Bits of Wisdom with Terry Weaver

“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” Franz Kafka If this Bit of Wisdom spoke to you, you might enjoy reading All My Best: Wisdom and Encouragement for a Better Life. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo...

“Either you think—or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.” F. Scott Fitzgerald If this Bit of Wisdom spoke to you, you might enjoy reading All My Best: Wisdom and Encouragement for a Better Life. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes...

If this Bit of Wisdom spoke to you, you might enjoy reading All My Best: Wisdom and Encouragement for a Better Life. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryweaver.substack.com/subscribe

If this Bit of Wisdom spoke to you, you might enjoy reading All My Best: Wisdom and Encouragement for a Better Life. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryweaver.substack.com/subscribe

If this Bit of Wisdom spoke to you, you might enjoy reading All My Best: Wisdom and Encouragement for a Better Life. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryweaver.substack.com/subscribe

If this Bit of Wisdom spoke to you, you might enjoy reading All My Best: Wisdom and Encouragement for a Better Life. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryweaver.substack.com/subscribe

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” Herman Melville There is a kind of passive failure no one really talks about. We hide it in a back room, where it collects dust, away from the world, so we can ignore it. This failure exists in many of us; it’s there because of fear. This passive failure I’m referring to comes from never trying. We have dreams, goals, and aspirati...

“Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.” Earl Nightingale A great friend of mine often greets me with, “Happy Monday. It’s the best day of the week.” When we talk on Thursdays, his greeting is modified, “Happy Thursday. It’s the fourth best day of the week.” Over a decade ago, when we were just beginning our friendship, I was unsure how to respond to his unorthodox thinkin...

“True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one’s self; but the point is not only to get out — you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.” Henry James What is true happiness? How many people have found it? What percentage of our population lives in true happiness? I have only glimpsed it and grabbed ahold of it for moments, maybe a few days at a time, but...

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s. Their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” Oscar Wilde When struck with this statement, the question immediately came to mind, is this true of my life? To find out I inverted the statement: Most people are themselves. Their thoughts are uniquely their own. Their lives are original, their passions a reality. When I tested my...

“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.” Anonymous What’s caging you? What have you been born into that’s limiting you? When I first discovered this quote, it hit me hard because I was born into an ideology that still affects me today. The process of being born and raised in an ideology is often referred to as domestication. It’s important to understand that most of us are born and raise...

“Nobody can save you but yourself and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won but if anything is worth winning then this is it.” Charles Bukowski Millions of people are drowning today, millions died yesterday and last week, and hundreds of millions in past years. Why? Because they were at war with themselves and didn't know how to overcome the battle within. Bad luck, fate, karma, or someth...

“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.” Seneca There’s great power locked up in this small statement. We should ask ourselves often, where are we headed? In what direction is our life pointed? What goal or dream or pursuit have we undertaken? If someone were to ask, ‘What’s your major aim this year,’ could you...

“Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe, and a skill you can get better at. It’s the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows.” Kevin Kelly When was the last time you used your imagination? Did you know there’s power locked up in it? Power to invent, to bring ideas to life. Believe it or n...

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” Carl Jung It’s the beauty and poignancy of well-constructed thoughts like Jung’s that have the power to inspire—to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness. It’s powerful ideas like this that inspired me to become a writer. Jung’s statement holds both simplicity and sophi...

“The canvas is its own reward.” Steven Pressfield This tiny quote comes from the book, The War of Art . It’s a book I’ve recommended and given away more than any other. I own the physical book but also have the audiobook, which I’ve listened to more than fifty times. Just last week a friend sent me this message. Terry, thank you so much for recommending The War of Art! I finished it yesterday … wh...

“Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns just like grooves on a record and they never get out of them.” Steve Jobs Herein lies the power and danger of our minds. When something significant happens in life, patterns are etched into our psyche. It could be meeting our first love or los...

“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” Mandy Hale The pain of not belonging usually begins in the heart. It’s a signal to move that we ignore until misery begins to set in. When we ignore the signal, pain begins to manifest; it sometimes shows up as anger or frustration, and it often leads to an inevitable end. I remember the...

“I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician. I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller.” G.K. Chesterton There’s no wonder why Chesterton was nicknamed the Prince of Paradox. We don’t have to investigate much to conclude that the most complex things in this world have a creator, a designer, a...

“If your world doesn’t allow you to dream, move to one where you can.” Billy Idol This world does not want you to dream. I know that’s a pretty black-and-white statement, but it’s true. When we dream big, we compete with other people’s dreams, at least that’s the way most people see it. Most people have a scarcity mindset that goes as follows: If you are winning, I’m losing, so join my team and he...

“It was while helping others to be free that I gained my own freedom.” Anais Nin What causes one to be imprisoned in their own mind? What causes someone to wage war in their thoughts? Where does depression, isolation, and self-loathing come from? Why is anxiety consuming our people these days? These are hard questions to answer, but what I know is that too much self-focus can create these outcomes...

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” Walt Whitman How do we keep our faces pointed toward the sunshine? A theme throughout human history has been that light is good and darkness is bad. We associate evil with the shadows, the ominous, the unseen. There is a generalized fear of the unknown, and what lies in the shadows is unclear. We associate goodness with...

“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so they have made me.” Ralph Waldo Emerson When Emerson shared these words, there was no mass media, motion pictures, or Facebook. Then, only books, newspapers, and plays had a profound influence on culture. Today we are flooded with media competing for our attention. It’s everywhere we turn. It’s hard to realize how...

“Being aware of a single shortcoming within yourself is far more useful than being aware of a thousand in someone else.” Dalai Lama The only person in this world whom we can guarantee change in is ourself. Have you ever sat with a psychologist or seen one played in a movie? Then, maybe you’ve noticed their chief tool for therapy. It’s the question. Why is this? To unearth realizations about self....

More than 2500 years ago, Heraclitus uttered the words, “Character is destiny.” When we make references to people we admire and trust, it’s because of what they have done. When we warn those we love to stay away from an individual, it’s because of their actions. We are known by what we do. He’s a teacher. She’s a photographer. My brother is a student. This is why, in part, I see the truth in Herac...