Latest / Motivational Podcast / REPROGRAMMING | Program Your Mind EPISODE 06 [Compilation 01 | 2023] – Rebuild Your Mental Foundation

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REPROGRAMMING | Program Your Mind EPISODE 06 [Compilation 01 | 2023] – Rebuild Your Mental Foundation · Motivational Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: In this issue, you'll discover how a little creative thinking
0:08
Speaker 1: can lead to big rewards, and then you'll hear why
0:11
Speaker 1: it's important to embrace new ideas, to experience failure and
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Speaker 1: reshape attitudes.
0:35
Speaker 2: Failure is a gold mine. Successful people have it. One
0:42
Speaker 2: time or another experienced catastrophic failure. There are people who
0:45
Speaker 2: have rolled up his sleeves and gone to work on
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Speaker 2: a project in which they earnestly believed, only to discover
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Speaker 2: themselves ridiculous and embarrassing failures in spite of all their
0:53
Speaker 2: plans and work. As a result, these people had to
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Speaker 2: sit down and perform ruthless surgery upon their souls to
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Speaker 2: examine themselves and the cause of their failure. The person
1:03
Speaker 2: who settles in for a lifetime of doing an average
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Speaker 2: job in an average way experiences neither success nor failure,
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Speaker 2: but rather a lifetime of middle level performance. The single
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Speaker 2: element permanently inhibiting his success is not a lack of
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Speaker 2: inspiration or talent necessarily, but the absence of catastrophic failure
1:21
Speaker 2: and the soul surgery that follows it. The element lacking
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Speaker 2: is shock therapy failure, the bucket of ice cold water
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Speaker 2: that forces him to take inventory reorganize, re educate himself,
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Speaker 2: and realize that a large success in any field takes
1:42
Speaker 2: large effort and unflagging persistence and dedication. Don't let a
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Speaker 2: big failure or a series of little ones keep you
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Speaker 2: from trying again. William Blake wrote, if the sun and
2:03
Speaker 2: the moon should doubt, they'd immediately go out. Perfectionism is
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Speaker 2: a dangerous state of mind in an imperfect world. We
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Speaker 2: set a goal of perfection before ourselves, and groaning, we
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Speaker 2: conclude that it cannot be achieved. The best way is
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Speaker 2: to forget doubts and set about the task in hand.
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Speaker 2: While the battle is being fought or the cake is
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Speaker 2: baking in the oven, leave the outcome to the future
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Speaker 2: where it belongs. Failure is the best guarantee of future success.
2:35
Speaker 2: To fail, we have to try to do something. This
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Speaker 2: in itself is an achievement, regardless of the outcome, So
2:42
Speaker 2: try again and build your success upon the failures of
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Speaker 2: the past. Go after that dream in your heart, give
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Speaker 2: it everything you've got, and don't concern yourself about the outcome.
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Speaker 2: Leave that to the future where it belongs. Concentrate only
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Speaker 2: on your goal and on doing your best. Worthy tranps
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Speaker 2: cannot be won without faith enough to maintain our integrity.
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Speaker 3: A man's life is what his thoughts make of it.
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Speaker 3: Everything comes if a man will only wait. I have
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Speaker 3: brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a
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Speaker 3: human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and
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Speaker 3: that nothing can resist a will that will stake even
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Speaker 3: existence for its fulfillment. If you only care enough for
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Speaker 3: a result, you will almost certainly attain it. Only you
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Speaker 3: must then really wish these things, and wish them exclusively,
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Speaker 3: and not wish at the same time a hundred other
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Speaker 3: incompatible things. Just as strongly. Our doubts are traitors and
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Speaker 3: make us lose the good we oft might win by
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Speaker 3: fearing to attempt.
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Speaker 2: More than anything else, a person's manners tell the world
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Speaker 2: who and what he is. To be well mannered is
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Speaker 2: to do the thing you should do, although you're not
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Speaker 2: obliged to do it. In our day to day lives.
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Speaker 2: Manners are of more importance than laws. That is, the
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Speaker 2: law touches us only here and there and now and then,
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Speaker 2: But manners vex or please us, debase or exalt us constantly.
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Speaker 2: We do not know a man until we know how
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Speaker 2: he spends his leisure. It is when a man ceases
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Speaker 2: to do the things he has to do and does
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Speaker 2: the things he likes to do that the character is revealed.
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Speaker 2: It is then we see the inner man, his real self.
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Speaker 2: The thing that's always bothered me is how a human
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Speaker 2: being can live for thirty or forty or fifty years
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Speaker 2: and find no interest, no charm, and excitement in the world.
4:53
Speaker 2: If someone should steal ten dollars from us, it might
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Speaker 2: take us days to get over it. Yet how much
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Speaker 2: priceless time do we steal from ourselves? Someone was calculated
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Speaker 2: that the average person is given about a half million hours,
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Speaker 2: give or take one hundred thousand or so, and it's
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Speaker 2: up to each of us to determine what his time
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Speaker 2: on earth is worth in whatever values he feels are
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Speaker 2: important to him. But if we don't get what we
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Speaker 2: want out of this life, it's seldom because we're not
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Speaker 2: given enough time for it. We have more than enough time,
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Speaker 2: As with most everything else, it's what we choose to
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Speaker 2: do with it that makes all the difference. Each of
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Speaker 2: us has a tendency to underestimate his own abilities. We
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Speaker 2: should realize that we have deep within ourselves in preserve
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Speaker 2: bore of genius. That can be tapped if we'll just
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Speaker 2: dig deeply enough. In order to spot and seize an opportunity,
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Speaker 2: or even to recognize an opportunity, we have to know
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Speaker 2: where we're going, what it is we want to do
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Speaker 2: and accomplish. It's always been the tendency of the human
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Speaker 2: being to mistake the obvious for the truth, to see
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Speaker 2: only the surface entirely that which lies below. It seems
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Speaker 2: with us in our age, we're concerned more with what
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Speaker 2: a person or a thing looks like than with what
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Speaker 2: is underneath. Ours seems to be an age of use
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Speaker 2: and beauty, of bright teeth, clear eyes, abundant health, so
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Speaker 2: that we can run, not walk, to those events calculated
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Speaker 2: to distract us. And this superficial attitude is as absurd
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Speaker 2: as that of the ancients, which held that the sun
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Speaker 2: traveled around the earth because that's what it appeared to do.
