I also find it helpful to remind myself that every human is a mess on the inside. It’s easy to assume the good-looking and well-spoken person in front of you has it all together and is therefore your superior. The reality is that everyone is a basket case on the…

If you want to experience a rich, fulfilling, meaningful and significant life, you must step up and claim your right to be here: Here I am. I belong here. I am me, and I matter. Not because I’m the smartest, or the best, or perfect. Just because. Permission was granted…

Life’s not fair. It never was, isn’t now and won’t ever be. Do not fall into the entitled trap of feeling like you’re a victim. You are not. Matthew McConaughey “That’s not fair!” This is followed by, “Their piece is bigger than mine.” Children naïvely believe cake should always be…

In the short-term, for any single decision, there is only a loose relationship between the quality of the decision and the quality of the outcome. Annie Duke, How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices You’re on national TV, and you have a chance to win one million dollars. …

Freedom is what everyone wants — to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline. Jocko Willink, “Jocko Willink: The Relationship Between Discipline And Freedom,” Forbes Oct 17, 2017 Jocko knows something about discipline. He was…

I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you. Friedrich Nietzsche My daughters are nine years apart. When the younger one was six, she got in trouble for writing on walls and other non-paper surfaces. Since she was always being blamed…

Be a first-rate version of yourself, not a second-rate version of someone else. Judy Garland My six-year-old grandson was throwing a fit. He was also throwing a few other things. I told him to stop. “That’s what I do when I’m angry. I throw things.” “Not at Grampa’s house you…

Unrestricted satisfaction of all desires is not conducive to well-being, nor is it the way to happiness or even to maximum pleasure. Joy, then, is what we experience in the process of growing nearer to the goal of becoming ourselves. Erich Fromm, To Have or To Be? Getting what we…

The granddaddy of all mistakes is competing to be the best, going down the same path as everybody else and thinking that somehow you can achieve better results. This is a hard race to win. Michael Porter, quoted in Understanding Michael Porter, by Joan Magretta Don’t try to be the…