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Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s fine. It’s not their journey to make sense of. It’s yours.

Zero Dean

Author | Photographer | CG Artist | Filmmaker

If you want to reach your full potential

Excerpt from: Likability. Being liked and unliked.

If you want to self-actualize (reach your fullest potential), then you must learn to accept yourself for who you are & who you want to be and take personal responsibility for your life and how you feel.

And along the way to self-actualization, you must be prepared to be unpopular. Don’t leave your sense of worth and well-being in the hands of others.

Those who achieve greatness in life don’t let others dictate how they feel about themselves — and neither should you.

Life isn’t fair

No. Life isn’t fair. But how you deal with life being unfair is a choice. You can choose to play a victim and let it weaken you. Or you can choose to be a warrior, learn from it, and let it strengthen you. Because despite the fact that life isn’t fair, every person has the ability to do whatever they can with whatever they have to make something positive of themselves, their lives, and the lives of those around them.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

No matter how small what you do may be, every step you make towards a goal is progress, and everything you do to make a positive difference counts. In the words of Vincent Van Gogh, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

You will be surprised by how much you can do with only a little.

Always remember that you may not be able to do everything, but you can always do something… Don’t let what you can’t do stand in the way of what you can do.”

No matter what life throws your way, no matter how unfair it may seem, refuse to play the victim. Refuse to be ruled by fear, pessimism, and negativity. Refuse to quit. Be a warrior and work through whatever challenges you face in life with courage, love, and positivity. And continually push forward.

Because you are a survivor of the unfairness of life. You are stronger than you think. And you are capable of achieving far more than you believe. Don’t ever give up.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

Originally Published on: Nov 30, 2014 @ 09:44

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The unique you is beautiful

Your quirks. Your interest in unusual things. The small things that bring you joy. The odd things you do because they feel right to you. The unique things that you find funny — or fascinating — these are the things about you that make you truly unique and different from others — and they are among, if not the most beautiful things about you.

It can take bravery to be yourself and exert your individuality, but the alternative — to conform — is to become less of an individual. While there is an implied comfort & safety in conformity, conformity represents the ordinary. The status quo. And it is the enemy of creativity.

It is ok to fit in, but to actively change yourself to be just like the crowd is to yield your personal power & influence to others.

Every time you change something unique about yourself in order to be just like someone else, a piece of the best part of you dies.

Don’t think of it as being “weird” or “different”, think of it as being limited edition. Be extraordinary. Not ordinary.

Originally Published on: Jul 8, 2013 @ 06:21

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Repeat after me

Repeat after me:

I am going to make it through this day.

I’m going to make it through this week.

I’m going to make it through this month.

I’m going to make it through this year.

I’m going to make it.

I’m going to make it.

I’m going to make it.

If your present life is hard

If your present life is hard, it’s ok – it isn’t something to beat yourself up about. Beating yourself up over the way things are will only serve to slow you down and make your journey more difficult than it needs to be.

If you’re going to dwell on anything, dwelling on steps you can take to further push your life in the direction you want to go is far more beneficial than beating yourself up over where you are.

Always remember that we learn far more when we struggle than we do when life fails to challenge us.

Whatever it is you’re dealing with now will make you both stronger and wiser if you look for the lessons that can be learned from the experiences you’re having – not because they are easy, but because they are hard. And these are lessons that you will be able to carry with you into the parts of your life that are better because you leaned them.

When you are feeling weak

When you are feeling weak, always take a moment to remind yourself that you are a survivor of every hardship you’ve ever faced in life. You’ve consistently overcome the worst that life has thrown your way, year after year after year.

No one feels strong 100% of the time. Even the people you look up to and respect most in the world have been knocked down, felt unwell, or needed time to just breathe.

Life can be hard – resist the urge to beat yourself up further when it is. It’s ok to not be ok. Give yourself the time & mental space necessary to get better by refusing to focus on things that make you feel worse.

You will overcome whatever you are dealing with now, as you have with everything you’ve previously faced. This is but a very small part of your life. In the grand scheme of things, you’re doing ok. Keep going.

Confronting discomfort

While being uncomfortable isn’t a joyful experience for almost anyone, dealing with discomfort is an absolutely essential part of life because it is a catalyst for personal growth.

It is entirely possible for something that brings you discomfort at one time in your life to be a source of great joy in another. For example, facing fears and pushing one’s self to try new things is frequently a turning point in many people’s lives. By confronting things that make them uncomfortable, many people learn to not just overcome the discomfort associated with those things, they can actually draw pleasure from them as well.

Think of the person with a fear of heights who takes up skydiving. Or the person with a fear of deep water learning to SCUBA dive.

Just because something doesn’t bring you joy doesn’t mean that you should disregard it. The fact is, even the less joyful aspects of our lives are important because they provide contrast and personal growth.