"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
— Matthew 16:26
We need to be constantly reevaluating what success means. Most so-called success in the world is slavery. The trappings of success often bring the opposite of success, at least in the ways most meaningful to people's lives. Beware! Success is not what you think it is. It's often a trap. You have been programmed from birth into a sick construct of competitive violence. Most success by your likely definition will lead to the destruction of your individuality and your inner-beings grand potential. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being successful and we should have abundance and success in our lives. But, we must possess the inner maturity to handle success; individually and as a culture. Every degree of success must be paired with a degree of integrity and compassion. Success without integrity is always fleeting, or monstrous. Real success sometimes involves saying no to growth, expansion and gain. Real success often involves absorbing tremendous loss on a personal level. Real success often involves sacrifice. Real success always involves virtues such as humility, compassion, and an abiding reverence and respect for life.
Success can be deadly, while failure feels safe. Success is a risk, and failure seems guaranteed, so failure feels less disappointing. Success is more painful than failure, because it comes with the death of anticipation and longing. The anticipation is always sweeter, than the moment what you longed for arrives. Once accomplished, success reveals its own insignificance in a life of true meaning.
Success can be like building an empty castle, when all you really needed was a true home for your heart. Success itself has vanquished many noble hearts. It has turned kings of spirit into spiritual paupers. Success has led soulful masters of life's grand estate, into spiritual bankruptcy. Through blood, sweat, and tears, chasing success will exsanguinate you of the life-blood of your very soul. The false need for what is commonly seen as success, continues to rob people of the true success, with which they were born.
Success is a seducer in a marketplace of pimps and whores. Success has turned an Earthly paradise, into a global brothel. Success is ambition porn, and it's addicts need no anonymity, for it is the open pornography of the culture. Success is the father of frauds, and countless bastard children of ambition's covetous wandering-eye, and capital philanderings. Success is legal heroine — it is the cocaine of the culture; an opportunity opiate. Success is a license to kill in the name of, "nothing personal, it's just business." Success is the front-line of class warfare. Success is an object of tireless desire. We have objectified success, even more than we have objectified women. We are success prejudice, more than we are race prejudice. Success is an equal opportunity destroyer. As war often comes in the name of peace, success the destroyer, often comes in the name of creation. The devastation of success is usually unleashed through the pursuit of so-called solutions. Success is the greatest of all panaceas.
Success was never meant to be an attainment; it was meant to be a testament. Our eye on the prize has moved from freedom, to success slavery. For many, success is the end of the road, that begins with a single step. Don't trust the path success takes you on, or what it leads you to. Most success will lead you to falsity. Quit trying to be successful. Redefine success from this day forward. Put it in its place. Quit begging, groveling, manipulating, conniving, scheming, and wanting with such desperation. Don't allow success to turn you into a desperate, empty, begging fraud. Self-satisfaction and gratitude for your completeness and innate perfection, is the most mighty of all successes. Reach for success, but slap its hand when it reaches for you. Because what success wants from you, is what you want from it — everything. There will never be enough that you want from it, and that it wants from you. Successes' demands are as endless as yours. It will siphon the reservoir of your hope to the last drop. Master success today. Be its master, not its slave. Success is illusionary; an oasis in a desert, but which itself, is already in a true paradise. Success was always with you. You were born a success, and you will die a success — if you can be successful at accepting the victory of living.
Positive thinking is useful, but highly overrated. Being truly successful does not require winning the positivity pageant. Being unsatisfied is healthy too. My whole life is an engine of dissatisfaction. It's why I wake-up in the morning. If you are unsatisfied, moody, discontented, and the song in your heart sounds more like a long frustrated moan, it's fine — groan, grumble, sigh, even growl. But, don't forget this; you are more. Real success is found in the balance of all things. Be fair with life, inasmuch as you wish life to be fair with you. Make your contentment equal to your discontentment. Voice your praise-filled gratitude as loudly, as your shouts of foul. Pray or give thanks in your own way, as earnestly as you bemoan your woes. Savior and sigh in the bliss of affections, as gutturally as your furrowed growls. Shout glory, Hallelujah, or thank you, thank you, thank you, as fervently as your most exquisite rage.
Stretch your finger-tipped reach for inward success, as far and deep, as your reach outward. Ardently strive — toward yourself. Dream, reach, long, want, and hustle, but never once — for success. Do it for you. And please, do it as you. Let your success merely be a testament to a life well-lived — in the way that it must be uniquely lived for you, and only for you. Success is merely the acknowledgement of your significance. And the highest form of success, is to behold, and ever defend the significance of every person, as reverently and devoutly, as your own.
Do you want to be heard and understood? Do you want to be touched and moved? Do you want people to listen to you, to see you, and recognize that within you, which is uniquely yours? Well, people will deliver those experiences to you, at a level, nearly always significantly less, than you cater those experiences for others. And, through the law of averages, or call it karma if you like, we all get pretty close to the deal we strike with life, and with each-other. We receive attention to the degree we pay attention. If things have not worked out, don't worry, the contract is not final, and there is still time to make it worse — or perhaps better. Life is a grand barter. Everything is a relationship, and everything is negotiable. Through greater awareness, your super-relationship, which is your relationship with everything, can elegantly negotiate all of your transactions in life, for better or for worse. Whether it will be better or worse depends on just how deeply you are willing to open yourself, so that others may open themselves to you.
If resisting has failed and frustrated you, try to accept what is. As hard as it is to believe, acceptance can open different opportunities for change than resistance. If you resist life, it will refuse you — but if you surrender, the world will give you everything it has to offer. Resisting is not the posture of receivership. Surrender is a state of readiness, awareness, and listening, which says you are ready to hear the transmission and receive. It's all about listening. The observer effect which is well established, means an observer may, through the act of observation, change the nature of that which they observe. This is how listening works with life, and with relationships — through your so-called psychology, and through theirs. The more you listen, the more they change.
Awareness is like a deep form of listening; something far beyond the cliched business and psychology jargon of, "active listening." Real listening is about full spectrum awareness. Listening is a meaningful form of intelligence. Listening is a receptive form of giving. Listening is an act of both giving and receiving. Listening is a mutual pleasure. Sure, you see yourself as generous and giving, but how receiving are you of others, through listening? You pride yourself on loving people unconditionally, but will you listen to them unconditionally?
It is only when you learn to listen, that you will finally be heard. When you are waiting for them to one-day hear you, or listen, you are giving them the power. Your self-imposed limitation, is that for you to move forward, they must listen, and meet your demands. This is not true. Listening brings awareness, knowledge, and power. Don't try to make them listen; instead, you listen. Listening is the supreme form of domination. There is no comeback to listening. The more you listen, the more you have power over them. Only people who don't know how to listen, have to walk around on eggshells.
Becoming more aware is the most practical form of enlightenment. Awareness is the carrier of opportunity. What is missing from your life, is often only what you cannot perceive enough to realize. Herein, is a new perspective on problems stemming from, "shortsightedness." Let's make a distinction between "overlooked, missed-it, or, forgot" — and not having the eyes, or the awareness, to see in the first place. There is so much there for you, at the far-peripheral of your vision. This even includes how you see, and appraise yourself, along with how you see others. Real vision is about awareness. The solution to nearly every problem in the world comes down to greater awareness, because when you are aware, you can see more — the bigger picture. Our problems don't exist because we hate each other, they exist because we do not fully see each-other. Hate is only blindness. We seldom actually know people; we only know our misinformed judgements. When we truly see each other, we call it friendship, or love. We consider as sacred, the high points that reach our low awareness, and give little attention to what is below our observation line. That's another way of saying we are missing almost everything. The gifts are everywhere. Special moments are labeled, "touching," or "emotional," — but really, those moments are not rare; they are just the moments we remember, through awareness.
Awareness changes the world, because awareness changes your mind. When you change your mind, how you experience the world changes with it. Awareness makes you powerful. Awareness is power. The greater your awareness; the greater your power. Developing awareness is a practice of deep and active sensing, perceiving, feeling, and most importantly, connecting. And when connecting, it is also important to connect with emptiness. An expanded mind does not mean full to the brim; open spaces are beautiful too. Just as pure silence is more than observation, as it informs from non-observation, greater awareness is not exclusively about observing. Awareness is more than a form of observation, it is also a magical absence of form, which opens the space for that which is unknown to arrive. Life is speaking to you, through the portal of your awareness. Each step toward greater awareness, unlocks gifts and freedoms, which can only be granted from within. Most of what we miss out on in life, is simply because we do not notice. Allow new awareness to bring you the gifts for-which your soul has restlessly been longing. Allow awareness to complete you.
I'd rather you impress me, than love me. I'd rather you be strong in your own opinions, than yield to mine for approval. We should delight in people's lives being full of impressive accomplishments, precisely because we do love and care about them. We should be proud of people having their own opinions, even when those opinions differ from our own, because real love wants every person to be independent, strong, and confident. When we really care for people's development and wellbeing, our admiration of their impressive accomplishments feels even more deeply satisfying, than their admiration of our own opinions and accomplishments. One of the most powerful and practical forms of unconditional love, is being impressed — with those whom we disagree, and even more so, with those we know may not even like us, or our way of seeing the world. Being loved feels good to us all, but when someone impresses us, that commands respect. I'd rather be impressed and respect you first, but if we have both love and respect, well — that is just unparalleled! It is so pleasurable to see people standing tall and thriving with self-reliance. We should rather sacrifice our egos, if it helps another ascend beyond the suffocating reach of our own insecurities. Never allow your insecurities to create insecurity in others. Like any good coach, temporary mentor, or friend should think — you don't have to like me, and we don't always have to agree, but learn what you can from me; throw out the rest, and above all — go out there and be great!
If you have a political axe to grind, today is the day to set it down. Don't confuse politics, with considering the profound loss of human life. It's not about how great the nation is; it is about what those souls lost. It doesn't matter if they were valiant volunteers, or reluctant and draft coerced. It isn't about bravery either — in those circumstances, shuddering in fear is just as honorable. It's about what you have today, which those who served and sacrificed, would never have again — life. So think about it a little today; somewhere in-between the flag-waiving, sports, beer, and barbecues — take a moment, to imagine how many real people, just like you, would never again experience such joyful times. So enjoy it for them. Have a great meal and good-times with those you love. Laugh a little louder, for them. Hug a little longer, and love a little deeper, for them. Live life twice as richly, for someone, who never came home. Think about them a little today, and somewhere in-between all of the distractions, offer-up one serious and sacred moment — to remember.
There is a difference between having a reaction, and using a reaction. Unconscious reactivity is a form of low self-awareness — even more dangerous than low self-esteem. Being aware of personal deficits is empowering, compared to no awareness at all, as to why life seems to grant one little favor. Life favors awareness; awareness of every sense and dimension, for through awareness comes choice. Unconscious reactivity makes your choices for you, leaving you feeling bullied by life, and powerless. Reactivity is how 'gluttons for punishment' are held prisoners by their own thoughtlessness. Being oblivious to your own reactivity is unrefined and gluttonous — it's appetite for gobbling up your opportunities has no end. The reactive mind is a monster; it is the feral reflex of animal survival — uninhabited by higher consciousness. Like a traumatized, caged animal convulsing behind bars, the reactive mind and tongue squirms and digs behind clenched teeth to escape, and interrupt. The force of restraint in the tightened sphincter of their pursed lips are aching to blurt their mind's spasm. They are not listening; they are mentally interrupting behind a facade of listening. They are not mindful; their thoughts more akin to seizures of thoughtlessness. To those with no awareness, they may seem attentive, but to those with awareness, they appear neurotic — their face a mountain of ticks. The atomicity of their upset permeates the core of their being, and radiates discomfort, out, and into the core of those in their proximity. The more they force calm, try to be polite, hold their tongue, and feign patience, the more their wounds, tensions, and unease mounts. Their anxiety fades in-and-out, on their oddly poised face, and in their twitching gesticulations, and quirky manner. Their inner turbulence sloshes out of their concealment, in waves of reflex upset, knee-jerk offense, exasperations, eye-rolls, inappropriate laughter, and mental belches of incorrect assumptions, judgements, and hurtful misunderstandings.
The reactive mind is a crippled mind, because it limits and distorts everything. The reactive mind even deforms how we construct ourselves, through choices based on distorted perceptions. Reactivity is the birthplace of ignorance, and the graveyard of potential. Reactivity is pure mindlessness, and pure madness. Reactivity is the opposite of mindfulness; it is a mindless, stray, erratic, and accidental state of semi-consciousness. The reactive mind is volatile, and cannot see itself through its splintered attention span. Reactivity comes in varying degrees with equally varying states of self-developmental retardation. The more reactive you are, the more you are stunted and cut-off from experiencing the full measure of life's grand endowment. Becoming mindful of your own reactivity is the first step toward a form of practical enlightenment. Awareness IS your opportunity. Your calm, measured, thoughtfulness, and graceful awareness of your own reactions, will begin to move you toward a life of peace, and a deeper sense of sturdiness against life's trials. Your life experience can only be as deep as your awareness. Your existence, as you know it, is a measure of your awareness. Each step toward self-awareness, is a step toward freedom, that only a truth with self can grant. Awareness is how everything you will ever have or experience — arrives, or is taken away. Be considerate, and consider yourself.
Technology should be shared rather than used as a weapon of exclusion and control. At the heart of our inner-conflict with technology, are the competing visions control and hoarding, versus a world of sharing, freedom, and enlightenment for all. Concentrative bottom-down manufacturing has always been inherently inelegant and violent; creating a lot of environmental collateral damage and wasted energy. But, the new era of bottom-up assembly is upon us. Bottom-up manufacturing is as close as we can imagine the authentic hand of creation. Bottom-up technology is like asking the lawfully obedient elements for cooperation, rather than using force to pressure them into the mold of our imagination. There is a new and exciting elegance becoming apparent in technology. But, ss technology elegantly advances, can we remove the hammer and anvil from our minds? Can we begin thinking bottom-up and embrace new models of graceful cooperation, or, energy efficiency. Cooperation is energy efficient; the friction of conflict is loss. True conservation is about sharing our most elegant and respectful creations. Like all Promethean advances, the flame-keepers hold the power of new life, and death, in their hands. Technology can ease the suffering of millions, but not when abducted and controlled by a select unethical elite. We now know we can grow heart tissue and even assemble a heart, but the question remains; can we have a heart? Ultimately, the technology most needed is the loving heart, without which, technology (another word for human imagination) will continue to be used to choke humanity into an oblivion of domination.
Uneasiness and suffering spills out on everyone around the wounded soul who cannot see themselves. What they have not observed, accepted, and healed within themselves infects everyone they meet. Their instability shakes every encounter with uneasiness. Their desperate longing for meaningful contact and peace, is steadily amplified by their unconscious and ill-mannered quarks of petty drama, or neglect. Broken people often demand from others, what they cannot summon from within. Many wounded people who cannot be at peace with themselves, force the people around them to walk on eggshells to create the illusion of calm they demand. The cost of their feigned composure of phony harmony, is your peaceful state of mind. Their state of ease in a room, is only equal to everyone else's state of unease. They obliviously belly laugh, while others heart palpitate. They smile, while you grit your teeth. They exhale in satisfaction, as your diaphragm flutters with anxiety. They ingratiate themselves into your deepest bonds of dependency, where you are more like a hostage than a friend, because you fear their meltdown should their affection go unrequited. The commotion they create in your life is like a toxic and confusing haze of crossed boundaries, broken trust, and endless disappointments. They are often mostly unaware of the energetic load and burden they place on others. The truth is, they cannot help themselves; they are sick, and need professional help.
Some people's problems are more than you can bare, and without proper boundaries, in time, these people will wear you down to a frazzle. Your hope and optimism is no match for their bottomless pit. Your pep-talks and quick fixes are no match for the endless self-destruction loop running in their minds. You can give them compassion, but they will settle for nothing less than your destruction. If they don't get help, you're the one who will soon need it. Their unresolved traumas will seep in, as your trauma. Their wounds, will become your wounds. Their madness slowly becomes your madness. If you will honestly look in the mirror at the stress on your face, and in your eyes, you will see what they are doing to you. They are remaking you into their likeness; a terrorized person, who is desperate for peace.