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Speaker 2: That which is good or even great is always hidden
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Speaker 2: from our view. Whatever causes anything in creation to be
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Speaker 2: what it is is that which we cannot see by
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Speaker 2: looking at it. There is just as much for him
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Speaker 2: or her as there is for anyone else. It's a
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Speaker 2: matter of building upon our strengths instead of decrying and
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Speaker 2: wailing and gnashing our teeth over our weaknesses. When we
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Speaker 2: start thinking in new directions, which is the definition of genius,
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Speaker 2: we tend to challenge everything we presently take for granted
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Speaker 2: and throw out the window for a while all of
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Speaker 2: our comfortable knowledge of how things are or how they
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Speaker 2: should be. Well, this is the sort of information that
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Speaker 2: we need to remind our children of it, ourselves, but
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Speaker 2: particularly our children, so that they don't happen to look
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Speaker 2: like the picture on the package of baby food or
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Speaker 2: the ads of the magazines and on television. They won't
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Speaker 2: be scarred by unthinking. Children are adults whose frame of
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Speaker 2: reference is the common, the superficial.
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Speaker 4: They are all kinds of people in this world. Those
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Speaker 4: who are content to lead go nowhere lives, and those
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Speaker 4: who make the most of every opportunity they find. These
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Speaker 4: are the people who transform even their handicaps into assets
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Speaker 4: and add meaning to their lives. In short, they program
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Speaker 4: themselves for achievement. You too, can design your life by
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Speaker 4: the goals you set for yourself.
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Speaker 2: There's nothing commonplace in the world except the mental attitude
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Speaker 2: of man. Her attitudes are the result of choice. Each
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Speaker 2: of us chooses his or her attitude a human being
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Speaker 2: can grow accustomed to and take for granted the most
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Speaker 2: wonderful and astonishing things, not just the miraculous world about him,
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Speaker 2: but his work as well, and the people with whom
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Speaker 2: he works, and the people with whom he lives. After
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Speaker 2: a while, the glow, the radiance seems to fade, even
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Speaker 2: from the most wonderful and delightful aspects of life. And
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Speaker 2: that's too bad. It should never happen. Marcus Aurelia is,
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Speaker 2: a brilliant, thoughtful emperor of Rome about two thousand years ago,
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Speaker 2: said every man is worth just so much as the
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Speaker 2: things are worth about which he busies himself. Every man
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Speaker 2: is worth just so much as the things are worth
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Speaker 2: about which he busies himself. And that's about it. And
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Speaker 2: once in a while, it's good to take a look
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Speaker 2: at what we're doing and what we're noticing. What catches
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Speaker 2: and holds our interest? Are we conscious of a miracle
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Speaker 2: that consists of our living here on this small blue planet?
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Speaker 2: Do we find awe an inspiration from the mystery that
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Speaker 2: surrounds us during our personal holiday on earth? If we
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Speaker 2: think about it, the sameness of our lives will vanish,
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Speaker 2: The ordinary will be a thing of the past, and
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Speaker 2: we'll begin to notice and enjoy life again and all
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Speaker 2: that it entails. We won't take people for granted anymore,
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Speaker 2: or our work or our lives. Before we turn loose
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Speaker 2: of anything into which we've set our hand in mind,
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Speaker 2: we should ask ourselves, is this up to my standards
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Speaker 2: of quality? And because quality of any sort is a
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Speaker 2: journey more than a destination, we should also ask ourselves,
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Speaker 2: how can I improve on the quality of what I do?
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Speaker 2: Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it,
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Speaker 2: and a man becomes great because he has the proper
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Speaker 2: stuff in him. I think that the most fortunate adults
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Speaker 2: are those who are living well today but who knew
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Speaker 2: a deprived childhood. It's also true I think that the
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Speaker 2: most creative people are those who had a rough time
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Speaker 2: as kids. Children raised in poverty, or if not poverty,
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Speaker 2: at least on the wrong side of the tracks, must
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Speaker 2: fall back on their imagination for enjoyment. Their lives are
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Speaker 2: filled with day dreams. Their imaginations become wonderfully active in
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Speaker 2: an instant. Their Greek surroundings, convenation, in the warm, sunny
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Speaker 2: world of their minds, all sorts of wonderful things can
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Speaker 2: happen to them under almost all conditions. There's a world
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Speaker 2: to be enjoyed, but the most fortunate people seem to
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Speaker 2: be those who knew a certain amount of privation. Success
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Speaker 2: beyond anything we might now imagine, lies in wait for
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Speaker 2: those who can put together enough courage to actually live
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Speaker 2: for life. You know, most people live in two worlds.
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Speaker 2: There's the real world, the world in which they work
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Speaker 2: and move and live, and there's the world of the imagination,
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Speaker 2: the world they would secretly like to live in. What
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Speaker 2: keeps them from moving from the world of reality into
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Speaker 2: the world of their imagination is habit and the fear
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Speaker 2: of falling fat on their face, and the attempt and
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Speaker 2: losing even the little which they presently am, and perhaps
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Speaker 2: looking ridiculous in the eyes of their loved ones and friends.
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Speaker 2: What we fare to realize is what Thorreaux discovered, that
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Speaker 2: if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams
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Speaker 2: and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
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Speaker 2: he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
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Speaker 2: Life pays off most handsomely when we're doing that which
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Speaker 2: we most want to do. When we're actually living the
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Speaker 2: life we have imagined for so long. It does mean
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Speaker 2: that we should live the life that we know deep
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Speaker 2: down in our very being and we would most like
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Speaker 2: to live. It means that we should be doing that
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Speaker 2: which every indicator of our makeup, every fiber of our being,
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Speaker 2: tells us we should be doing, and has been telling
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Speaker 2: us for some time. What an idea tugs at us
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Speaker 2: day after day, year after year, when we think about
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Speaker 2: it as we lie awake in bed, or the first
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Speaker 2: thing when we wake up, or every time there's a
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Speaker 2: lull in our days. When it worries our consciousness like
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Speaker 2: a puppy with a slipper, then it's time to do
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Speaker 2: something about it. And even though making the move might
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Speaker 2: seem to jeopardize everything of order in our lives. One
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Speaker 2: of the ultimate tests of faith is our capacity to
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Speaker 2: go on believing that somehow the right is the right,
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Speaker 2: even when right is on the scaffold and wrong seems
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Speaker 2: to be on the throne. All of the great ventures
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Speaker 2: of our lives require faith enough to bear the burden
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Speaker 2: of our doubts so that we're able to take the
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Speaker 2: first step in the direction that we wish to go.
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Speaker 2: Enough of faith to keep on going through struggle and
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Speaker 2: strain and maintain integrity on the way. Faith, as the
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Speaker 2: ancient seer wrote, is the assurance of things hoped for
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Speaker 2: the conviction of things not seen. And we need to
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Speaker 2: exchange a life of doubt diversified by faith, or one
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Speaker 2: of faith diversified by doubt. When a person doesn't know
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Speaker 2: what Harbury's making for, no wind is the right wind.
