As you explore your talents you uncover hidden bits of brilliance found nowhere else in the world.

When you use your talents, you start to make time for them. You realize that no matter how busy you are, you can make a little time. Your talents will reach a higher place on your list of priorities, among the other things that really matter. 

Your talents have a special place on that list. Even among your relationships, your work, your health, your family. Your talents are there to help you stay connected to your deepest self. When that connection is strong, all those other things benefit too. They get more of you  at a time, because more of you is available. 

As you explore your talents you uncover hidden bits of brilliance found nowhere else in the world.

That's got to be worth 30 minutes a day.

Ever forward. 

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Your dream, your passion, is woven into your being from the start.

A sense of self is the ability to know yourself when you see it. 

With a strong sense of self you are able to find yourself at any given moment under all circumstances. You're able to manage your weaknesses and access your strengths. You're able to remember your values and your true motivations no matter what is happening around you, no matter how you feel emotionally.

Your dream, your passion, is woven into your being from the start. Your life gives it shape. If you haven't found it yet, cultivate your sense of self and you will happen upon this dream like a hidden treasure. You will know it like you know your own face, because it's part of your self. 

If you do the work, this discovery is inevitable.

Ever forward. 

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Your dream is the whole of your life and you have the whole of your life to make it happen.

It's hard to wait for something when there is no guarantee it will happen. Add to that a conviction that seeing it done is parcel to your very being—a divine mandate, an inner command—and, for you at least, it's kind of a big deal. 

This experience is a central aspect of dream building. It's the fear of slow.  

Doing the work your dream requires is actually the easy part. At least for me. I'm always happiest when I know what to do next, however tedious or difficult it might be. The hard part is the waiting. The hoping. The balancing of detachment and commitment. I live with the sense that I must not rest. I cannot wait. 

And yet sometimes that's exactly what my dream requires.

To live life fully you have to trust In the timing of things. It's inexplicable and maddening, but it's true. Using the time you have as wisely as possible is often the best you can do, even if it's only half an hour. 

If you're really following your dream and being true to the other vital details of your life, that half an hour will be enough. If you're really plugged in to who you are, what your part is in the great hum of the universe, then what needs to happen will happen and your dream will be achieved. 

Somehow. 

If you're like me, you'll never give up so that's not an issue. But if you're like me, the fear of slow might drive you insane along the way. 

Recognize that if your life is basically in balance and half an hour a day is all you can spare for your dream, then it's enough. The universe will do the rest. Remember that your dream is not that novel you're writing, your dream is the whole of your life and you have the whole of your life to make it happen. 

Ever forward. 

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Death at the door

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There is a kernel within you that only exists because you do.

Be mythic. Be the stuff of myth. Be the one who ventures out, driven by vision, by a dream, by the promise of a prize that can only be got on the long end of struggle. 

You can do it in your spare time. Get up early. Go to bed late. Do what you have to do, this is urgent. 

Everybody has their own myth to live and yours is unique to you. It lives in your talents and aspirations. Those things are there for a reason—to provide you with a place to begin. 

There is a kernel within you that only exists because you do. It's a single moment in all the long history and future of reality. It has never happened before and it will never happen again. 

You are standing there at the On switch. 

Be mythic. 

Ever forward. 
 

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Failure is not failure if done properly.

Failure is information. Failure tells you what you are not, and knowing what you are not is crucial. 

Take Hangman. The game, Hangman. You start out knowing nothing, literally, about the word you're trying to decipher, except the number of letters it takes to spell it. Most of the letters you will guess are wrong. You fail and your turn is over. 

But you've also learned a little bit about what your objective isn't.

Dream building is like Hangman. There's too much detail in life for it all to be relevant to your dream. The process we call failure is actually the gradual removal of what is not your desired outcome. Think of it like a sculpture: the stone that is not the statue falls away, a little at a time, until the statue is revealed. 

Failure is not failure if done properly. If done properly, failure is a technique for finding the most direct path to fulfillment.

Ever forward. 

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Roots and flowers

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Into light or into darkness?

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What does excellence look like?

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When in doubt, love others.

Being good to others conjures up a rudimentary confidence that you can build on. If you are faced with a situation where you feel weak or insecure, take a genuine interest in the people around you. It actually dispels the insecurity, stops the self scrutiny and creates true emotional stability that is not forced, fake or put on. 

Once you've established this basic relaxation inside, you can enjoy your surroundings. And you can, if you choose to, begin to incorporate that basic confidence into other areas of your life, other circumstances, by learning to nuance it and adapt it to the variety of situations you encounter each day. 

You can take it to work. You can take it to the gym. You can take it on vacation or to a cocktail party. You can even learn to use it when you're stuck in traffic. 

When in doubt, love others. 

Ever forward. 

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The strength of weakness

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Awkward moment.

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Midlife can be the most powerful, most productive time of life

Midlife gets a bad rap. Too much negative spin. People start trying to disguise the fact that they are gaining ground on life. Very often we look back with regret, or even horror at how we've spent the time so far. Missed opportunities. Errors in judgement. Embarrassing moments etched forever on the memory of the universe. 

Hogwash. 

You can't take the wisdom from an experiences as you have it. You need hindsight for that. There's the beauty of midlife: you've actually got something to look back on. How many people, in their 20's and 30's are actively applying the wisdom they gained during puberty? Not many. 

Sure, it was a time filled with life lessons. Of course. But what 35 year old looks to those lessons in times of stress? Your 20's and 30's on the other hand, are filled with useful information you can't really access until, well, midlife. 

At midlife, you get to "know now what you wish you knew at 20." You can start over, or keep going, putting into action all the lessons and experience of two decades of adulthood. You can do something completely new, or do the same thing with refreshed vigor and purpose. 

Crisis? Nonsense. Midlife can be the most powerful, most productive time of life if you let it be what it really is: an opportunity. 

Ever forward.

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Make a game of being awesome on the job and you will drastically improve your experience.

The workplace can provide all the challenge you need to grow as a person. You spend most of your time there. It's your context. It's your primary observation deck for witnessing how you interact with life. 

Pick your biggest challenges. Boredom? Repetition? A boss who never approves anything? A coworker two cubes over who cranks away on his apple as if he were the only man on earth like clockwork every lunch time? Or maybe it's more personal, like fear of making presentations or suggesting new ideas, or difficulty getting to work on time.

Growth can happen any time there is discomfort or dissatisfaction. Find ways to enter the challenge on purpose. Redirect break room conversation away from complaining to something constructive and interesting. Exceed your boss's expectations on the simplest report. Fine tune your e-mail skills. Set your freaking alarm clock. 

Make a game of being awesome on the job and you will drastically improve your experience. You'll become less susceptible to the small stuff. You'll discover abilities you didn't know you had. You'll see your coworkers in a new light. You'll realize there is life all around you.  

Your cubicle is a wonderland.

Ever forward.

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A new earth

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