Dayton Watts

As we continue to speed through 2021 I continue to see scores of people seeking handouts and freebies.

I urge you to take the "road less traveled" as Robert Frost put it and grab hold of some responsibility. Free and less is not going to make you feel better long term. Laziness breeds weakness and none of us want that.

When committing to a positive change in your life, Decide and Act simultaneously

Thinking about how hard it will be, or that someone told you not too, (insert 1000 other or's or but's) is detrimental to your success. Besides, overthinking probably put you in the situation you're now trying to change. 🙂

Understand that if you have the right reasons, the how always follows.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

"IF" by Rudyard Kipling

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Take a hard look and make sure that's the average you want to be... otherwise as hard as it is, it may be time to find 5 new people.

One of the hardest realizations is that your "best" doesn't seem to be good enough. No matter what you do it seems problems always appear almost as if the universe is telling you to give up.

DON'T. GIVE. UP.

Your best isn't the pinnacle of what you are capable of. "But I could have done better". No you couldn't have. Hindsight being 20/20 is a hindrance because it creates the illusion that you could have done better. If you could have done better, YOU WOULD HAVE. You made the best decisions with the information you had. Be PROUD of that.

Do your best every time and make that target "best" your motivation, keep hitting that target and it becomes others motivation.

Be better than your best, be the you you've always wanted to be, by not giving up.

Recognize your weaknesses, but focus your attention and effort on your strengths.