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Speaker 2: You have to know what you're shooting for to see
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Speaker 2: the opportunity by which we're all surrounded. If a man
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Speaker 2: is working toward a predetermined goal and knows where he's going,
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Speaker 2: that man is a success. If he's not doing that,
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Speaker 2: he's a faith The opposite of courage in our society
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Speaker 2: is not cowardice. It is conformity. People acting like.
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Speaker 3: Everyone else without knowing why, without knowing where they're going.
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Speaker 3: These people believe that their lives are shaped by circumstances,
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Speaker 3: by things that happen to them, by exterior forces. The
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Speaker 3: only man who succeeds is the man who is progressively
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Speaker 3: realizing a worthy ideal. He's the man who says I'm
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Speaker 3: going to become this and then begins to work toward
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Speaker 3: that goal. And have you ever noticed that a man
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Speaker 3: who becomes successful tends to continue to become successful. And
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Speaker 3: on the other hand, have you noticed how a man
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Speaker 3: who is a failure tends to continue to fail. It's
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Speaker 3: because of goals. Some of us have them, some don't.
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Speaker 3: People with goals succeed because they know where they're going. Now,
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Speaker 3: it stands to reason that a person who's thinking about
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Speaker 3: a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it
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Speaker 3: because that's what he's thinking about, and we become what
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Speaker 3: we think about. Conversely, the man who has no goal,
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Speaker 3: who doesn't know where he is going, and whose thoughts
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Speaker 3: must therefore be thoughts of confusion and anxiety and fear
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Speaker 3: and worry, becomes what he thinks about. His life becomes
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Speaker 3: one of frustration, fear, anxiety, and worry. And if he
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Speaker 3: thinks about nothing, he becomes nothing. Now think of a
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Speaker 3: ship leaving a harbor, and think of it with the
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Speaker 3: complete voyage mapped out and planned. The captain and crew
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Speaker 3: know exactly where it's going and how long it will take.
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Speaker 2: It has a definite goal.
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Speaker 3: Nine hundred and ninety nine times out of ten thousand,
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Speaker 3: it will get to where it started out to get. Now,
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Speaker 3: let's take another ship just like the first, only let's
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Speaker 3: not put a crew on it or a captain of
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Speaker 3: the helm. Let's give it no aiming point, no goal,
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Speaker 3: no destination. Just start the engines and let it go.
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Speaker 3: I think you'll agree with me that if it gets
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Speaker 3: out of the harbor at all, it will either sink
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Speaker 3: or wind up on some deserted beach at Drylyn.
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Speaker 2: It can't go.
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Speaker 3: Any place because it has no destination and no guidance.
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Speaker 3: It's the same with a human being. Why do men
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Speaker 3: with goals succeed in life and men without them?
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Speaker 2: Faith?
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Speaker 3: Let me tell you something which, if you really understand it,
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Speaker 3: will alter.
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Speaker 2: Your life immediately.
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Speaker 3: If you understand completely what I'm going to tell you,
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Speaker 3: from this moment on, your life will never be the
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Speaker 3: same again. You'll suddenly find that good luck just seems
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Speaker 3: to be attracted to you, The things you want just
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Speaker 3: seem to fall in line, and from now on you
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Speaker 3: won't have the problems, the worries, the gnawing lump of
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Speaker 3: anxiety that perhaps you've experienced before, doubt fear, well, they'll
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Speaker 3: be things of the past. Here's the key to success
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Speaker 3: and the key to failure. We become what we think about.
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Speaker 5: I think one of the sharpest distinctions between people is
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Speaker 5: between the small percent who look words up in the
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Speaker 5: dictionary and the overwhelming majority that don't. I find it
17:41
Speaker 5: especially helpful when I discover something about the origins of
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Speaker 5: words in ancient or foreign languages. I looked up the
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Speaker 5: word character in the dictionary. I learned the origin of
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Speaker 5: the word, and then I just sat there for a
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Speaker 5: minute and realized that in this case of the word
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Speaker 5: just about says it all. So I'm going to tell
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Speaker 5: you where the word character comes from, and I hope
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Speaker 5: it has as big an effect on you as it
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Speaker 5: did on me. Character comes from a Greek word meaning chisel,
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Speaker 5: or the mark left by a chisel. I'm going to
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Speaker 5: repeat that because I think it's very important.
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Speaker 6: Character is derived.
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Speaker 5: From the Greek word for chisel, And of course, a
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Speaker 5: chisel is a sharp steel tool used for making a
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Speaker 5: sculpture out of a hard or difficult material like granite
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Speaker 5: or marble, and a chisel is also used for stripping
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Speaker 5: waste material from an option, stripping away stuff that might
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Speaker 5: get in the way in order to get down to
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Speaker 5: the essential thing, the thing that really matters. And I
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Speaker 5: hope you'll remember that you've got to chisel your character
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Speaker 5: out of the raw material of yourself, just like a
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Speaker 5: sculptor has to create a statue. The raw material is
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Speaker 5: always there. Everything that happens to you, good or bad,
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Speaker 5: is an opportunity for building your character.
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Speaker 6: Character doesn't refer to other people.
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Speaker 5: It doesn't refer to having power over other people, or
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Speaker 5: getting other people to follow you, or gaining favor with
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Speaker 5: other people. Character is something that you have and.
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Speaker 6: That you are. Character is all about you.
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Speaker 5: Character is the person you are after you've chiseled and
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Speaker 5: chiseled and have gotten past all the unnecessary material to
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Speaker 5: what's underneath. Character is what's left after charisma is gone.
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Speaker 5: The essential point is this, I don't think character is
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Speaker 5: something that just happens by itself. A conscious process of
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Speaker 5: design is at work. Character is the result of hundreds
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Speaker 5: and hundreds of choices you may make that gradually turn
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Speaker 5: who you are at any given moment into who you
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Speaker 5: want to be. If that decision making process is not present,
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Speaker 5: you'll still be somebody. You'll still be alive, but may
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Speaker 5: have a personality rather than a character. Character isn't something
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Speaker 5: you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints.
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Speaker 5: It's something you weren't born with and that you must
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Speaker 5: take responsibility for making You may not be able to
20:36
Speaker 5: cross the rocky mountains in a covered wagon, but you
20:39
Speaker 5: can still create a better life for yourself by crossing
20:43
Speaker 5: the mountains of your soul, and that may be even
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Speaker 5: a greater challenge. I don't think adversity by itself builds character,
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Speaker 5: and I certainly don't think that success erodes it. You
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Speaker 5: can build character by how you respond to what happens
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Speaker 5: in your life, whether it's winning every game or losing
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Speaker 5: every game, or getting rich or dealing with hard times.
