There are all sorts of ways to create value. If you let it, value will flow outward from within you. Value comes from taking things that never were connected and connecting them. Value comes from acquiring something that one person doesn’t need, and providing it to someone who does need it. Consider the enormous value that is created on the website eBay, where people are able to sell things they don’t need, things that have just been laying around gathering... Read more

There are certainly a lot of problems in this world, yet there are even more positive possibilities. In fact, many of the best possibilities for moving forward are hidden in the problems and challenges. It’s easy and natural to worry about the problems, and to try and wish them away. Yet it is actually far more powerful to embrace the problems, to welcome and appreciate them. Because when you do, you can begin to see those positive possibilities. Nobody would... Read more

In whatever frustrates you, there is value. Frustration tells you, in no uncertain terms, that something is not as good as it could possibly be. And by so doing, frustration gives you the opportunity to make great improvements. There’s a reason behind every frustration. When you choose to be brutally honest with yourself, there’s also a value-laden and potentially life-changing response to that frustration. The best response to frustration is not to fight it or resent it or let it... Read more

Life is not fair. It never has been, and it never will be. Some people are born with powerful advantages. Others are born with crippling disadvantages. For everyone, in different ways and at different times for each person, life is challenging. And although life is not fair, it is dynamic and responsive. Though life is not fair, and though life presents you with endless challenges, you have the opportunity to do something about those challenges. One very important thing you... Read more

The truth will persevere. It may take a while, but anything that is not true will ultimately be consumed by its own contradictions. Over the long run, it always pays to be on the side of truth. It can be tempting to ignore the truth or to hide from it for the sake of convenience or expediency. The problem is, the longer you avoid a difficult truth the more difficult it becomes. When you put off dealing with what you... Read more

Responsibility begins on a personal level and grows outward. The basis for all your responsibility is an abiding sense of responsibility for yourself. This includes responsibility for your thoughts, your goals, your actions and the results they bring. As your responsibility expands beyond yourself, so does your influence. When you make the community your responsibility, you become a leader. Take responsibility for your work, and you become a respected professional. Develop a sense of responsibility for the society in which... Read more

You determine your actions, and your actions determine you. No matter where you are or what activity you’re involved in, no matter how limited or restricted your situation may be, you can fully determine how you will act within that situation. The actions you take determine the quality of your life. Certainly, many outside factors have an influence on you. Whether their influence is positive or negative, is completely up to you. The energy of life comes to you. You... Read more

If you’re working to get past a problem that you’ve had, a great way to do that is to create a bigger problem. Now, that may sound a little bit strange at first. After all, why would you want to replace one difficulty with another one? The reason is control. The challenges you create for yourself, the challenges you willingly take on, are things that you have decided to do. You are not their victim. You are their master. You... Read more

It’s easy to tell yourself that the things holding you back are all outside of you, and that you can do nothing about them. It is true that there are many factors over which you have little or no control. Yet those things are not your true limitations. Your limitations arise from the way you see the various realities of the world. Your limitations come from how you choose to interpret and deal with the circumstances in which you find... Read more

Regrets are useful in that they can help you to realize, in a personally meaningful way, the mistakes you’ve made in the past. Once a regret has served that purpose, however, it’s best to get rid of it and replace it with something more positive. For if you continue to dwell on your regrets, that focuses your mind on something negative—your mistakes—instead of on the positive steps you are committed to taking. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to take the... Read more