Thoughts stay thoughts without action.
Work hard in silence, let success make the noise.
Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep the faith. It will all be worth it in the end.
Don’t talk, just act. Don’t say, just show. Don’t promise, just prove.
Getting to Know Yourself
You may already know a lot about yourself or you may think you know everything and don’t. It’s always good to revisit your knowledge and beliefs – especially when it comes to how your beliefs and how you see yourself. Here are 17 questions from Eve Arnold on Medium that do just that.
- What am I good at?
- What gives me energy?
- What takes energy away from me?
- What puts me in a good mood?
- What activities give me purpose?
- What do I not like doing?
- What scares me to death?
- What motivates me?
- How do I want others to see me?
- Why do I want others to see me that way?
- What amount of sleep makes me feel refreshed?
- What kind of food do I seem to be happier after eating?
- How much water makes me feel awake?
- What traits do I like in other people?
- What advice am I most often giving out?
- What do I love to talk about?
- Why do I love talking about that stuff?
From the article How to Become More Self-Aware in 17 Questions
Don’t borrow trouble. The interest is too high.
Life and the things that happen to us and the people we love can be overwhelming. It’s easy to get trapped in the never-ending cycle of “waiting for the next shoe to drop” and trying to predict and prepare for things that may never happen.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34
Every day has enough to consume your attention and energy. Don’t create more distraction by focusing on the future or past. Be present, enjoy where you are, and the journey to create the life you want.
There will be bumps in the road. You can handle them. Those obstacles are there for you to learn from. They make you pause and think about where you are and where you’re headed. They force you to stretch for achievement or redirect and correct your course.
There is a reason for the trouble that shows up. There is no need to create trouble that distracts from your path.
On Purpose
The definition of passion…
- Any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.
- Strong amorous feeling or desire; love; affection.
- Strong sexual desire; lust.
- An instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.
- A person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire.
- A strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything
- The sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death
There is the more interesting definition: suffering – the state or experience of one that suffers.
Passion is the willingness to suffer or sacrifice for something important to you.
Passion contains the essence of what purpose is about.
The definition of purpose…
- The reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.
- An intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.
- Determination; resoluteness.
Understanding what you’re passionate about, informs your purpose.
Purpose gives you a “why”.
The “why” makes each day, every task, and your “being” a thing to enjoy. Regardless of what the mundanity, you can be confident in what you are doing. You will be doing it deliberately and intentionally.
Because of your passion, you live on purpose.
A Few Poems on Valentines Day
Close close all night
By Elizabeth Bishop
Close close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn together
in their sleep,
Close as two papers
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.
Each knows all
the other knows,
learnt by heart
from head to toes.
If Thou Must Love Me
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love’s sake only. Do not say
I love her for her smile … her look … her way
Of speaking gently, … for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day’—
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry,—
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love’s sake, that evermore
Thou may’st love on, through love’s eternity.
Love
By Roy Croft
I love you
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple.
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good.
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.
Sometimes You Should Just Have a Cookie
Sometimes you just have to make some chocolate chip cookies, sit down with a glass of milk and eat a couple of them. Here’s a recipe I haven’t tried yet but looks really good.
Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups of flour
- 3 tbsp. of cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 cold stick of butter (1/2 cup)
- 6 tbsp. of granulated sugar
- 6 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract
- 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. About 10-11 oz (or 1/2 a bag if you want less chocolate)
Other supplies needed
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Two mixing bowls (one for dry ingredients and a larger one for wet ingredients)
- Electric handheld mixer
- Spoon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 475°
- Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper to prevent sticking
- In the smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, corn starch, salt, and baking soda
- Cut stick of butter into smaller pieces (as seen in video)
- In the larger mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract
- Gently in the dry ingredients into the larger mixing bowl (as seen in the video)
- Add in chocolate chips. Mix gently until fully combined.
- Using a full size spoon (tablespoon), make cookie dough balls and place them on the baking sheet
- Bake for 6-7 minutes or until the tops of the cookies get golden/brown (keep your eye on them:)
- Remove from the oven and let them cool (they’ll continue to cook on the inside while they cool)
- For the softest cookies, eat them when they are warm, not totally cooled
Makes 18 Cookies
TIP: To make EXTRA LARGE cookies, double the size of the cookie dough balls using 2 tablespoon scoops and increase the baking time to 9-10 minutes. Makes 9 cookies if made larger.
Know Who You Are (Not)
Explore yourself
- In three words, describe your personality.
- List five of your most dominant interests.
- Describe your character, including your virtues, vices, strengths, and weaknesses.
- List the past four opportunities that opened doors for you. Who facilitated those opportunities?
- In the coming year, what opportunities would you like to have open to you?
- Who are the people with who you most often deal? List the greatest joy(s) and the greatest challenge(s) in dealing with them.
- If you have a mentor, describe what you admire about your mentor. If you do not yet have a mentor, describe what qualities you’d like your mentor to have — qualities that you would like to emulate.
- List the places where you have lived. What possibilities did each place offer you?
- List the places where you have traveled to. You can list just the ones that had a clear effect on you or all of them. In each place, what changed in you as a result of your visit? What did visiting each place teach you?
Who You Are Not
There’s a lot in this speech by McConaughey. From 11:11 to 13:33 is a great thought about knowing who you are by first figuring out who you are not.