Life is not easy.
It is not. Don't try to make it that way.
Life's not fair, it never was, it isn't now, and it never will be.
Do not fall into the entitlement trap of feeling you're a victim. You are not.
Get over it and get on with it.
The question is:
What does success means to you?
Is it more money? A healthy family? A happy marriage?
You need to define success and measure it.
Maybe it's to help others, to be famous, to be spiritually sound, or to leave the world a little bit better place than you found it.
Continue to ask yourself the question. What does success means to you?
Your answer may change over time, but whatever your answer is, don't choose anything that will jeopardize your soul.
Prioritize who you are who and who you want to be. Don't spend time with anything that antagonizes your character.
Be brave and take the hill, but first answer the question:
What's my hill?
First we have to define success for ourselves, then we have to put in the work to maintain it.
Make your daily tally!
What's your tally? We can't improve what we can't measure.
Tend your garden.
Keep the things that are important to us in good shape.
The first question is not 'Who Am I?' The first question is 'Who am I not?'
The first step that leads to our identity in life is knowing who you are not.
You discover who you are through the process of elimination! You discover who you are not by trying everything else.
Defining ourselves by what we are not is the first step that leads us to knowing who we really are.
What are the things keeping us from fulfilling our full potential?
Are there people in your life holding you back? What are the habits that keep coming back even though they no longer serve you?
Is being online serving as an excuse to get offline and out into the real world?
Life happens out there and offline. While you can gain knowledge and insight online, you can only gain wisdom and experience offline.
Is the planning of it getting in the way of doing it?
You know the food & drink that taste so good going down, but makes us feel like crap later? Consuming them makes us lethargic and we put on weight we don't need.
To all those people, places, and things that keep you from what you enjoy most... stop giving them your time and energy!
Put them down and move on without fear or regret. Your primary job is to fulfill your souls desires!
It's only when you quit giving them your time that you inadvertently find yourself spending more time and in more places that are healthy for you that bring you more joy.
Why?
Because you just eliminated the who, what, where, why, and when that was keeping you from your identity.
Too many options will make a tyrant of us all.
So get rid of the excess, reclaim the wasted time.
Decrease your options. Downsize your life.
What are your ambitions? Are they too high? Are they not high enough?
If you do this you will accidentally, almost innocently, put in front of you what is important to you by the process of elimination.
Knowing who we are is hard. Knowing who we are not is easier.
It's hard, so give yourself a break and eliminate who you are not first and you'll find yourself where you need to be.
Instead of creating outcomes that take from us, let's create more outcomes that pay us back. What fill you up and keeps your fire lit?
Focus your future time and energy on the that turn you on.
We try our best, but we don't always do our best.
Our architecture is a verb as well.
Since we are the architects of our own lives, let's study the habits, the practices, the routines, that we have that lead to and feed our success, our joy, our honest pain, our laughter, our earned tears.
Let's dissect that and give thanks for those things.
When we do that, guess what happens?
We get better at them and we have more to dissect.
Be discerning. Choose it because you want it. Do it because you want to.
You're gonna make mistakes. You've got to own them. Make amends and move on.
Guilt and regret kills many a man before their time, so turn the page, get off the ride.
You are the author of the book of your life.
A single definition of success:
When you look in the mirror at the end of the day, ask:
"Is who I am today someone who would disappoint my 18 year old self?"
Raise the rest of your life to meet you.
Don't search for defining moments because they will never come. The moments that define you have already happened and they will already happen again. Instead, find your rhythm.
You will never have permission from others to become the future you, because the future you is unknown. We cannot premise what is not known!
You will never feel ready, but you need to go now. Give yourself permission to fail. This is the key!
The future favors those who fail.
Try it. Fail.
Try again. Fail.
Fail better.
Fail closer each time.
Celebrate and honor your failures.
Success is a marathon not a sprint.
Be kind and have fun.