Courage

“A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.” – Lao Tzu

Courage is more than fearlessness and heroic acts.  The underlying assumption of courage is that it responds to external conflict, particularly the kind where taking action can result in possible death.  While there exists skepticism toward externally-focused courage such as taking action due to other fears, the definition is narrow and overshadows other kinds of courageous acts that individuals are able to engage and exercise daily.  

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Perfectionism

“Healthy striving is self-focused: ‘How can I improve?’ Perfectionism is other-focused: ‘What will they think?’ – Brené Brown

The ideal of perfectionism is a subject that is interwoven with the notions of failure and making mistakes.  The image of perfection oscillates between trying your very best at something for reasons related to high standards, self-validation, and purpose to crippling fear, avoidance of judgment, and stress.  The former is healthy; the latter, on the other hand, could harm more than it benefits.  

Compassion

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” – Albert Einstein

Self-awareness

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – C.G. Jung

To know oneself is critical to flourishing.  To see oneself objectively and honestly and recognize our shortcomings and consciously make an effort to change for the better is time and energy well invested.  While we are sculpted by our upbringing and early experiences we are capable of change.  Our personalities are not static.  

Human Nature

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” – Herman Melville

With the rise of social media and ingenious marketing teams across business industries, there is little doubt to believe what humans desire is connection and a sense of belonging.  

Friendship

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” – C. S. Lewis

Genuine friendships, and not affiliated partnerships in disguise, are priceless; they represent true riches.  An individual with a few good friends is blessed, and an individual with many great friends understands the significance.  Authentic friendships evolve into members of extended family.  

Attachment

“One day you will disappear on a funeral pyre — just into nothingness, as smoke. Don’t get attached to anything. This attachment takes you away from your real being; you become focused on the thing to which you are attached. Your awareness gets lost in things, in money, in people, in power. And there are a thousand and one things, the whole thick jungle around you, to be lost in. Remember, non-attachment is the secret of finding yourself, then awareness can turn inwards because you don’t have anything outside to catch hold of. It is free, and in this freedom you can know your self-nature.” – Osho

Anger

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” – Buddha

Anger is paralyzing.  Albeit anger is normal, recognizing how to express it constructively makes the difference between it causing harm or not.  Anger is healthy in terms of serving as a signal.  It reveals how a difficult situation must change in order to return to emotional equilibrium.  

Tame the Mind

“With our thoughts we make the world.”― Gautama Buddha

Pay attention; be present.  With the fast pace of the modern world we miss giving our thoughts any due attention.    Thousands of thoughts race through our minds from the moment we wake to the moment we return to rest, but we do not recognize the patterns behind our thoughts nor their nature and direction. We also overlook their power.

Mistakes

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – John Powell

Making mistakes are unavoidable, and the good news is that lessons await in each of them.  If we do not make mistakes and if we do not fail, then we remain stagnant.  Change and growth occurs as a result of recognizing what did not work and finding other solutions and possibilities to improve our approach in the future.  Mistakes help unlock answers to questions.