“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” — Jordan Belfort

“If you obsess over whether you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming that the universe will reward you for one thing and punish you for another.

The universe has no fixed agenda. Once you make any decision, it works around that decision. There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling, and action that you experience.

If this sounds too mystical, refer again to the body. Every significant vital sign- body temperature, heart rate, oxygen consumption, hormone level, brain activity, and so on- alters the moment you decide to do anything… decisions are signals telling your body, mind, and environment to move in a certain direction.”

-Deepak Chopra

“Did you know, you can quit your job, you can leave university? You aren't legally required to have a degree, it’s a social pressure and expectation, not the law, and no one is holding a gun to your head. You can sell your house, you can give up your apartment, you can even sell your vehicle, and your things that are mostly unnecessary. You can see the world on a minimum wage salary, despite the persisting myth, you do not need a high paying job. You can leave your friends (if they’re true friends they’ll forgive you, and you’ll still be friends) and make new ones on the road. You can leave your family. You can depart from your hometown, your country, your culture, and everything you know. You can sacrifice. You can give up your $5.00 a cup morning coffee, you can give up air conditioning, frequent consumption of new products. You can give up eating out at restaurants and prepare affordable meals at home, and eat the leftovers too, instead of throwing them away. You can give up cable TV, Internet even. This list is endless. You can sacrifice climbing up in the hierarchy of careers. You can buck tradition and others’ expectations of you. You can triumph over your fears, by conquering your mind. You can take risks. And most of all, you can travel. You just don’t want it enough. You want a degree or a well-paying job or to stay in your comfort zone more. This is fine, if it’s what your heart desires most, but please don’t envy me and tell me you can’t travel. You’re not in a famine, in a desert, in a third world country, with five malnourished children to feed. You probably live in a first world country. You have a roof over your head, and food on your plate. You probably own luxuries like a cellphone and a computer. You can afford the $3.00 a night guest houses of India, the $0.10 fresh baked breakfasts of Morocco, because if you can afford to live in a first world country, you can certainly afford to travel in third world countries, you can probably even afford to travel in a first world country. So please say to me, “I want to travel, but other things are more important to me and I’m putting them first”, not, “I’m dying to travel, but I can’t”, because I have yet to have someone say they can’t, who truly can’t. You can, however, only live once, and for me, the enrichment of the soul that comes from seeing the world is worth more than a degree that could bring me in a bigger paycheck, or material wealth, or pleasing society. Of course, you must choose for yourself, follow your heart’s truest desires, but know that you can travel, you’re only making excuses for why you can’t. And if it makes any difference, I have never met anyone who has quit their job, left school, given up their life at home, to see the world, and regretted it. None. Only people who have grown old and regretted never traveling, who have regretted focusing too much on money and superficial success, who have realized too late that there is so much more to living than this.”


-source

37 Things You Should Never Apologize For (And Why)

37 Things You Should Never Apologize For (And Why)

this post is originally from here.

1. Never apologize for acting on your instincts.
 Listening to your body then taking action on what you hear
 is the hallmark of heroic people.

2. Never apologize for all the tears you’ve cried.
Crying cleanses the soul. Shoot for once a month.
Even if it’s just a brief mist at a tender moment in a sad movie.

3. Never apologize for anything in your resume/portfolio.
If you feel the need to do so, it probably doesn't belong
in there in the first place.

4. Never apologize for asking for what you need.
The answer to every question you DON’T ask is always no.

5. Never apologize for asking questions.
 When you stop asking questions,
you don’t just run out of answers you run out of hope.

6. Never apologize for asserting yourself.
 The word assert comes from the Latin asserere, which means,
to claim, maintain or affirm. And that’s exactly what you’re entitled to:
 Your opinion. Your belief. Your say.
Let nobody take it away from you.

7. Never apologize for being a health nut.
Next time someone says, What are you, on a diet or something?
 look them straight in the eye and say,
Yeah you got a problem with that?
Then, when they back down, you go right back to eating your tofu.

