The roar of the crowd is not for you, it’s for what you can do. And as soon as you can’t do it, they’ll be cheering for somebody else.

When people talk about purpose, they tend to focus on what you do. They often miss that purpose is as much about who you become.

Time Stands Still For No One

On July 4, 1776, representatives from the 13 American colonies declared their independence from the British crown. That declaration took place during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) through which freedom was officially secured for the fledgling nation. July 4 is a day of family, fireworks, and fun. It is one of my favorite days of the year, and is intended to celebrate not only American history but America’s highest ideal: freedom.

Freedom is something that every human being desires, but few ever stop to define. In public discourse, freedom often gets reduced to democracy, religion, speech, and entrepreneurship. These things are important, yet millions live in societies that guarantee all of these things yet haven’t even scratched the surface of freedom. While certain external provisions factor into the freedom equation, freedom is ultimately a matter of internal processes. It involves things like material contentment, emotional health, strong relationships, and life purpose. Yet the prerequisite for each of these provisions is one and the same: discipline.

Discipline is required to achieve anything in life, and freedom is no exception. The fact is that freedom is hard work. It takes work to become emotionally healthy, fulfill one’s material goals, and build relationships with people. Discipline is the decision to put the work in whether we feel like it or not, with faith that it will benefit us in the long run. We often take for granted that everybody acts in their best interest, but a casual look around indicates otherwise. How many people engage in self-destructive behaviors or miss out on life blessings due to a lack of discipline? Discipline, it seems to follow, is a key to personal freedom.

Jocko Willink is a man who knows something about freedom and discipline. Willink is a US Navy SEAL, the most exclusive and prestigious branch of the US military, and current Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner. Willink is co-author of Extreme Ownership: How US Navy Seals Lead and Win and Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual. Below I present 10 of my favorite quotes from Discipline Equals Freedom that are worth meditating on.

What is your ideal of freedom? And, more importantly, how does one go about achieving it?

Quotes:

–> Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.

–> NO MORE. No more excuses. No more: “I’ll start tomorrow.” No more: “Just this once.” No more accepting the shortfalls of my own will. No more taking the easy road. No more bowing down to whatever unhealthy or unproductive thoughts float through my mind.

–> Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it â€¦ Start doing it.

–> Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.

–> With myself, I have to hold the line. There are areas within myself where I CANNOT compromise. I am going to work hard. I am going to train hard. I am going to improve myself. I am not going to rest on my laurels. I am going to own my mistakes and confront them. I am going to face my demons. I’m not going to give up, or give out, or give in. I’m going to stand. I am going to maintain my self-discipline. And on those points there will be No Compromise. NOT NOW.  NOT EVER.

–> Faster. Stronger. Smarter. More humble. Less ego

–> You have to BE VIGILANT. You have to be ON GUARD. You have to HOLD THE LINE on the seemingly insignificant little things— things that shouldn’t matter—but that do.

–> Humans can withstand almost inconceivable stress—and you can too. So that is your first step: Gain perspective. And to do that you must do something critical in many situations: Detach. Whatever problems or stress you are experiencing, detach from them. Stress is generally caused by what you can’t control.

–> Is this what I want to be? This? Is this all I’ve got—is this everything I can give? Is this going to be my life? Do I accept that?

–> Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished—you will likely fall short.

Ask 100 people on the street what separates a man from a boy and you may get 100 different answers. If the respondents are anything like my inner circle growing up, many of the answers will have something to do with traditionally masculine attributes–like toughness, assertiveness, and physical strength. A man, they say, is someone who embodies these attributes, a boy is someone who doesn’t. Traditionally masculine attributes have their place, but in this post I want to take a different angle that I believe far better captures the essence of manhood.

The defining characteristic of boyhood is selfishness. Boys are all about themselves. They take whatever they can take, but are incapable and disinterested in giving back to those around them. If you were like me as a child, your universe was centered around yourself. Like a mental baby, you expected adults to take care of you, and you resented responsibility. Sure, you had to obey your parents and help out around the house from time to time, but it was something you did begrudgingly. Life as you imagined it was primarily about your hopes, dreams, emotions and aspirations, even if they were underdeveloped at this stage. Let’s call this stage the taking stage.

