Your professors weren’t asking for perfection, and if they were, my older self today, would’ve had something to say about that. Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, only disappointment.

It is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize we have chosen the life we are living right now. It is, perhaps frightening for us to think that we have chosen to live our life exactly as it is today.

Words mean nothing. Ideas are empty. Respect is earned by adding actual value. By making a difference. So reallocate that energy into the gift that you are giving to the people around you.

An unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centered ambition. It’s when the notion of ourselves in the world grows so inflated that it begins to distort the reality that surrounds us.

“Gratitude leads us to affirm and acknowledge the good things in our lives, and because you cannot be grateful and negative at the same time, it, counteracts feelings of envy, anger, greed, and other states harmful to happiness”.

“Throughout the day, we have many choices regarding who we’re going to be with and talk to. Don’t just gravitate to the coffee machine and participate in the negative gossip because it’s the only game in town”. - Steve Chandler

What will you create with the pieces presented to you not tomorrow or the next day but right now and every second moving forward?

Life gave you an amazing gift of a new day. Many people who are on their last breath would give anything for such a miraculous gift, and yet, we often will take this gift for granted. Fritter it away. And complain about much of it.

The song will come. The skies will clear, the sun will rise. But you have to know that, and you have to know it now, when all you have is ambition and a plan.

Loving well is an art. It starts with the awareness of something larger than ourselves, call it God, Source, Universe, whatever term feels delicious to you. The knowledge that Divine Love loves you is the beginning of your love story.