Everyone goes through hell, but not everyone stays there. Stop tormenting yourself by reliving the pain over and over. Good people go through terrible things, but wise people know when and how to let it go. We all know that wisdom does not come easy, it often comes from painful experience. Many of us are very unwise in how we handle our pain. Like an animal that struggles in a steel trap, we worsen our wounds the way we struggle, deny, and fight against what simply, is. When we refuse to learn the wisdom of acceptance, we become our own tormentors. When we refuse to let go we suffer, yet we cannot let go of something until it has taught us what we need to learn. Letting go is a process of recognition, confrontation, acceptance, and healing. Letting go simply means not suffering any more than absolutely necessary, but just enough to expand and strengthen ourselves. Some suffering is needed to deepen our compassion, to grow, and to learn. Letting go means you have learned enough, and now have compassion for yourself. Letting go means not touching that sore spot until it is infected, and instead letting it heal. Letting go means carrying a permanent scar, but not a permanent wound. Letting go means you may have walked through hell, but came out the other side ready to make your life a heaven. Letting go means you refuse to be a victim forever, by letting one moment define the rest of your life. Letting go means you accept change, and you accept that your pain is not permanent. Letting go means you accept that you cannot take away the past, but you insist that the past cannot take away your future. Letting go means you are ready to move forward and live. Letting go means you are no longer afraid. It was always fear that held you prisoner; letting go means you are finally free.
Some people love to relive their pain; they are perpetual victims — self-abusing, emotional-drama junkies. They are always fanning into flames every little spark. Some people are addicted to the trauma of the drama; their raison d'etre is the daily struggle against their own created turmoil. The struggle in life is their stagecraft, where the people around them become unwitting performers in their dramatic scenes. Crisis is their sensation of being alive; spectacle is their excitement and proof of life. In absence of true passion and purpose, some people engage in the dark surrogate of petty commotion and drama. These people do not want to let go and move on, because they need to struggle and destroy, to live. Blame is their getaway vehicle they use to flee the scenes of their emotional crimes. The pain they carry within themselves is flung and strewn on everyone they encounter; contaminating every peaceful moment with spots of uneasiness and discord. They are raging against themselves. They fight outward enemies because they are afraid to confront the enemy within. They are deeply wounded people, who can be very dangerous to your peace of mind, your family, and your life. Like a wounded animal, they will bite your hand of comfort. They will suck you into their hellish world if you let them. They will keep you there forever, for drama after drama, as their emotional support — as their prisoner. It will never end; every molehill made into a mountain of problems — mountains of madness. When you find yourself hanging off the cliff, with someone about to pull you over the edge, you have to cut the rope. Sometimes letting go of someone is the only way to survive.
Please take some quiet time to meditate on the incalculable beauty of the gift of life. Remember to take some time each day to play. Touch the Earth, walk on the grass barefoot, swipe the dew from a leaf with your finger, take a deep breath and remember what you are — you are a beautiful child of creation. Glory to you "people of beauty" everywhere. Thank you, thank you, thank you — that from somewhere, somehow, a new smile is available for each heart, each new day. Joy is in the simple things, and it was always meant just for you.
Much of what I do is try to help people reestablish awareness of their true identity. If you are reading this then you are likely trying to understand how to better market and sell yourself, or a product. But marketing is much more than a learned action or skill; it is an intrinsic part of the natural order of life. To be masterful at sales or marketing you need to know your identity and be a zen-master of self. While the crude and immature tools of manipulation, arrogance, swagger and a polished glib tongue may get you noticed in the small pond, the skills needed to thrive in the higher-realms are more spiritual, personal and mature.
Marketing is a part of life and the grand natural order. Marketing is not about stuff, money or capitalism; it is about intrinsic, life-force resource currencies. Birds sing and dance to attract mates, and it seems that no matter where we look we find some animal showing off— especially us humans. And maybe those new-age hippies were on to something too, because if you want to strengthen your brand you can learn from the flowers. Flowers are first and foremost in the advertising business. Flowers know how to attract what they want and need. Flowers express themselves and their value naturally, and do so without running Super Bowl ads. Natural, truly organic or spiritual marketing is an effortless expression of simply being your own truth. Nothing sells better than the truth.
Life is a large marketplace in which we are all seeking to express our intrinsic and cultivated value, whether it be dating, business, friendship, artistic expression and even our value to our environment when we are alone. Today's Ascended Business Master must have a broad and conscious understanding of her environment and the deeply interconnected web of life in which we all live. Real business leadership is about human leadership, integrity and social responsibility. Ultimately real marketing is about knowing yourself and your identity. You are the human-resource currency. You need to have a healthy self-valuation and then allow your natural gifts and unique signature to become a supportive part of the social ecology. We are in this thing together.
Gimmicks, manipulation and force are the old ways. The ethological sphere of business is evolving along with the mass consciousness. Life and social evolution is like a breath; out with the old and in with the new. The old ways of force and control will no longer work in the new coming world, and those who cannot evolve will perish. Sales and marketing is not something we do, it is something we are. All prosperity comes from a deep and sacred place within.
Who you are is the ultimate form of marketing.
When cultivating a creative team, don't make the common mistake of only looking for technicians. And don't fool yourself into thinking you can just "hire" smart people and manage them with traditional leadership if you want to achieve something spectacular. Brilliance and super-creativity can only be cultivated and recognized by creative brilliance itself. You can't ask for or get what you don't understand yourself, and this is one of the key challenges of leadership.
To even have a conversation about uncommon brilliance you must develop a new vocabulary of freedom, which is mostly foreign in corporate cultures. This communication involves a type of two-way trust between you and your "employees". There are many ways we contract with others. Repressive relationships create resentment, while trusting relationships create the free space for magic to happen. Cultivating creative magic is like growing crystals; with the proper ingredients and environment the laws of nature take over and the crystals appear. It is the same when we are trying to crystalize production of the most coveted human resource—creative brilliance. First, the right environment and ingredients must be present. It is your job as a leader to provide those ingredients and environment, and then let the laws work for you. Similar to the laws guiding the formation of crystals are constructs which allow ideas to flourish and crystallize in the mind. It is not the job of leadership to force or direct creative output, but only to create the environment. Creative culture is achieved through wise and gentle cultivation, not direct manipulation.
Too few leaders understand the style of benevolent governing that sets the best in people free. Creating an organic creative culture takes patience and a true understanding of the importance of freedom and respect. Control and domination do yield some results, but are not the tools of the master-crafters who are fueled by freedom and passion. True brilliance is wild and messy, not obedient or orderly. Control and greed; what more can be said—this is the 20th century summed up. Control and greed should be the definition for poor leadership. Fostering and partaking in the rare brilliance of a truly creative culture is an art-craft—not business. The human resources department needs to be seen as the "Holy-of-Holies" in the corporate temple. Employees should be respected above all — especially above single dimensional profits. If there is no respect for the employees, then you have the wrong employees or the wrong management, or both. Freedom, respect and commonwealth form the triad par excellence of any healthy relationship or creative culture.
If you want cutting-edge genius from your employees, what are you providing equally cutting-edge and genius? Don't ask for what you cannot give. Lead by example. Care for your "employees," those "employed" in the endeavor of expressing their unique fingerprint of creative brilliance.
Leadership resources should be used to provide employees the protection and freedom they need to feel safe and valued. Real leaders use their strength to shield employees from the foul machinations of common corporate culture. When you shoulder that weight, and release your team from the suffocating pressure all too common in today's corporate culture, they will rise to great heights of loyalty and creative brilliance.
Freedom, respect, and commonwealth form the triad par excellence of any healthy relationship.
From an Inc. Magazine Interview
Jenni Young and I founded Simple Reminders in 2010 in Hollywood, as a way to share our love for each other, and our passion for life and creativity with the world. I was an established author and technologist, and Jenni was a film producer and photographer. For us, entrepreneurship is a place where imagination and creativity become meaningful forms of value in our lives, and in the lives of others.
We have learned that life and the marketplace deeply favor value and good intentions. Through our earnest desire to create value, our brand emerged as one of the highest engagement social media successes in the world, eclipsing more well-known titan brands with billions in revenue. Several times a year we even peak as the #1 most visible and engaged social media influencer in the world, with 1 billion unique viewers, and nearly 14 billion brand impressions worldwide, accumulating 288 million annual calls to action of physical engagement.
Proof that the American dream is still alive and well, we built our company on two smartphones and cameras, a few laptops, and a sincere desire to show people the best of themselves through inspiring words, images, and products. The climb to success, and the arrival both have unique perils. And, when the floodgates of outrageous success open to you, there are many challenges and setbacks you will encounter that require wisdom and inner-strength.
Creative zeal, innovation, and optimism will only get you so far. Here are a few things we have learned on our journey along the way.
All success comes through other people. You cannot isolate yourself into prosperity. Social media must first and foremost be — social. The tenants of huge social media success are the same principals of being a good neighbor. You must be genuine, available, caring, supportive, friendly, and of good intention and good will. If you want to prosper, you must delight in seeing others prosper. Never forget that fifty-percent of social success, whether in social media, or the real world requires the other party's happiness and success; that is your clients, customers, and consumers.
Good relationships are at the heart of all success. Success belongs to the thoughtful; tragedy to the neglectful. Every aspect of every business transaction is a relationship that requires thoughtfulness and respect. Respect is the universal currency accepted everywhere. Treat others with respect and you will always be wealthy because your community is your real currency.
The setback of narrow vision can be fatal. Look at the world through the eyes of other people. In today's complex world you have to become an integration thinker. Like statecraft, entrepreneurship that engages millions of people, is a mixture of politics, technology, and finance requiring deep integration thinking from its leadership. Get outside of yourself! Do anything you can to expand any narrow thinking, or "set" ways. Expose yourself to as many new people, ideas, challenges, and viewpoints as possible. The more you can learn, connect, and integrate, the more you can evolve and grow.
Don't believe every trend, and even consider being a trendsetter. The only way to ever possibly set a trend, is not to follow every trend. Don't be afraid to wait it out before investing time and capital in new and seemingly popular opportunities. You know your markets, so if you feel you have the pulse of the moment at your fingertips, explore that zeitgeist as a leader, and not a follower.
Don't get swamped in IT. Make deep use of existing technology. Most people only use the surface of technology. We take for granted the power and availability of unfathomable tools and technology, because the are so common. We are so immersed in omnipresent tech that the deeper opportunities of technology become almost invisible. It may be a myth that we only use 10% of our brains, but we certainly only use 10% of technology, at most. Find creative ways to deeply leverage existing infrastructure and platforms. Use common technology in very uncommon ways.
Don't let infighting, territorialism, or careerism set you back. The task of leadership is showing people the obvious ways they can and should work together. Cooperation is a higher principle than competition. Unhealthy competition can motivate people, but not without friction, loss of energy, and unnecessary collateral damage. Cooperation is more elegant and efficient than competition. Inspire people to work together. Fear, suspicion, distrust, and resentment cannot rear its ugly head where there is an atmosphere of trust and partnership.
Most success is simply about showing up. Leadership is about taking a beating and showing up again and again. Real entrepreneurs cannot live without problems. All business is — is solving problems. Don't run from problems; run to them. Problems are not a sign things are going wrong, they are a sign you are in business and moving forward. I don't care who you are, or what you do, you are a solution provider, or you are irrelevant.
Much of what people are doing with social media is a complete waste of time. You can spend your days and nights liking, clicking and commenting until your fingers bleed, and then what are you going to have? There is much more to life than reposting an endless torrent of unoriginal content. It is sad to see people hyping-up — nothing — just for likes and clicks from couch zombies, who without the internet would be back to watching Price is Right reruns. Social media is the new TV, and just as it was with the the old TV, there are viewers and doers.
It is my strenuous advice to be cautious about emulating experts who produce nothing of value, except a dust storm of unoriginality. These people are eager to teach you how to be successful, like them, by learning their empty strategies. But, how many social media experts have done anything with social media, other than talking about social media itself? That sounds like running in circles to me.
Much of what happens in social media can seem utterly useless. Social media is a never-ending hurricane of fleeting trends. Much of social media is a tempest of mediocrity; a maelstrom of rubbish. Imagine social media as a hurricane of people, connections, views and information. This hurricane is cutting through the social landscape like a buzzsaw leaving a swath of confusion and distractions. Don't get swept away by the torrent of social media nonsense. While the world is in chaos around you, stay in the eye of the storm; steady and true to yourself and your mission. If you are centered, grounded, calm and wait-it-out patiently, you will still be there when everyone else has long been blown-away.
People want to trust you, but not before they observe you for a while. It may take a few years, or even a decade of people watching you before they decide to believe you are serious and trustworthy. Consistency and creativity will almost always produce positive results. The world belongs to the minority of true creative producers. Huge success is so easy because there is literally almost no competition at the top. However, there is endless competition among the re-posters, repeaters, and their regurgitations. This is good news. It means any originality creates meaningful differentiation. True creative content dominates because people want to touch others, and be touched by others. People thirst to taste the authentic and to grow in the expansiveness of unique creative expressions. Trend chasing can get you some results in the short-term, but it is tacky; like a sidewalk hustle. Empty pandering solely for social traction, is not only an insult to the audience, but to content creator. If your must pander, at least provide some value in a way that work for you and your audience. Brand lasting power comes from the relentless production of value through integrity and passion. If you are not creating value for others then you are wasting your time.
If you are looking for quick, superficial and transient results, then follow the crowd. If you want profound and lasting results you are going to have to be authentic, long-suffering, and truthful. It can be scary on the edge, but the view is great and the competition is practically nonexistent. Just showing up almost guarantees success, that is if you don't get impatient and then leave. My best social media strategy tip is to ignore all of the trends, stay true to your vision and attempt to produce something of your own and of real value — even if you are the only one who values it in the beginning.
It is actually very easy for an individual or small organization to compete against big brands through social media. Big brands have difficulty providing real value and forming real relationships. They are often organizationally schizophrenic; the amalgamation of many hands and minds. They have difficulty providing real value and often resort to advertising, gimmicks, giveaways, contests, and what amounts to a lot of non-sense. However an individual can really distinguish herself in a community of her peers. An individual can develop real relationships; the backbone of social media, which big brands clearly can never do. This is one of the primary ways big brands are so utterly crippled on social media. They throw large sums of money into social media in a broadcasting model, but never have any real way to build relationships with other human beings, or "broad connecting." In social media the "little guy" rules and isn't so little.
I really don't think that way at all. I purposely refuse to think that way. I only think about creating something of real value to people. I am not ignorant to what may get social lift — I know what works, but I very often do things that I know are unlikely to do well, because I first honor the vision in my product. In the long-run, integrity in your product will get you further engagement and the respect of your fans and critics.
There are lots of cheap tricks for getting posts to go viral. I don't recommend people go for viral for the sake of viral. Think about people who make silly videos that have been honed for maximum views. They succeed in getting exactly what they want; the most views. But if you think about it, this is a very selfish philosophy which seeks only to serve the video creator. They are not leaving the viewer with much more than having spent time watching a video that was psychologically crafted to steal their attention and time for a moment. This is great for building a one-way relationship brand, and feeding advertisers who are hungry for "eyeballs" but what about the viewer? Advertisements and purposefully attention grabbing media have a quasi-genetic history of naturally selective evolution into increasingly potent, effective, and virulent strains of influence. These potent strains of media are dangerous, and usually stupefying. I think that creating viral content for the sake of virility is often exploitive and meets my definition of passive violence against consumers. If the impetus is solely virility, then it is not only selfish, but a psychologically orchestrated time and attention heist. This is how consumers become the consumed. I would much rather create value for a smaller segment of viewers than selfishly reap value from a large segment of viewers. Ultimately, all social media strategy comes down to the types of relationships creators have with viewers — otherwise knows as other human beings. Do I like it when a post goes viral? You bet I do! But I like it even better when it happens as naturally as possible, and in a way where my readers and viewers benefit as much as I do, or even more than I do. I want to have an honorable and good relationship with my readers.
I think people are very smart and they know when they are only getting half of the story, for example, when you only write about so-called positive concepts. Life is a full-spectrum engagement. I consider a lot of the memes which are "fluff-pieces" to be a sort of plastic spirituality or woo-woo self-help that can do more harm than good. Life has dark moments and it is out of our darkness that we often find our greatest beauties and strengths. People recognize it when they receive a full-dose of whole grain reality. People want truth more than anything, even when it frightens or angers them. People will even die for the truth. Sometime the truth is ugly, dark, and unpleasant. Many of my best posts are about painful truths. They are about guilt, loss, and feeling powerless to help those we love most. I think we can all relate to those experiences at one time or another in life. People love "real" even when it is not wrapped-up with a pretty bow. If you just focus on being honest and ripping your heart out and showing it to the world — people will respond. Tragedies are a part of life where we have no choice, but we can choose to let our painful lessons help others who are going through their own struggles.
