Having just finished the manuscript for my newest book, "Pushing The Boundaries! How To Live A Fearless Life", I thought I'd share with you a few citations that provoke thoughts (at least they do in me... hopefully they will in you too). In the book, I pursue knowledge on how to overcome apprehension in order to achieve greatness through interviewing/profiling 30 people from around the world. I remind readers that it was Greek philosopher Socrates who stated... "The unexamined life is not worth living. Leading off this examination is Jack Canfield, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, corporate trainer and co-author of the famous "Chicken Soup for the Soul®" series (more than 250 titles and 500 million copies in print in over 40 languages). Jack's book "The Success Principles™: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be" is also an international bestseller. He was kind enough to write the Foreword for my new book, and includes this thought: The fact is, fear is the single biggest thing that holds us back. Unless you can step past that fear, you’ll just end up playing it safe and avoid trying new things... I tell people that everything you want that you don’t already have is just on the other side of fear. Having the conviction to reach beyond your fears and take chances means you’re ready to achieve lasting success." Couldn't agree more. Here's a passage from Mark Twain that got my attention: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." OK, I'll admit it: I'm a boater, but I still love the call to action behind that. And then there's this from Hearst Media Corporation Executive Vice Chair Frank Bennack... "Once in a while, put down the paper, put down the book, turn off the television, sit in the rocking chair and think things over. Think: What have I missed? What's the next most important thing for me to do...? Have I done anything that makes the place better today? If I haven't, I'd better double up tomorrow." Interesting thought, isn't it. Next up, from actor Willem Dafoe, commenting on why, when he could easily play cushy parts in a comfortable Hollywood studio, he instead recently signed on for a gruelling, demanding, location shoot, outside on a rocky peninsula in Nova Scotia... "For me it's all about waking up, all about beating the lockstep. Not just changing things up for the sheer sake of variety. But really: do things that don't let you decide definitively who you are and the way things are." Beating the lockstep. Wow! Have you heard this old Cherokee proverb... "Don't let yesterday use up too much of today." I think what that means is that each day is a new opportunity to make as much use of it as you can. After all, yesterday is the past: it shouldn't consume you in any way. It shouldn't get in the way of your accomplishing your goals. Or your dreams. And finally, Nobel prize winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda offers: "You start dying slowly... if you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain, if you do not go after a dream, if you do not allow yourself, at least once in your lifetime, to run away from sensible advice." Totally get what he's saying, and I think that sometimes we damn well ought to do just that: run away, at least for a while, from advice that may be "sensible", yet not necessarily practical. At least, that's my story... and I'm stickin' to it!
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