Daily Reflections for Living Strong

Strength is built through action. It is also built with restraint.

Strength is confident. And it is, at the same time, humble.

Strength is ambitious, and patient as well. Strength is focused, and it is honest.

Strength is persistent, continuing forward through the difficult challenges.

Strength is flexible, adjusting to changing environments without compromising its original intent.

Strength has no need to be showy or boastful. For true strength is quiet, calm, and intensely effective.

Strength is balance, and love and truth.

Strength is choosing to rise up above the circumstance and live as the authentic person you are.

Life is too precious to let fear hold you back. The purpose of fear is to prepare you, not to stop you. Fear will heighten your senses, focus your mind, sharpen your judgment and boost your energy level. It gets you in condition to meet challenges.

Feel your fear, take strength from it, and move forward with the power it gives you. In your fear of failure, are the tools for success. In your fear of humiliation, is the energy to eloquently express yourself. In your fear of rejection, you’ll find the energy to persevere. But only if you refuse to be stopped by fear.

Fear will often help you to make positive changes in your approach. Yet your fear is wasted if you let it stop you completely. Use your fear to run faster and smarter, not to run away.

There is enormous power in this moment. The more fully you experience what is here right now, the more that power is available to you.

Are you angry or bitter, disappointed or resentful about what has happened? Then much of the power of this moment will be out of your reach.

Are you anxious and worried about something that may or may not happen? Then you will miss out on the opportunity to create real and lasting value from this powerful moment you are in.

Imagine that everything you are, everything you know, everything you care about, is focused into this very moment. And feel the enormous power of what you can, right here and now, do with it all.

Rise above the murky fog of what might happen and what someday might or might not come to pass. Focus the whole of your being on what is, and on the overflowing abundant opportunities this moment presents to you.

There is great and wonderful power in this very moment, in who you are, in where you are right now. See it, be it, and let yourself live it fully.

Don’t run from failure or hide from failure or avoid the possibility of failure. Use failure to improve.

If you’re not willing to fail, you won’t be able to grow. To become stronger and more capable, you must push yourself beyond what you already know you can do.

It is only by lifting more weight than you’ve lifted before that you strengthen your muscles. It is by experiencing failure that you discover new ways to succeed.

Failure and disappointment can serve as powerful steps along the path to great achievement. In dealing with the difficult times, you build great strength with which to create good, meaningful, satisfying and fulfilling value in your world.

Success means nothing if it is not earned. Failure is an important part of earning success.

The road to achievement will constantly test you. Be willing to take those tests, and to work through those tests, and achievement is yours.

Stay calm, stay thoughtful, and stay in control. Tap into the great strength that resides in serenity.

Just because urgent action is required does not mean panic is called for. Choose to stay calm, and do your most effective work.

Anxiety drains your energy, distorts your perception, and gives you nothing of value in return. Frenzied activity invites carelessness and wasted effort.

Your best way forward is with calm and determined strength, especially when you’re immersed in noise, clutter, and confusion. Stay calm, and make decisions based on purpose and intention, not disorder and disruption.

Absorb the hectic energy as it swirls around you. Then utilize that energy in a focused and well-considered way.

Stay calm, and experience how strong and effective you feel. Stay calm, and when the chaos subsides, you’ll be stronger, you’ll be wiser and much further ahead.

It takes strength to do what must be done when the work is unpleasant and uncomfortable. It takes strength to persist in the face of obstacles, when it would be much easier to simply give up.

It takes strength to be polite to someone when that person has been rude to you. It takes strength to be truthful when a lie would be more convenient.

It takes strength to build for the future. It takes strength to resist temptations and distractions.

It takes strength to do what is right. It takes strength to make an effort when it would be easier to make up an excuse.

It takes strength to do all these things. And all the while, these are the very things that build even more strength.

Be truthful, do what you know is right, put forth effort when it is called for, persist, and the more you do so, the more easily you’ll be able to do so. Exercise your strength, and you’ll surely grow stronger, more capable, and successful in each endeavor.

It’s great, and absolutely necessary, to relax on a regular basis. But being constantly lazy and idle quickly ends up being no fun at all.

If you find yourself avoiding effort, ask yourself this. Are you really making the best choice for yourself?

Doing whatever you must do in a timely fashion is in your best interest. So remind yourself that you have an opportunity to act in your own best interest.

Yes, the effort may be complicated, difficult and tedious. Even so, you’re much better off when you go ahead and get it done rather than having it continue to hang over your head.

Effort actually feels very good when you finally get around to it. So go ahead, make the effort, and before long you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

Get up now, get yourself in a pleasantly productive state, and get it done.

Do you remember ever having a really great teacher in school — someone who inspired you to learn and to do your best? If so, you’ll probably recall that he or she challenged you to a much greater degree than most of your other teachers. At the time, the extra challenge may have seemed unfair, or even cruel. Yet looking back on it, you realize that it was not cruel at all, but rather was a true expression of respect for, and confidence in, your ability to learn and grow.

Life outside of school has its great teachers, too. And the best ones often seem unfair, unkind and even brutal. Those teachers include disappointment, sorrow, confusion, loneliness, and frustration. They are all painful and yet some of our greatest learning and growth can come from them. They challenge us and compel us to reach higher. They help to reveal our true character, and by doing so, helps build our character to be even stronger.

Amidst despair, take heart. A loving, caring teacher is even now working to bring out the best in you. Though it is impossible to fully appreciate now, the day will come when you surely will. So take this and every opportunity to learn and to grow.

Look carefully and thoughtfully at the things that frustrate you. In each of them you will find real and workable ideas for positive growth.

Frustration occurs when you realize, sometimes painfully, that things are not working nearly as well as they could be. Follow that realization to its natural conclusion and you will find a clearly marked pathway for improvement.

Great inventions, successful companies and immense fortunes have been built through positive responses to frustration. Indeed, frustration has always been a major catalyst for creating value.

People frustrated with the way things are, can develop insatiable appetites for making the world better. Frustration can get you thinking and acting, building, creating and persevering toward a positive purpose.

Frustration is the feeling of knowing it can be better, and the greater the frustration, the more positive and exciting are the possibilities. When you are feeling frustration, remind yourself what a truly great blessing it can be leading you toward.

When you know without a doubt that things can be better, you’ve already started the process of improvement. Go ahead, feel the frustration, and let it give you a powerful positive push.

You can do what you think you cannot do. First you must change your thinking.

Most perceived limitations have some basis in fact. Yet every limitation that holds you back is supported in large measure by your assumption that it is a limitation.

By changing your assumptions, you can change the whole landscape of your possibilities. What once were limitations no longer are limitations.

Look at life from the perspective of purpose. Realize that there is a way to successfully express whatever authentic purpose is within you.

If you focus merely on how to get it done, you’ll find that many of the paths are blocked. Focus instead on why you must, and you’ll open yourself to a new set of workable, accessible and achievable strategies.

What do you think you cannot do? Uncover your why, and you’ll see the way.