KNOWING MORE THAN YOU KNOW

"I am not a teacher, but an awakener."

Robert Frost, 20th century American poet.

Meaning, he only helps others learn what they already know, what they don't know they know.

We'd all be better off knowing at least one awakener.

ONLY THE TIME IT TAKES

"One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity."

Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658) Spanish philosopher/writer.

But only the time it takes to reach the center of your opportunity.

Don't delay arriving there, the result of useless procrastination or lack of planning.

Understand what you need to do to get where you want to be, to become what you want to be, then do it.

WAIT FOR IT!

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 18th century French philosopher/writer/composer.

Good advice for us all and none more than those who feel they don't have time to consider what it means to them.

THIS IS NO DREAM!

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours."

Henry David Thoreau, 19th century American philosopher/poet.

"Common hours" is 19th century code for awake time spent not dreaming the dreams of things you'd like to be, things you'd like to accomplish.

You have them. You may not acknowledge you do but you do have them.

Make them happen.

NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE, WHAT YOU WILL DO

"We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses."

Carl Jung, 20th century Swiss psychiatrist.

You can condemn many things including yourself for failing to take action to change what you condemn.

Don't spend a lot of time doing that.

Accept the need for change and move on to make it happen.

TRUST BUT VERIFY, JUST NOT TOO MUCH

"A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts."

Harold Macmillan, 20th century Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

I've never met anyone who trusted no one, but I have met those who trust too few.

You won't get very far in this world without the help of others, many of which you will simply have to trust to do what they say they will do.

ADVICE I SUGGEST YOU NOT TAKE

"Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end."

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 1st century BC Roman politician.

Were you to do as Cicero suggests you would indeed be at the end of your journey.

No animal stops doing what they do until the moment they die; why should humans?

We are put on this earth to learn and there is no legitimate reason to stop learning until, like all animals, we die.

IT'S NOT JUST HILL AND DONALD, FAR FROM IT

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

Plato, 5th century BC Greek philosopher.

An appropriate thought as we move closer to hearing the final death rattle of this year's US election season.

No matter what you do for a living, what church you attend, what sports team your child is on, regardless of which groups of humans you associate with, you experience politics.

If you think you don't, if you believe you can stay out of the political drama that impacts your groups, you will, as Plato says you will, ultimately be lead by those you consider to be your inferiors.

Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. 

Either way, if you don't participate in the governance of your groups, it is them, not you, who will govern you.

WHO, NOT WHAT, YOU ARE

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't."

Richard Bach, American author.

Maybe the first question should be, do you know what your life's mission is?

Hint; it's not what you do it's who you are and who you are is not who you say you are, it's who others say you are.

NATURE'S WAY

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

Lao Tzu, 6th century BC Chinese philosopher.

Not so people.

We hurry to catch up when we've allowed ourselves to fall behind.

Nature's way, the better way.

NOT ALONE BUT OFTEN ON YOUR OWN

"You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room."

Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), 20th century American writer/cartoonist.

Many other quotes say the same thing.

Get all the help from others you can but in the end, what you become, or don't become, is up to you.

BE, NOT BEING

"The easiest kind of relationship for me is with ten thousand people. The hardest is with one."

Joan Baez, 20th/21st century American folk singer.

Because a "relationship" is about much more than the number of people in it.

Look at it this way.

When you walk down the street, through an airport, or while sitting in a movie or a ball park, are you in a "relationship" with the hundreds, maybe thousands of others also there?

Unlike our social media encounters, at least in all those situations, you and all the people are actually, physically together.

Using the loosest definition of the word, I suppose any connection between two or more individuals could be defined as a "relationship", however not in the way Ms. Baez intended.

True relationships require both parties to actually be together rather than simply being together.

TIME ENOUGH

"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."

C. L. Lewis, 20th century British novelist.

So the question you need to answer is, how will you spend each of those 60 minutes?

Time enough depending on what you do with them.

THE COST OF MISPLACED TRUST

"It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods."

Margaret Fuller, 19th century American journalist.

Always true but never more so than in political season, this one in particular.

Something isn't necessarily true simply because someone says it is, including that said by people you trust.

Gullibility comes at a high price, much more than $1.

FROM VISION TO REALITY

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

Michelangelo, late 15th/early 16th century Italian artist.

It's that way with all great achievements.

Envisioning what could be doesn't make it so.

You must work hard to realize the vision.

I DIDN'T ALWAYS KNOW THIS. WISH I DID.

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't."

Anatole France, late 19th/early 20th century French poet.

I can't imagine many who were born knowing this; I know I wasn't.

But I do now and I'm much better off as a result.

And you?

FEAR: SOMETHING TO FEAR

"If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been."

Robert H. Schuller, 20th century American evangelist.

Make that if you only listen to your fears.

Fear alerts us to danger, however, when you are afraid to the point of never acting, it can do more harm than the problem(s) you were attempting to avoid. 

THE VALUE OF "LIKED"

"One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives."

Euripides, 4th century BC Greek tragedian.

And worth one hundred thousand social media "friends".

There's nothing virtual about real friends.

YOU DO HAVE A CHOICE

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."

John Wooden, 20th century American basketball coach.

Maybe this is a bit too pollyanna for you?

Consider the alternative.

How much better will things that didn't turn out best be if you don't try to make the best of how things turned out?

COURAGE (NOT) TO SPEAK

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

Winston Churchill, 20th century British politician.

It is often far more difficult to do the latter than the former.

And very often the right thing.

NOT LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES IS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF ALL

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."

George Bernard Shaw, late 19th/early 20th century Irish playwright.

True for many reasons including the fact that making mistakes suggests an effort, the resulting mistakes notwithstanding.

And even more than that, because we can learn so much from whatever mistakes we make, assuming we choose to do so.