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Speaker 6: You build character out.
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Speaker 5: Of certain qualities that you must create and diligently nurture
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Speaker 5: within yourself, just like you would plant and water a seed,
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Speaker 5: or gather wood and build a campfire. You've got to
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Speaker 5: look for those things in your heart and in your gut.
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Speaker 5: You've got to chisel away in order to find them,
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Speaker 5: just like chiseling away rock in order to create the
21:36
Speaker 5: sculpture that has previously existed only in your imagination. But
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Speaker 5: the really amazing thing about character is that if you're
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Speaker 5: sincerely committed to making yourself into the person you want
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Speaker 5: to be, you'll not only create those qualities, strengthen them,
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Speaker 5: and recreate them in abundance even as you're drawing on
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Speaker 5: them every day of your life. Character sustains itself and
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Speaker 5: nurtures itself even as it's being put to work and
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Speaker 5: tested and challenged. Since ancient times, philosophers have seen it
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Speaker 5: as the basis of all real achievement.
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Speaker 6: This is the quality of courage.
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Speaker 5: I can't put it any better than the Greek philosopher
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Speaker 5: Aristotle did more than two thousand years ago.
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Speaker 6: A truly courageous person is not someone who never feels fear,
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Speaker 6: but who fears the.
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Speaker 5: Right thing at the right time, in the right way.
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Speaker 5: For a mature human being, there has got to be
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Speaker 5: some higher value or higher truth than just staying on
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Speaker 5: in life. Part of wisdom is knowing what you lack
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Speaker 5: and looking for it and asking for it. Another part
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Speaker 5: of wisdom is knowing, at the same time as you ask,
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Speaker 5: that there are no final answers, there are always more questions.
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Speaker 6: Remember, you're never.
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Speaker 5: Really helpless, and the sense that you are helpless, or
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Speaker 5: that you might be if certain things were to happen,
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Speaker 5: is something we really ought to be afraid of and
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Speaker 5: that we should refuse to accept. You're never just a
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Speaker 5: victim of circumstances. No matter what happens, you're never without
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Speaker 5: options that can get you back on track. It takes
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Speaker 5: courage to recognize that, because it means accepting responsibility for
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Speaker 5: your own future. Let me emphasize that underlying most fears
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Speaker 5: the fear of helplessness, of being victimized, or being blown
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Speaker 5: around by the winds of fate like a leaf is
24:26
Speaker 5: blown off a tree. But is that really a legitimate
24:31
Speaker 5: way of looking at things? To me, it sounds like
24:34
Speaker 5: being afraid of the dark, in which case the best
24:38
Speaker 5: thing to do is to get yourself up out of
24:41
Speaker 5: bed and switch on the light. It's only in the
24:45
Speaker 5: past fifty years or so people have come to expect
24:48
Speaker 5: a life without real tough times and real difficulties. But
24:53
Speaker 5: adversity isn't something to fear. It's something to expect, something
24:58
Speaker 5: to prepare for, and something to overcome. The truly courageous
25:04
Speaker 5: person is not immune to fear, but it plays a
25:07
Speaker 5: different role in his or her life than it does
25:10
Speaker 5: for other people. If you're a courageous person, your fears
25:16
Speaker 5: aren't about what someone might do to you or something
25:19
Speaker 5: that might happen to you. Your fears are about not
25:25
Speaker 5: living up to your ideals, about reacting instead of acting
25:31
Speaker 5: about not taking advantage of the opportunities that are always
25:34
Speaker 5: within reach. A truly courageous person is not afraid of
25:43
Speaker 5: what might or might not happen next week or next year.
25:47
Speaker 5: He fears not making the most of every moment. Today,
25:52
Speaker 5: a truly courageous person fears the impulse to dominate other people.
25:57
Speaker 5: She leads by helping others to be their best. In
26:10
Speaker 5: ancient Greece, the philosopher Demasenes went searching for an honest man,
26:15
Speaker 5: and he never found one. Honesty and integrity are rather rare.
26:24
Speaker 5: Despite the fact that these are some of the clearest,
26:26
Speaker 5: most easily recognized elements of strong character in the real world,
26:31
Speaker 5: they are also some of the most difficult to find.
26:36
Speaker 5: It seems it's always been that way. There was a
26:40
Speaker 5: time when telling a lie was very serious business. It
26:44
Speaker 5: was also very serious if you accuse someone of lying.
26:48
Speaker 5: For hundreds of years in the past, calling someone a
26:51
Speaker 5: liar was the most common way to provoke a duel,
26:55
Speaker 5: at first with swords.
26:56
Speaker 6: Later with pistols.
26:58
Speaker 5: Dishonesty was treated like a personal insult that demanded immediate redress.
27:04
Speaker 5: But there's no such risk today. Is there Some people
27:07
Speaker 5: lie all the time without thinking about it. Most people
27:10
Speaker 5: know when they're being lied to, which they may find irritating,
27:14
Speaker 5: but they just accept it. Maybe they decide to become
27:17
Speaker 5: liars themselves. It's a price they're willing to pay in
27:21
Speaker 5: order to have exactly what they want right now. There
27:25
Speaker 5: are many situations where it's painful to tell the truth.
27:31
Speaker 5: It's more like a boomerang that's going to come around
27:34
Speaker 5: and hit you in the back of the head someday.
27:39
Speaker 5: Let me give you some good advice about avoiding a
27:42
Speaker 5: bankrupt character. Pay your ethical debts, keep your integrity in
27:48
Speaker 5: the black. Face ugly realities with the truth as soon
27:52
Speaker 5: as they appear. When you feel that temptation to hedge,
27:57
Speaker 5: resist it immediately.
27:58
Speaker 6: Don't treat it cash.
28:01
Speaker 5: Treat it like a grease fire in the kitchen that
28:03
Speaker 5: you've got to put out before it burns your house
28:06
Speaker 5: down or fills the whole place up with so much
28:09
Speaker 5: smoke that you can't see where you're going anymore. Because
28:13
Speaker 5: that's exactly what will happen when your ethical capital runs out,
28:18
Speaker 5: You just won't be able to see where.
28:20
Speaker 6: You're going anymore.
28:25
Speaker 5: Any addictive behavior offers a simple short term escape from
28:29
Speaker 5: a problem, But that escape becomes more and more complicated
28:33
Speaker 5: as time goes on.
28:35
Speaker 6: Shakespeare had it right all along.
28:37
Speaker 5: What a tangled web we weave when at first we
28:40
Speaker 5: practice to deceive, lying with an ulterior motive, lying for
28:47
Speaker 5: personal gain. That kind of lying is definitely something to
28:51
Speaker 5: be avoided. It's not the kind of behavior that defines
28:56
Speaker 5: strong character. Real lying is like theft. It's creating an illusion.