There are meme quotes that are sticky-sweet "fluff-pieces," that we laughingly say should end with "and dance in the rain", based on the quote, "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass it's about learning to dance in the rain." Some quotes are sheepishly innocent and innocuous to the point of nausea. So when we see one of these quotes we joke that they should append, "and don't forget to dance in the rain." I feel that a lot of these types of quotes are based on playing it safe to appeal to audiences with maximum virility, with little chance of blowback or offending the audience. I have zero respect for this strategy, at least used solely. As far as the "knock-out-a-tooth" posts, that originated with comments we often receive from posts that contain a hard lesson that is difficult to digest. People will comment that reading it was like "getting hit in the head with a brick", "kicked in the face with a golf shoe", or having a "tooth knocked out." While certainly humorous, these comments hint at some of my real strategies for developing my relationship with readers. I want readers, but I also want integrity with my message. If a post is too harsh it will not get social play, if it is too innocuous, it will make me want to puke. So what I do, is I write an honest piece of writing that opens up gently, pulls the reader in, and then when they are fully engaged and get close enough, I wallop them with a dose of hard truth. As it has been said, "a little sugar makes the medicine go down." I write pieces as lengthy as I wish, with no consideration for virility, likability, popularity, or acceptance — I write my mind. But then, Jenni and I select a quote from the piece that we think will be attractive to the broadest audience and we let that lead. This way we get traction while also staying true to our artistic vision and message.
I studied how people use words and language my whole life, but even more importantly — I studied how they don't use them. If you want to be successful, then study what people are doing, and then, look for what they are not doing! Take inspiration but be original, which is another way of saying be you. Anyone who dares to be themselves is viral in the making. But to be you you have to step back and reflect. The greatest thing you will ever do in your life is be yourself. Copycats may get a flash-in-the-pan moment of attention, but it never lasts, and is never truly respected. My ideas about viral are on a different time scale. To me viral is something that echoes into history. There is viral on Facebook or Twitter, there is viral in culture, and there is viral in history. If you reach deep into yourself and expose yourself with sincerity and truthfulness, you will be noticed. Look down the road paved before you and then, when you are ready, jerk the wheel hard toward your own off-road adventure. People love the adventurers, path-cutters, and trendsetters who prove that being yourself is good enough. People follow leaders and the best social virility is about leadership. The number one tip I have is to create original content and to be original, by being yourself.
Some of our most successful and far reaching posts are posts where we did everything "wrong." For example, with our top shared post, while some say you should use bright colorful images, we used a dreary, dark image. According to some experts, you are supposed keep it up-beat and fun, and this was gut-wrenching, and painful material. You are supposed to keep it short and it was literally one of the longest posts ever. The 140 thousand comments on the post are littered with "read the whole thing" and "the longest post ever but worth it." I think one of the reasons it went so viral was it hit a nerve. We have all had to watch someone slowly destroy themselves and felt powerless as we witnessed the senseless agony they put themselves through. Many people carry a lot of guilt for making a choice to separate themselves from someone who was destabilizing their life. I think for some, the piece helped them deal with guilt. But one thing we noticed is tens-of-thousands of tagged comments where someone used the piece as a warning or a message of reinforcement to people they care about presently in toxic relationships. So in this sense the article was speaking for others and becoming their voice. In essence this post was popular because it articulated a common frustration and pain, and it spoke to people in a way they could deeply relate to personally.
We all hear that bright colorful images are the way to go. Overall this is true, but many of our posts, and especially the "Miracle Post" clearly proves that it is not necessary to stick with that guideline. Jenni and I have learned that there are so many people out there with such varied tastes, that nearly anything you create will appeal to someone. When you specialize you limit your audience. Experiment and mix things up. Get creative. Develop a style that works and then violate it.
Original content is so vitally important. Even having poor original content is better than just re-posting someone else's work. Think about it this way. If you are just posting other people's content, then what you are really building is a page or community of people who have no interest in you! That is a perfect arrangement for people who have no real interest in their followers; it's a match made in hell. When you collect followers using arbitrary content you develop an arbitrary following. This type of following has no focus, no cohesion, and no loyalty. Again, go back to the idea that relationships are the center of all meaningful prosperity. Only your own original content can draw a following of people who are truly interested in you. People who follow you because of your ideas are the people with whom you will have a bond. When people have a vested interest in one another they are less likely to be exploitive toward one another. In this way of looking at social media relationships we can begin to see how original content, as crazy as it sounds, promotes healthier relationships. In most cultures healthy relationships are regarded as the greatest wealth.
Jenni and I have been photographers since we were children, and I have been writing since I was 10. You will seldom catch us without a camera. We love to travel around the world and capture beautiful and thought provoking moments. I also write books, and we transcribe videos when I speak at events or when we do workshops together. We then look through the content and try to pick key sentences that we believe will help people see the world differently. The greatest thing you have to share with another person is your way of looking at the world. Seeing the world from another person's eyes brings us all closer together. As far as the technical how, our most important content creation tools are portable. Travel for speaking and book-signings allows us to get great photos. We each have very well thought-out portable toolkits similar to traveling journalists.
Quit thinking about social media strategies and think about success in general. Also think about your life, and how you have a finite amount of time and energy. What do you want to use your finite life force to accomplish or experience? To me a social media strategy is really a life strategy. Social media is just another provision to interface with, and, relate to people and ideas. So, at the foundation of a meaningful social media strategy is your core identity as a human being. If you don't really have a plan for how you will spend your life force, then you can't really have a social media plan beyond those limits. The first step is therefore is to know yourself. Make decisions about what you want to do in life. Social media is like a portal to the universe; it can take you anywhere in a blink. Social media mirrors real life. We have creatively willed it into being, and its infrastructure mirrors physical cities, communities, libraries, roadways, etc. And true to real life most people spend their days as consumers endlessly shopping, consuming, and aimlessly engaging in various forms of escapism. These are people who don't have a plan; they have been absorbed by someone elses' plan. When you don't have a plan for your own in life, then you will be following someone else's plan. A long-range social media strategy is a plan about how you will use the awesome power the Internet to connect with people and information, to enrich your life and the lives of others. It is all about relationships; your relationship with information, material goods, products, people, and most importantly yourself. If you think the Internet is just a place to selfishly broadcast, sell goods and do business, you have not thought about it very deeply. The Internet is a reflection of the grand complexity of life as we know it — deepening in complexity and resolution daily. So create your "social media" strategy according to your life strategy. Once you have a solid life-plan look for ways the social resources of connectivity, information, and networking can help you further connect with your goals. As I mentioned when Guy Kawasaki interviewed me about my social media strategies as an author, I wrote out a 20 year plan in 1993. At the heart of my strategy is my understanding that people and relationships are your true wealth. Treat others with respect and you will always be wealthy, because your community is your real currency.
There are no obstacles. There are only obstacles if you have a set path. There can only be obstacles if you have attachments to an outcome. Learn to flow. I don't experience obstacles — ever, and you don't have to either. My writings have been published in thousands of books by the world's top publishers and "the miracle post" as we call it resulted in unsolicited proposals from a number of major publishers wanting multi-book deals with advances, and a relationship with one of the top agents in the world. To accomplish this I did very little. What I learned is that if you just pursue your passion with heart and patience, your unique path will present itself to you. Your opportunities will come to you with grace and ease as a response to your dedication and persistence. I did not seek out any of the opportunities that came my way. If you make a personal statement and stick with it — in time — the opportunities will come to you. You have to trust in your own value if you want others to recognize your value. Each writer has a unique path which can only belong to them. With the democratization and decentralization of the publishing industry everything has changed. Where there were once a few paths with a few gatekeepers, there are now endless paths and possibilities. Now more than ever is the time for writers to hold true to their own visions. The most insubordinate obstacle you will encounter is your own limited thinking. You often simply get exactly what you ask for. If you want commercial success, you will likely get it. If you want a publishing deal, you will get it. But think hard about the old saying that you better watch out what you ask for because you might get it. Carefully set your goals. My goal has always been to make a significant and enduring contribution through my creative works. I have been tremendously blessed that my simple sayings and writings have been so widely disseminated around the world. I live my dream every day because it was my desire to do so. If you believe in yourself and work with joy, passion, and patience you can live your dream — no matter what that dream looks like — it can be yours.
I do post things that I know people are unlikely to enjoy very much, but that I believe is in their best interest. I never post things that are negative just for negative attention. I only post what is truthful to me and what I think may help someone, even if it only helps one person. Gloria Steinem said, "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.", and Arthur Schopenhauer wrote that, "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Unfavorable judgements are a welcomed consequence of having an opinion. For Jenni and I, posting our photography, art, and writings is not a popularity contest. A writer or artist has no responsibility to monitor how pleased or outraged people are with their work. The contest of art is within the artist. Without truthfulness art dies. Many people only focus on popularity because it means advertising dollars or merchandise sales. People act this way when they are only thinking about money. Only thinking about money means you only want to receive value, rather than also creating and giving value. That is a hostile philosophy disappointingly commonplace; it is without conscience and has little to do with art, creativity, or the common good. There is a word for that — its called, usury. Why not just be honest about it and hold people up in the street with a gun. This is how many artists, entrepreneurs, and advertisers look more like robbers and bandits. It is easy to feed on people like a parasite. But caring about people takes work, sacrifice, and hands of service that consider a true profit to include how we leave each person after each transaction. Entrepreneurism must deeply concern itself with the common good, and with an abiding interest in lifting humanity. In the process of being honest and not chasing popularity you are at times going to be at odds with your audience, and they will both hate you and love you for it. Both love and hate are equally flattering obsessions. As Aristotle wrote, "To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing."
Authenticity is a concept that constantly challenges common notions of success. Remember that common success originates with common thinking, but extraordinary success requires extraordinary thinking. Extra-ordinary, as in not ordinary. "Not ordinary" can only come from exerting your unique gifts. Your greatest strength is your individuality. But in today's heavily homogenized monocultures — psychological, spiritual, and creative individuation have been suppressed. Each person is and has a unique gift. You have to try to understand your gifts and then develop the courage to share your gifts. Success is a very personal practice. One consistency in my version of success is following passion. It is essential that you follow your own idea of passion, even if to others it looks like suffering. If you can just be yourself in today's world, then you are already tremendously successful.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Life.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Nature.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Simplicity.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Quietness.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Foreigners.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Women.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Men.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Whites.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Blacks.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Arabs.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Jews.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Palestinians.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Gays.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. The Poor.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. The Rich.
You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. Yourself.No matter what you lost, or how you were hurt, there is no future for you in your painful memories. The past may have given you awareness, but it is not awareness. The past is real, but it is as ephemeral, and as unreal, and as unreachable, as any other illusion. Memories are illusions; echoes of the past. Memories can be a form of false consciousness; a place one lives to avoid living. As your past emerges in your mind, you vanish in the present. If you are not careful, your memories can imprison you. You must stop thinking about what you wish to repair from the past. You cannot heal memories, you can only heal yourself in the present. All your pain from your past, has already served you. Keep the lessons of your pain, but not the memories of your pain. Let it all go.
Your ability to communicate effectively and your success potential are inextricably linked. What is communication? Communicating is central to every aspect of life. Everything we humans do is a form of communication. Communicating is foundational. Obviously, communicating includes writing and speaking, but it less obviously includes self-talk, body language and even your energy. Your comportment, manners, vocabulary, diction, and presentation all communicate your essential message. Communication also includes less obvious nonverbal and passive processing, such as bias, assumptions, expectations and misunderstanding. Even how you think is structured by the expansiveness of your inner-language capabilities. Good communications are central to leadership, conflict resolution, business success, family, and the potential of all of your relationships.
Nothing has changed my life more than the power of communication. A whole world of possibility opened to me through reading, writing and mastering the ability to communicate. I believe that becoming a better communicator is the easiest and most accessible way for a person to improve their life. Nothing will advance you further or faster, and with as little effort and money, as becoming a stronger communicator.
In this series I hope to provide you with information you can use to advance your life. Words are powerful. Words change lives; words and ideas change the world.
A large part of being a good communicator is being a good listener. If you understand what a person is conveying to you, even while they are speaking in a regional dialect, or some form of a sub-cultures' "pigeon" slang, and you penalize them by disregarding their message, then YOU are the one with a communication problem, NOT THEM. If you are so smart, then why can't you discern their intended message?
The world is rife with "wanna-be" elitists, who love to make themselves feel superior through the unjustifiable use of verbal force. They wage their assaults through their communicative prowess against those with lesser developed language skills, which is of course a form of bullying. Many of these bullies are just myopic, blowhard-rubes, who do not posses any of the valuable characteristics that would make good use of their powerful communication skills. Creativity, empathy, character, deep yearning, rare originality, individuality, and intelligence with a purpose of making a significant and meaningful contribution to the world is by far, a better measure of a person's "intelligence," than the rote blather of a glib tongue. Intellectual elitism is a gross vice. Being 'smart' is a total spectrum of behaviors; it is about balance — not just intellect. Respectful and considerate listening is a meaningful form of intelligence. A respectful communicator will always create a safe space for others to be heard.
Communication is not exclusively about spelling, grammar, syntax, or pronunciation; communication is about the ideas being delivered.
Learn to listen, and then you may learn. Seek to understand, and to be understood. Don't judge people or put yourself above others. If you are humble and pay attention, you may one day discover that everyone you encounter has something valuable to teach you. Look beyond your judgments to the heart of the matter.
Word Power Affirmation
I always create a safe place for others to express themselves. I respect others and I earnestly seek to understand their message. I never use my intelligence unfairly against others. I make good and healthy use of my communication skills. I only correct others to be helpful, and in the manner that best serves them. My desire to be understood is equal to my desire to understand. I do not judge others because I know everyone I meet has a lesson to teach me.
Stress Reduction, SLEEP, Breathing, Water, Sunshine, Walking, Fruits, Vegetables, Yoga, Meditation, Love, Community, Laughter, Dreams, Perseverance, Purpose, Humility, Action (As Seen in Origin Magazine)
I was born in the deep south, in Mobile, Alabama, also known as the Azalea City because of the vibrant landscapes colored by these beautiful flowers. I had been adopted away from an abusive family situation, and had almost died twice as a toddler. I grew up on a small, dirt road in the country, and my family had few resources, so college was seemingly not an option. I had no connections, no education, few positive role models, and making matters worse, my self-esteem had been crushed through years of secreted childhood bullying and abuses, which would take me decades to overcome. What I remember the most about my childhood is constant fear — and "good food."
I was raised in a culture of quietly "polite" judgments; a pressure-cooker of seething hatred, prejudice, violence and ignorance. But hey, the catfish and fried chicken were amazing! I was never really taught about healthy eating. To the contrary, my cultural inheritance was learning to "treat yourself" at "special occasions" by gorging on every horribly delicious food you can imagine. I don't want to get into the greasy, buttery, deep-fried, fatty, sugary, meaty, barbecued details here, but let's just say if gluttony really is the second deadly sin, then I knew a lot of people on their way to hell. With no knowledge of positive psychology, real foods or healthy lifestyles, time took its toll on me, and the invincibility of my youth diminished as my gut and waist-line expanded.
Much later in life, I found myself living (dying) in a suburban basement, like a hunchback shut-in, not leaving for months at a time because of embarrassment and chronic pain. It was really bad, and sad. I had no one to help me with my plight. I cried out for help to those closest to me, but my pleading was met with cold detachment and uncaring. There was a time when I was really worried and afraid that I was going to die, because I was so unhealthy. I could not even walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath. I was truly and frighteningly, unwell. I was on my own and I was debilitated. I felt old and tired, and I could see the grave rapidly approaching. My body had become an entombment of fat covering the pain and loneliness of a broken heart and spirit. Hope and life seemed very distant.
But there was something still in me; a dream I had always dreamt of living a beautiful life. I had a calling in my heart; a great calling for a great work. But, to carry out my calling I would need strength and vitality, both things that seemed so far away. I longed to be free of the bodily pain, stiffness and decrepitude. I remember when I was just a little boy running around bare-foot on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere Alabama. I may have been a hick, but I could run! At dusk, often on my way home, I would run bare-foot through a five acre field of dew-covered grass. I was running wildly on the tips of my toes with such speed, that all I could hear was the loud winds blowing in my ears. I felt like Mercury, or an Indian brave, and my energy seemed inexhaustible. I could run like the wind; feeling my power rushing through me. I wanted that joyous, youthful vigor and spring back.
One of the first steps to achieving wellness for me, was learning humility. To abuse the gift of life and one's own precious body is a form of extreme arrogance and self-hatred. So one of the keys for me was reacquainting myself with the beautiful gifts that exist, for those who have respect, gratitude and appreciation for all that is available to heal and sustain our bodies. I also made a very deliberate decision that I wanted to live life with health and vigor. I decided I wanted the energy and vitality to do and experience all of the wondrous things in life that are available to all people. I wanted the strength and stamina to lead a life of activity, exploration and true excellence. Ultimately it came down to me deciding whether I wanted to advance toward the grave in a state of decrepit stupor, or rise and advance in life as a fresh, vital being, full of youthful energy and joy.