Every man I know whom I respect as such underwent a metamorphosis at some point in his life. He went from being about himself to being about the team. He went from living in a self-centered universe in which only his interests mattered to living in a team-centered universe in which the interests of many people mattered. In short, a boy becomes a man when he goes from searching only for what he can take from the world to looking for ways he can give to the people closest to him.

The family is a common example. A man attends to his wife and kids. Their welfare is chief among his considerations. In fact, a man’s welfare is secondary such that he would sacrifice it for the good of the family if it became necessary. A boy can’t relate to this thought process. His concept of being a part of something bigger than himself to which he is expected to contribute is weak or non-existent. There are many examples in addition to family and romantic relationships. I know many single, unmarried guys who are highly motivated by a desire to add value to their family, friends, and communities. If boyhood is the taking stage, then manhood is the giving stage.

A boy becomes a man when he goes from searching only for what he can take from the world to looking for ways he can give to the people closest to him.

I’m not suggesting a man doesn’t look out for his own interests. The difference is a man recognizes that his interests are inextricably connected to the interests of other people. I recall Hall-of-Fame Defensive End Michael Strahan, when asked on TV about an award he had won, said something to the effect of “It meant nothing until I handed it to my mother.” This quote captures what being a man is all about–measuring individual success by the effect it has on those closest to oneself.

A team gives a man purpose in life. Something greater than himself worth fighting for–a why behind his life’s occupation. Having a why actually makes a man more masculine even by traditional standards. There’s only so much an individual will do for himself, but when you put him on the right team, his fighting spirit exponentially increases. In fact, I know many fathers who wouldn’t think twice about running into a burning building for their children — or working long hours and making small sacrifices on a daily basis. That is evidence that a maturation process has taken place. That is manly behavior.

The phoenix in Greek mythology is a bird that periodically died and came back to life by rising from the ashes of its predecessor. The symbol of the phoenix is synonymous with personal rebirth and revival. We all go through seasons of change. Either changes pursues us with circumstances, or we pursue change with determination. All change is an opportunity to do better and be better.

This is the time of year when most of us are finalizing our New Year’s resolutions. We all have areas we want to improve in. Getting it done in 2020 is going to require letting go of old thoughts, habits, and ways of being that are not resourceful for meeting the challenges of tomorrow.

Today, I’ve transcribed an inspiring vlog published by a YouTuber named Elliott Hulse in the wake of the New Year. The vlog is entitled “Die before you die,” and centers on the necessity of change.

Transcript:

I got a question here from our friend. I can’t pronounce his name, but he says “Elliott, I do not expect you to look at this, but if you read it, what do you think about this quote: ‘The secret of life is to die before you die to find out there’s no death.'” Brother, that has been–I resonate deeply with that. My experience has been over the past several years, I’ve died to myself. And when I speak of dying I’m talking about an ego death. I’m still the same Elliott, but many of you can probably recognize that I’m not the same person. It has been a process of ego deconstruction. When the phoenix burns down or when Jesus says “You have to die to yourself to be accepted into the kingdom. You’ve got to let go of your old self in order to embrace the new.”

One thing he also says is you can’t put new wine in an old wineskin. I think that’s a perfect example of the benefit and the value of getting rid of your old container. Your own way of containing yourself and interfacing with the world. That really requires a throwing away. It requires a breaking down. It requires a dissolving. It requires a dying to an ego construct that is no longer resourceful for who you are to become in the next phase of your life.

This is an area where people get stuck all the time. We develop an ego construct. When I say ego construct, I’m literally talking about the interface by which we work with the world. If you can imagine your self, the outside world, which is really a figment of our imagination, but we work with it. We work with our experiences. We work with our circumstances as well as working with out internal processes. And then the ego being in between it. How do I bring myself to my circumstances? When you’re 14, there’s a way to be that allows you to interface with the world in a resourceful manner. It works for you when you’re 14. The problem is when you’re 21, and you’re still approaching life with the same ego construct that you had when you were 14, you don’t evolve. You remain the same old version of yourself even though you’re being called to change.

