Paths to Personal Power

Some people would like you to think that life is complex and difficult. It isn’t. Life is simple and easy. In fact, it’s so simple and easy that people can’t bring themselves to believe it. They invent complex, convoluted theories to explain what doesn’t need explaining and, of course, they pour scorn on what is simple and true.

Read each point carefully and think about the meaning, ponder how it touches you and if they don’t touch you, wonder why they don’t.

Creating Your Own Energy.

• You are never so alive and full of purpose as when you are simply very busy
• Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
• Your well of energy never dries up. The more you dip into it the more you can draw out.
• You should be open-minded, generous, warm-hearted, and glad. If you are not, then you are doing something wrong.
• Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil – the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be.
• Some people give out energy like a light bulb illuminates all around it. Others suck it in like a vampire draws blood. You don’t need to be that clever to figure out who to associate with and who to avoid.
• Success has ruined more people than failure
• A lighthouse beams its message despite the ferocity of the storm.
• How to succeed: try hard enough. How to fail: try to hard.
• Exuberance is beauty
• Luck is great, but to have the life that makes you happiest, you have to create your own good fortune.
• The main difference between people is not ability but energy
• If you don’t have faith in yourself who else is going to?
• Its much easier to be happy and optimistic than miserable and pessimistic
• There is no miraculous change that takes place in a boy that makes him a man. He becomes a man by being a man.
• Walk in the middle of the road and you’ll get hit on both sides.
• If you don’t have happiness right now there is nothing that will give it to you
• The successes we haven’t yet had look alluring but once we get them they just look tawdry
• Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of value
• The fruit drops from the tree in a split second but how long did it take to ripen?
• Nothing is wasted. Our worst disasters teach us priceless lessons.
• Don’t mistake activity for achievement
• Be the first to take your own good advice
• People want you to be this or that, to think what they think, like what they like, and hate what they hate. To hell with that! Please yourself because there is no pleasing others.
• Don’t waste time on quarrels. Most are absurd and take up far more energy than you can afford to invest in them.
• One can never creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

Motivation and Purpose.

• It is desire that drives us to exceed what we believed possible.
• Without an aim how can you hit the target?
• A man without a cause has no effect
• Some want power, others money, others love, others to save the world. Knowing what motivates people is the key to dealing with them.
• Two motives work particularly well – the fear of punishment and the hope of reward.
• Before you decide that you have no reason for living, make sure you haven’t been living for the wrong reason
• Wanting what you’ve got requires contentment but getting what you want takes ambition
• Love teaches fools to dance
• What we can’t have is alluring, tempting, tantalizing. What is readily available is just boring
• To do the right thing and be praised is good, but to do the right thing even when you get criticized takes guts
• Often the idea of what we want is a far stronger motivator than the possession of the thing itself.
• Our motives, just like truth, are rarely pure and never simple.
• It’s remarkable how much effort people will expend to get things they don’t need
• We push all the harder when we have something to push against
• Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes
• If your success does not help you grow as a person, does not open your mind to new insights and new aspirations, then it is a poor thing.
• Interest speaks every language and enables the most unlikely partners to understand each other perfectly
• Ask yourself the secrets of your success. Listen to your answer and practice it.
• Stay curious.
• What water is to the body, purpose is to the mind
• Don’t let your purpose blunt your humanity
• Work for something because it is good, not just because it is easy.
• An urgent desire to get ahead is often the direct result of a fear that we may be left behind
• Don’t let anyone else tell you what it is in like that you want
• People can perform what appears to be identical actions for quite different reasons and that’s a great source of confusion. Its important not just to know what people do but why they do it.
• You can bet that when the end justifies the means it’ll be a bad end.
• As long as you wish to improve you should never be too happy about who you are
• If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.
• Take away a person’s sense of purpose and you may as well suffocate them
• When you have smashed your enemy into the ground, what precisely have you won?
• The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
• It is good to remember that onlookers have a clearer view of the game than the players.
• Learn to bloom where you are planted
• A man will fight harder for his interests than his rights
• Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Adapting to Change.