In my quest for understanding, I realized something very important one day. That the human body is an unfathomable and miraculous microcosm of divine order. The intelligence, complexity and order of even a single cell rivals that of a large modern city. Our bodies love us! Just think about it. The universe within — your trillions of cells all cooperate in a grand orchestration to serve and heal you. Your cells work around the clock in total unison and harmony cleaning, repairing, restoring and nourishing your entire physical being. Every person's body wants nothing more than to cooperate with them in achieving optimal health. But I realized that I was at WAR with my OWN body. I was waging a terrible war of violence against my body by bombarding it with stress, toxic environments, lack of sleep, and the most terrible and dreadful toxic foods known to man, otherwise known as, the modern American diet and lifestyle. When you are obese, you are chronically diseased and you are moving toward the grave at a rapid pace. My body had become completely addicted to heavy greases, oils, animal fats, highly refined carbohydrates, sugars, salts and an endless array of toxic chemicals. All of these self-inflicted bodily assaults kept my body's own rescue and repair mechanisms overloaded and unable to keep up with my deteriorating state.
Even through my pain I worked toward my heart's highest calling to be an instrument of healing for the world, but little did I know, that those whispers were really calling for my own healing. As destiny would have it, I found myself catapulted onto the world stage, and was given a rare opportunity to be a voice of reason and peace for the voiceless. However, with the opportunity came a humbling lesson. I was advocating for world peace, but I was waging a violent war against my own body. I was speaking about poverty and starvation, but I was eating more than my fair share. I was a hypocrite. This epiphany laid open my pride to the providence of self-love as I invoked the sage wisdom of Gandhi to become the change that I wanted to see in the world.
I discovered that simply by getting out of my own body's way, and letting it do its job, and cooperating with my body, IT would heal itself from the dreadfully debilitating sickness of obesity. To lose weight I did very little outside of gentle and peaceful cooperation with the inherent wisdom and intelligence of my own body. Through meditation and gentle cooperation, the body will heal itself with little or no effort. When we are at peace with ourselves the total expression of that true peace includes our outer being; our body. Losing weight and being healthy is so simple and easy. Your goal should never be weight-loss, but rather to have true health and respect for the gift of life.
I know intimately the deep struggles and perseverance it takes to reclaim your health, because I have been there. This is not theoretical for me. I have personally lost over 100 pounds and shrank my waist from a size 48/50" to 30". I freed myself from all medications and healed all of my dis-eases: extreme obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, borderline diabetes, bad cholesterol, extreme acid reflux, candida, stiffness, glaucoma, arthritis, bursitis, knee and joint pain, gout, angina, insomnia, breathlessness, fatigue, chronic back problems, post nasal drip and sleep apnea. I believe I have extended my life by decades, reversing my heart condition, and clearing my arteries. I healed myself with totally natural methods, and I now have the energy, vitality, stamina and flexibility of a healthy twenty-year old.
What one person can do, another can do. You can reclaim your life and get back on track to becoming your full potential. It is never too late to love yourself again. Don't give up. You can accomplish almost anything, if you really want it. Let me be your proof that it is possible. Start educating yourself and learn how to take proper care of yourself through self-love. I will be here to support you with the best information I can provide, to help you on your journey. The unification of the mind, spirit and body is the triad of focus that gives one the clarity and resolve to deliver. I have used these, and many other techniques to completely transform my body and my life. My strength, vitality and health are important parts of my secret to how I live a life of activity, exploration and creative excellence. And now, it's your turn!
This problem is not exclusive to Flint, but rather, it is just one example of America's crumbling infrastructure. 65,000 bridges in the U.S. are in need of repair, and 75% of U.S. nuclear sites have radioactive leaks. Yet, as frightening as those examples are, nothing is more intimately upsetting to a parent, than the idea of their children being slowly poisoned in their own homes, by the very hands that serve them.
Lead is a national time bomb in the water supply, not just in Flint, but in cities across the country, and governors everywhere need to address this issue. Thankfully, the media is focusing on Flint and bringing about awareness. This is the epic battle between the governed and those who govern. While deeply upsetting, the dialogue is a beautiful example of activism, free speech, journalism and democracy working toward accountability and safety.
One thing that is not crumbling is the infrastructure of the community in Flint. The people of Flint are heroes, who have never given up, throughout many struggles, and they continue to fight to be heard and preserve the only home they have known. What is essential is everyone now come together in sane and compassionate conversation. On all sides of this issue, we must put the children first, not politics or divisive rhetoric. What is needed most of all is the great spirit of forgiveness.
Forgiveness represents the resiliency of the American spirit, for we have always overcome our divisions to reclaim our unity. But forgiveness is a lot easier with transparency and accountability, which are also hallmarks of America's great aspirations. The people of Flint deserve to be heard and respected. They deserve answers and self-reflection. This is really an opportunity to consider this problem on a national level, and it is an opportunity for the community and government to showcase the care and compassion we all deserve.
Rule followers are merciless rule enforcers; they are the vicious administrators of the status quo. Rule followers commonly derive their sense of superiority from following and enforcing convention, and from being right — they delight in prosecuting you with their piety and judgements. It is often the most responsible, sensible, reliable, and dependable people, who will viciously destroy your dreams and the greatness within you.
Many rule followers desperately want to be normal; the more desperate they are, the more they want to enforce their version of normal upon you. They are not actually fighting you, they are fighting themselves. They are fighting their fears against your peace. What they fear most, is who they are beneath the camouflage of normal. The covered wreckage and half felled scaffolding of who they once were before they gave-up haunts them like an inescapable shadow-self. Their suppressed and secreted crave for their own distinctiveness, is inverted and weaponized against anyone unusual, for they remind them of their profound loss of self. Anything aberrant or uncommon reminds them, that they took the easy way out, through the wide gates of normal.
Normal is a failure of imagination. Normal is an easy-going oppression. Normal is a silent violence against progress. Normal is an insidious benevolence; a sweet tool of conformity responsible for incalculable loss. Normal is the greatest constraint and coercive force in the world. If you do not feel the constant threat and ruthless pressure of normalcy bearing down on you, it is because you are a part of it; an unknowing devotee of the unremarkable.
In the same way every animal finds its way into a trap, people sure-footedly step toward normalcy to survive. The opposite of self-realization is being realized, or made real, by the standards of outside force or influence. If you are not creating yourself, then an imposed 'self,' is being created for you. When you are not building yourself as the creator of your own life, you are being built, into the image and likeness of your cultural creator. Without individuation, your identity is the collective. Common, conventional, mainstream, and normal — these are the states of the aborted individual; the unborn in mind, faculty, awareness, and self-knowledge. They are commonly called sleepwalkers, zombies, the status quo, and the masses, but in reality, it is each of us to one degree or another. The real question is how much of the actual you, are you ever going to experience? Experiencing yourself is your life purpose. You experience nothing, but yourself. Every so-called experience, relationship, connection, pain, passion, feeling, thought, sense, and emotion, is a sublimation of life's grand transmission upon the canvas of you experiencing yourself. If you are not steeped in the ecstasy of experiencing yourself, then you have never fully lived. For, the only true anxiety of life is to be severed from life, by being severed from self.
Anxiety is intrinsic to life because the current social construct is such a fraud. In order to play the fraudulent game of modern life, one must assume an unnatural and fraudulent role; the role of an anti-human. Anti-humanism comes in the form of forced structures of consistency, social protocols, and rules of emotional conduct, which are utterly alien to beings as inconsistent, momentary, emotional, and impulsive as human beings. Each person is bound tightly in a behaviorally isometric strait-jacket of contradictions; a psychic contortion that leaves the hobbled soul jittering between impossible and unnatural forms of human being. The goodly and civil role is an anti-human posture, where the wild untamed soul is splayed upon the mental rack, like medieval torture, to bend and shunt the frighteningly splendid phenomenon of a free form soul, into an unnatural state, to thereafter be called, natural. This is how we become, and live the life, of the unnatural natural. Alan Watts' speaks to the spirit of the unnatural natural in his "social double-blind game," of which, "the first rule of this game is that it is not a game", with further contradictory rules, such as, "everyone must play" (or else), and, "be yourself, but play a consistent and acceptable role," and "control yourself, but be natural," and, "try to be sincere." Our fraudulent "real life" is an M.C. Escher-like impossible staircases into higher and more peaceful states of consciousness for individuals and society, for the rules of this game, are unsolvable puzzles, that keep us all in a constant state of anxiety.
To escape our anxiety we must accept, and make peace, with the contradictions of life. Though not commonly considered, there are many non-fiction applications of suspension of disbelief, especially in a false world of illusions. Suspension of disbelief is a vital life skill for anyone who wants to live in the real world. By suspending disbelief we can believe in ourselves. We can and should begin to accept imagination as a part and form of reality, because human reality is inseparable from imagination. We can live life as broader spectrum beings, with the best qualities of children, by healing our affliction of adultism, which severed us from communing with our vast inner-child. Your inner-child, like the truly natural newborn; a sort of aboriginal proto-human of consciousness — unbound and god-like, is born into a cultural cocktail of sedation, constriction, and programming, often called, love. Natural curiosity and playful interface of innocence, only forgivable as a child, is what is seen in adults as hedonism, or insanity. The true loss of innocence is when freedom becomes shameful, and shame becomes freedom. We accept the mantel of shame in order to transition into the adult life of freedom. This is how we trade inhibition for tradition. This is how we lose ourselves. All loss of power begins with shame, and suppression of what is deemed bad in our nature.
What society hates and fears most is nature and truth, especially when observed in people. True authenticity creates a state of jeopardy and danger for that individual, forcing them to hide in resentful conformity. This is how inauthenticity creates bitterness in the individual, and ultimately in the culture. The loss of true identity creates a lifetime of pain. All human derangements and fractures begin with the loss of self — a loss no amount of grieving can heal. Numbness becomes the new life for those de-spirited by culture. They have been cultured — destroyed and reborn into the new life, where only the unnatural is desirable, for the unnatural feels safe and familiar, for they are unnatural. They have been remade in the image and likeness of falsity; their true God. But the truth aches in their forbidden places and grieves them with a nagging malaise of uncertainty and unbelonging.
The ultimate falsehood, to the great lie of the false life — is truth. Anything which points to the real and ultimate freedom is labeled profane and illicit. And so, bondage shall be called freedom, and falsehood called truth, and evil called good — and this inverted reality keeps the secret to your liberation hidden in plain sight; in moral certainty, where none will dare look. This is why it is important to question things and ask "why?", but most importantly, question yourself. Challenge yourself. Be defiant; defy yourself. Challenge authority; the authority of your own rational convictions!
Meditation can put you in touch with your less strictured and structured self; to glimpse the source of your true power and formless state. Your profane and complete self, your truth, is a disassembly of the anti-human persona, only slightly visible as you submerge through the layers of abstraction by releasing thought, as an act of wilful dissociation, toward controlled insanity. Meditation allows you to visit your aboriginal forbidden places and return with artifacts of wisdom unknown in the common culture. From Joseph Conrad to Joseph Campbell, this journey and return; a dipping into the dark well of consciousness, is alluded to in allegory and with great explicitness throughout all literature. Your consciousness is an inner portal, through which you climb, to escape yourself.
Consider the possibility that your sense of purpose has been hacked and rerouted, to empower that which seeks to suppress your true purpose. Until you receive the revelation of your power, and free yourself, you will remain both captor and captive — as your own warden, in your own prison, for the rest of your life. The world will do everything it can to seduce you to go to sleep, and if you refuse, it will then try to strangle you. To keep your innocence and faith alive you have to kick and scream and fight. You have to protect the beauty within you, and fight for it, like protecting a small child from a predator. Mediocrity and apathy is that great predator; the status quo embodied by the sleeping masses.
By bombarding each person with hundreds-of-thousands of commercial messages per year, the technocratic, consumer research scientists have created a new fork in the road of human evolution. Through generations of cradle-to-grave consumer conditioning, and lifelong intra-cerebral media-drips, the emergence of a new psychological species has arrived, the Homo sapiens-consumere. We have become a highly specialized species of docile, obedient consumers. We are a material goods and brands, hunter-gather society of hominids standing upright to shop. Science, which promised enlightenment for the future of humanity, has been hired-away by international corporations to transform human beings into subservient creatures addicted to fruitless consumerism and mindless entertainment. At the dawn of a new millennium and era, many have been disappointed to discover that even transhumanism, is less about a singularity of human consciousness or quantum evolution, and more about the quasi-cybernetic peripheral adornment of gadgets, handbags, and designer glasses.
Oppression never goes away; it is refashioned to be fashionable. Materialism and consumerism are sophisticated forms of shackle-less bondage. Slavery was once not only customary, but highly fashionable. Slaves were fashionable chattel property like a mule; beasts of burden, which came with bragging rights. The new slavery is materialism and consumerism — and every race is property of corporate profit. The new slavery dehumanizes all races as beasts of buying. We are all the new share-croppers working for a roof, food, and our share of the material-goods crop. Consumerism is our new master. We have been denatured and raised in hostile and completely artificial environments, where the wound we carry is the absence of deep community bonds. Our new community ties are buying-clubs, coupon circles, and discount gatherings. Our rites of passage are smartphone releases. Like Manchurian candidates, we have been made into Manchurian consumers, who subconsciously buy when we are triggered by our brand masters. Many horrors of injustice of the past were customary, so we must continually question our culture and customs, looking for what we are presently accepting of, that will be future regarded as shortsighted and unthinkable. Re-discover what is real and become human again. The greatest gifts in life are often the most simple and overlooked. Look to nature for the answers — and to your own nature — look to yourself.
Humble flower — no magnate, president, or king, was ever appointed with such authority as thee. How many mighty souls have knelt in submission, before the grand estate, of your delicate blossoms? Kings will stop and bow down, to look upon the greater majesty, of a simple flower. The flower rules supreme, not by force, but through the victory of beauty. The flower's beauty goes not unrequited, as its lovers and attendants serve their glorious beloved.
The grand estate, is a state of mind; gifted through acceptance of your endowment. Your life can be lived in grace and ease, as you surrender to the beauty, of bringing grace and ease to others. Your care and love will not go unrequited. We are here to be loving attendants to our beloved fellow human beings, as an act of devotion and gratitude for life. Our painful complications only exist when we refuse to honor the simple gifts before us. Life shouldn't be more simple; it is more simple.
Simplicity speaks quietly of vast things. Though we at times feel small, it is in the smallest of things, that we may discover vast expanses, once limited by our lack of reverence. Lack of reverence shrinks the immense experience of life, into the tiny confinement of your disregard. Do not disregard your own glorious appointment. We are all beautiful. Each person is majestic; a marvel to behold. The beauty that everyone is seeking, is in each of us. Look for it in yourself and in others. Accepting your Royalty and the Royalty of each soul, is merely to be ruled by the victory of beauty.
There are two paths in life. One which will lead you to ruin and devour you in the relentless jaws of its narrowness, and one that will exalt you, and set you free to infinite paths. The noble and freeing path is the path toward enlightenment. There is no guide for the path of infinite paths, other than your own inner-guide, and your own awareness and quiet discernment.
The world is full of lost souls, who know not of themselves. They cannot see that it is impossible to be lost in the center; the center of themselves. Those who cannot see are often those who never really look, they are lost to themselves, and to themselves alone. Their eyes are closed on the edge of a frightening, wandering life. They have strayed, and have gone missing; missing to themselves — alone because they are without their own essential companionship. They meander in a low-grade panic to be found, and spend their entire lives looking for what they always had within themselves. To these lost souls life is an endless fight against the world.
Where some tire disrespectfully hacking and cutting their arduous path through life's forest, the Royal way maker sees the path already laid for them. Where others parish; hungry, depleted and spent on their journey — they walk amongst the bounty of the forest, which provides for them, nourishes them, and sustains them on their respectful sojourn. The path of force of will is narrow, where what you have cut becomes your confinement; a prison where you are jailed by the dimension of your swathes to force a way. At each step as you advance on the path of force of will, there is only retreat, or more force. It is a path to nowhere, but only a to path itself.
The path of cooperation is a path of infinite paths, where each step reveals yet another way. Those who walk on their path of destiny are never lost. The pathless path is the center-point of your inner-compass revealing an infinite fractal of degrees, where each step creates a new map and life charter. The Royal Way is a walk of authority and choice. You are the guideposts for which you have been looking. You are your own path; each step and footprint is your own landmark, and secure fortress of choice. Freedom, choice, and change is your mighty station of permanence and security. Each step is your estate and surety against life's perils and encroachments, for you are the master of your own estate.
When you are selfish you only suffocate yourself. The more you can be open and joyfully celebrate in other people's successes — the more success will open for you. The more you dream for others — the more your own dreams will come true.
