“You are entirely up to you.” - Jody Watley
​
What are you doing to become the best you? 

“Falling down is an accident. Staying down is a choice.” - LaFleur

​What is preventing you from getting back up when you fall? 

“Habits are the principal magistrate of a person’s life.” - Francis Bacon
 
How are your habits focusing your life? 

"He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. Doubt has killed more splendid projects, shattered more ambitious schemes, strangled more effective geniuses, neutralized more superb efforts, blasted more fine intellects, thwarted more splendid ambitions than any other enemy of the race. - James Allen

“One unable to dance blames the unevenness of the floor.” - Malay Proverb
 
Who or what are you blaming for your failures?

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different.” - LaFleur

​What daily changes are occurring in your life that you aren’t noticing?
 

“The moment you feel like you have to prove your worth to someone is the moment to absolutely and utterly walk away.” - Alysia Harris
 
Do you know what you are worth?

“Fame’s great illusion is that you are known by the masses. Fame’s great danger is to be known by no one.” - Erwin Raphael McManus
 
Do you truly know who you are?

Bad by Name; Bad by Nature?
 
 During Nelson Mandela's 19 years imprisoned on Robben Island, one particular commanding officer, Badenhorst, was the most brutal of them all:
"A few days before Badenhorst's departure, I was called to the main office. General Steyn was visiting the island and wanted to know if we had any complaints. Badenhorst was there as I went through a list of demands. When I had finished, Badenhorst spoke to me directly.
He told me he would be leaving the island and added: 'I just want to wish you people good luck'. I do not know if I looked dumbfounded, but I was amazed. He spoke these words like a human being and showed a side of himself we had never seen before. I thanked him for his good wishes and wished him luck in his endeavors.
I thought about this moment for a long time afterwards. Badenhorst had perhaps been the most callous and barbaric commanding officer we had had on Robben Island. But that day in the office, he had revealed that that there was another side to his nature, a side that had been obscured but still existed.
It was a useful reminder that all men, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency and that, if their hearts are touched, they are capable of changing. Ultimately, Badenhorst was not evil; his inhumanity had been foisted upon him by an inhuman system. He behaved like a brute because he was rewarded for brutish behavior."

Source: "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
 
 www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/stories.

“Sometimes, someone’s presence makes the world a better place to you. Sometimes, someone’s absence does the same.” - LaFleur

​What makes the world better for you?
 

“It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and impossible to find it elsewhere.” - Agnes Repplier

​Where do you find happiness in your life? 

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” - Bill Bradley

​How is persistence leading you to success?
 

"Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people! Do not pray to tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be  no miracle, but shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God."

By: Phillips Brooks

“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” - Oprah Winfrey
 
How are you looking at your life?