29:05
Speaker 5: Usually the people who are being deceived awaken from the
29:08
Speaker 5: illusions that have been foisted upon them. But even if
29:12
Speaker 5: this never happens, the criminal and I don't think that's
29:16
Speaker 5: too strong a word has to buy into the illusion
29:20
Speaker 5: so deeply himself that his own sense.
29:23
Speaker 6: Of reality is eroded.
29:29
Speaker 5: By trying to loosen other people's grasp of the truth,
29:32
Speaker 5: you end up losing your own.
29:38
Speaker 6: It all comes from fear.
29:41
Speaker 5: Somebody is afraid the truth about themselves isn't good enough,
29:44
Speaker 5: so they depart from the truth. It's really cowardice. Courage
29:51
Speaker 5: is fearing the right thing at the right time and
29:54
Speaker 5: in the right way. Fear the temptation to misrepresent who
29:59
Speaker 5: you are or what you've done or intend to do.
30:04
Speaker 5: Trust who you really are, Trust your ability to earn
30:08
Speaker 5: the respect of others.
30:10
Speaker 6: Pay whatever price the truth costs.
30:13
Speaker 5: Pay that bill immediately, because in the long run, it's
30:17
Speaker 5: a real bargain. Honesty and integrity are absolutely essential to survive.
30:24
Speaker 5: This is an extremely important element of strong character. Goals
30:36
Speaker 5: are major to a genuinely success oriented person. Without them,
30:41
Speaker 5: you're just playing around. Despite everything that's been written about
30:45
Speaker 5: the importance of goal setting, very few people actually put
30:49
Speaker 5: it into practice. Challenge creates strong character, and goals represent
30:57
Speaker 5: challenge in its most positive form. What do I want
31:03
Speaker 5: to do? What do I want to be? What do
31:09
Speaker 5: I want to see? What do I want to have?
31:17
Speaker 5: Where do I want to go? Above all, persevere goal
31:27
Speaker 5: setting is a very important first step, but goal achievement
31:30
Speaker 5: is a continuous, lifelong process.
31:35
Speaker 6: That's what makes it so challenging.
31:38
Speaker 5: Perseverance is about as important a goal achievement as gasoline
31:42
Speaker 5: is to driving a car. Sure, there will be times
31:46
Speaker 5: when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, but you'll
31:50
Speaker 5: always get out of the ret with genuine perseverance. Without it,
31:54
Speaker 5: you won't even be able to start your engine. It's ironic,
32:03
Speaker 5: isn't it. Wisdom is not a thing you can buy, or,
32:07
Speaker 5: of course, you can take in school or a degree
32:10
Speaker 5: you can earn. Wisdom is not really something you can
32:19
Speaker 5: get from another person, Yet you can gain some wisdom
32:22
Speaker 5: from everyone you meet. Wisdom is something a wise man
32:28
Speaker 5: always feels he needs more of. Yet the true sources
32:32
Speaker 5: of wisdom lie nowhere but within ourselves.
32:59
Speaker 6: You're never just a victim of circumstances.
33:04
Speaker 5: It takes courage to recognize that, because it means accepting
33:08
Speaker 5: responsibility for your own future. If you're a courageous person,
33:13
Speaker 5: your fears aren't about what someone might do to you
33:16
Speaker 5: or something that might happen to you. Your fears are
33:20
Speaker 5: about not living up to your ideals, about reacting instead
33:24
Speaker 5: of acting, about not taking advantage of the opportunities that
33:28
Speaker 5: are always within reach. Class is calling on reserve energy.
33:59
Speaker 5: Class is the ability to overcome any number of challenges
34:03
Speaker 5: during a race. Class doesn't mean you never get tired,
34:14
Speaker 5: but it does mean you never show it. Class doesn't
34:24
Speaker 5: mean you're not tempted to quit sometimes, but it does
34:27
Speaker 5: mean you never actually do and in the final yards
34:33
Speaker 5: of a race. Class makes the difference. This is an
34:40
Speaker 5: extremely important element of strong character. I also suspect that
34:49
Speaker 5: in recent years we've overlooked the importance of perseverance to
34:52
Speaker 5: some extent, because we believe so strongly in talent as
34:56
Speaker 5: the true determinant of success. Perseverance means you never quit.
35:09
Speaker 5: Procrastination usually means you never get started, although I consider
35:17
Speaker 5: the inability to finish something to be a form of procrastination.
35:28
Speaker 5: I'm a perfectionist. Everything has to be just right before
35:32
Speaker 5: I can get down to work. No distractions, not too
35:36
Speaker 5: much noise, no telephone calls interrupting me. And of course
35:40
Speaker 5: I have to be feeling well physically too. I can't
35:43
Speaker 5: work when I have a headache. The other end of procrastination,
35:48
Speaker 5: being unable to finish, also has a perfectionist explanation. I'm
35:53
Speaker 5: just never satisfied. I'm my own harshest critic. If all
35:58
Speaker 5: the eyes aren't dotted and all the teas aren't crossed,
36:01
Speaker 5: I just can't consider that I'm done. That's just the
36:05
Speaker 5: way I am, and I'll probably never change. Do you
36:09
Speaker 5: see what's going on here? A fault is being turned
36:13
Speaker 5: into a virtue. The perfectionist is saying that his standards
36:16
Speaker 5: are just too high for this world. This fault into
36:21
Speaker 5: virtue syndrome is a common defense when people are called
36:24
Speaker 5: upon to discuss their weaknesses.
36:27
Speaker 6: But in the end, it's just a very pious kind
36:30
Speaker 6: of excuse making.
36:35
Speaker 5: The basis of procrastination could be fear of failure.
36:40
Speaker 6: That's what extreme.
36:41
Speaker 5: Perfectionism really is, once you take a hard look at it.
36:45
Speaker 5: What's the difference whether you're afraid of being less than
36:48
Speaker 5: perfect or afraid of anything else. You're still paralyzed by fear.
36:58
Speaker 5: What's the difference whether you never start or never finish.
37:02
Speaker 5: You're still stuck. You're still going nowhere. You're still overwhelmed
37:09
Speaker 5: by whatever task is before you. You're still allowing yourself
37:15
Speaker 5: to be dominated by a negative vision of the future
37:18
Speaker 5: in which you see yourself being criticized or laughed at,
37:22
Speaker 5: or punished or ridden out of town on a rail.