It is only when you learn to listen, that you will finally be heard.
One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.
Listening is a receptive form of giving.
Make your listening equal to their need to be heard.
When you are open to others, you give permission to those around you, to be open to you.
Let your desire to be understood, be equal to your desire to understand.
The way to feel better is to feel heard, but to feel heard, you have to first be willing to listen.
There are very few shortcuts, if any. But if you are looking for best shortcut available, here it is — LISTENING.
Awareness is power. The greater your awareness; the greater your power.
You never know the hearts you silently break with the words you never let them say.
Ignorance is rooted in certainty.
Everything and everyone is your teacher.
Everything and everyone is your teacher unless you are a poor student.
You can't be fully aware when you're reactive.
Judgement is the opposite of listening.
The heart of open-mindedness is listening.
We can only connect with others at the depth that we can connect with ourselves.
Make your listening equal to their need to be heard, and you will be their dearest treasure.
The way a message is delivered, IS the message.
It is a tremendous gift to simply and truly listen to another.
The posture of receivership is openness.
The way to have a calm response, is by calmly responding.
Awareness is power.
Awareness is power. The greater the awareness; the greater the power.
Real listening is about awareness.
Your message means less than the way the message is delivered, because in actuality, the way the message is delivered, IS the message.
Each person you meet is a lesson to be learned.
I see people everywhere disagreeing, who actually agree with each-other, but cannot see that they agree.
We do not actually know other people; we only know our judgements.
Ignorance is the supreme oppressor.
Ignorance is the supreme oppressor and tyrant.
The world as you believe it to exist, is largely a reflection of your judgments.
We do not actually know other cultures; we only know our judgements.
We do not actually know other nations; we only know our judgements.
The race of nations should not be toward arms; the race of nations is towards compassion.
Every massacre starts with the tongue.
Peace does not mean an absence of conflict, because opposition, polarity, and conflict are natural and universal laws.
Peace is a way of constructively handling natural conflict.
Conflict avoidance often causes greater conflict.
Conflict connects us to life, just as life connects us to conflict.
Nothing on earth is more unbearable than dealing with other people, that is, if you lack compassion and understanding.
They say our suffering is an inevitable part of the human condition; just accept it. But the greatest human skill is that of a choice maker.
Be the peace you seek.
There are possibilities that exist beyond our present "knowing," and to see those possibilities, we must abandon that which makes us feel safe.
People are living books. The real library of life is community.
They don't hate you; they just hate.
If you only knew how many times you were saved, by not getting what you wanted, you would be at peace with what you presently believe you are missing.
The feeling of being "offended" is a warning indicator that is showing you where to look within yourself for unresolved issues.
The less you can be upset, the more control you have in your own life.
You can only be as great as your insecurity.
The truth is some people love to be offended; it's the drama they love best. It may not be them; it could be you.
If people are upsetting you because they are out of control, focus on your own upset, which is what is out of control within you.
People who are easily offended are usually insecure, possessive, territorial, or have controlling personalities. Understanding is superior to offense.
The mirror neither loves nor hates; the judging is in your eye. People are the mirrors of your life. It's not them. It's all you — everything.
You will solve the problems of life, or the problems of life will solve you.
When you demand perfection within yourself, you become more fallible.
Peace IS Prosperity.
Your limited thinking is the most insubordinate obstacle you will encounter in your life.
What you desire the most, can only be as real, as you can be real.
The most important peace negotiation, is for you make peace with yourself.
If you really think about it, you're the one who betrayed yourself — for not wanting to believe, what deep-down, you already knew.
Your own vicious thoughts about yourself are worse than legions of haters. Say, "No" — to your own hate.
Let your resistance, judgements, angers, and fears inform you.
Peace is a place where your heart is free to become the more beautiful you.
Your distraction is the distraction. Your distraction is the only distraction.
You can't be a high-roller, if you are an eye-roller.
Get over the guilt, or be a slave to guilt; it's your choice.
They say judgment day is coming, but let me tell you, for some, it's here already. The way you judge yourself can literally create your own hell. No more harsh judgements. No more self-rejection. No more self-doubt. No more self-sabotage. Ask the judge for mercy. Have mercy on yourself.
Depression lives and grows in the swamp of need.
They will love you, misunderstand you, judge you, blame you, scorn you, and then forgive you — and it will never have had anything to do with you.
Love is not about finding the right person, but about being the right person.
You want them to be sorry, which is why you are miserable.
The ability to forgive is one of man's greatest achievements.
Quit wishing other people would change and instead — change yourself.
When you are unforgiving and carry animosity, you feed the very soul of conflict that keeps your pain alive. If you suffocate your heart with anger, all your dreams will die. The way to live again, is to forgive.
There is really only one true way to fix yourself, and that is to be yourself.
The very things you withhold from others, are the very things being withheld from you.
A major source of pain is wanting more for others, than they want for themselves.
The very things you withhold from others, are the very things you are withholding from yourself.
When you demand perfection of others, you magnify your own flaws.
As soon as you start caring about other people, other people will start caring about you.
Sex is a form of exploration; it is asking questions and getting answers.
Everything worthwhile takes time, nurturing, and love. When something isn't working, love it more, nurture it more, and give it more time.
You never know the hearts you silently break with the words you never say.
If you just begin to wish for others to be happy, your life will slowly begin to improve.
Real love doesn't keep score.
Receiving love is not about making "them" give you love, it is about becoming a loving person yourself.
To receive love, you must open your heart.
If you want to be loved, you first must open your own heart.
It is in the center of a stable self-love that you will find the confidence and safety you want.
People will always separate themselves from what they do not trust. If you want to be close to someone — protect the trust.
You best teach people about healthy boundaries by you enforcing your healthy boundaries on them.
When teaching someone a boundary, they learn less from the enforcement of the boundary, and more from the way the boundary is established.
Never give-up, and be relentless — but also with boundaries, endings, and closures.
Love is your infinite space of vast expansion, not someone's little box you live in, until you die.
Endless amounts of love and hate are available to you from others; the defining question of your life is what you let in. We ultimately allow the treatment we believe we deserve. If you want more love, then start by truly believing you deserve it.
Consider the possibility of healthy boundaries without struggle. Unyielding, yet calm. Strong, yet kind.
Some people can ONLY interface with you through your problems. Get rid of those people.
You have the final word for what you accept in life. Set clear expectations and boundaries, and don't be afraid to enforce them.
Be selfish and take good care of you first. When you are your best, you can best help others.
Hold your healthy boundaries. Let their frustration instruct them.
Sometimes when thought someone betrayed you, it was actually you, who betrayed yourself. Be honest, the signs were there for you to see, but you refused to look at them. Your inner-voice was trying to warn you, but you just wouldn't listen. If you really think about it, you're the one who betrayed yourself — for not wanting to believe, what deep-down, you already knew. Next time, listen to yourself. Next time, trust yourself.
You are not responsible for other people's happiness, and they are not responsible for yours!
The power is in balancing selfishness and caring.
Everyone may deserve love, but not everyone deserves your love.
Real spiritually is getting rid of the bs in your life.
Sometimes the best way to defeat someone negative is to let time do the hard work of instructing them.
If you are negative, unsupportive, a trash-talker, a gossiper, a nay-saying ninny, a doubt-whisper, or dream saboteur, you are likely going to live a very, very small life. Parents, spouses and friends who are guilty of this — heed this warning — in the long run, you will end-up left behind and resented. If you can't be trusted with someone's hopes and dreams, you shouldn't be trusted at all.
Some people just don't want to be happy, and nothing may ever make them happy. Your unhappiness could be merely because you refuse to accept their unhappiness.
We only allow the treatment we believe we deserve.
Super-relationship: the all encompassing connection that you have with life. Your relationship with everything.
Everything is a relationship.
Spirituality is a supreme inter-communication between you and everything.
Beyond confidence is your core identity, which elegantly negotiates all of your transactions and relationships; it is the seat of your super-relationship.
If thoughtfully cultivated, your super-identity will elegantly negotiate all of life's challenges and opportunities on your behalf.
Beyond confidence is identity, which elegantly negotiates all of your transactions and relationships.
Reality, that is what appears real, literally bends and expands to accommodate every quiet desire of those who realize they are the almighty seat of authority in their own life. Your free agency is the key to your own kingdom. Your heart is the supreme interface with your super-relationship, which governs every aspect of your reality.
Learning to truly love yourself changes your relationship with everyone.
People only negotiate with others at the level they believe they are worth.
You only negotiate your contract with life, at the level you believe you are worth.
Business should feel like falling in love.
Persistence is the most traveled path to success.
Do not let your grand ambitions stand in the way of small but meaningful accomplishments.
Ambition is not what a man would do, but what a man does, for ambition without action is fantasy.
Laziness demands misery.
Ambition without action is fantasy.
Actions are living affirmations.
When you take care of business today, tomorrow takes care of itself.
Every shortcut has a price usually greater than the reward.
Your wishy-washy-ness becomes a life of calamity.
Be totally obsessed, with no attachment to the outcome.
When you lack focus, your life will be a similar blur.
I like to hear yes, more than they like to say no.
You have to like hearing yes, more than they like saying no.
Gather your yourself. Project your total intelligence, clarity, intention, and concentration into an intersection of vision, will, and faith. Your clear will and faith is the spearpoint of your mastery as a creator.
Quit saying you don't have time. You have time for what you make time for in life.
The task of leadership is showing people the obvious ways they can and should work together.
Cooperation is more elegant and energy efficient than competition.
Understanding is superior to offense.
Trust others, and you will be more trusted.
Anything, or anyone you love, becomes more beautiful.
Nothing great ever happens from thinking small, so never think small of others.
We produce behaviors in people through our actions and energies. In this way the people around us become reflections of our own behavioral patterns and internal energies.
Good people make people feel good, even if it hurts at first.
Success without integrity is always fleeting, or monstrous.
Stop aspiring and start being. The world needs you!
Be the proof of possibility.
It is a high spiritual truth that we heal or harm others with our judgements.
The world is starving for leaders who are not afraid to dismantle the sacred and precious beliefs, which hold us as prisoners of the past.
Offense, assumptions, and judgements are a waste of time and energy. Put that energy into creating your vision.
You are only responsible for the effort, not the outcome.
Cooperation is more elegant than force.
When people have poor confidence in the future, you can be confident, of a poor future.
Effective leadership demands you be selectively non-reactive to criticism and personal insult; the less reactive you can be, the more you can lead.
To understand the journey you have to do the walking.
Persistence is the most traveled path to success.
Real leadership sometimes involves saying no to growth, expansion, and gain.
Your highest purpose and calling is often really calling for your own healing.
The trees which are pruned watered and nurtured by caring hands bear the greatest fruits; it is the same with people.
The challenge is trying to set people free, and help them be "successful" in the world, which are almost always opposite objectives.
The number one skill in life is not giving up. The second best skill, is knowing when to give up.
If you can't be trusted with someone's hopes and dreams, you shouldn't be trusted at all.
The greatest things that have ever happened in this world, had their genesis in the wake of special relationships of rare destiny.
Start purposefully using the challenges you are facing, as practice for the larger challenges to come.
There is no social media — there is only social.
You cannot isolate yourself into prosperity. Social media must first and foremost be — social.
Generosity, sharing, and actually being social are the missing virtues in social media.
Brand lasting power comes from the relentless production of value through integrity and passion.
Uncommon use of common technology is one the most overlooked opportunities of the modern era.
The way you use technology is an extension of your depth, character, and values.
Use common technology in very uncommon ways.
Most people only use the surface of technology. Make deep use of existing technology.
The surface use of technology is parallel to the nature of all personal surface relationships; the barrier is fear of intimacy and closeness with other human beings.
You can't talk about personal development without talking about technology.
Minimalism means not trying to improve perfection.
Everything you need comes into focus when you abandon the unneeded.
Meditation is merely the removal of all that is not you.
One of the hardest recurring lessons in life is learning to let-go.
The way to take back control in your life, is to release the illusion of control.
All problems begin when we start worrying what others think of us.
Inner-peace is the ultimate success platform.
Get out of your own way. To attain, do not reach, but rather, allow that which is within you to reach.
You can only hide from yourself in the noise, but not in the quiet. If you truly want to get to know yourself, then get rid of the distractions. If you want to really understand what has been holding you back, then simply and calmly focus your full attention within, and observe.
Their expectation is your prison; your expectation is theirs.
When we connect with ourselves, we commune with a perfect partner for learning.
A new chance can begin through your inner-life by making peace with yourself through total acceptance.
Allow everything to inform you, but nothing to own you.
All talk and all chatter is the false self.
The source calls to you. Find a quiet place and listen for the voice of creation. Look upon the horizon and see the future of your new life, where you are again a natural soul living in joy and peace.
There is truth and knowledge beyond present understanding.
There is no happiness outside of ourselves.
There is no happiness outside of yourself.
Source truth exists in greater abundance outside of the symbolic system of words.
It takes an immense amount of energy and study to realize that you know nothing.
In a sea of trouble your calm thoughts are your lifeboat.
You are not experiencing life, you are experiencing yourself through life.
The pleasure is there; between your expectations and regrets.
Infinity must find an end to explore itself.
Attachment to the external always suffocates inner peace.
There is no destination except the one inside of you.
Learn to experience yourself without judging yourself.
The simple rhythms of nature are calling you. Let them wash away the clutter and distractions from your false life.
There is no reward beyond the moment. Each moment contains life's reward.
Today, I accept each moment with awareness of the total beauty that surrounds me.
Life's lessons are about as hard to learn as your head is hard; as your heart is hard.
The defining moment in my life was in learning to not resist.
Willfulness is often a mindset of self-battery. It's very tricky in that it can seem like strength when really it is just arrogance.
You can't resist the whole world. It will wear you down over time.
It seems like the whole purpose of life is to humble you, and made humble we certainly are — or will be.
The purpose of life is the purpose we bring to it.
The meaning of life is simply the meaning we give to it.
Having a sense of purpose is having a sense of self. A course to plot is a destination to hope for.
If you want meaning in your life you must give your life meaning.
Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.
If you are self-obsessed, you don't have time for other people's drama.
You can only find your purpose once you release the idea of a purpose. In that moment you become the perfect expression of life; your true purpose — to be yourself.
Instead of clicking "like" all day — really like something. Like a sunset, a hike, or a walk. Like a special moment with someone you love. Like an amazing meal. Like your life and like yourself. Like something real today.
If you are not on your path of purpose, you will only have misery in your life.
You are so much more than your mistakes.
You cannot heal what you refuse to first acknowledge.
The only way out of your problems is straight through them.
Your bad habit is not who you are; your bad habit is — in the way — of who you are.
Crisis is Good. Crisis is a messenger.
Suffering is one of life's greatest teachers.
Every ending is creating the space and opening for an amazing new beginning.
People will disrespect you, lie to you, use you, and break your heart, but no one will ever hurt you more than you hurt yourself, by replaying those transgressions in your mind forever.
When you bare your soul you nurture your soul; this is the power of telling our stories.
Every challenge in your life will be easier when you can live in harmony with your own contradictions, flaws, weaknesses, and past.
Your inner-life is a reservoir of possibility. No matter how hopeless your current situation is — imagination and self-care can deliver you.
Blocking out and forgetting your childhood is a form of inner-child abandonment.
The ultimate pain is the one of not feeling anything.
It's an imperfect world, so you fit in perfectly.
Letting go of your painful past is how you open yourself to a wonderful future.
Mistakes are a sign that you are moving forward.
One of the most important lessons in life, is learning to turn what seems like senseless pain and suffering, into something meaningful for yourself and others.
People can only love you as much as they know love.
You don't have to have a perfect solution to begin working on your problem. Just begin with deep inner-dialogue.
If you are tired of drama, then you are the drama. Remember, drama requires your emotional participation.
It is always the things we run from or try to forget that hold us back.
Have compassion for people, and don't forget that you are a person; give yourself compassion too.
Don't dwell on sadness. Joy will take you where you want to go.
One of the greatest things you can learn in life is to be compassionate, but true compassion includes compassion for yourself.
Your struggles will either strengthen you, or destroy you — and the amazing thing is that you get to decided which it will be.
When you accept fallibility within yourself you, become more perfect.
You are strengthened by struggle, and so your darkest places are really lighting the way.
Accept the gift of your pain. It is more often not brilliance that that leads to peace, wisdom, and completion. Pain is also your compass in life. Unease and fear can be your guides; not angels, but your own demons.
Your heart is not broken. Hearts don't break. What you are feeling is growing pains. Your heart is expanding in wisdom, compassion, and strength, so one day, you can love even more.
Your heart is not breaking; it's expanding.
