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What others think of you is their problem. Deep within, you know yourself better than anyone else.
I am not saying you kill reason and sense; just don’t let anyone ever dictate the way you feel about yourself — no teacher, no preacher, no religion, no authority, no partner. The legal system, your faith and those around you may give you a framework of living, but you alone should set your rules of life. When distant memories become obstacles in covering the distance of your present journey, take charge of your life, your present, and start living! With compassion for others and yourself, make the most of every moment.
Childhood does not last forever. Youth is not permanent, and old age will end too. Nothing is worth clinging onto. These are fleeting seasons. Live, love, laugh, give while you have. Do so in such a manner that you fall in love with the person you see in the mirror, in a way so there is no burden on your conscience when you put your head down on the pillow.
Be yourself. Love yourself. Know yourself. You will find yourself beyond age.
What you do not accept can never affect you. Just like you, everyone has a right to their opinion.
To err is human; we all make mistakes. That, however, can’t be the justification to repeat them. There are only two ways to show that we have realized our mistake: first, by not repeating it and second, by offering a sincere apology.
Compassion does not require a reason or reward, only a desire, a discipline. Forgiveness doesn’t even need discipline but only a big heart, big enough to absorb their mistakes. When your heart is as big as the ocean, their shark-like mistakes and tuna-like presence in your life will coexist without so much as causing a ripple in your mind.
The greatest skill, in my view, is learning to be happy on your own. If not all the time, at least majority of the time then.
A popular quote paraphrased from The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle says: Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men become builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the instrument. In the same way,
by doing just acts we become just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become brave.
If there is only one skill you could master, then make it how to keep yourself happy regardless of what’s going on around you. Contentment is the mother of happiness. But, if you can’t feel contented for any reason, then devote yourself to a purpose or a cause that gives you a sense of fulfillment. If you don’t have a purpose, then find one. It’ll be worth every effort. Take my word for it. Above all, h...
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Oscar Wilde had once said, “some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” Which one are you? I’m not talking about your impact on others. You may or may not be able to bring joy to them, for their happiness is more dependent on their preferences than your offerings. I’m referring to happiness in an individual context; I’m alluding ...
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The best way to overcome self-doubt of this type is to sincerely work towards your goal. Observe, learn, adapt, adopt, understand, persevere, do what you have to do to stay course, to hold your fort. Actions bring results. It is action alone that will lead you to your goal, and like they say, nothing motivates like success. With practice, you attain perfection.
Practice. Persistence. Patience. If you work on these three, self-doubt will leave
you forever, in the potent presence of success, it promptly l...
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If your sense of self-doubt is based on your failure in the past, all you have to do is reflect on the reasons of your failure. If you do not repeat the past actions, past results will not manifest. History can only repeat itself if you start living a historical present.
And I reiterate, the most potent question you can ask yourself to overcome self-doubt is: what is the worst that can happen?
Take it easy. Do not spend your time brooding over your past, over-anticipating your future or making elaborate plans devoid of action. It is a precious life, do something priceless with it.
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered, Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives, Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true friends, Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you, Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight, Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous,
Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow, Do good anyway. Give the world your best anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is not between you and them, It is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
The truth, however, remains that our life is mostly the outcome of our thoughts and actions and not others’.
Finally, let me tell you the only thing you ever need to know. Here: in any situation, you should behave in a manner that befits you. You follow this principle and you’ll know right from wrong; you’ll know what choice to make. When they elicit anger, hate or other negative emotions in you, at that time, ask yourself a simple question: if I could make a completely independent choice, unaffected by the conduct and actions of the other person, how would I behave? Almost always, you will find that you can behave in your way; you don’t have to carry yourself any differently. The pure ones, the
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Whenever embarking on a new venture though, the primary difference between success and failure is the motivation to persist. A winner chooses to carry on.
there is a fifth element. You can call it grace, fate, luck, destiny or anything else you wish. This one manifests when you do not waver from your path. It may appear like a coincidence, a stint of luck or serendipity, but the truth is, with the four elements above, you create that perfect moment of realization, of attainment.
Go on! Give it your best shot. You should be able to look in the mirror and say, “I gave
it my best shot and I tried everything I possibly could.” When you can say that to yourself honestly, you can have your wildest dreams come true — from material success to divine realization.
All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself.
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream — and not make dreams your master; If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:. If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings, And never breathe a word about your loss: If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!” If
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you,
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If all men count with you, but none too much: If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And — which is more — you’l...
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are gripped by anger, paranoia, insecurity, at that moment, if you can remind yourself of the promises you made to yourself, if you can focus on the ...
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Independent — it means you are only Dependent on what is In you. That is freedom.
We judge people based on how they look, talk, act, walk, etc.
We are eternally categorizing them based on their race, religion, color, and so on. And, even though you may not be aware, these stereotypes — positive or negative — weaken your own sense of self-worth and self-esteem. How,
Either way, stereotypes don’t let you explore life. They greatly limit you and your potential. Our conventional ideas about others severely restrict our freedom to better enjoy and understand our own world.
Next time, you judge someone based on their appearance, attire, race or any other external factor, just pause for a moment. Trust me, it’ll be worth it. Just get to know them personally before you think you know them already.
When you open up to someone without being judgmental, you will get to see and appreciate the world from their eyes, too. You will have helped in making our planet a better place.
Real strength comes from being honest to yourself, it comes from acceptance and understanding.
To show your emotions does not make you weak. On the contrary, it shows you are genuine.
If there’s one gift you can give to yourself, if there’s one resolution you can make to transform yourself, it could be: never let anyone ever tell you what your worth is; never let them dictate how you see yourself. Next time someone neglects your feelings and tells you to be strong instead, please know that that person is not the right one to share your feelings with.
The seeds of perfection are already sown in our flaws.
Rather than aiming to be somebody else, instead of aspiring to be some perfect pot, it is far more important to put both our strengths and limitations to use. If you are honest about your cracks and are willing to see how they may add meaning to your own life, a whole new world of possibilities will open up.
Many people see faith or surrender as a way to have their dreams come true. They believe that if they pray to some god, their wishes will be granted. This is not how nature operates. It can’t afford to, for we often wish for the wrong things. We desire certain outcomes without realizing or understanding the cost of those desires. We forget that our choices are intricately linked to our fate, they shape our destiny. In wanting the “good” stuff alone, we only see what we want to see.
Rather than aiming to be the person who will keep his partner happy, we wish for a
person who will keep us happy, for example. And as we change, things that made us happy earlier no longer appeal to us. We then wish for another person, a better partner or something on those lines. Rather than being content with what we have, we crave for more things. To acquire more things, we work harder, often at the cost of our health and relationships. The quality of living may go up but t...
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As the French scientist Blaise Pascal said most beautifully, “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of… We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.”
Faith is heart’s wisdom. It’s what your mind can’t grasp but your heart knows. Give it a place in your life and you’ll fly with a thousand wings. Higher and swifter. Across the seas, beyond the skies.
Faith need not be blind.
Truth is always simple, lies are complicated.