37:28
Speaker 5: Of course, this negative vision of the future is really
37:30
Speaker 5: a mechanism that allows you to do nothing. It's a
37:34
Speaker 5: very convenient mental tool. I'm going to show you how
37:40
Speaker 5: to turn procrastination into perseverance. I'm going to be very
37:46
Speaker 5: specific about how you can do this. A moment ago,
37:51
Speaker 5: I referred to a negative vision of the future as
37:55
Speaker 5: a mental tool for inactivity. If you've been using that too, well,
38:02
Speaker 5: I'm going to ask you to toss it aside and
38:05
Speaker 5: start using two other very powerful principles that foster productivity
38:10
Speaker 5: and perseverance instead of passivity and procrastination. The first principle
38:17
Speaker 5: is break it down. No matter what you're trying to accomplish,
38:24
Speaker 5: whether it's writing a book or climbing a mountain or
38:27
Speaker 5: painting a house, the key to achievement is your ability
38:31
Speaker 5: to break down the task into manageable pieces and knock
38:35
Speaker 5: them off one at a time. Focus on accomplishing what's
38:41
Speaker 5: right in front of you at this moment, and ignore
38:44
Speaker 5: what's off in the distance someplace. Substitute real time positive
38:52
Speaker 5: thinking for negative future visualization. That's the first all important
39:00
Speaker 5: technique for bringing an end to procrastination. Suppose I were
39:08
Speaker 5: to ask you if you could write a four hundred
39:10
Speaker 5: page novel. If you're like most people, that would be
39:14
Speaker 5: an impossible task. Yes, somebody must have written the book
39:18
Speaker 5: that you see in your mind's eye, but that person
39:20
Speaker 5: surely wasn't you.
39:23
Speaker 6: But suppose I asked you a different question. Suppose I ask.
39:27
Speaker 5: If you can write a page and a quarter a
39:31
Speaker 5: day for one year.
39:35
Speaker 6: Do you think you could do it?
39:40
Speaker 5: Now, the task is starting to seem more manageable. We're
39:43
Speaker 5: breaking down the four hundred page book into bite sized pieces.
39:47
Speaker 5: But even so, I suspect many people would still find
39:50
Speaker 5: the prospect intimidating. Do you see why writing a page
39:56
Speaker 5: and a quarter may not seem so bad, But you're
39:59
Speaker 5: being asked to look ahead one whole year. When people
40:02
Speaker 5: start to look that far ahead, many of them automatically
40:06
Speaker 5: go into a negative mood. So let me formulate the
40:10
Speaker 5: idea of writing a book, and yet another way, let
40:13
Speaker 5: me break it down even more.
40:19
Speaker 6: Suppose I were.
40:19
Speaker 5: To ask you, can you fill up a page and
40:22
Speaker 5: a quarter with words, Not for a year, not for
40:25
Speaker 5: a month, not even for a week, but just today.
40:32
Speaker 5: Don't look any further ahead than that. Do you think
40:35
Speaker 5: you can do it one day at a time. You've
40:40
Speaker 5: probably heard that phrase. That's what we're doing here. We're
40:44
Speaker 5: breaking the time required for a major task down into
40:48
Speaker 5: one day segments. Keep this up for one year, and
40:54
Speaker 5: you'll write the book. Discipline yourself to look neither forward
41:04
Speaker 5: nor backward, and you can accomplish things you never thought
41:08
Speaker 5: you could possibly do. Then all you have to do
41:13
Speaker 5: is persevere. Procrastination won't be a problem because the task
41:18
Speaker 5: is now so small that fear won't kick in, and
41:23
Speaker 5: it all begins with those three words, break it down.
41:31
Speaker 5: My second technique for defeating procrastination is also only three
41:35
Speaker 5: words long. The three words are write it down. Instead
41:46
Speaker 5: of describing the things that you want to do or
41:48
Speaker 5: the places you want to go, you're going to describe
41:52
Speaker 5: what you actually do with your time, and you're going
41:56
Speaker 5: to keep a written record of the places you actually go.
42:01
Speaker 5: In other words, you're going to keep a diary of
42:04
Speaker 5: your activities. And you're going to be amazed by the distractions, detours,
42:09
Speaker 5: and downright waste of time that you come up with
42:12
Speaker 5: during the course of a day. All of these get
42:15
Speaker 5: in the way of achieving your goals. For many people,
42:19
Speaker 5: it's almost like they planned it that way, and maybe
42:22
Speaker 5: at some unconscious level they did. It forces you to
42:28
Speaker 5: see what you're actually doing and what you're not doing,
42:35
Speaker 5: and you should keep this up for at least a week.
42:40
Speaker 5: You don't have to.
42:41
Speaker 6: Do anything else at all.
42:43
Speaker 5: It's just a process for making yourself aware of how
42:46
Speaker 5: you actually spend your time. You will naturally and effortlessly
42:53
Speaker 5: begin to reorganize your life. That seems like too much
43:01
Speaker 5: to believe, but it's true. When you're forced to write
43:05
Speaker 5: down the fact that you hung out at the coffee
43:07
Speaker 5: machine for fifteen minutes today. You'll think twice about doing
43:12
Speaker 5: that again tomorrow, when you've got to put it in
43:15
Speaker 5: writing that you worked on an important project for thirty
43:18
Speaker 5: minutes today and then took a break to read the newspaper.
43:22
Speaker 5: You'll persevere a little longer on the project tomorrow and
43:26
Speaker 5: forget about the newspaper. Break it down, write it down.
43:35
Speaker 5: This is how you put an end to procrastination. This
43:38
Speaker 5: is how you get yourself started. But how do you
43:43
Speaker 5: keep going? How do you keep your motivation consistently high?
43:50
Speaker 5: How do you learn to persevere when the novelty is
43:52
Speaker 5: worn't off and you're still some distance from your goal.
43:58
Speaker 5: The Irish poet William Yates once wrote a poem describing
44:02
Speaker 5: some of the unfortunate characteristics of the modern world. One
44:07
Speaker 5: of the things Yates noticed was the fact that bad
44:09
Speaker 5: people seem to have the most energy, while good people
44:13
Speaker 5: become discouraged and doubtful of their own abilities. The best
44:19
Speaker 5: lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with a
44:22
Speaker 5: passionate intensity. Those are the words Yates used. And it's
44:30
Speaker 5: true that we can look around the world and see
44:32
Speaker 5: all sorts of things happening that we might wish were
44:36
Speaker 5: not happening, and there are people working very hard to
44:39
Speaker 5: make those things happen for reasons that we might not admire.
44:43
Speaker 5: And when we see that, it's easy to start saying,
44:46
Speaker 5: what's the use?
44:47
Speaker 6: What hope do I really have? Why don't I just give.
