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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

There will always be someone better at something than you are

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We are often unaware of the struggles that others must face in order to achieve success. As Lee Honda put it, “Success is 99% failure.”

Know that whatever it is you wish to accomplish, no two people, businesses, or ventures are exactly the same. You can’t help but bring a unique perspective to your endeavors and a unique combination of talents and skills.

So even if the field is crowded, understand that you can succeed, too, but in order to do so, it is essential that you put in the effort and take action to achieve your goals.

Getting discouraged at others’ accomplishments and giving up because you feel you can’t compete gets you nowhere.

Constantly comparing yourself to others is waste of energy. There will always be someone better at something than you are.

A wise person once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

Don’t let the success of others discourage you from your own endeavors or make you bitter. If someone has done or is doing something you would like to do, let it inspire you and be an indicator that you, too, can achieve great things.

Achieving personal goals series:

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You were meant for greatness.

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You are stronger, smarter, and more resilient than you think. You are capable of achieving far more than you believe.

You were meant for greatness — like all of those who have achieved it.

But it takes persistence. It takes determination. It takes facing your fears and doing that which is hard & necessary, instead of what is quick and easy. It takes skipping the mythical shortcuts & using your imagination as a map and preview of life’s coming attractions.

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Don’t let your life goals fall victim to the allure of comfortable routines.

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Don’t let your life goals fall victim to the allure of comfortable routines.

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Always be working towards what you want in life

Don’t squander your potential living a life that amounts to far less than the one you are capable of living.

Prioritize your long-term goals over your short-term comfort and commit to doing that which is hard and necessary instead of what is quick and easy.

Don’t let your life goals fall victim to the allure of comfortable routines.

Always be working towards what you want.

Refuse to be an extraordinary person trapped in an ordinary life.

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Stop encouraging mediocrity

Seen in a meme:

  • You’re amazing!
  • You’re beautiful.
  • You’re perfect!
  • You’re awesome.

The mere fact that a person exists does not make them awesome, amazing, or beautiful.

Contributing something positive to people’s lives and adding value to the world does.

Act and encourage accordingly.

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You have it within you to be the master of your destiny…

Excerpt from: The master of your destiny

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By resolving to bravely face the challenges necessary to get the positive results you want in life, you have it within you to be the master of your destiny.

But you must stop trying to cheat your way through life by looking — or waiting indefinitely — for the magic pill or shortcut that never comes.

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Fueling one’s fire from within

Excerpt from: Motivation & achievement

When one’s motivation is dependent on external sources, the moment those sources are absent is the moment one’s motivation begins to fade. This is because motivation is a state of mind.

And if a particular state of one’s mind is dependent on the availability of things it doesn’t always have control over, it can be difficult to attain the state of mind associated with those things when they’re unavailable.

This is why it’s important to learn how to develop the mental discipline necessary to be one’s own source of motivation.

When one is able to motivate themselves, they light a kind of fire that can burn indefinitely.

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Conventional thinking doesn’t change the world, crazy ideas do.

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Conventional thinking doesn’t change the world, crazy ideas do.

“The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.” — Andre Gide

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The danger in believing “Happiness is a choice.”

“Happiness is a choice” and “Just BE happy” is a message being spread so much and so often on social media these days that it creates the impression that if you are anything but happy, there is something wrong with you.

And that’s not true.

True happiness involves more than the simple decision to act happy or think positively.

No matter how happy one may act, pretending to be happy doesn’t equal happiness. Habitually convincing yourself that you’re happy when you’re not is potentially dangerous — and here’s why:

When a person who is not happy convinces themselves that they are, they remove the incentive needed to make the changes that are necessary to put them on a path to being genuinely happy.

This only serves to perpetuate the problem because pretending to be happy doesn’t rid a person of any underlying dissatisfaction in their life — it simply covers it up.

It’s far more productive to be unhappy and honest with one’s self than it is to cover up the symptoms of unhappiness by pretending they don’t exist.

It is from pretending to be happy that people often fool themselves into settling for careers or relationships that do little more than cause them to drift further from the things that they truly care about.

And the further one drifts from the things that bring them genuine joy, the further they drift from the most potent sources of happiness that exist for them.

I’ve said it before, it’s not happiness that’s a choice, it’s attitude.

It is a healthy attitude that allows a person to recognize and be grateful for what they already have.

It is a healthy attitude that allows a person to consider mistakes to be nothing more than learning experiences.

It is a healthy attitude that allows a person to consider strangers to be nothing more than friends they haven’t met yet.

It is a healthy attitude that allows a person to see the world as a playground instead of a cage.

And it is a healthy attitude that allows a person to survive a negative experience in a positive way no matter how challenging it may be.

A healthy attitude is what allows a person to see the value in all life experiences, not just the “good” ones.

The simple decision to be happy isn’t as much of a precursor to happiness as a healthy attitude is. A healthy attitude is what allows one to truly appreciate the journey of life regardless of one’s circumstances.

The more one learns to enjoy & appreciate not just the highlights of one’s life, but the complete journey, the more often happiness arrives as a result of that enjoyment.

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