• Since everything must change, try to make sure it changes for the better
• Never regard yourself as fully finished. Like a snake you can always split your skin and grow a bit more.
• We talk of “embracing change” for a reason – it comes as a lover, not as an enemy
• It is only in romance novels that people undergo a sudden metamorphosis. In real life, even after the most terrible experiences, the main character remains exactly the same
• Loving people isn’t about changing them to suit you; its about accepting them as they are.
• Change is the only evidence of life
• My opinion is a view I hold until….well, until I find something that changes it
• A lot of what changes in life is merely fashion but much of what really matters – love, friendship, integrity – remains the same.
• Its strange but true that it is always unhappy people who fear change the most
• Always, always have a plan B
• You cannot change people unless you can give them the desire to change
• If one changes internally, one should not continue to live with the same objects. They reflect one’s mind and psyche of yesterday. Throw away what has no dynamic living use.
• Change doesn’t just happen. What you do now affects what you become in the future. Make sure you always look after your future self.
• You are a process, not a fixed thing. Even the biggest rock is in the process of crumbling.
• We need times when we separate ourselves from family and friends and go to new places. It is only by being without what is familiar than we can be open to change.
• People like to do things the same way they’ve always done them because it saves the trouble of thinking.
• If you have enough energy to rip out a vice, you might as well plant a virtue while you are at it.
• To change and to improve are two different things.
• To never alter your opinion you must be either foolish or dead
• Square pegs, we all know, do not fit into round holes. It is important to know what shape of peg you are.
• However much you change, you will always still be you, and therefore, in your own eyes, very much the same.
• If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.
• The notion that what went before must govern what comes next is cultivated to stop people thinking for themselves
• Whenever someone says “you have no alternative” they are anxious that you will spot the alternative.
• Its traditionally a woman’s privilege to change her mind, which just confirms that women are a lot smarter than men
• There are two sorts of people best avoided – those who want to change everything and those that want to change nothing
• There is no shame admitting you were wrong. It merely means you are wiser today than you were yesterday which is, after all, much better than the other way around
• The death of dogma is the birth of reality.
• Its people who are the most uncertain in their hearts who are the most dogmatic in their minds
• Some things cannot be changed, and then it is wiser to consider whether they are worth the trouble of keeping
• Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better

Communication.

• A woman left a 3 page note for her friend. At the end she put “sorry this is such a long note. I didn’t have time to write a short one”
• To be simple is the best thing in the world
• Everything should be made as simple as possible…but not simpler.
• Its worth considering the effect that your words may have on others. Try them out on yourself first. What sounds okay when its inside your head can sound all wrong when you say it out loud
• The best communication is intended to inform the recipient, not make the writer look clever
• If you cant express what you want to say simply keep thinking about it until you can
• Say something simply, well, and once. The more you elaborate and explain the less people will understand
• Nowadays you can talk to almost anyone almost anywhere at almost any time. The novelty is so great that some people forget you still need to have something worth saying
• A successful relationship involves constant and plentiful communication
• We seek the whole world over and find only what was within us at the start
• A clever idea isn’t clever because its hard for others to understand; its clever because of its simplicity and that no one else noticed before
• If you are simple and straightforward and have no secret plan, be sure that people will speak of your great cunning
• Nobody sees what is blindingly obvious until someone else has found a way to express it simply
• Simplicity of expression is like white light, it may look simple but it is actually complex
• What people say is important but it is much more informative to observe what they do
• Its important to tell the truth to yourself even if, just occasionally, you have to lie to others
• I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak
• No one wants your advice unless they are paying for it. If they ask for it, beware. If they don’t ask for it, keep your big mouth shut
• Remember your alphabetical order – thinking comes before speaking
• Good communication is like dancing – its important to be in step with those you want to reach with your words
• Being certain you are right makes communication difficult. Entertain the possibility that you may be wrong and you can have a discussion instead of an argument
• Quiet, relentless persistence is most effective in an argument
• Its useless telling people anything they aren’t ready to understand
• A conversation in which you are not eager to hear what they other person says is just a lecture
• Taking yourself too seriously is a sure way of making others treat you lightly
• It’s the things that are hardest to say that are the most important. Deep emotions make us tongue tied but, even so, these are the times when its important to say something sincere, even if its not every clever
• Let your skill with words project your passion. Deep feelings, however genuine, get lost if your manner of expressing them is poor
• Its fine to be a person of few words as long as you aren’t also a person of few thoughts
• When dealing with people, you need two extra senses: a sense of humor and a sense of proportion
• Accept that you may be wrong and others will accept that they might be wrong too
• There are always words to repair the damage – its finding them that’s the tricky part
• Have you noticed that when someone says , “you really need to hear this,” you usually don’t?
• Some people have great powers of persuasion. This does not make them right
• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
• Look back on what you’ve said in the past. If it doesn’t make you squirm, then worry about how much you’ve grown
• Be open to people who are unlike you. Their differences can benefit you.
• You don’t have to be good with words to be eloquent, but you do have to be good with feelings
• If you say something really sharp and get a laugh or a round of applause, don’t be tempted to repeat it
• With those close to you it is important to appear to be completely frank, but more important to never really be so