This is where you end up with men in their late 30s and 40s who have a mid-life crisis. And we’re lost because we’re still interfacing with the world with an old version of ourselves that’s no longer resourceful for the physiological and biological changes happening in our body. Oftentimes they’ll begin to make decisions that they would have made when they were 21. Because there’s a feeling of unease, right. You become 40, and there’s a feeling of unease. Things are not the way I think they should have been. And then in that anxiety, you go back and you begin bringing up all the old things that are associated with an ego that is no longer resourceful.

For the process of becoming a stronger version of yourself to be allowed, you have to die to those old desires. Die to the old fears, hopes, and dreams such that there is a complete obliteration, right. Old wineskins. If you’re wanting to be new, you can’t pour in new goals in the old you. You can’t pour inspiration into an old you. You can’t pour old wine into an old wineskin because you’ll ruin the wine. The wine won’t stay fresh and the wineskin will disintegrate. It can’t hold it. The container can’t hold it.

So you’re needing to reconstruct yourself in a new way so that you can take on the challenges and approach the truth about who you are in the next phase of your life. What this requires is not only a conscious and deliberate going-down process. A conscious and deliberate catabasis [going-down] period. It also requires that while you’re down there, while you’re in the belly of the beast, while you’re dying to your old self so that you can be reborn again, you begin to look at those things that are actually true. You begin to look at the things that you’ve ignored. You begin to look at the things that are truly resourceful for you and what your legacy will be in your life.

There’s a process of death and dying to those things that are no longer resourceful, and a bringing forward of those things that you’ve either forgotten about, that were in the shadows, that need to be resolved, that need to be brought forward, because they’re gifts. Shedding light on things that have been in the shadow allows you to process them. So that’s that. . . I have more to say about it, but I need a break. . . .

I’ll leave you with this last analogy. By the way, I refer to Biblical stories and what not because a lot of people know them. I don’t refer to it because I’m Bible-thumping or hoping that you’ll become a Christian. I am not a Christian myself. But I am a lover of wisdom. I am a lover of wisdom literature. I am a lover of religion because it is my experience and my belief that the manifestations of God–be it Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna, Zoroaster, Bahaullah–come to earth at a particular time. They’re all imbued with the spirit of God to teach us things that we need to know. So I truly believe that the pure essence of these teachers’ teachings are loaded with value. And can bring value into anyone’s life. So I advise you to open yourself up to reading the parables in the Bible and reading other wisdom literature.

That being said, Jonah in the whale is a wonderful story about what happens when it’s time to die to yourself and be born again. Jonah was a blessed dude. Jonah was doing well. He was well-off. He was wealthy. He was well-liked in his city and he was winning. God, your intuition, the universe–however you’d like to relate to the omnipotent, to the unknown, to the ever-present, to the Creator–will tap you on your shoulder. It happens not by a deep voice coming from a cloud. That’s a figment of our imagination, those are vain imaging and idle fancies, as Bahaullah called it. But it comes in the form of a sense within. For me it comes from a sense within.

Why I quit YouTube videos is because God had been kind of asking me to do this thing, and you can watch my videos leading up to my choosing to quit, where I’m like something’s not right. I don’t know what’s going on. Really I was resisting, but essentially God was saying, “Hey E. I need you to give up the things of the world for the moment because I have another job for you.” Jonah was doing well, God tapped him on his shoulder sand said ,”Jonah! I need you to help me out with something. I have another mission for you but you’re going to need to detach yourself from the things of this world. I know you’re a successful guy, I know that you’re doing well–Elliott–I know that you’re doing well. You got a million subscribers on YouTube. But I have greater things for you, I have a need for you.”

Jonah, like all of us, like myself, resists. “Ah, I can’t do that. I can’t give up all of this fame. I can’t give up all of this fortune. I can’t give up everyone loving me.” And so what happens is when you get that tap on the shoulder and if you ignore it, you end up like Jonah. Jonah went out on a boat with his boys not too long thereafter. A storm came, right, and he ended up getting tipped off over the boat into the deep dark watery unconscious. And not only did he dive deep into the waters, right. Into the darkness. Into the shadows because that’s where the work happens. The work always happens down deep below in those watery unconscious areas. But he was swallowed by a f**king whale. In the belly of the whale.

