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Kindle Notes & Highlights
This power of choice means that we are not merely a product of our past or of our genes; we are not a product of how other people treat us.
They unquestionably influence us, but they do not determine us. We are self-determining through our choices.
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.
Though we do not choose our genes, we do have the power to choose how we respond to them.
Remember, any time your emotional life is a function of someone else’s weaknesses, you disempower yourself and empower those weaknesses to continue to mess your life up. Again, yesterday holds tomorrow hostage.
He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.
“My life is ordained. It will not be one minute longer or one minute shorter than it was ordained to be.”
1. For the body—assume you’ve had a heart attack; now live accordingly. 2. For the mind—assume the half-life of your profession is two years; now prepare accordingly. 3. For the heart—assume everything you say about another, they can overhear; now speak accordingly. 4. For the spirit—assume you have a one-on-one visit with your Creator every quarter; now live accordingly.
He that would govern others first should be master of himself.1 PHILIP MASSINGER
Seeing people through the lens of their potential and their best actions, rather than through the lens of their current behavior or weaknesses, generates positive energy and reaches out and embraces others.
There is great power in viewing people separately from their behavior, for as we do, we affirm their fundamental, unconditional worth.