Your mind and body can both be beaten, but your heart is undefeatable. Lead with your heart and you will be unstoppable.
A person who makes few mistakes makes little progress.
Life is a practice. When you 'fail,' you can immediately begin practicing again.
Even now, your darkest moments are making way for the light to arrive.
Maybe your life is not falling apart; maybe it's falling together.
Don't fearfully hold on to what needs to end. The familiar life crumbles so the new life can begin.
If you have had a bad day, remember that tomorrow is a wonderful gift and a new chance to try again.
Life has dark moments, and it is out of our darkness that we often find our greatest beauties and strengths.
The secret to permanently breaking a bad habit, is to love something greater than the habit.
Suffering does not always make you wiser and stronger. If you don't learn your lessons and make the effort — more suffering and a new hell awaits you. Suffering is a pointed question — asking you, if you can change.
Don't dwell on sadness. Joy will take you where you want to go.
You can co-exist peacefully with your past and present when you learn to respect your journey.
The people who walk away are not meant to be a part of your future. Let them go. Your life is with those who stay, and they deserve all of you.
Even when the strings are broken in our lives, the sweet music plays on in our hearts.
If you have had a bad day, remember that tomorrow is a wonderful gift and a new chance to try again.
Thank you adversity. Oh, how we stretch and grow in the shadows of darkness just to reach the light.
I have learned that the past cannot be left behind.
Start the daily practice of not letting the little things bother you! If the little things ruin you, what's going to happen when the big things come along? Look at your challenges as useful. Start joyfully using the small challenges you are facing, as practice, for the larger challenges to come.
Maybe you love to beat yourself up and deprive yourself, and that's the real reason you are with him/her.
We only hurt others because we don't love ourselves. Learning to truly love yourself changes your relationship with everyone.
Every tear is replaced with strength.
Every tear you shed is replaced with steel and strength.
Every tear is replaced with wisdom and strength.
Never think you are weak if you cry. Every tear is replaced with wisdom and strength.
It is not a weakness to cry. Only the truly weak are afraid of tears.
Sometimes you have to lose everything to find the one thing that matters — yourself.
Your highest attainment in life is to receive the gift of yourself.
Let us subdue the ravages of the baser-self, and aspire to the higher calling of exalting joy through compassion, for that is the one true purpose of humanity.
Seek for illumination of self, and then the world, through the simple, humble, almighty, supreme virtue of love.
Move from viciousness to victory!
Move from rage to reverence, and from viciousness to victory!
Become a dignitary by treating others with dignity.
Become an ambassador of peace in your own life.
We should live deeply, as rich of a life as possible, to honor those who were cheated early of life's great gift.
Love is such a deep gratitude. When you are truly in love with life, every breath you take is gratitude.
Throughout the ages, the arts have labored to capture the splendor of your present form through its faint creations — to honor your unreachable design.
You will find what you look for, so look for something wonderful!
You will find what you are looking for, so look for something beautiful.
You will always find what you are looking for, so look for something beautiful.
We must always strive to reflect the highest vision of ourselves.
As our heart soars, we fly with it! Let love take you places!
If you are inspired by life, you cannot help but be an inspiration.
Open the fullness of your heart and become a gift of beauty to the world.
Every meaningful success I have accomplished was made possible by love.
When you become a kinder person, the world shifts and becomes a kinder place.
In my world, I believe in the great beauties, the highest of which, is love.
When you see the world with love and respect the world changes right in front of you.
Whatever you're looking for, you're going to find it.
There is music in my heart. There is art in my heart and there is majesty in my heart, because there is love in my heart!
The beautiful world is just one thought away. It's already there just waiting for us to realize and to accept it.
The potential richness of your life shrinks or expands according to your ability to love.
You can train and condition your eyes, mind, and heart, to recognize unseen beauty and opportunities everywhere around you.
Love always was and always will be the only real answer. Why else do you think we have been taught so much hate?
Until you can be grateful, you are completely hopeless.
You've got to let love inform your every step.
The simple, humble, almighty, supreme virtue of love is the invincible fire of transformation for healing the world.
If your life is not a love story then you are not living the life meant for you.
When we align with love and beauty we instantly become the answer to every problem.
I am hopeful because love overflows from my heart. Gratitude for beauty and life leads my way.
Gratitude is my privileged state of mind.
Have you forgotten what it feels like to be alive? The grace of life shining on you; each breath vitalizing you with possibility? Remember!
Take a stand: live for love, truth, beauty!
Love is such a deep gratitude. When you are truly in love with life, every breath you take is gratitude.
In the instant of your choosing, a life of peace can subsume the pain, and overtake your sorrow. It is there right before you.
When you are treated rudely, instead of fighting their ignorance; fight your own.
If you can just be kind, you will be a genius in this world.
Courteousness is consideration for others; politeness is the method used to deliver such considerations.
Courtesy is a silver lining around the dark clouds of civilization; it is the best part of refinement and in many ways, an art of heroic beauty in the vast gallery of man's cruelty and baseness.
In today's world simple kindness is a revolutionary act.
Be kind for you, not others.
A mistake made by many people with great convictions, is that they will let nothing stand in the way of their views, not even kindness.
Educate yourself. Learn everything you can, and then let knowledge yield to kindness.
Good manners are appreciated as much as bad manners are abhorred.
No one is more insufferable than he who lacks basic courtesy.
Kindness is your essential statement of who you are, not to be reserved for those who are kind in return.
See the good in people, even if they do not see it in themselves. Hold the space for them.
Every beautiful thing you say to someone becomes a part of them and you.
To become strong, speak to people's strengths.
People can do anything in the space of your belief in them. People can be anyone you allow them to be.
Don't allow your judgements to trample over people who are trying to stand-up.
Let your certainty match their doubt. Hold the space for them, until they can see it with their own eyes.
People's lives we touch and sculpt are our most meaningful creations.
Don't make people feel important; make people feel their importance.
We must allow people the space and time of self-discovery, and trust in all that is to come.
Respect is a wealth you can lavishly spend on others. "Thank you" and gratitude will bless you endlessly, as a privileged state of mind.
I knew I was great, because humility taught me, that every person is great.
Change takes time. It takes time for the seeds to begin growing within, time to understand and process, time for the growth to mature, and time for the old self to die and fall away.
Who are your friends and loved ones, when they are not bent and twisted around your judgments and expectations?
Peace for the whole world begins with a smile in your own heart.
Separateness is one of the great and tragic illusions in the world. We belong to one another.
We all know the true beauty of people everywhere, because we have all looked into the eyes of children, and saw ourselves looking back.
We are all students of the world; frail embodied consciousnesses struggling to understand, and be a meaningful part of this great, mysterious gift of life.
In order to deserve, we must pay our dues and steadily work for perfection. We must relish in struggle, and relinquish pride. We must dispel fear and seek enlightenment. We must shun division and honor love. We must know our hearts and seek to understand others. We must try, live, create, feel, grow, and love — together.
It takes creativity and work to get your needs met without using control.
It doesn't matter what you believe you have accomplished; if you have not loved, then you have not lived.
It doesn't matter who you are. Everyone's fear is equal.
No time is better spent than that spent in the service of your fellow man.
If you have a poverty of heart, then you are the poorest among the poor.
As long as you die knowing you did something meaningful and of service to others, that is the only accomplishment you need in life.
Witnessing a selfless act brings tears, to testify to us, how we should be treating others.
It can be scary to leave the comfort of your assumptions. It takes humility and bravery to see the world through the eyes of another.
Evil has no limits except the limits we set on ourselves through decency.
There is something beautiful in every person that never dies, no matter their misfortunes.
We are all wealth. We are all treasure. We are the abundance of all things. Spend yourself completely.
To be cruel to others is to be cruel to your own soul.
When we truly see each other, we can't help but to care for one another.
Any viciousness you inflict on another first passes through the membrane of your own sensitivity and psyche.
Separateness is one of the great and tragic illusions in the world.
We belong to each other, and separateness is one of the great and tragic illusions of life.
Outer-mastery begins with inner-mastery.
You are the artist and the art.
Life is a practice. You are what you do each day.
Life is a practice, not a perfection.
Live life for solutions, not problems.
The ultimate form of attraction is to be what you want to attract.
You will be effortlessly filled with as much as you can open yourself to receive.
The cost of entry is belief.
If you speak often of your dreams, and positively, and passionately with enthusiasm, you will move closer to those dreams every single day.
Perception is the context of your reality.
Real success always contains an unseen essential of deep spirituality.
If you resist the world, the world will refuse you, but if you surrender, the world will give you everything it has to offer.
Passion becomes manifest, always; whether positive or negative.
The door of opportunity and the door of generosity are the same door.
Life is the wishing-well. You make a wish every day by how you live your life.
Your attitudes about yourself are your recurring circumstance.
We are more often victims of attitude than circumstance. Your attitudes about yourself are a recurring circumstance.
You teach others how to treat you, by how you treat others.
It's not about what you are thinking, it's about the way you're thinking. You have to start thinking about the way you're thinking.
If you believe in yourself and work with joy, passion, and patience you can live your dream — no matter what that dream looks like — it can be yours.
Joy is a practice, not an involuntary state.
Resist the vice of indulging in negativity.
All suffering and sickness comes from imbalance.
Freedom is a state of awareness.
The things that we talk about, are the things that we bring about.
The things we think about, are the things we bring about.
You don't get good "karma" by making yourself into a martyr. Learn how to stand-up for yourself positively, and your good karma will be delivered in that instant.
If you want a higher quality of life, you must first attempt to fathom the higher value and quality of your own life.
Every experience is seen through your mind's eye, so when you change your mind you change your entire world.
Any negative cynicism that you carry in your heart is your own personal declaration for failure.
If you want your life to be different, you have to start looking at life differently.
Life is a magical place when you believe in the magic of life!
Every external thing you desire becomes attainable through how you live your inner-life.
You can only have as much of something as you open yourself to receive.
With your breath, issue words of a new contract. Become the law creator of a new prosperity within yourself.
All things are possible through invitation and love.
If you're not thoughtful, your thoughtless creations will eventually mount against you. Our greatest nightmares are born out of our thoughtlessness. The way out of so many of our troubles is simple awareness.
The invitation only world is a manifestation of self-realization.
Life is a game that you win when you solve the puzzle of yourself.
Once you choose to love yourself, then everything else will begin to assemble around that core of inner-amenity.
Changing your mind can move you into another dimension. Passages materialize exposing a hidden world that was there all along.
Do not force your growth. Build an open space within yourself, with room for your soul to breathe and grow, and them give yourself time.
Your dream is only possible through a clear intention and patience.
What you hate; you create.
You're blessed if you do, and you're blessed if you don't!
We don't stop being beautiful, we stop believing we are beautiful.
If you "guess" and "don't know" then you are trapped there. You have to get clear if you want to move forward.
When you quit believing in the magic of life, you get a life without magic.
Blessings can only arrive through the opening you provide.
Quit waiting for a better life to show-up. A better life, is waiting for you to show-up.
Quit waiting for a better life to show-up. A better life, is waiting for you to show-up, through your better attitudes.
Our creations are the outward expressions of our inner truths.
You will be filled with as much love, wealth, and prosperity, as you can open yourself to receive. Everything is waiting for you.
You don't create by hating something, you create by loving something.
The greatest self is a peaceful smile, that always sees the world smiling back.
The world may not be smiling with you, but it certainly does smile through you.
To be a freedom fighter, you must first fight for your own freedom!
To be free, you must become a freedom fighter in your own life!
You are so much more than your culture has asked of you.
Start creating your world instead of letting the world create you!
Being "humble" — that concept is often weaponized. Don't surrender your respectful power in the name of false humility.
You know there's such thing as healthy pride, and you're allowed to stand in your accomplishments in life.
If you are fake, then everything around you will be fake. Be who you are, and let the world around you adjust.
You can never be great unless you are willing to destroy yourself.
Love without control. Love without control. Love without control. Love without control.
Most of what people call love is a paradigm of control. Zero control; that is true love. Real love is freedom.
How can you have anything real if you aren't real?
They don't come at you with bayonets. They have their legions, ready with JUDGEMENT.
Many people are unwitting members of a vast cult called popular cult-ure. To break free, merely think for yourself.
They are going to judge you no matter what you do, so let them judge you for your truth.
Be true to who you are, and let your friends adjust.
Be who you are and let your friends adjust.
Only if the world taught us we are born complete, but it seems to teach us the opposite; digging a huge hole in us that we try to fill — too often in destructive ways.
The power is in the balance of selfishness and caring.
The greatest thing you will ever do in your life is be yourself.
Standing in your truth is the only way to truly say thank you for the gift of life.
Question everything, but without being cynical.
Don't allow people to tell you who you are, or aren't. No one has the authority to take you away from you, or invalidate your experiences and story.
It's only your silence that allows the suffering to continue. You must speak your truth.
To live fully awake and feel fully alive and free, is the most courageous dream.
To love your weakness, negativity, and darkness is to accept half of who you are.
Suppression of love or hatred creates conflict.
Don't give-up on your greatest masterpiece — you.
Don't wait for an epiphany on your deathbed. Open your heart and mind now.
Become the real you; only then will you be happy.
Negativity is a natural part of your perfect self.
This very moment is your greatest adventure.
Open yourself to the natural and become a human again.
If you don't accept yourself, your suffering will be unbearable.
When you say you hope, what you mean, is you have doubts. Stand in belief.
You can remember again. You can be free. You can reclaim your innocence. You can dream again. You can awaken.
What is a human but a choice maker? Choices are powerful. Choices change history. Choices change the world. Remember your power!
Understand your power. Live dangerously. Live fearlessly. Cower before no earthly master. Know yourself. Live truthfully. Live freely. Be yourself. Love yourself.
Every single thing we made on this planet started with imagination. Begin to imagine your new life.
Your challenge in life — your number one mission, is to not let the world break your spirit.
The way to move forward is to simply remember; remember who you really are.
Hold faithfully to your unique vision and your detractors will eventually tire and give-up.
You have to trust in your own value if you want others to recognize your value.
Are negative people pulling you down? Believe in yourself. Outlast them. Persevere and they will tire out. Wear them down with your awesomeness!
It is essential that you follow your own idea of passion, even if to others it looks like suffering.
Have the heart of a poet, and the mind of a killer; one to see beauty, and the other to protect it.
For the achiever, the battle with critics is a slow war of attrition. Let time do the dirty work for you.
No matter what you do — stand up for who you are and be honest about your feelings. Even if it seems like you will be crucified for it; even if you think you will not be as successful or as liked — in the end, it's only your honesty that will have mattered.
In the marathon of life negativity is never as light-footed as a dreamer's sprint.
No-one is going to die for you, so don't let anyone to tell you how to live while you are alive.
Quit seeking approval, and seek approval from yourself!
Never be ashamed of your ferocity and power, or, of your sensitivity and gentlest emotions. Have the heart of a poet, and the mind of a killer.
Your inauthenticity is internalized as not being true to yourself, which is why you experience yourself as not being good enough. So, if you want to improve your self-esteem, simply be as honest as you can about who you are, and how you really feel. The way to feel better is to feel heard, but to feel heard, you not only have to speak your truth, but you also have to listen truthfully.
Children are everything we could have been.
A genius is merely a person who takes maximum advantage of the talent with which they were born.
Common sense will only get you a common life.
Uncommon sense will get you an uncommon life.
People favor listening over genius, and deep listening is its own type of genius.
Your intelligence is a fire that can illuminate any darkness. Awaken and let your mind burn so brightly! You are alive for a reason!
Average is a slow-motion killer of everything you could have been.
The essential nature of ignorance, is ignorance cannot see itself.
It is only when you accept who you truly are that you can access the potential of who you could be.
If you will get out if your own way, your natural genius will appear.
Don't fight so hard trying to live, that you forget what you are living for; not to be a mere slave to the common and mundane, but to fully expand as the master of your deepest passion. You are alive to fulfill your calling.
Money cannot create what money was invented and sourced from; you already possess something more powerful than money.
The common person fears to think beyond the common.
Do you want to know how to accomplish the impossible? First, quit calling it the impossible.
To be a genius is to play like a child. You still are that beautiful child.
Everything is trying to complete itself in this world, and we are no different. Don't restrain your yearnings. Allow your heart, mind, and soul to reach!
Creativity flourishes where there is freedom.
When you are doing things for the right reasons, you do not need to play by the rules, because there are no rules for a creator walking the path of love.
It is better to have a fair intellect that is well used, than a powerful one that is idle.
Dreams usually die because of a lack of imagination, when they can no longer be imagined to be possible.
Genius is always accompanied by enthusiasm.
Thoughts are levers of the mind; small thoughts can exert great force. Use your mind like a crowbar on the locked door of opportunity.