Now what happens in the belly of a whale down deep below in the unconscious. Digestion happens. And what is digestion? Jonah was being worked on in that belly. What is digestion? Digestion breaks things down. And when it breaks it down, it pulls out those things that are most resourceful. It pulls out those things that are needed. It pulls out those things that are nourishing. And it gets rid of the s**t. There are times when you will be digested in order to get rid of the s**t, so that your nourishing self can rise to the top. Done. I think I’m going to finish there.

Few things can create happiness and serve as a constant token of gratitude better than a good gift. Receiving gifts is, in fact, one of the 5 love languages. I remember the time I was in college when my brother bought me an automatic Swiss-made $600 Tissot timepiece for Christmas. I was a big watch junkie in those days and had a modest, but growing collection. That watch was the most expensive material gift I have ever received to this day. Every time I looked at it I was reminded of my brother’s generosity. There is power in receiving a good gift. But there is also power in giving a good gift. And this is something that only wisdom and experience can reveal.

When I was a kid, I loved opening gifts. Christmas was my favorite day of the year, and Christmas morning was one of the few days I would voluntarily get up early regardless of how much I had slept the previous night. On the other hand, I loved watching other people open gifts a lot less. Occasionally, my brothers and I would take the money we had saved up and buy something small for each other and for our mother. I knew it was something I should do, and it brought me some satisfaction when I could tell they liked the gift I bought for them. But the joy of gift-giving for me was primarily on the receiving end.

I recently shared my view that what separates a man from a boy is the recognition that his interests are intimately bound to the interests of other people. This results in looking out for the welfare of other human beings, whether that be family, friends, or community. A boy is about himself. A man is about the team. A boy finds fulfillment in getting his needs met independent of others. A man finds fulfillment in meeting the needs of other people. This same transition from treating life as an individual sport to a team sport is characteristic of all personal growth and maturity, whether the individual is male or female. In fact, the conversation could just as well be framed in terms of “what separates a child from an adult.”

This same transition from treating life as an individual sport to a team sport is characteristic of all personal growth and maturity, whether the individual is male or female.

The seasons of my life when I was at my best were the seasons I made an effort to connect with other people and contribute to their well-being. The seasons of my life when I was at my worst were the seasons I was consumed with my own interests and ambitions. There is a mysterious principle built into the world that the people who give the most tend to be the happiest. Some people call it karma. Some people call it sowing and reaping. Some people call it the law of reciprocity. But I can think of many examples in my own life of people who search for what they can give. And I can think of many examples of people who still have the childlike mentality of searching only for what they can take. Will Smith said it simply and effectively, “If you’re not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better. . .”

There is a mysterious principle built into the world that the people who give the most tend to be the happiest. Some people call it karma. Some people call it sowing and reaping. Some people call it the law of reciprocity.

There is power in a good gift. And the power works in both directions. That is the beauty of gift-giving. And that is largely why Christmas is such a special time of year.

Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

Acts 20:35

Will Smith generates hit movies at a more prolific rate than any other actor in Hollywood. His most recent success was his role as the genie in Disney’s blockbuster remake of Aladdin. Will Smith rose to fame in the 90s playing the goofy teenager that couldn’t stay out of trouble in the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Since then, his on-screen character and real-life person have evolved. If you best remember Will Smith from his teenage years, you may be taken aback by the amount of wisdom he has acquired over the years. I know I was when I first heard him speak. Today I’ve transcribed a YouTube compilation of Will Smith’s best motivational life advice. It spoke to me, and I’m confident it will speak to you, as well.

Transcript:

I’m motivated by fear. Fear of fear. I hate being scared to do something. It’s very simple. This is what I believe, and I’m willing to die for it. Period. You can’t be scared to die for the truth. The truth is the only thing that’s ever going to be constant. And you can’t fear what might happen to you if you were to tell the truth because what happens to you if you don’t tell the truth is worse than telling the truth will ever be. . .

The first step before anybody else in the world believes is you have to believe it. There’s no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A. . .

And I think, psychologically, the advantage that that gives me over a lot of people that I have been in competition with in different situations is it’s difficult to take the first step when you look how big the task is. The task is never huge to me. It’s always one brick. I believe, and I learned very young that you don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say I’m going to big the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built. You don’t start there. You say I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. There will not be one brick on the face of the earth that’s going to be laid better than this brick that I’m going to lay in this next ten minutes. And you do that every single day, and soon you have a wall. . .

