Letters To My Son

What if we slowed down and appreciated our sameness? The fact that we’re all in this together. That we share a common humanity.

“Self kindness involves more than just stopping self judgment. It involves actively comforting ourselves, responding, just as we would do a dear friend in need”.

If you don’t let yourself be vulnerable, you never experience failure on a significant level. You don’t fail, you don’t learn, you don’t learn, you don’t grow. And if that’s the case, forget about the top of the mountain.

“When we live a life of meaning, we invite others to do the same. Those who come behind us will build on our stories. They can add to them and make them better because we have showed them the way”.

“You can stare that fear wolf down, and refuse to feed it any longer. Starve it of that negative conditioning. Then you can feed the courage wolf, a steady diet of good food, and lead with your heart and mind as equal partners”.

You have everything you need to get started. Stop waiting for the weather to change in your life. Stop waiting for the perfect conditions. Stop waiting for a handout. Stop waiting for everybody to believe in you, and cheer for you, and affirm you.

“Perhaps the single greatest paradigm shift I’ve had as a human is this idea: I am writing my story, and I alone have the responsibility to shape it into something meaningful”.

The soul resides within. Connecting with that best, most heroic version of ourselves, so we can live with eudaemonia, which means good soul, in service to something bigger than ourselves, is, of course, the ultimate game we were playing and the focal point of everything we do together.

We don’t have to wait until we’re actually near death to receive these benefits of being mortal. We can create the experience anytime we want.

Yes, on some level you need to be committed to what you’re doing. You need to want to see the project finished or get healthier, or get an earlier start to your day. But you don’t need to feel like doing it. Act differently than how you feel.

Your professors weren’t asking for perfection, and if they were, my older self today, would’ve had something to say about that. Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, only disappointment.

It is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize we have chosen the life we are living right now. It is, perhaps frightening for us to think that we have chosen to live our life exactly as it is today.

Words mean nothing. Ideas are empty. Respect is earned by adding actual value. By making a difference. So reallocate that energy into the gift that you are giving to the people around you.

An unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centered ambition. It’s when the notion of ourselves in the world grows so inflated that it begins to distort the reality that surrounds us.

“Gratitude leads us to affirm and acknowledge the good things in our lives, and because you cannot be grateful and negative at the same time, it, counteracts feelings of envy, anger, greed, and other states harmful to happiness”.

“Throughout the day, we have many choices regarding who we’re going to be with and talk to. Don’t just gravitate to the coffee machine and participate in the negative gossip because it’s the only game in town”. - Steve Chandler

What will you create with the pieces presented to you not tomorrow or the next day but right now and every second moving forward?

Life gave you an amazing gift of a new day. Many people who are on their last breath would give anything for such a miraculous gift, and yet, we often will take this gift for granted. Fritter it away. And complain about much of it.

The song will come. The skies will clear, the sun will rise. But you have to know that, and you have to know it now, when all you have is ambition and a plan.

Loving well is an art. It starts with the awareness of something larger than ourselves, call it God, Source, Universe, whatever term feels delicious to you. The knowledge that Divine Love loves you is the beginning of your love story.

Your goal is not simply to live. Your goal is to live a life without walls, a life where you’re the author, with a pen in hand, and your story can be shared with the world as confirmation, as an example of what possible.

Nothing is impossible when others fail to see the answer. When others fail to see the light in themselves, in the situation. You become the reminder that life is internally manufactured.

While politicians, historians, and well-meaning people on both sides may debate the righteousness of the battle, no one can dispute the courage of the men who stayed and their impact on the future of America.

“Now is our time. This is our moment. We need to step up to make a difference. And we can. The American adventure of freedom, equality, and justice is in our hands”.

Sometimes in life, the difference between OK, and great or stagnation and growth is only a change in perspective. It is how you look at the world and your place within it, that little voice in your head, reminding you that you are capable of things beyond your current comprehension.