Tiny thoughts are like mental crowbars. They can rip the closed door of your limited thinking off the hinges.
Success is built on clear thinking. You have to bring your thoughts to a point and maintain clear, passionate focus!
Muddled thoughts and intentions create a muddled life. Get clear.
Quit just thinking about topics, and start thinking about the way you're thinking.
You have to start thinking about the way you are thinking. How you think is more important than what you know.
Think about the way you're thinking.
Enthusiasm is the energy and force that builds literal momentum of the human soul and mind.
Curiosity is one of the great secrets of genius.
Nothing great ever happens from thinking small.
Real limitations can be reasonably challenged and expanded, but a hobbled mind is not going anywhere.
Knowledge is that possession that no misfortune can destroy, no authority can revoke, and no enemy can control. This makes knowledge the greatest of all freedoms.
The more out of control someone is, the more they try to control others.
When someone is vicious toward you they are giving you a glimpse of the pain they carry in themselves. Viciousness is suffering.
Some people are not addicted to drama, they truly just do not know how to move through their pain and let-go.
Anyone who hates anyone, only hates themselves.
Mean people are really just sad people. They hurt others because they are hurting. Every person is born beautiful, and much of the ugliness in others was put inside of them by other hurting people.
When someone feels hopeless they act with despair, which leads them to even more negative behaviors and situations. If you want to truly give someone a chance — give them hope.
I was holding the spoon like one holds a loaded revolver to their head.
Simple foods connect with your body's needs in complex ways.
Love foods that sustain and protect you, and love you back.
Your body will heal itself, through gentle and peaceful cooperation with the inherent wisdom and intelligence within.
The keys to health and weight-loss: stress reduction, sleep, deep breathing, clean water, complete nutrition, sunshine, walking, stretching, meditation, love, community, laughter, dreams, perseverance, purpose, humility, and action.
Your health is a long-range investment that will pay-off when you need it most.
Health is a priceless wealth. Invest while you can.
One of the most radical and revolutionary things you can do is grow your own food and eat from the land.
Many an injustice is presented as a solution and gift.
Intelligence is often worshiped, even when that intelligence allows unfathomable injustice and suffering to occur under its smart watch.
The real one-percent, are the informed.
Truth is often the favorite tool of those who deceive.
The way you keep your freedom safe is by keeping it safe for others.
Without self-realization you are only a mirror of society, which is to say a mirror of madness.
Sometimes, confusion communicates more clearly, than clarity.
An economic system is nothing more than a value system for exchange. Are we really a values based ethical society? Does our economic system we practice reflect that we truly care about others, or that we strip people to the bone cent by cent?
Carefully question the sources of your deepest animosity toward your perceived enemies. They may not be enemies at all. A very large percentage of our conflicts are cultivated between us by manipulation to misdirect our attention, and to control us. We are all being played against one-another. Our hate is produced; our common love is the truth.
Information is controlled because the free flow of truth is not always expedient for those wishing to maintain control.
Utopia begins with durable goods.
Materialism has nothing to do with coveting expensive goods. Materialism is anything leading to a landfill being full.
Lust for possession and greed has ravaged the soul of humanity like a great cancer.
A great deal of struggle and sorrow in the world comes from misguided feelings of pride of ownership and possessiveness, versus the humble spirit of stewardship as common temporary inheritors of the great resources of earth.
My savage indignation toward injustice is proportionate to my profoundly reverent connection with beauty.
Inside of every good person there is also something very wild. Embracing your wildness can bring you the most peace. Self-repression will eventually, and deeply, destroy your peace.
We are what we think about and meditate on. Look around people! America is a buffet of violence; a total immersion.
We are what we think about and meditate on. Look around people! The World is a buffet of violence; a total immersion.
The false world is full of illusions and misery.
Most worldly goals for so-called success, are soul traps similar to quicksand. Navigate success ever so carefully.
Don't retreat. Rush into life while you still can!
The trappings of success bring the opposite of success in the ways most meaningful to people's lives.
Beware! Success is not what you think it is. It's a trap. Proceed toward 'success' with extreme caution.
Become dangerously open to all points of view. Are you dangerously open, or safely closed?
The public good must be balanced with private interests.
A culture that has destroyed freedom and beauty must itself be destroyed. Hold the line for beauty.
Children playing while in the background the TV blares with screams, gunfire and rape-murder scenes. It seeps in.
TV is a pornographic cacophony of violence, death obsession, screams, gunfire and drama. You think it's fine because you are damaged.
Television turns their family living room into meditative den of death and violence worship.
Our minds of infinite possibilities have been plowed, seeded and cultivated by every word, institution and sacred belief we hold dear, to produce a foul harvest of exclusion, apathy, brute domination, and death.
Support what is good and spit out what is bad. Get off of your knees and reject the role of slave to the culture of divisiveness.
The battles once waged over outer territories, rage on still for the inner-territories of our hearts. The fight for liberty never ends.
Do not be a 'go along, get along' person when it comes to the suffering of others. Integrity is not a popularity contest. Stand for love!
It is very informative how we treat that with no defined legal rights. The essence of respect is more vital than the letter of respect.
Most people do not actually know how to think for themselves, and unfortunately that prevents them from even knowing it.
Most so-called success in the world is slavery.
One of the most important things one can do in life is to brutally question every single thing you are taught.
Quitting a job can be like an exorcism where you cast out a demon. The demon is the foreign spirit who occupies you, through your occupation.
When you suppress your darkness you also suppress your light.
The fish does not know it is wet. We are similarly immersed in violence. The violence is in our hearts. The enemy is within.
The secret to discovery is to never believe existing facts.
You have to push your boundaries. The rest of your un-lived life, is on the other side of your boundaries.
The secret to unseating great power, is not always moving the other direction, but to compete directly against their goals.
The success of a civil order should not be judged by its most affluent members, but by the standard of living of its poor.
The true nature of a human being is not compatible with the so-called civilized world.
There are many paths beyond the rules of limited thinking. Trust your instincts!
Violent consumption demands violent production.
What is amazing and revolutionary today will be oppressive tomorrow.
If you don't have a plan, a plan will be provided for you, by someone with a plan.
If you don't have a plan in life, you will be incorporated into someone else's plan.
Believe it or not, you and your enemies want many of the same things and share many values.
Common ground is the life-raft in a turbulent sea of extremisms. Our common hopes are our only hope.
There is no enemy that respect and love will not conquer. The moral authority for survival comes from respect.
The moral authority for survival comes from respect.
All nations that perished, did so because they lost moral authority. Basic decency is survival.
Modern-day freedom is like a roomy cage; just enough choice-space where the animal doesn't go wild, and feels free.
Western 'freedom' is a sophisticated form of control. Your awareness is the check and the balance.
Freedom is the most sophisticated form of control. The best lies use the truth; the ultimate lies use the ultimate truth.
It is so heartbreaking what we do to children in this world; how they are destroyed.
The world is not what it is supposed to be. We are tragically off course.
They say just give up; that the world cannot be changed, but never forget that everyday, you have the power to change someone's world.
They say the world has always struggled with injustice and always will. But change is more possible than ever before.
You are free. Your mind belongs to you. Your thoughts are yours. Honor the sacred territory of your freedom and individuality. Resist for those who cannot.
For a world full of universities, brilliant people, and clever corporations, it sure is a pit of hell and sorrow for billions. How smart is that?
We are our own worst enemy, and make no mistake, we are destroying ourselves with our divisiveness. Look for yourself in others.
Life is simply a thought. Didn't you know we made it all up? Don't you know it can be different?
People on corporate conveyor belts, like animals in slaughter-chutes, are all part of the same big massacre of joy.
Because of propaganda induced cognitive dissonance, many people hate themselves and don't even know it.
Are you free or were you sold a facsimile of freedom?
Most people know nothing about freedom; only the facsimile of freedom into which they were inculcated.
America has a unique type of poverty that looks like wealth.
America has a unique type of slavery that looks like freedom.
The revolution of today is the oppression of tomorrow.
The starting point to freedom is to begin questioning the cultural narrative you have been sold.
All identification is for control and ownership.
No matter how awakened you are, the conditioning roots are deep; very deep. Reclamation is a constant process.
Revolution starts in the mind. Question everything!
When you are born into bondage you can't see the prison.
Quit lying to yourself and accept your power and beauty. Liberate yourself from the slow-death you call life.
Governments are the deadliest terrorist organizations that have ever existed, if body count means anything.
The system wears a mask of civility, yet will quickly reveal its true nature in the form of magnificently-purposed violence when needed.
Abusers are committed to preserving the myth of their monopoly on violence. Violence belongs to everyone.
Governments are committed to preserving the myth of their monopoly on violence. Violence belongs to everyone.
Would it be violent to rush into the forest, and de-claw every lion, and muzzle their roar? What about your defenses, powers, and voice?
Peace is not a submissive posture, it is a choice from a place of total power — otherwise it is not peace. Real peace requires real power.
Accept all of yourself. What you hide is your path to freedom. Being balanced and in possession of all of yourself will bring peace to your painful disproportions.
Stay in the middle of the bell-curve of social norms and follow along, or you will find out about the freedom you never really had.
Ignorance is the supreme oppressor and tyrant.
Ignorance is the supreme oppressor!
The pinnacle of human consciousness must be the rejection of unhealthy competition, war, and violence.
Revolution is simple. It's like a breath; out with the old, and in with the new.
Freedom only exists in the choice. When you don't have the choice, you are not actually free.
Class based observational selection bias prevents people from seeing others outside of their class group; they become practically invisible.
Oh, how we could blossom and bloom, if we didn't have to fight to the death to merely exist!
Without compassion — capitalism is a murder-suicide mission.
Freedom is everything; being free from falsehood, fear, control, and your own demons.
Did you play by the rules and work hard, but feel empty and unfulfilled? It's because you were lied to.
A democracy of mean and ignorant people is just as scary as any other horrible form of government.
Any profession you engage in, no matter how profitable, unless it is truly helpful and good for others, is a crime against your soul, and the world.
Deeply-rooted beliefs are one of the many consequences of intellect, and also of ignorance; and telling one from the other is sometimes impossible.
Deeply-rooted conditioning has perverted us. We are the culture of violence. We must always look at ourselves.
Do not believe the road signs. There is no 'one way.' If it's your truth then it's the right way.
Challenge authority; the authority of your own rational convictions.
Be dangerously open to all points of view.
If this is a smart world then I want to be stupid.
Knowledge may be power, but without wisdom and compassion, it will never be the solution.
Letters and arts are the only acceptable theatre of war for the sake of peace.
Nothing can be done to you without your permission.
When you speak and affirm, you are creating a verbal contract with yourself.
Words of affirmation are powerful. Words change lives; words and ideas change the world.
Set a goal, write it down, and get started. Don't think forever. Don't plan forever. Don't dream forever. Dreaming is not enough without the doing!
Poetry can bridge that gap between what is solid and what is suggested; poetry can pull cogent meaning from the veiled truths outside of reason's grasp.
Good poetry does not exist merely for the sake of itself, but rather, is a byproduct of yearning and growth; great poetry canonizes that yearning for the growth of others.
There is no comeback to listening.
Most happiness in a meaningful sense, is the absence of being cruel to oneself.
You cannot have, nor do you deserve any success, you do not deeply wish for others.
Trust does not mean you're going to do as I expect, trust means you are safe with me, even when you don't.
One of the greatest gifts we can give another, is to allow them to be themselves in our presence.
Get out of the slime and into the sublime!
There are only things that will distract you, until you become truly happy.
Destroy anything within yourself that is not the true art.
If you want powerful friends, then make your friends powerful.
Hate is only blindness. If we could truly see each other, there would be no hate.
Hate is only blindness. If we could truly see each other, there would be no hate.
Don't denounce yourself; announce yourself!
Disarmament must begin with disarming our pride, resentments, suspicions, and fears.
Change comes from confrontation. You must confront yourself, or be confronted!
Why don't you listen to them unconditionally, instead of loving them unconditionally?
Listen to them unconditionally, before you try to love them unconditionally.
Learn to receive. People derive meaning from serving. Don't take the joy of service away from people.
You want to be wrong! You love being wrong! Because, being wrong means you get to learn something new.
Success arrives to the extent of your humility.
The way to peace is through ideological disarmament.
Stay away from bored people.
Take indecisive action.
Calm, polite apathy has slowly suffocated our humanity.
You must fight to keep your beauty alive!
Don't talk about your faith; be your faith.
Let your actions do the talking. Don't talk about your faith; be your faith.
Lying to someone else, is a step up, from lying to yourself. There is nowhere lower than not being honest with yourself.
You can't get what you want unless you know what other people want.
If you put yourself in trouble before they do, you're still in command.
More than any other act of devotion, listening is at the heart of all spirituality.
More than any other act of devotion, listening is the most loving.
Listening is at the heart of all spirituality.
Save the world by starting with yourself.
Save the world starting with yourself.
If you want to save the world — start with yourself.
If you want to save the world — start with saving yourself.
I'd rather you impress me, than love me.
Quit calling it negative feedback, and instead call it helpful feedback. Nothing matters except criticism.
Crazy is your playground. Sanity is the place you go to die.
Speak ever so kindly, to and of — yourself.
Any discipline, when not voluntary — is coercion.
Don't be fooled by a moment; your pattern is what IS.
People are what we allow them to be.
People are only what we allow them to be.
Life is your mirror — do you like what you see?
Make decisions in your self-interest.
Lean into the pain. Lean into the discomfort. Dreams arrive on a cloud of discomfort.
You can't be brave until you are afraid.
Whatever we are, let's merrily be.
They win the second they get an involuntary reaction out of you.
You can only know what magic is once the magic stops.
Who needs certainty, when you have faith.
When you move your body, you move your mind.
Trouble and boundary pushing is the only thing that matters.
You don't know it, but you died when you stopped getting in trouble.
You don't need confidence. Insecurity can work too. It's not that I'm confident, it's that I severely lack confidence — in not moving forward.
Civil disagreement takes guts, while trashing someone is the act of a coward.
Second-guess your programming, or be forever cast into a statue of your present self.
When I was twenty, all of my friends were sixty.
If you want to move forward get better friends. If you can't find any, find some dead ones — writers, thinkers, and cult-ure changers.
How do you advance the space? You be the advanced space.
You can look at the rainbow, but you can't have the rainbow. If you put it in a box, it's no longer a rainbow.
Don't be with someone for their limitations, be with someone for their potential.
Just give me something real.
Just give me one real thing.
You want something real? You can only have something as real as you are.
You can only have something as real as you dare to be.
Be yourself, but the self you've always dreamed of.
Whether there's anybody in there or not, depends on who's knocking.
Learn to be disappointing, without disappointing yourself.
I am a big believer in the virtue of properly allocated selfishness.
Properly allocated selfishness is a virtue.
Don't wait for health care reform. You are the reformer in your own life.
Don't wait for health care reform. You are the reformer in your own health and care.
Your wish for the success of others will be granted — in your own life.
This is how you really divide and conquer, you create two words; one called economics, and one called government.
Be positive, but hedge your bets on misery.
Your mind is like a bombed city. Meditation is how you rebuild.
When your mind can go places theirs can't — you're the boss.
When you can entertain thoughts they can't — you're in charge.
It's amazing what money can't do.
They don't hate you; they just hate.
They don't judge you; they just judge.
They don't hate me; they just hate.
You have almost made it there, but will never arrive, because every step is its own destination.
If you need to have power over someone, sometimes you have to let them feel as though they have power over you.
Take pleasure in every opportunity of generosity.
People can only be what you allow them to be.
Act equal, instead of angry.
Carry yourself as an equal, instead of a resentful subordinate.
Open yourself to the ocean of wisdom within you.
There is a vast kingdom of understanding within you.
You don't always have to tell people they are wrong. If you just let people talk, they may talk themselves right into their own understanding of their errors.
Opportunities belong to the deserving, but not if you aren't ready.
If you want your life to be different, you have to ask yourself, what you are going to do differently.
If you want to be trusted, you have to give people trust.
If you do everything the way you have always done it; that equals — stuck.
Music is honest... it only gives you, what you give it.
Real dominance sometimes involves allowing others to feel dominant.
Compassion to me, is that I do not apply morality to others; only to myself.
If you're worried about what people are saying, you aren't busy enough.
Calling someone manipulative is an aggressive form of manipulation.
Real freedom would be deemed a psychosis today.
There is no greater form of women's liberation, than what she's got in her bank account.
The way to make it good, is to not make it bad in the first place.
Everything in life is a matter of seduction or force.
You can only have your perception; nothing more.
You only receive passion equal to your own.
Be selfish in the service of others.
Be who you really are, and be of service to others, and the world will become your friend.