44:51
Speaker 5: Up on all the things I've been trying to accomplish
44:54
Speaker 5: and just start taking it easy. Even people have strong
45:00
Speaker 5: character feel that way. Sometimes all of us have moments
45:04
Speaker 5: like that. That's when perseverance gets really, really tough. What's
45:11
Speaker 5: the answer? What do you want to do? What do
45:15
Speaker 5: you want to be? What do you want to see?
45:18
Speaker 5: What do you want to have? Where do you want
45:21
Speaker 5: to go.
45:23
Speaker 4: With?
45:23
Speaker 5: Whom do you want to share? In other words, who
45:28
Speaker 5: are you working for besides yourself? Who is depending on you?
45:36
Speaker 5: Who will benefit if you persevere and succeed? Who will
45:42
Speaker 5: suffer if you give up and stop trying.
45:45
Speaker 2: I'm scared the world is full of bad things. That's
45:49
Speaker 2: why I have to become stronger.
45:51
Speaker 5: Who can you reach out to and help once you've
45:54
Speaker 5: achieved your goals?
45:56
Speaker 6: The world's not a dark place. That's a lie.
46:00
Speaker 5: If you have a family. Your spouse and your children
46:03
Speaker 5: are depending on you. Perhaps even your parents are depending
46:08
Speaker 5: on you now if they're elderly and require some care.
46:13
Speaker 5: But even if you're a single person or just starting
46:15
Speaker 5: out in your career, you can think of reasons to
46:18
Speaker 5: persevere and succeed that go beyond your personal needs. This
46:22
Speaker 5: sharing doesn't have to be limited to money either. If
46:26
Speaker 5: your work has given you certain skills, you can share
46:28
Speaker 5: your time and your abilities. You can, and you should.
46:36
Speaker 5: But even this isn't putting it strongly enough. It isn't
46:40
Speaker 5: just that you'll do better if you feel you're working
46:43
Speaker 5: for others in addition to yourself. You absolutely must find
46:48
Speaker 5: reasons outside yourself to persevere if you want to keep
46:53
Speaker 5: going when the going gets tough. Hemingway wrote, a man
47:02
Speaker 5: alone hasn't got a chance. And that doesn't mean only
47:06
Speaker 5: that you need people to help you in life. It
47:09
Speaker 5: means also that you need people you can help. You
47:12
Speaker 5: need people who can become the real reasons for perseverance,
47:16
Speaker 5: above and beyond your material possessions or your financial success.
47:22
Speaker 5: What's in it for me can only.
47:24
Speaker 6: Take you so far.
47:27
Speaker 5: What's in it for somebody besides me can take you
47:30
Speaker 5: as far as you need to go. In the last
47:39
Speaker 5: days of World War two, the American cruiser Indianapolis was
47:43
Speaker 5: sunk by an enemy submarine. This was one of the
47:46
Speaker 5: most tragic incidents of the war for American forces, in
47:51
Speaker 5: which hundreds of men lost their lives. Many who made
47:55
Speaker 5: it through the initial attack had to spend days and
47:58
Speaker 5: nights in the water.
47:59
Speaker 6: Before for rescuers arrived.
48:03
Speaker 5: The experience of trying to stay alive in the water
48:06
Speaker 5: was so overwhelming that many people simply gave up. In fact,
48:11
Speaker 5: the survivors reported later that virtually everyone wanted to give
48:15
Speaker 5: up at one time or another. But whenever someone wanted
48:19
Speaker 5: to quit trying, the others would talk to him about
48:22
Speaker 5: the people back home who needed him, who were depending
48:26
Speaker 5: on him to survive. And if there was no one
48:29
Speaker 5: who was depending on him right then they would talk
48:32
Speaker 5: about people in the future who would someday be needing him,
48:36
Speaker 5: people he hadn't met yet, people who hadn't even been
48:41
Speaker 5: born yet. This motivation beyond the self was the only
48:47
Speaker 5: motivation that was strong enough. Some of us are hungry
48:59
Speaker 5: for wealth, power, some of us are hungry for truth.
49:04
Speaker 5: Some people want everyone to love them, others want everyone
49:08
Speaker 5: to fear them. But there's a fundamental challenge with all
49:12
Speaker 5: these appetites. None of them can ever be permanently satisfied.
49:19
Speaker 5: When it comes to wanting things, there's never any such
49:22
Speaker 5: thing as enough. You get a new car, but in
50:03
Speaker 5: a couple of years it's an old car. You get
50:06
Speaker 5: a new computer and does everything real fast, certainly faster
50:10
Speaker 5: than the one your neighbor's got. But then a year
50:12
Speaker 5: goes by and now your neighbor gets a computer that's
50:15
Speaker 5: even faster than yours. Where does it all end. There's
50:20
Speaker 5: really only one kind of person who's actually comfortable with
50:25
Speaker 5: the impossibility of satisfying is appetize. This is the person
50:30
Speaker 5: who wants that mysterious commodity called wisdom, whatever.
50:36
Speaker 6: That is, and wants it more than all the cars
50:39
Speaker 6: and computers in the world.
50:42
Speaker 5: Wisdom, like the learning capacity of the human brain, is infinite.
50:48
Speaker 5: There will always be more to know, and there will
50:51
Speaker 5: always be plenty of room in your brain for everything
50:54
Speaker 5: you've learned. Life is a paradise. Really. If you're a
50:59
Speaker 5: person who genuinely wants wisdom, I hope you'll understand that
51:12
Speaker 5: it's in your best interests to take responsibility for everything
51:17
Speaker 5: you do. But that's only the beginning. I'm also going
51:24
Speaker 5: to suggest it many times, it's even best to accept
51:27
Speaker 5: responsibility for the mistakes of others. I can hear you saying,
51:34
Speaker 5: what accept responsibility for someone else's mess ups? Why would
51:41
Speaker 5: I want to do something like that. Just look at
51:45
Speaker 5: a baby during the first few years of life. Every gesture,
51:49
Speaker 5: every facial expression, every tentative word has one message for
51:53
Speaker 5: the baby's parents. The message is, I am totally dependent
51:57
Speaker 5: on you. I can't do anything for myself, even if
52:04
Speaker 5: I try, I can't be held responsible for the consequences.
52:10
Speaker 5: After all, I'm just a baby. Ten or twelve years later,
52:18
Speaker 5: of course, as the boy or girl enters adolescence, this
52:22
Speaker 5: message to the parents will be very different. It will
52:28
Speaker 5: sound something like this, why don't you just leave me alone?
52:32
Speaker 5: I want to be totally independent. I don't want to
52:36
Speaker 5: do anything but think about myself. I certainly don't want
52:39
Speaker 5: to accept any responsibility for anything beyond my own very
52:43
Speaker 5: well defined.
