Letters To My Son

No one has it all figured out. I don’t care if you’re LeBron James or the Pope. Learning to ask for help can be the most life-changing upgrade we make starting today.

And while our darkest moments test our strength, they push our boundaries even transform our reality. They can also be the bridge that leads us exactly where we need to be. They remind us.

The point is to master the art of showing up. First, make it the standard in your life, then worry about doing it better.

Design your own life‘s game plan. Let the game respond to you rather than the other way around.

Check your commitment to you. Your investment in you. Reality is that this world has for you everything you need to change, to grow, explore, build a life that means something. It has the support structures and the resources for you to pull yourself back up every time you fall.

“When your behavior and your identity are fully aligned, you are no longer pursuing behavior change. You are simply acting like the type of person you already believe yourself to be.”

But it is at the end of the day, your ally, you just have to see your future self, before it materializes, when no one else gets it, so move on from all that does not serve you.

When was the last time you felt that you were not enough? Enough of what? How much is enough? How do we know if it’s enough? Who even decides what enough is? By whose standards am I even comparing myself to?

Think about it. When what you’re doing is less than what you’re capable of doing - and I’m not talking about what you “should” be doing here, but what your highest self knows you’re capable of, there’s a gap. And, in that gap is where depression and anxiety and disillusionment choose to hang out.

So women, on behalf of men all over the world who feel similar to me, please forgive us for all the ways that we have not relied on your strength.

“We make assumptions about what others are doing or thinking - we take it personally - then we blame them and react by sending emotional poison with our word.”

Marcus Aurelius reminds us not to worry about the opinion of other people who don’t even have a good opinion of themselves.

Being without sin is exactly the opposite. Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.

“That space between your ears-that’s yours. You don’t just have to control what gets in, you also have to control what goes on in there.”

You are here for such a brief time. On this planet. In this job. As a young, single person. How do you want to spend it? Like a coward? If fear is to be a driving force in your life, fear what you’ll miss.

The challenge for the veteran - and for anyone suddenly deprived of purpose - is not simply to overcome trauma, but to rebuild meaning. The only way out is through. Through suffering to strength. Through hardship to healing.

Difficult and unpleasant as it may be to accept, we often feel most hostile to those who remind us of aspects of ourselves that we prefer not to see.

This habit of worrying more about what others think of our thoughts than we do about our own thinking usually begins in high school, but as exhibit A shows, it can last a lifetime.

By being perpetually busy, glued to your cell phone, out in the world all day with no time to reflect, you will guarantee yourself an eventual overwhelming sense of confusion.

Right, wrong or indifferent. Make a choice. Make a decision. Have the courage and take a stand or fall for just about anything.

We are not given answers so that we may believe them. We are given the opportunity to believe and so we create that ending we hope to pursue.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. Let those on the sideline, talk about their empty tanks and fantasized limitation. You are not running on empty.

We want to live in a world of brave people, we want to be brave … and we’re afraid to talk about it because we might look foolish!

If an unexpected phone call happens, traffic on the Mopac expressway, the check engine light comes on in your car, something that prevents you from getting to your destination on time, this is a chance to practice patience.

It’s possible to curb our arrogance, control our anger, and be a more caring person. How do you think others do it?