1.  You are always in charge, always make the final decision and choose what is right for you.
2. You accept no criticism because criticism never makes you better without first hurting you.
3. You are responsible for believing in yourself not outsourcing it to others who could on a whim take it away some day.
4. You don’t ask for help without offering it in return.
5. You get endless re-dos as long as your heart is in the right place.

No matter how bad things are today, tomorrow they will get better.

Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Go back through your life and discover that hope is what sustains us until relief arrives.

The Beatles producer George Martin was a big part of their success.

He did what many in power would not do – he let them be.

Strange, talented, creative.

Managing people can be the fine art of letting them manage themselves because The Beatles were in the capable hands of George Martin who kept his capable hands off their talent.

This is the essence of good management – both being there and staying out of the way.

Warren Buffett says successful people have one two-letter word in common.

No.

No is like yes for people who take on too much, have weak boundaries and who get lost in other people’s work.

Buffett goes further.

He says no to almost everything.

A clear way to look at this advice is to think of getting in your car and taking off on a trip.

Even if you know where you want to go, you can’t turn at every intersection or you will never get to your destination.

The struggle is to understand why you have too little confidence.

And so the search becomes all-encompassing and self-directed.

Finding more confidence by obsessing about not having enough rarely works.

Empowering others is palpable, an instant confirmation that your actions can make a difference.

The next time you need a jolt of confidence, ask this:

What can I do to make someone else’s day better?

Get back in touch with the power to do good.

Kobe Bryant spoke publicly and lovingly about his Lower Merion, PA high school teacher who taught him a key driver of motivation:

“Rest at the end not in the middle”.

Bryant joked that sometimes he actually listened in school – judging from his basketball career, he really listened.

Making ourselves miserable because of something that happened in the past is useless.

What happened then has already occurred, we cannot change, edit or alter it.

If you want to put regrets, insights, awakenings and everything that seems to occur as a result to good use, look forward.

The past is a guidebook.

What to do.

What to do differently.

What to let go of.

What to embrace.

Regretting the past just feeds more regrets.

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it – why not put life’s lessons to work in the future?

Embrace fear.

Turn it into something powerful.

Let it inspire bravery.

Make every fear thought transformational.

“It’s okay to be sacred.  Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.”

1. Before getting out of bed November 25, think of 3 people who love you.
2. Then think of 3 people who are the most in the world to you.
3. Wherever you go to celebrate or whatever you do, smile at 3 people without saying a word.
4. Find 3 people you can catch doing something awesome like making Thanksgiving dinner, spending time with you or making some kind of sacrifice – say something publicly to shower them with the appreciation of others.
5. After losing a loved one close to this holiday, I decided to display a picture and tell someone about them so they could be with me that day and in the future (it was my mother and I told how she made broccoli in garlic and olive oil every Thanksgiving).
6. Before bed, love yourself by thinking of 3 things that you are proud of doing and then close your eyes.

In the days of vinyl, the record business used to say this about a song or album:  if it’s in the grooves, it’s a hit.

Yet the same thing is true of other things where substance is more important than anything else.

Good relationships are based on shared values but you don’t have to have the same personality – in fact, we know that opposites often attract.

A great career is not usually the one that pays the most money.

When searching for satisfaction, look first to what’s already there – “in the grooves” – instead of trying to become something different.