You can remake yourself

A glorious thing about being human is that we can remake ourselves.  

Because our past has been dark does not mean our chances are dim.

Whatever our past, whatever our present, the sky is bright for us because we can remake ourselves.

Want to make a great friend?

Include the excluded.

Is there life before death?

Nobody seems to be grappling with that question.  

It’s now.

The importance of saying no

If we are to be free, we cannot say yes all the time; for we will be overwhelmed.

Yes is a great word.  We love to say yes.  And we should say yes to experience life, the world, and all its possibilities and dimensions.  

But in the pursuit of freedom, “no” is an important word.

Don't feed the demon!

We all have a disempowering voice.  It’s the hurt, the fear, the anger, the insecurity, the …..

That’s the demon.  And we feed it by giving it time, by thinking about it, and by not crowding it out with opposing thoughts of strength, confidence and love.

Don’t feed the demon.

It's not a good idea to win when you're wrong

We all want to win arguments.  We may be more brash, bold, or have a better ability to debate or think what to say next.  But if you are wrong you are killing the relationship, hurting your reputation, and saying things that a more mature you in the future will wish he didn’t say.

Be careful what you argue.  You could win the battle but lose the war.

Win-lose leads to lose-lose

When dealing with others, if you make others lose in order for you to win, next time you will lose.

People remember.  And those same people will be in your ecosystem forever, whether you see them or not.

Will they want to deal with you again? Or will they be working to settle the score?

Figure out a way that is good for everyone – and be nice.

Mostly an optimist

Optimism determines success.

If you can be an optimist 80% of the time, you are doing good.

Keep looking for the good.

Do you want more of that in your life?

Well, then stop talking about it.

One thought at a time – take control

There was a time when, after many years of doing it, I was scared to death to jump my motorcycle off our freestyle ramp.  There have been times when I was afraid to do a speech or presentation.  There have been times I was afraid of looking dumb or being rejected.  Other times, it would be thoughts of “this is not going to go well” or “this is not going to be fun”.  My mind kept firing thoughts of a disaster at me.  At times, these thoughts crippled me.

You have one mind and can only think one thought at a time whether it be positive or negative.

If negative thoughts keep coming up substitute them for a positive one.  Force it and cancel the negative thought.  

Say the positive thought out loud and repeat it sincerely over and over it over and over if you have to.  Take control of your mind.