52:44
Speaker 6: Needs and desires.
52:48
Speaker 5: It's only when we're at last grown up that the
52:51
Speaker 5: first two messages I'm totally dependent on you and I'm
52:56
Speaker 5: totally independent of you finally turn into you can depend
53:02
Speaker 5: on me which is the truly adult outlook. Strange as
53:11
Speaker 5: it may seem, of course, there are people in their
53:17
Speaker 5: thirties and forties who are still acting like adolescents. And
53:21
Speaker 5: there are even people in their forties and fifties who
53:24
Speaker 5: are still acting like babies as far as their attitude.
53:28
Speaker 6: Toward responsibility is concerned.
53:33
Speaker 5: These kinds of people can be hard to have around,
53:36
Speaker 5: especially if you have to work with them. Let me
53:43
Speaker 5: be more specific about exactly what is involved in becoming
53:46
Speaker 5: a responsible person. It means, first of all, that you
53:50
Speaker 5: accept the consequences of your actions.
53:56
Speaker 6: But I'll go even further than that. Responsibility.
54:00
Speaker 5: It means you look to yourself as the source of
54:02
Speaker 5: everything that happens to you. It means that you assume command,
54:10
Speaker 5: regardless of the hardships you may have undergone early in life,
54:16
Speaker 5: or the prejudice you may have encountered, or the dozens
54:19
Speaker 5: of people who may have failed to understand you. Do
54:25
Speaker 5: I sound hard hearted? Do I seem to be denying
54:29
Speaker 5: the existence of difficult childhoods, or of prejudice, or of
54:34
Speaker 5: people who are insensitive to the needs of others. Well,
54:40
Speaker 5: that is certainly not my intention, nor is it my belief.
54:44
Speaker 5: I'm saying that, regardless of the presence of those negative
54:48
Speaker 5: influences in your life, the best thing you can do,
54:52
Speaker 5: the most empowering thing, the strongest thing, and ultimately the
54:56
Speaker 5: wisest thing, is to accept responsibility for your own destiny,
55:02
Speaker 5: plain and simple. The benefits of this approach to life
55:06
Speaker 5: have been proven in some pretty dramatic ways. People who
55:13
Speaker 5: have been afflicted by serious illness, for example, appear to
55:17
Speaker 5: have a better chance of recovery if they decide to
55:20
Speaker 5: take responsibility for what has happened to them, despite the
55:25
Speaker 5: fact that it would be easier and perhaps even more reasonable,
55:30
Speaker 5: to simply see themselves as victims of faith. I've gotten
55:35
Speaker 5: myself locked into a certain kind of thinking, and now
55:39
Speaker 5: I've got to get myself out of it.
55:42
Speaker 6: It's as simple as that.
55:47
Speaker 5: Anybody can have an excuse for absolutely anything, and people
55:50
Speaker 5: have never been better at it than they are today.
55:55
Speaker 5: But the downside of excuses, even good ones, is that
55:59
Speaker 5: nobody really leaves it. I don't care what people tell you.
56:04
Speaker 5: If you make excuses, they're going to know it and
56:07
Speaker 5: they're going to think less of you. But if you
56:10
Speaker 5: refuse to rely on excuses, people are going to know
56:13
Speaker 5: that too, And they'll admire you for it. So many
56:18
Speaker 5: people use excuses, but nobody really buys them. It's our
56:23
Speaker 5: modern version of the fable about the boy who cried wolf,
56:31
Speaker 5: an offshoot of the I didn't mean to do it
56:34
Speaker 5: excuse for evading responsibility is the eye wasn't myself at
56:38
Speaker 5: the time excuse. It's like being at the helm of
56:44
Speaker 5: a ship. You are responsible for everything that takes place
56:49
Speaker 5: on your watch. You must wake up from the dream
56:57
Speaker 5: that somebody else will handle the pressure, sure that somebody
57:01
Speaker 5: else will shoot those two free throws. I slept and
57:09
Speaker 5: dreamed that life was beauty. I woke and saw that
57:13
Speaker 5: life was duty. A strong character is not a rigid character.
57:21
Speaker 5: In fact, exactly the opposite is true. Although it's important
57:25
Speaker 5: to be firm when you know something is right, and
57:28
Speaker 5: to maintain that right position even when the crowd is
57:31
Speaker 5: going against you and wants to put you down. Sometimes,
57:35
Speaker 5: when the tide has run against you for a long time,
57:38
Speaker 5: it may be that what you held as a certainty
57:41
Speaker 5: was in fact not true in the light of overwhelming circumstances.
57:47
Speaker 5: It's not only right, it's also smart to be able
57:50
Speaker 5: to see more than one way to accomplish a task.
57:53
Speaker 5: It's wise to see more than one solution to any problem.
57:57
Speaker 5: It's a good skill to see things as someone else
57:59
Speaker 5: might see them, Because when the plan that served you
58:03
Speaker 5: so well for so long doesn't work anymore, then it's
58:06
Speaker 5: time to find another way. It's time to bend. It's
58:11
Speaker 5: time to move on, to change, to compromise, to talk,
58:16
Speaker 5: or you'll risk snapping like a dead branch in a
58:19
Speaker 5: stiff breeze. I don't really think it's less important or
58:30
Speaker 5: more important today to be open to change and flexible
58:34
Speaker 5: in adapting to it than it has been in the past.
58:37
Speaker 5: It's always been important to be flexible and far sighted,
58:42
Speaker 5: anticipating whenever we can and when we can't, anticipate, being
58:46
Speaker 5: prepared for all possibilities. Sometimes it is best to advance
58:56
Speaker 5: by retreating. Sometimes wars can be won by losing a
59:01
Speaker 5: few battles, and long term goals can be achieved by
59:08
Speaker 5: accepting short term reversals. Sometimes it is best to resist,
59:15
Speaker 5: like the tall grasses bending in the wind, or like
59:21
Speaker 5: a river finding a new route around an obstacle. A
59:25
Speaker 5: powerful ocean wave smashing onto a beach may wash away
59:29
Speaker 5: a sand dune, but the individual grain of sand simply
59:34
Speaker 5: goes with the flow and is unharmed. Flexibility is simple
1:00:01
Speaker 5: in theory, but tremendously challenging in practice. It means we
1:00:06
Speaker 5: have to learn to distinguish between what we can control
1:00:09
Speaker 5: and what is beyond our control. Practicing flexibility requires great
1:00:14
Speaker 5: self knowledge and iron self control. To be flexible does
1:00:19
Speaker 5: not mean to be weak, to flounder about aimlessly and
1:00:23
Speaker 5: confuse because we think there's nothing to be done. No,
1:00:27
Speaker 5: it requires self discipline.