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Started reading
May 31, 2024
Everything is a choice. This is life’s greatest truth and its hardest lesson.
It is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize that we have chosen the life we are living right now.
it is also liberating, because we can now begin to choose what we will find when we look at our life in the tomorrows that lie unlived before us.
Most people never fully accept this truth. They spend their lives arguing for their weaknesses, complaining about their lot in life, or blaming other people for their weaknesses and their lot in life.
the day we accept that we have chosen to choose our choices is the day we cast off the shackles of victimhood and are set free to pursue the lives we were born to live.
“Wait for the man who makes you want to be a better person, a man who inspires you because he is always striving to better himself.
Travel dissolves the stains of prejudice that infect our hearts and societies.
Have we become more interested in spectator sports and television sitcoms than in our own future?
You cannot change one moment of your past, but you can change your whole future.
be assured, the reason people do stupid things is because they mistakenly believe those stupid things will make them happy.
There are four aspects to the human person: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual.
What are we all too busy doing? For the most part, we are too busy doing just about everything, that means just about nothing, to just about nobody, just about anywhere…and will mean even less to anyone a hundred years from now!
Finally, it is becoming more and more apparent that suicide is directly proportional to wealth. What does that mean? Studies reveal that the more money you have, the more likely you are to take your own life.
Economics is clearly not a good measure of happiness.
In an age of unprecedented prosperity, there are millions who feel that something is missing in their lives.
another emerging trend worthy of our consideration is our modern inability to sustain relationships.
Our inability to live the resolutions we make is another indicator. Indicator of what? There is a crisis of commitment in our society.
where is the connection between the “crisis of commitment” and the suicide, depression, and quiet desperation of our age?
The crisis of commitment is the result of a far more serious crisis of purpose.
without an understanding of our own purpose, there can be no true commitment.
Commitment is the logical and natural response that follows from an understanding of our purpose.
In the absence of a genuine understanding of the meaning and purpose of our lives, we substitute it with shallow and superficial meaning. The human person cannot live without meaning and purpose.
These are the five questions that humanity longs to answer: 1. Who am I? 2. Where did I come from? 3. What am I here for? 4. How do I do it?
5. Where am I going?
in order to answer these questions, “What am I here for?” and “How do I do it?,” it is imperative that we give serious thought and reflection to question one: “Who am I?”
Experience is an excellent, though sometimes brutal, teacher. Yet at the same time, it is only the ignorance of youth that believes experience is the only teacher.
Our modern culture proclaims with all its force: What you do and what you have are the most important things. This is a lie.
All of life’s experiences thus far have played a part in the person you are right now. The common reaction to this statement is to recall some negative or abusive event in our past and use it as an excuse for the person we are today. Such adoption of victimhood is one of the most destructive spirits at work in the human psyche in these modern times. Victimhood denies the great truth that life is choices.
we are not a composite of everything that has ever happened to us, but rather what happens in our lives is almost always a result of those things we habitually think and those things we habitually do.
Picasso’s personal life was plagued by this episodic quality we have just discussed. He was unable or unwilling to apply the truth he had discovered professionally to the other areas of his life.
Once we discover it and place this purpose at the center of our lives, everything begins to makes sense. Until we discover our essential purpose, nothing makes sense, and we wander around aimlessly, slowly being numbed into lives of quiet desperation.
Discovering my essential purpose has caused me to realize that happiness is an inside-out job.
even though I am constantly dreaming new dreams, I have learned to dream with my essential purpose at the center of my life.
In all of our lives there is a great danger in believing that who we are, where we are, and what we have is all that there is.
You cannot live without dreams. Dreams foster hope, and hope is one of the forces by which men and women live.
But as we grow we experience pain, failure, criticism, and disappointment, and we gradually limit our dreams.
Schuller offered this question as a guide: “What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?”
There is no shame in trying to attempt mighty things and failing. The shame is in failing to attempt those things.
Take time to dream. Imagine what you are capable of, and live that life. Let us live every day in the counsel of Thoreau: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.”
Regret over things done can be eased over time. Regret over things left unsaid and undone is inconsolable.
Life is too short to be lived halfheartedly and far too short to lose yourself in the day-to-day drudgery and the hustle and bustle. Dedicate yourself to the things that deserve your dedication.
in all of our lives there has been
a great blurring of the line between needs and wants. We do have real and legitimate needs, but they almost never have anything to do with consumer goods.
Our legitimate needs are best understood in relation to each of the four aspects of the human person—physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual.
There are some things we need simply to survive. We call these primary needs,
Our secondary needs are not critical to our survival.
Among them would be needs such as regular exercise, a balanced diet, and healthy relationships.
we often neglect our secondary needs, either because we are too busy or too lazy or we simply don’t consider them urgent. The question is, are you satisfied being in the habit of surviving, or are you ready to get into the habit of thriving?
Our secondary needs are the key to thriving.
they are probably more important than anything on that list.
