How can you be successful if you're living life through the eyes, or values, of another?



What's wrong with you, eh!...

Actually, the question you should be asking yourself is this one: what's *right* with you? It really is better to accentuate the positive, just as it's equally essential, if not more so, to love yourself too.

Yes, it's love (not money) that makes the world go around. And, whilst it's important that you love your partner, love your friends and family and even love your neighbour, it's much more important that you love yourself.

"You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." -- Buddha

You are unique after all. And when you love yourself, you give of your best, and then you allow others to love you also.

Remember, you know more today than you did yesterday. You are one day wiser. And, tomorrow, you will make the same progress in life. Isn't that great to know?

"Whoever you are, there is some younger person who thinks you are perfect. There is some work that will never be done if you don't do it. There is someone who would miss you if you were gone. There is a place that you alone can fill." -- Jacob M. Braude

And - thank you Jacob! - you will have also taken another step forward in your life-path. A path that will have much more purpose and potential if you truly believe in yourself.

"You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." -- Steve Jobs

But it must be *your* path - as I'm sure Mr Jobs would agree - and *your* goals.

And you must not be deflected from what you are trying to achieve in life, no matter how ridiculous it may sound to someone else. Let them live their life by their rules and their hopes, whilst you should live by yours.

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." -- Mark Twain

And never listen to anyone who tells you that you can't.

'Can't' is a negative word that has achieved very little of note. 'Can', on the other had, is more or less responsible for everything great that has ever been achieved in this world.

"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it." -- Chinese proverb

Yes, 'can' allows you to be (and trust) yourself; enables you to be the best person that you can be. And sometimes your best can intimidate or annoy someone else's worst. Ignore them. You only have one life, remember, and the clock is ticking...

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

Happiness awaits us all, I'm sure of it, just as soon as we stop pursuing it, and start to recognise that happiness is already within our reach, waiting for us to allow it into our lives. Happiness awaits.

"The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is." -- Erasmus

Happiness is simply accepting who you are, and recognising what you have achieved in life and what you can still achieve.

Happiness is, and always will be, about the moment; it cannot be pursued.

So I say: Be happy, be yourself!