a promotion. So work harder, put yourself on a pedestal so high that it will be impossible to get past them next time. The past is not telling you know. It’s giving you inside and momentum for the future.
Society will adapt, and conform to you, simply because you didn’t bow down to it. There’s brilliance there, it just needs to be believed in and refined.
When that intersection of real and imaginary blend together, possibilities, multiply. Limitations crumble and fall and failure is no longer an endpoint. It’s an invitation to begin again.
Life becomes simple, and how beautiful simplicity is. It’s shining a spotlight on what matters. It’s clarity. It’s taking control. It’s picking up the clay and molding what you want to mold. It’s opening the door and deciding to walk through.
Think of having a backpack, limited capacity, the things you put in there should provide value on your trip. You’re not going to put things in there that you don’t need, they only way you down, and won’t help you get to your destination.
Vulnerability or safety? Safety, that innate desire to not disrupt or challenge the way things are. Even when you know in your core, there’s more out there. Safety is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Watching life happen through a window is extremely safe, but it means you’re forfeiting the essence of life in exchange for a front row seat to watch oth…
Here’s to breathing in that ocean breeze, laughing until your stomach hurts. Here’s to reconnecting with an old friend who you met 40 years ago. Here’s to dreaming like there are no rules and living like there’s no tomorrow, to creating your masterpiece one word, one note, one brushstroke at a time.
I could see the aging as a reminder of life’s impermanence, and realize that I have less time now than I did at 19, and set out to make the most of the moments I have left.
How about taking a look at our own harsh judgment of people? What if they had the chance to be everything but jerks? What would that open up in our lives?
There is always a place for you, amidst the summers of life, even when it’s hard to see. Even when it feels impossible, cold, dark, and lonely. You are always on your journey back here. Always.
As we turn to page, we are refreshed and invigorated. But “new” has a short lifespan. New eventually gives way to the same realities we’ve dealt with in the last chapter, the same struggles, the same obstacles. So no, the answer to change is not novelty. It can’t be.
If you set your bar at amazing, it’s awfully difficult to start. Your first paragraph, sketch, formula, sample or concept isn’t going to be amazing. Your 10th one might not be either. Keep persevering. Keep fighting.
This is the Uber practical, scientifically, proven way to bring your dreams to life. Wish + Outcome + Obstacle + Plan.
“Knowing who you are - and who you are not - is essential. But it is only the starting point. All the talent, motivation, and hard work in the world will not be valued or remembered if it does not help another human being”.
So today, and for the rest of your life, focus on the 12 things that make a truly high value man instead of just money, and life will completely changed around you.
“I’m the first to admit we live in a wacky world. I often scratch my head at what passes for “normal” and I’m often pained by the enormous amount of suffering in our communities in the world”.
The public sees it as the random person on the street, or the guy at the end of the bar, or the quiet woman at work, or even perhaps our own best friend that also happens to be a roommate. They don’t see it as a family member, a friend or a neighbor. Our picture is distorted.
When others see how much you have changed, they’ll feel they ought to change, too, for it is contagious. It is magic.
We should all practice mindfulness every single day so when these moments arise, we know how to move forward, productively, and never look back for the answers. Understanding that you only have control over the present moment is the key to being able to turn the page.
What if we slowed down and appreciated our sameness? The fact that we’re all in this together. That we share a common humanity.
“Self kindness involves more than just stopping self judgment. It involves actively comforting ourselves, responding, just as we would do a dear friend in need”.
If you don’t let yourself be vulnerable, you never experience failure on a significant level. You don’t fail, you don’t learn, you don’t learn, you don’t grow. And if that’s the case, forget about the top of the mountain.
“When we live a life of meaning, we invite others to do the same. Those who come behind us will build on our stories. They can add to them and make them better because we have showed them the way”.
“You can stare that fear wolf down, and refuse to feed it any longer. Starve it of that negative conditioning. Then you can feed the courage wolf, a steady diet of good food, and lead with your heart and mind as equal partners”.
You have everything you need to get started. Stop waiting for the weather to change in your life. Stop waiting for the perfect conditions. Stop waiting for a handout. Stop waiting for everybody to believe in you, and cheer for you, and affirm you.
“Perhaps the single greatest paradigm shift I’ve had as a human is this idea: I am writing my story, and I alone have the responsibility to shape it into something meaningful”.
The soul resides within. Connecting with that best, most heroic version of ourselves, so we can live with eudaemonia, which means good soul, in service to something bigger than ourselves, is, of course, the ultimate game we were playing and the focal point of everything we do together.
We don’t have to wait until we’re actually near death to receive these benefits of being mortal. We can create the experience anytime we want.
Yes, on some level you need to be committed to what you’re doing. You need to want to see the project finished or get healthier, or get an earlier start to your day. But you don’t need to feel like doing it. Act differently than how you feel.
Your professors weren’t asking for perfection, and if they were, my older self today, would’ve had something to say about that. Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, only disappointment.
It is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize we have chosen the life we are living right now. It is, perhaps frightening for us to think that we have chosen to live our life exactly as it is today.
Words mean nothing. Ideas are empty. Respect is earned by adding actual value. By making a difference. So reallocate that energy into the gift that you are giving to the people around you.
An unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centered ambition. It’s when the notion of ourselves in the world grows so inflated that it begins to distort the reality that surrounds us.
“Gratitude leads us to affirm and acknowledge the good things in our lives, and because you cannot be grateful and negative at the same time, it, counteracts feelings of envy, anger, greed, and other states harmful to happiness”.
“Throughout the day, we have many choices regarding who we’re going to be with and talk to. Don’t just gravitate to the coffee machine and participate in the negative gossip because it’s the only game in town”. - Steve Chandler
What will you create with the pieces presented to you not tomorrow or the next day but right now and every second moving forward?
Life gave you an amazing gift of a new day. Many people who are on their last breath would give anything for such a miraculous gift, and yet, we often will take this gift for granted. Fritter it away. And complain about much of it.
The song will come. The skies will clear, the sun will rise. But you have to know that, and you have to know it now, when all you have is ambition and a plan.
Loving well is an art. It starts with the awareness of something larger than ourselves, call it God, Source, Universe, whatever term feels delicious to you. The knowledge that Divine Love loves you is the beginning of your love story.
Your goal is not simply to live. Your goal is to live a life without walls, a life where you’re the author, with a pen in hand, and your story can be shared with the world as confirmation, as an example of what possible.
Nothing is impossible when others fail to see the answer. When others fail to see the light in themselves, in the situation. You become the reminder that life is internally manufactured.
While politicians, historians, and well-meaning people on both sides may debate the righteousness of the battle, no one can dispute the courage of the men who stayed and their impact on the future of America.
“Now is our time. This is our moment. We need to step up to make a difference. And we can. The American adventure of freedom, equality, and justice is in our hands”.
Sometimes in life, the difference between OK, and great or stagnation and growth is only a change in perspective. It is how you look at the world and your place within it, that little voice in your head, reminding you that you are capable of things beyond your current comprehension.