When you are analyzing someone, you are also analyzing yourself.
There is nothing more empowering you can do, than to see the reality of your own thoughts.
Life is a practice, not a perfection.
You dis-appointed yourself from your grand appointment, by being disappointed.
Don't let what you want, get in the way, of getting what you want.
You are not experiencing life; you are experiencing yourself through life.
Remaining calm — it's a superpower.
Remaining calm is a superpower.
When someone calls you manipulative, they are expressing their weakness, frustration, and justifiable fear of your superior strategy.
The only real battle in life is the battle with yourself.
Every success and failure; every pain and pleasure; every emptiness and satisfaction — only as you allow.
Don't flee. If you engage the moment, then you can participate, even if it is participation with an unfavorable outcome.
Being in control of them, requires being in control of yourself.
Genius is focus. Power is focus. Success is focus. Spirituality is focus. Love is focus. It's all about time and attention.
True non-reactivity is really about awareness, even the awareness of choosing to be reactive.
Non-reactivity is about choice.
No need to forgive them when you forget them.
Non-reactivity is about choice; conscious choice.
Once you learn how to not be reactive, you have then earned the right to be reactive.
Non-reactivity is not about being non-reactive, it's about being able to choose your reaction.
Arguing and argument is actually a good thing. The problem is that people don't know how to argue, they only know how to fight.
No conflict equals no knowledge. This makes conflict a greater vessel of enlightenment than peace. That is why you are sold peace.
Once unsupportive always unsupportive. No need to forgive when you forget.
To give them everything they need to love you, you must give them everything they need to hurt you.
Are you a victim of their words, or a victim of your internal response?
If you love me, give me a straight answer.
If you love them, give them a straight answer.
Do you pride yourself on your loyalty? Loyalty is based on fairness. Are you being fair to yourself?
Don't interrupt your curiosity to know things, by being so sure.
What some people call success, is really just lazy at a higher level.
Humility is patient because it is neither past nor forward seeking.
Have a good heart, that's street-smart...
Have a street-smart good heart.
If you want to reach people, you have to meet them where they are, not where you are.
While money may not be important to you, money is nonetheless important. Pay proper respect. If you don't respect money, money will not respect you.
My compassion is not as deep as your excuses.
Why are some people selfish? They may have been taught, but were never shown. People are selfish, because they have been waiting for you to show them another way.
People are mean, because they have been waiting for you, to show them another way.
People are awful, because they have been waiting for you, to show them another way.
People suck, because they have been waiting for you, to show them another way.
People are cruel, because they have been waiting for you, to show them another way.
People are unforgiving, because they have been waiting for you, to show them another way.
People are selfish, because they have been waiting for you, to show them another way.
People are uncaring, because they have been waiting for you, to show them another way.
Your success will be as small, or large as your heart and mind.
Your life will be great — as long as you wish it to be.
Ignorance prefers ignorance.
Your mistakes are your own mentorship.
Only the willing and willful, get to live their own lives.
Kindness isn't required; just deadly precision and accuracy, with which you can decide to be kind, or unkind.
Be yourself, as long as you are not an idiot.
Why is it some people who piously never break any rules, so easily breaks hearts?
Penny-pinchers tend to be grudge holders.
Where some people were born to say, NO — I was born to hear, YES.
You have to like YES, more than they like, NO.
Only not seeing your truth can keep you from your greatness.
Spirituality is dangerous because it gives people ideas about things, they often don't have the understanding to obtain.
Have a wealth of integrity with a wealth of means.
You make real for yourself, what you see in other people.
What if you make real for yourself, what you see in other people?
You cannot isolate yourself into prosperity.
Entrepreneurship is your passport to freedom.
You are rich because the world is rich with opportunities.
Reject the notion that there are not good people in the world.
What is called freedom is like a roomy cage; just enough choice-space where the animal doesn't go wild, and feels free.
Freedom would, of course, be the most sophisticated form of control.
Pretend and act — like yourself.
Happiness is busyness.
Boredom is a starving, for life.
Boredom is your consciousness nagging you to not waste your life.
Bored and unhappy usually go together. Get the message? Get busy.
People who often say they are bored, are also people who are often unhappy.
Boredom in a warning sign.
Uncertainty is the state of the world, not your mind!
Don't strive for certainty, but act with certainty.
The thing that stands in the way of most people getting what they want, is they don't really want anything — they just like the idea.
Don't let your deliberations become debilitations. Take action.
Quit wondering what you should do, and just do, even if it's the wrong thing. The wrong things will lead you to the right things, but doing nothing will lead you nowhere.
The trick is becoming aware, of that which you are unaware.
Start thinking about the way you are thinking. How you think is more important than what you think.
Your life is limited by your perception.
Do not disrespect their disrespect. Let them teach themselves in the mirror of your grace.
When they are rude, give them grace.
Power begins with knowing it's ok to be wrong.
You are your own unexplored universe.
People who are not generous, don't receive generosity — they blame life as cruel, but the cruelty is their own.
Happiness begins with acknowledging that you are good enough, whether you are happy, or unhappy.
If you don't respect money — money will not respect you.
Half-in will not get you anywhere.
Boredom is a form of starvation — starving for life.
Boredom is starvation — starving for life.
You have permission to do well, and to be successful.
You don't have to be decisive to act with decisiveness.
Act with certainty in your goal to make a good life for yourself, and to have power.
Consult with yourself, but only for advice leading to action.
If you want to create a dream life, you first have to dream.
If you want to have a dream life, you must first have a dream.
Don't argue because you have an opinion; argue to discover your opinion.
Only argue to discover your opinion.
You gave them everything they needed to hurt you.
You have to know there is more to demand more. That's why you're kept ignorant, so you will not be demanding.
The best questions are also answers.
Excellence and beauty for all! If you do not demand it, then who?
The most unforgivable arrogance, is not loving yourself more.
You have an obligation to become the finest and highest expression of yourself.
Wild, unpredictable, and dangerous — IS GOOD.
Are you feeling stuck? You are. Stuck in the MIRACLE of life!
What if you are creating for yourself, what you selectively choose to see in other people?
You can't achieve financial success, if you subconsciously hate money.
You can't achieve financial success, if you secretly hate money.
You don't deserve financial success, if you resent people who already have it.
I am not in your hurry.
I'm not in your hurry.
Don't be in their hurry.
What bothers them doesn't bother me, which is why I move forward, while they stay stuck.
Grace and ease is the way. Don't be in their hurry.
Complements are as truthful as you allow them to be.
The poetry in the world, is the poetry in your heart. If you don't see the poetry, now you know where to look.
The beauty in the world, is the beauty in your heart. If you don't see the beauty, now you know where to look.
The most beautiful sounds come after silence.
Their discomfort will be equal to your comfort with yourself.
Try to fit in — with yourself.
Don't speak about God, so that God can be present.
The degree of their misbehavior is equal to the love they were deprived.
The unrequited love of life — life is loving you, but you are not loving it back.
Don't let what you could have been, be killed by what they couldn't be.
Success meets you halfway on a bridge called faith.
Until you learn to have a giving and supportive heart for others, you are not entitled to success.
Some people don't want to be reached, because they don't want to be disappointed. They are more content with discontentment.
What a beautiful world; what art, majesty, and marvels abound in every form for us to witness.
Friendship is one heart-choice away. We all share life's sweet gift.
Our commonality is the gift of life. Our differences vanish when we just remember how wonderful love and friendship feel.
They need an enemy, because they don't know how to have a friend.
They will make you the enemy, because they don't know how to have a friend.
You have to suffer for anything good.
Suffer for someone better.
You're going to suffer, so suffer for someone better.
If you're going to suffer — suffer for someone better.
Suffer for something better.
You're going to suffer, so suffer for something better.
If you're going to suffer — suffer for something better.
Suffer for something bigger.
You're going to suffer, so suffer for something bigger.
If you're going to suffer — suffer for something bigger.
Hell is simply the love we don't give.
Not all art hangs on walls.
You don't need a masterplan, because you are the masterplan!
You don't need a master plan; you are the master plan.
People don't pay attention to acceptance, they only pay attention to resistance.
Who people introduce you to reveals what they think of you.
If you are not pushing people's boundaries — you're subject to theirs.
If you don't push people's boundaries — you will be subject to theirs.
If you don't find what you're looking for, be what you're looking for.
If you haven't found what you're looking for, be what you're looking for.
You might not be able to win over your enemies, but you can win over the people around them.
Give your life to questions; not answers.
Judge the culture, but have compassion for the individual.
Suffer more now so you don't suffer more later.
Never betray someone who likes themselves and their time alone.
You can respect why a person believes something, without believing it.
I can respect why a person believes something, without believing it.
People believe in corporate logos more than God.
God will not save you from yourself.
Even God can't save you from yourself.
You will become what they refuse to change.
If you are not stronger, you will become what they refuse to change.
They think they're starving for experience, but they're starving for imagination.
You think you're starving for experience, but you're starving for imagination.
Your anger is equal to your boredom.
Your fear is equal to your boredom.
Your suspicion is equal to your boredom.
Your worry is equal to your boredom.
Your relationship can only be as real as you are.
You have to earn the truth with bravery.
You can't have true love, and secrets.
Your partner can only be as truthful as you allow.
Your relationships can only be as truthful as you allow.
People will only be as honest as you allow.
People will only be as truthful as you allow.
People are as wonderful as you allow them to be.
Stop forever chasing what could have been.
Pure love is only attainable to those who give their lives to one another, as one gives their life to God.
If you want people to be trustworthy, give people trust.
If you want to trust people then give people trust.
The things we talk about are the things we bring about.
Every moment of reverence is earned with a moment of rage.
You gave them everything they needed to hurt you.
If you have doubts about someone give them trust, so they have something to lose.
The less you are offended the more you are in command.
The less you are upset the more you are in charge.
Critical thinking is a form of judgement which is necessarily a state of conflict. By its very nature conflict avoidance creates a void of critical thinking, and therefor ultimately — stupidity.
A lack of critical thinking skills guarantees cultural myopia, weak-mindedness, and inescapable ignorance.
The way you get the respect you deserve, is you give it.
When people are not communicating, they are assuming the worst.
Follow your true destiny, even if to others it looks like suffering.
Follow your true calling, even if promises ruin.
Follow your true calling, even if promises ruin. An untruthful triumph is the gravest failure.
If you can entertain ideas with earnest calm, where others are easily offended — they are your unwitting subordinate.
Your reward is equal to your faith.
Win yourself over — about you.
It's only obscene if you are afraid of it, otherwise it's art. This is how we become obscene; we lose our connection with true art.
The usual way is not the way.
The easiest thing is achieving your dreams — the hardest thing is surviving them.
Learn how to be properly repulsive. Many things should never arrive in the first place.
Don't set fire to the forest, and then blame the woods for burning you down.
What often makes your dreams come true involves a total rejection of rational thinking.
There is no greater source of education than your imagination. Most education informs us of the past, but imagination instructs us to the future.
When you were born, your narrative was already written for you. Your parents took possession of your body, but the narrative took possession of your soul.
Most people don't care. They are only selfishly confused by bouts of sentimental fleeting things, that partially look like caring.
Don't worry about them. Encourage yourself toward better behaviors.
The deepest loyalty comes from the deepest forgiveness.
People don't break our hearts. We break our own hearts.
It's your lack of imagination that is not informing you of the extent of what you are missing.
Saying, "I don't know" is among the smartest things a person can do.
Don't expect, but do believe. The difference between expectation and belief is paramount.
Continued good fortune is predicated upon always honoring what brought one good fortune.
True weakness is a lack of moral authority. If you want to be right, be righteous.
Treat — yourself — the way you want to be treated.
Pure love between partners is only attainable through a serious and devout practice of intention, not so dissimilar from meditation, or worship. It is in fact only attainable to those who give their lives to one another, as one gives their life to God. True love is not found in a moment; it's found in a lifetime.
True love is not found in a moment; it's found in a lifetime.
Today I call upon my higher power to grant me a reprieve from my negative thoughts and worries. I reclaim my power to live more peacefully — thought by thought, and choice by choice.
Today I call upon my Higher Power to help me release the need to change negative situations and people and the torment they bring. Help me change myself so those situations no longer have power over me.
Today I call upon my Higher Power to help me unleash the power of creativity and discernment in my life. Help me wisely create a more beautiful life one guided decision at a time.
Today I call upon my Higher Power to help me lay down my cynicisms and believe in the goodness of people and the world. I ask for my innocence to be restored and my faith in possibility to be renewed.
Today I call upon my Higher Power to help me get through one more day. Help me have gratitude in the face of scarcity, strength in my private struggles and the wisdom to live a good life for myself and others.
Today I call upon my Higher Power to help me accept that I am lovable. Because I was once unloved and deprived of affection I learned to not love myself and to deprive myself. Each day I am moving closer to love in all its forms. I am worthy of loving and being loved.
Today, I call upon my Higher Power to deliver me from the impossible to the possible; from darkness to light, and from fear to courage.
Today I call upon my Higher Power to reveal to me — my own deceptions. Give me the courage to see myself truthfully so I may heal, grow and thrive through humility.
Today I call upon my Higher Power, to grant me the humility to apologize when I hurt others, and to live with a heart without malice, with forgiveness for those who have hurt me.
This is an exercise in creativity, but I am also serious. For those not aware, there is an international Outer Space Treaty. The effect of the Outer Space Treaty was to restrict control of private property rights, in the way that the law of the sea prevents anyone owning the sea. This is often disputed by those who claim the ability to sell property rights on the Moon and other bodies. The Outer Space Treaty prohibits only nations from claiming sovereignty but does not prohibit private ownership. To date, the dispute has never been tested in a court of law.
Finalized in 1979 and entered into force for the ratifying parties in 1984, the Moon Treaty, which was a follow-on to the Outer Space Treaty, intended to establish a regime for the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies. As it is unratified by any major space-faring powers and unsigned by most of them, it is of no direct relevance to current space activities. 1
One individual U.S. citizen was the first documented claimant of the moon. Taken seriously or not, and irrelevant to individual opinions, millions of dollars of land have been sold on the moon. Should someone begin mining Helium-3 (He-3) on the moon these property rights will surely be tested.
There are emerging new frontiers dealing with territories of Inner Space. For those who do not know, an atom is more than 99.9% empty space, and the protons and neutrons make up a very small amount of the volume of an atom. IBM has applied for US patents that would allow them to store data in the vacuum of the atom's inner space. (They need a license from me to apply their patient) This demonstrates that inner space property rights will be an issue in the future, just as outer space rights still are today.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Hal Plotkin, who is also the Silicon Valley Correspondent for CNBC.com, writes, "As a field, nanotechnology is about where rocket science was at the dawn of the Space Age. Huge early investments in the space race yielded technological dividends that are only now beginning to dwindle. A similar race toward inner space will probably lead to even more lasting rewards." Plotkin also notes, "Concerns over safety have already led to the creation of a voluntary set of ethical guidelines for nanotechnologists." [Hal Plotkin, San Francisco Chronicle]
Retired U.S. Army Colonel Thomas Adams, who has criticized the U.S. military for its failure to envision the potential consequences of technologies it is helping to develop said "We are rapidly approaching an event horizon in human development, a point at which the mutually reinforcing trends described here will combine to produce an aggregate result so different from what we now know that it is impossible to guess what it will be." [Retired U.S. Army Colonel, Thomas Adams.]
Sean Howard, Nanotechnology and Mass Destruction wrote, "Before long, there may be need for an 'inner space' treaty to protect the planet from devastation caused — accidentally, or by terrorists, or in open conflict — by artificial atomic and molecular structures capable of destroying environments and life forms from within." [Sean Howard, Nanotechnology and Mass Destruction]
Presently, inner space is unclaimed by any sovereign state, or any private or common law citizen in the world. A search of scientific journals, library databases, search engines, media and newspaper archives has shown that no human on Earth has ever discussed making, nor has made any claim to the territory of inner space. This territory is unclaimed. In addition, no Inner Space Treaty has been created, signed or ratified by any nation on Earth.
As such, I, Bryant McGill on September 9th, 2007, hereby lay claim, to the entirety of inner space. (E=MCgill) This claim includes all of inner space, on Earth, and the universe, (or multiverses if they exist) which represents 99.9+ % of everything and everyone. (Except the inner-space claimed in 1958, by Harold Henry Elsesser, who became the first person licensed to use and operate in any way he desires, the space inside his own bowling ball.)
This exercise brings into focus issues relating to private property, corporate patenting, and ownership issues. For example the issue of owning the inner space of an individual, and then storing data or material in the person. While this is for fun and exploration, I am also serious. I own 99.9+% of everything, including you. (Except Harold Henry Elsesser's bowling ball.)
lexico, wikipedia ↩