Relationships

• Know the value of others and acknowledge it. It is a mistake to see others merely as rivals to be defeated
• Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles
• Man’s best support is a very dear friend
• Never give up on anyone. The most unlikely people will come around in the end if they feel that someone is there for them
• From time to time ask yourself, are people any better off for knowing you?
• There are people you know you want to be close to just by looking at them and others you don’t like until you’ve had one damn good quarrel
• A good relationship can develop after you no longer count what it costs you
• Those who say that a platonic friend is merely one they haven’t slept with you simply reveal their own inadequacy in both departments
• If someone knows all about you and still loves you, that person is a true friend
• Those closest to use are the safety net for us whenever we fall
• Do not remove the mosquito from your friend’s brow with a hatchet
• People will judge you by your companions as much as your actions
• It’s the friends you can call up at 4 am that matter
• Your belief in people brings them to full bloom
• God gave us friends to make up for our relations
• If you cant give, you wont receive
• Never be too busy for someone, even when you really are
• When someone finds it necessary to say “Trust me” – don’t.
• A mark of a good relationship is the sheer number of things you don’t have to say
• If you don’t have people you are close to, then everything else you have doesn’t count
• Caring about others makes the most trivial and inconsequential things become a source of great satisfaction
• Liking the same things is fun, but disliking the same things can be intoxicating
• Those who seek an advantage are not worth your trust
• Share your joy with others, not your suffering
• Always think of others as your equals – that way they might just reciprocate
• You have to like yourself. It seems obvious but many people fail to do it.
• If you’re too important to have time for others, then you’re not as important as you think
• Have no companions not equal to yourself
• If you would be wide you should befriend the wise
• Cultivate in yourself the qualities you most admire in others
• Cultivate relationships with those who are good-hearted and level-headed
• When you love people, is it for your benefit or theirs?
• Always try to be a light in other people’s lives
• Avoid those who delight in misery and seek those who laugh a lot
• You may not always have happiness, but you can always be the cause of it in those around you

Character

• Life is not worth living until you have made it that way
• The greatest battle in life is to overcome yourself
• Remember the lone student who faced a tank in Tiananmen Square? It is the courage of the student, not the power of the tank, that we remember
• Women and judo players know that appearing to be the weaker contestant is the way to win
• If you want to gamble in life, you should bet on yourself
• Your beautiful thoughts may be interesting, but people value you for your beautiful deeds
• What we think, we become
• Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them
• Don’t rely on others, but make sure that others can rely on you
• There is nothing in which people betray their character than in what they laugh at
• Always do right – this will gratify some and astonish the rest
• Don’t spend time worrying about the future when you could be helping to make the future
• Circumstances do not make a person but they show that person for what he is
• No one ever got better who did not want to get better. The wanting is the start of everything
• Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted
• Don’t drop your ideals just because the world will not embrace them. The world and you would be a lot worse off without them.
• A true knowledge of ourselves is a knowledge of our power
• “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul” may not be completely true, but you should act as though it is.
• Simple virtues are despised only by those incapable of having them.
• Life isn’t hard; it’s people who make it hard. It isn’t complicated; its just tricky to see how simple everything really is.
• If you find life plain, boring, and unsatisfying it’s not life’s fault.
• Reputation is what the world thinks a man is; Character is what he really is.
• Only chickens have a wishbone. People have to make do with backbone.
• Since we can easily imagine ourselves as being better than we are, would it be so much trouble to make the vision a reality?
• He who is narrow of vision cannot be big of heart
• A “No” uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a “Yes” uttered merely to please.
• People are fundamentally good, though no one has bothered to tell most of them
• Be your own palace, or the world shall be your jail
• A man who finds no satisfaction in himself seeks for it in vain elsewhere
• It is no good seeking paths. Paths are made by walking

