Speaking Truth to Fear

If you're afraid, the best thing you can do is admit it. Then you can move forward. 

Hiding or suppressing fears doesn't allow us to actually face them. And the only way to get over a fear and become stronger is to face it, stare it down, and actually conquer it.

Speak truth to fear. Name the thing you're afraid of doing. Admit who you're afraid of becoming. Write down the place you're afraid to go.  

That wasn't so bad, was it?

Now I bet you're one step closer to moving onward. Courage isn't found in figuring out how to live in denial; it's found in moving forward in the midst of the very thing you fear. 

For Better or Worse

The next time you're in a group, ask yourself "Are these people making me better or worse?" 

At work, it can relate to your skills and talents. With friends, it can be about your attitude or mindset. At a volunteer event or when socializing, you can base it around impact or even connections made. 

You don't have time to be around people who are making you worse at something.  

One of the best ways to get better is to be around people who want you to be the best.  

Self-improvement is a team sport. 

Habits Tend to Surprise

Before we know it, we've developed a new habit. Funny how this happens. 

Whether we're biting our nails, taking the same route to work every day, smoking, always eating lunch with the same people, or getting our news from the same source, we very quickly and easily become creatures of habits (both good and bad). 

Let's use our natural docility for something good. Challenge yourself to start a good habit, knowing that it just might take hold. 

You could start going to the gym, begin your day by reading great literature, open staff meetings with meditation, start asking a new friend to lunch each week - your choice is wide open. 

Just remember that what seems daunting is actually anything but. Before you know it, for better or worse, you'll be hooked. 

Get hooked on what's better. 

Legacy is Deeper

We like to think that legacy is seen and felt in the form of monuments or buildings. If one is named after you or erected in your likeness, then it serves as proof of a life well lived and that you've done something remarkable with your time here. 

But I'm always reminded, usually when asking people who they admire, that legacy is more often written on hearts than it is on plaques. Impact is measured in human heartbeats much more than it is in pounds of granite. 

So don't worry that what you do will get you an airport or building wing or museum named in your honor. Worry rather that what you do will get you talked about fondly by those you love the most. 

What this calls for, then, are fewer acts of grand ambition and more acts of conscious love and care.  

What we think is permanent (a stone building) rarely is and what seems so non-physical (memories and stories) are always what stick around the longest. 

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Thanks for the reminder, Milton. 

Two Lists Diverged in a Yellow Wood

That list you keep titled "Impossible" is someone else's list titled "Yes it's hard but I'm going to try it anyway." 

Talking to the guy, asking for a raise, starting a business, losing weight, visiting someplace new, launching that product, writing the script, calling her one last time, organizing your neighbors - you can deem these impossible all you want. 

But someone else will try. 

And that has made all the difference.