I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. You know, while the other guy is sleeping, I’m working. While the other guy is eating, I’m working. . .

The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams and want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours of beating on your craft. . .

I always knew that I could work hard enough. There wasn’t an issue with discipline. There wasn’t an issue with the ability to sacrifice or the willingness to sacrifice. There’s no easy way around it. No matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you’re not skilled. If you don’t study, if you don’t work really hard and dedicate yourself to being better every single day.

This one year my father had his shop and he decided for whatever reason that he wanted a new wall on the front of his shop. So he tore it down, probably about 16 feet high and 30 feet long. He just completely tore the wall down, and my brother and I had to dig a six feet hole for the foundation. We were mixing the concrete by hand. A year and a half. We were building this wall for a year and a half. Every day after school we were coming, mixing concrete, putting it in the hole, doing it, and it was just myself and my little brother.

And I remember standing back looking at that wall saying there’s going to be a hole here forever. A year and a half later we laid the final brick. And my father stood back with my brother and I, and I know he planned this. He says he didn’t, but I know he had been planning this and writing this for the past two years. We stood back and looked at the wall, and he looked at me and my brother and he said “Now don’t yall ever tell me that you can’t do something,” and walked into the shop. . .

As a child, my parents always told me you could be whatever you want to be, you can do whatever you want to do. And that office, that position, the highest office on the face of the earth. It was something I heard my parents saying it but I didn’t totally believe it. Yet I went out in the world and I carried myself and I held myself high and I stood there and I looked people in their eyes and I talked to people as if I was deserving of everything that this planet has to offer. I really want to say to children out there and to people who are watching. Confucius said one time, “He who says he can and he who says he can are both usually right” . . .

Having the opportunity to study greatness. Any time you have that opportunity, there are certain intricacies that will make clear who you are. It becomes that much more clear who you are. The definition of who I am is very clear to me, and it also redefines who I want to be in that I know for a fact that I’m stronger than I thought I was. You can’t help but ask yourself the question what would I do if I was in Muhammad Ali’s shoes. I’m not the best at anything. Eddie Murphy is funnier than I’ll ever be. Denzel is more powerful than I’ll ever be. I think that my strength is I can do everything well. I can do a little bit of everything and that’s what I concentrate on to be my strength. I’ll never be able to compete with Denzel. . .

Enjoy connecting with people and ideas. I have a mission statement. Every year for probably the past 10 years I’ve worked out a mission statement for myself. And for the last few years the mission statement has stayed the same, and it’s been improve lives. When I go into something I’m looking for how the quality of this piece could potentially improve lives, but it’s all along the way. It’s when you make the movie and how you’re interacting with people in the process, the concept of improving lives runs through the center of everything I do. And then I realize that the way to improve lives is to continually improve yourself. So with that every morning when I get out of the bed, I haven’t fixed everything in the world yet, so there’s always something to do. . .

I want my life, I want my work, my family, I want it to mean something. If you’re not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better. . .

A few months ago I said that I believed that if I chose to I could be the president of the United States. And I think as I’ve had the chance to intellectualize why I said that I think that there’s a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have. You have to believe that something different than what has happened for the last 50 million years of history–you have to believe that something different can happen. The one thing that I truly try to communicate in the interpretation of Ali is the complex simplicity of greatness. How greatness is not this wonderful, esoteric, illusive, God-like feature that only the special among us will ever taste. It’s something that truly exists in all of us. . .

Loss is bound to joy. Pain and suffering are bound to joy. Being able to survive something is actually a big part of being able to find that next wave of joy. You appreciate smaller things. . . I hated being scared. That I didn’t want to even take the meaning. I just hated being scared to do something. And I think what developed in my early days was the attitude that I started attacking things that I was scared of.