8. Never apologize for being a newbie.
Everyone great chess master was once a beginner.

9. Never apologize for being early for an appointment.
In the history of Corporate America, no employee has ever been
 fired for consistently arriving ten minutes early to every meeting.

10. Never apologize for being funny.
The world is too damn serious. We need you. Seriously.

11. Never apologize for being human.
Once you do, you’re no longer human you’re a cyborg.

12. Never apologize for being passionate.
Unless you’re passionate about stabbing strangers with
broken Coke bottles.

13. Never apologize for being smart.
 That’s the ONE thing the government, the media
 (and every other entity that’s trying to control you)
 is terrified of: Smart people who take action. Be one of those people.

14. Never apologize for being the age that you are.
It’s just a number. A chicken ain’t nothing but a bird, as my Grandpa likes to say.

15. Never apologize for breaking a rule that isn’t really a rule.
Be proud of yourself for being a rule breaker.
Then go break another one.

16. Never apologize for calling bullshit on someone.
Especially when nobody else is the room is going to do
 it and this person REALLY needs to be taken to task.

17. Never apologize for demanding respect.
If you’ve demonstrated that you deserve respect by giving it to others first,
you’re good to go.

18. Never apologize for disagreeing.
Especially if you do so respectfully. On the other hand,
if you’re disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing,
or because of your pathological need to be right,
that’s a different story.

19. Never apologize for expressing yourself.
That’s all “leadership” is:
The full, free expression of your truth.
 Don’t say you’re sorry for that.

20. Never apologize for falling in love.
Your heart’s calling the shots.

21. Never apologize for falling OUT of love.
Your heart’s still calling the shots
even when you throw up an air ball.

22. Never apologize for getting something off your chest.
That which you suppress will find a home in your body.
And then it will trash the place.

23. Never apologize for giving it your best shot.
 As my Grandpa also reminded me,
“You do the best you can with as many as you can.

24. Never apologize for growing up privileged.
As long as you scrap the entitlement attitude,
remain grateful for everything you’ve ever been given
and respect the life situation of those who are less fortunate, it’s all good.

25. Never apologize for having an overabundance of love in your life.
Instead, circulate what you’ve got. Pay it forward.
Share it. People need it.

26. Never apologize for lack of experience.
Instead, share your Learning Plan; demonstrate
your dedication to lifelong learning and practice
becoming the world’s expert at learning from your experiences.

27. Never apologize for lack of information.
Ignorance is acceptable. Staying ignorant, however, is stupid.

28. Never apologize for liking stupid movies.
Movie snobs annoy me. Some of my favorite movies
are among the most ridiculous films ever made.
So I love Hangover. Sue me

29. Never apologize for living your truth.
Few things in the world are more important.

30. Never apologize for looking out for yourself.
Self-preservation is a primary driver of human behavior.
 It’s how we’re wired.

31. Never apologize for loving yourself.
If you do, you probably don’t love yourself as much as you thought.

32. Never apologize for making a decision from the heart.
Remember: It’s not thee truth it’s YOUR truth.

33. Never apologize for needing alone time.
Solitude is soil. Solitude is medicine.
And if you don’t get your fix every day, your life will suffer.

34. Never apologize for needing to use the bathroom.
Yesterday a woman in my class walked out of the
room and actually said to the instructor,
I have to pee, I’m SO sorry. Unbelievable.

35. Never apologize for not being there when someone called.
You have a life, too. People can’t expect you to wait eagerly
by the phone all hours of the day.

36. Never apologize for not embracing someone else’s agenda.
Especially if that agenda robs you of your true talent.

37. Never apologize for occasional absentmindedness.
Everyone’s brain farts.

“I often feel like I want to think something but I can’t find the language that coincides with the thoughts, so it remains felt, not thought. Sometimes I feel like I’m thinking in Swedish without knowing Swedish.”

—	Peter Cameron, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

(i'm glad i'm not the only one who feels this)

“This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don’t get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can’t do anything, don’t get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it’s ready to come undone. You have to figure it’s going to be a long process and that you’ll work on things slowly, one at a time.”

—	Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Desiderata- Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

y e s