Fulfillment

• Sometimes all you can do is laugh. If you can laugh, you’re not sunk yet.
• Every being spends his life searching for that which he hopes will make him happy. Fulfillment lies in finding it.
• Making people contented also makes them good, but making them good will not necessarily make them happy
• Nothing can bring you peace but yourself
• Just as a cat is not the same as a tiger, pleasure and amusement are not the same as happiness, even though they are related
• Happiness is a matter of being, not having
• One way to be comfortable with one’s life is to stop worrying about the possibility of being miserable
• Manifest plainness. Embrace simplicity. Reduce selfishness. Have few desires.
• Why, in a world that gives us so many opportunities, would some people choose not only to be miserable but also to believe that its doing them good?
• Learn how to feel joy.
• Happiness is obvious to those who have it, but utterly mysterious to those who don’t
• Your life may not be perfect but as long as its what you want and not what someone else thinks you ought to want, you’ll be happy
• The righteous are seldom happy, so they have to make do with being right
• The only thing that happiness and misery have in common is that those who have them are too willing to share them with others
• Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can.
• Perfect happiness is the absence of striving for happiness
• We all need something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for.
• It’s okay to be miserable sometimes. It’s the only way you can know what happiness is.
• “Would you rather be right or happy?” is a trick question. If you’re happy, you’ll be right, although not vice versa
• No one makes us happy or wretched; we decide the matter with our own deeds.
• If you have to stop and consider whether you are happy, you are not.
• Don’t waste time on anger, ambition, or envy. These things drive out happiness and bring nothing but pain in its place.
• Happiness is not a goal in itself – it is a side effect of living your life wisely
• You didn’t get here by accident; you planned it every step of the way whether you know it or not.
• Everyone chases happiness, oblivious to the fact that it is chasing them
• People can give you all the good advice in the world, but only you can decide to take it.
• A man is only ever really miserable if he thinks he is
• Only once you accept responsibility for your own life does that life truly belong to you
• So many people over many centuries have written about the secrets of happiness that it is amazing there are still so many who don’t have it
• Life delights in life.
• Choose carefully what you pay attention to and what you ignore, both inside yourself and in the world. These things make up your life.
• Be who you would seem
• The main source of happiness is to be in control of your own life.

Inner Strength

• Grass breaks concrete. Rust breaks iron. Water wears away rock. It is not the hardest things that survive.
• Remember to give yourself time to rest. Treat yourself with consideration and you’ll always have energy, but demand too much and you’ll start to slow down
• Power can only come from within; no one else can give it to you
• Life is about taking chances. Nothing worthwhile is ever a sure thing.
• The greatest courage is simply to be oneself
• If you would be taken care of, you must prepare to do the job yourself
• Humor is a peculiarly human form of power and it is particularly aggravating to the pompous
• You are full of potential miracles. The risk is worth it.
• People desperate for power are those least suited to use it.
• If you can conquer others, you are strong, but to conquer yourself takes wisdom
• A person of true conviction must be prepared to act alone
• Tackling problems is stupid. Learn from judo players and choose the time and manner of your attack carefully
• A strong body is good, but a strong mind is invaluable.
• There are very few monsters that merit the fear we have of them
• The human spirit can be stamped on repeatedly and beaten flat, but like some sort of rubber ball, it always springs right back into shape when the pressure is removed
• If you need to lean on someone, make sure it’s the one in the mirror
• God, who gave burdens, also gave shoulders
• The majority are not always right. Hitler was elected by a majority.
• Better to take a chance now that live perpetually in fear
• The best way out of a problem is through it.
• Facing your own faults and doing something about them takes more guts than many are willing to admit
• It takes courage to stand up and speak, but also to sit down and listen
• The real test of courage comes when everyone tells you that you’re wrong
• Strong people can afford to be gentle. Only the weak and insecure need to throw their weight around
• No one should be in charge of your life but you. Anyone else is a dictator that you need to overthrow
• Always think the unthinkable. You don’t have to do what you’re thinking, but you should know what it feels like to think freely.
• Still waters run deep
• Always have the strength to admit you were wrong
• What the world calls a “strong man” is sometimes a weak man with bullies for friends

Nothing written here was full of startling philosophical insights for the good reason that such insights are invariably bogus. The things written here are full of the sort of thing that is staring you right in the face and only if you have the common sense to take notice of it your life would improve, or you could study a few “ologies,” feel clever, and get nowhere.