[You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla.] I admittedly don’t know a lot about TD Jakes, but I do know he is one of the most famous pastors in the US. He has written countless best-selling books, and many people look up to him for spiritual leadership. His most recent book is Crushing: God Turns Pressure into Power. I recently saw a clip on YouTube in which he shared some of the challenges that almost led him to quit ministry. Jake’s testimony is emotionally impactful and illustrates the importance of knowing your why, or the purpose that drives you in life. There is only so much people will do for themselves, but when they have a purpose larger than themselves there is no telling the lengths they will go and the adversity they will overcome to achieve it. Check out the video and transcript below!

Transcript:

I almost quit. I’m a country boy. I’m from West Virginia. I don’t know nothing about this big time stuff. I never even asked to be big. I wanted to be effective, not famous. Famous is the consequence of being effective. I didn’t know nothing about being famous, and I didn’t like it. And so there I was, and when you’re first new everybody attacks you first, and figures you out later.

The first time I was in the Washington Post, the article was so vicious it made me nauseous. I was so shocked that you could say that stuff about somebody you didn’t even know based on assumptions and a little bit of this and a little bit of that and they piece it all together. And you don’t get to say anything back.

So I decided I don’t want this. I was preaching for Pastor Bishop Donny Mears, and nobody knew it because preachers can override their feelings and function. I preached, the place was on fire, but inside I wanted to quit. I told God that I’m through with this. I’m not going through this, I don’t need this. See, I don’t need that. I’m a guy who likes to go get his own chicken wings, I don’t have to have all of that stuff to be happy.

So I said, “I’m not doing this anymore. I’m not doing this because I don’t need this, and I didn’t ask for this. I’m only doing this because of what happened in my life, the circumstances that happened in my life.” He put me on stage, I didn’t ask for it. And when I saw how much it cost, I said “You can have that right back up in here, I don’t need it.”

I was mad inside. I was hurt. And I stayed up in the fellowship with the pastors because I didn’t want to go back to my room and sulk in my own sorrows. And they said this lady downstairs is waiting to see you, the service was over, and the fellowship was over, and the pastors started to leave and I was trying to out-wait her. I thought she’d give up and leave.

And when I finally came down the steps, she was there and she was just a wee little bit of a woman. And she said “Bishop Jakes.” She said “I’ve been in the hospital.” She said “I was pregnant in my fallopian tubes, and the baby died in my tubes, and I was carrying around a dead baby, and the toxicity from the baby almost killed me.” She said “The only thing that kept me alive was you preaching.” She said “if you had never been preaching to me everyday, I swear I would have died.”

And then she looked at me and she said, “It’s for us. It’s not for them. It’s for us.” It hit me so hard. I didn’t even get her name. I got in the car and cried all the way back to my room. Because she reminded me why I was there. Last week when I texted you, I was up in Baltimore and DC. And I was doing a book signing, and then she only came up to the table to buy Soar! She said, “You don’t remember me, do you?” I said “No.”

She didn’t even look like the same person. She’s all dressed up, she gained weight, she looked like she wasn’t sick. She said “I met you in the bottom of Donny Mears’ church, years ago.” And I burst into tears. I lost it. I stopped the signing. And I jumped up and hugged her. If it were not for that woman. . . 

I define greatness as the joy of self-mastery, which is commonly termed fulfillment. How often do we postpone our fulfillment in life to a future date? When I’m older, when I complete my degree, when I have more money, when I’m married with kids, when I meet the right people, when I master the next best self-help technique–then and only then can I live life to the fullest. Anyone who’s lived long enough will tell you that the promise of future satisfaction is an illusion. Finding fulfillment has everything to do with changing attitudes and ways of being, not relying on people or things in the external world. That raises the question–what do I do if I cannot locate fulfillment in the future and haven’t been able to attain it in the present?

There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”

Psalm 4:6

The title of this post is a Native American proverb. It captures the same inspiration my mentor gave me several months ago. The proverb is powerful because it demolishes the notion that there is something lacking in the present. It prevents us from fostering the illusion that the answers we seek are found outside of ourselves or in an imaginary future. We do strive to grow in knowledge and ability–that is the primary motivation of this site–but what is even more important is realizing that the seeds of fulfillment are within. They are found in our person, not in anything external to us. Self-help is about discovering the best tools with which to water those seeds, but growth begins and ends in the mind.

You have the power today to walk in greatness using no other resource than your own mind. And that is the most powerful realization you will ever come to.