The answers are on the inside, like the prize in the box of Cracker Jacks. Stop looking for an outside fix. Lead your own life. Tell your own story. No one can fix you. You are not broken. Yes, you can become a better person, but only if you dig deep. The prize is within.
One day, walking along pondering life and my problems, I came upon Giraffe. I told Giraffe my dilemma and she said I looked down on everyone. That might be true, I thought. Next, I came upon Hyena who told me that my problem was that I didn’t take anything seriously. That might be true, I thought. Walking on some more I met Ant, who told me that I was not significant enough. That might be true, I thought. Back at the watering hole, I peered down at myself, thinking of all these problems I had, and wondered why no one …
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” – Michelangelo Michelangelo took inspiration for David from the biblical shepherd who downed Goliath with brains over brawn. But David the statue took the form that Michelangelo discovered as he chipped away. Every human is her own work of art. You have everything in you already. The answers are not in books or programs or other people. They may help, but they won’t sculpt the most beautiful you. Everything you need is inside you. Your job as artist is to …
Very little in life is really all or nothing, black or white. Turns out there are many shades of grey. Success is never black or white. Success is always grey, many shades of grey. Health is never black or white. Health lives on a continuum. You are with me or you are against me. Not really. We are too complex for that. I can partially agree with you, turns out. Death, now that might be black and white. Except I could find those would argue that death is yet one stage of the journey. Onward.
When things go wrong. You say the wrong thing. You do the wrong thing. Guilt creeps in and it feels toxic. You hate yourself. Deride yourself for your failure. But… Emotions are not positive nor negative, even though some ‘feel’ better than others do. Emotions are gauges, thermometers taking the temperature of our lives. Guilt is telling us to that we have committed an act against our own sense of what is right. We have not lived up to our own values, even a value we may not have realized or defined yet. We can wallow in guilt, make excuses, …
(AKA The Poor Me Story and Why You Should Avoid it.) Rags to riches is a great story and often goes something like this. The main character either starts with nothing or has it all and loses it. She may feel sorry for herself for a time during which she acts as if she is a victim. Then at some point, she realizes that although the problem appears to be on the outside, the answer is on the inside. She digs deep and learns to leave her rags behind and find her riches. She becomes the person she needs to …
The best way to get what you want in life is to become the person you need to be to get what you want in life. There are get rich schemes but they do not work. A 30-day diet puts you on 30 pounds lighter scheme. But you will gain the weight back because you have not become the lighter person, you have tried to cheat the system but then that never lasts. A manipulative sales pitch might win you short-term clients but eventually your cloak will fall off and the world will see the real you. Even lottery winners …
We dream big and that is good. Dreams tell us what incredible things we want to and can do. Once you create the dream, then what? You might say, “That is not me. I cannot do that.” Ask yourself this… why not me? Someone has starred in a movie. Someone makes money writing songs. Someone runs an entire country. Why not me? Your dream is to scale a mountain but you have never been climbing and cannot even run 3 miles now. Does that mean you cannot learn to scale mountains? Someone scales mountains. Why not you? The next question …