1. Nothing is personal

– no matter how much it seems that way, nothing is ever personal. For example, a negative action toward me is always more about what is going in someone else’s head than it is really about me. That has helped me to be very steady under tough circumstances.

2. The obstacle is the path.

This is a very fancy way of saying take responsibility for everything…everything. Another way of looking at it is this formula: E + R = O.  E is the event or what happened. I believe that we have control over or co-create nearly every event in our life.  R is our reaction to the event, and O is the outcome. Even in the unusual circumstance where we do not have some hand in creation of the Event, we control every single outcome because it is not solely the event, but rather the event plus our reaction to it that creates the outcome.  Thus, the Outcome is always of our creation.

3. Success leaves clues

– successful people are successful for so many reasons and some of them are too subtle for me (with current skillset) to perceive. The opposite is also true.  I would bet on someone with a great track record of success who has a mediocre plan and in a new business before I would bet on someone with experience and a great plan who has never had a solid success under their belt.

4. Big Ideas

– can be a distraction as well as a motivation. It’s in my nature to be attracted to the new shiny object – through the course of my lifetime, I have learned to stay the course. We get bored just when we achieve mastery – that’s the time to dig deeper rather than shift paths. 

5. My Path is My Own and my Family Members’ Paths are Separate

- I learned to stop taking responsibility for everyone’s folly and poor decision-making.  My family members are amazingly adept at telling me what I should be doing to help someone. They effectively use shame, blame, competitiveness, and guilt. It took a long time to choose my own path and decide to help or not at my own choosing.  Moreover, I finally looked up asked – am I the only one working? 

6. I don’t need to feel significant

– chasing significance is a great human folly; the need to feel important is inherent, yet it often causes great pain and poor decision-making. Significance, as I see it, comes from external. Peace, gratitude, happiness, love – the things that make us happy, conversely come from within. Giving up the need to be significant should not be confused with playing small or not having an impact at a large level. Simply asking, “what do I want? What am I willing to receive?” over and over again, rhetorically, provides far more happiness and success than seeking significance.  

7. There is evidence in the
world for every conclusion

– the choice is ours. Thus, we truly create our own reality.

8. What separates us from the
Animal Kingdom is Humanity.

 

9. You can 100% count on Karma, you just
can’t count on its timing. There is no need
to avenge a wrong done because
“Time wounds all”

 

10. There is a force in the World

– it’s similar to inertia. Moving things tend to keep moving, still things tend to stay still – this force loves stasis or gradual backward movement. But, with this knowledge, you can also harness its power. Want big change – stand for it, “be” the change before it happens.  An overweight man becomes slender when he finally decides. The World – or the “force” which was keeping him fat – will help him lose the weight.

11. We overestimate our ability to change others and underestimate our ability to change ourselves.

The answer is never outside – it’s never someone else’s fault. The best way to help someone change is to model that change.

12. We cut ourselves a massive break by judging ourselves by our intentions while judging everyone else by their actions.

13. We already have all of the answers to all of the Questions; we possess the power we need, we already have everything we need to achieve whatever we want to. Now that I know that, it’s all about accessing that power.

There is a saying – “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” It’s not true – it’s a fallacy of perception. The teacher is always there, when the student is ready, they notice the teacher and thus it seems like the teacher appears.

14. Motivating Great People

– Great people don’t do what you want them to do because you want them to do it, they do what you want them to do because they want to do it. Create alignment if you want to lead and keep great people; you don’t need alignment to lead and keep mediocre people.