Designing Your Life Book Quotes

Situations seem to happen to people, but in reality, they unfold from deeper karmic causes. The universe unfolds to itself, bringing to bear any cause that needs to be included. Don’t take this process personally. The working out of cause and effect is eternal. You are part of this rising and falling that never ends, and only by riding the wave can you ensure that the waves don’t drown you. The ego takes everything personally, leaving no room for higher guidance or purpose. If you can, realize that a cosmic plan is unfolding and appreciate the incredibly woven tapestry for what it is, a design of unparalleled marvel.

Keep creating new chapters in your personal book and never stop re-inventing and perfecting yourself. Try new things. Pick up new hobbies and books. Travel and explore other cultures. Never stay in the same city or state for more than five years of your life. There are many heavens on earth waiting for you to discover. Seek out people with beautiful hearts and minds, not those with just beautiful style and bodies. The first kind will forever remain beautiful to you, while the other will grow stale and ugly. Learn a new language at least twice. Change your career at least thrice, and change your location often. Like all creatures in the wild, we were designed to keep moving. When a snake sheds its old skin, it becomes a more refined creature. Never stop refining and re-defining yourself. We are all beautiful instruments of God. He created many notes in music so we would not be stuck playing the same song. Be music always. Keep changing the keys, tones, pitch, and volume of each of the songs you create along your journey and play on. Nobody will ever reach ultimate perfection in this lifetime, but trying to achieve it is a full-time job. Start now and don't stop. Make your book of life a musical. Never abandon obligations, but have fun leaving behind a colorful legacy. Never allow anybody to be the composer of your own destiny. Take control of your life, and never allow limitations implanted by society, tell you how your music is supposed to sound — or how your book is supposed to be written.

So many people are afraid of the ending of their life on earth. Then there are others who are afraid of not being able to leave after their bodies have long failed them. There's nothing at all to be afraid of. Death is the last lesson in the school of life. It is the final stage of growth. Death is the one event that is designed to remove all of your remaining fears. Someday you will find that the things you were most afraid of, like death, were only illusions.

Acting on desire is more like a craft, a science, an art. It takes careful mindful practice. Be patient and quiet. Listen, observe, take notes. Figure out what you want, privately, and then choose to want it, publicly. Put your desire out in the open. I want to go swimming. I want to bake bread. I want to paint a picture. I want to build a chair. I want to write a book. You act and then you fail. Over and over. And it’s better to start failing when you’re young, when all you lose is an ice-cream cone or a basketball game or an afternoon of fun. When you’re older, the stakes are higher. If adults don’t know how to want, then they lose a love, a career, a life.

Your life success is well designed by the mental transformation you experience. That mental transformation guides you to construct powerful decisions. You can't live life so well without mental make-ups.

Some people won't dog-ear the pages. Others won't place the book facedown, pages splayed. Some won't dare make a mark in the margin. Get over it. Books exist to impart their worlds to you, not to be beautiful objects to save for some other day. We implore you to fold, crack, and scribble on your books whenever the desire takes you. Underline the good bits, exclaim "YES!" and "NO!" in the margins. Invite others to inscribe and date the frontispiece. Draw pictures, jot down phone numbers and Web addresses, make journal entries, draft letters to friends or world leaders. Scribble down ideas for a novel of your own, sketch bridges you want to build, dresses you want to design. Stick postcards and pressed flowers between the pages. When next you open the book, you'll be able to find the bits that made you think, laugh, and cry the first time around. And you'll remember that you picked up that coffee stain in the cafe where you also picked up that handsome waiter. Favorite books should be naked, faded, torn, their pages spilling out. Love them like a friend, or at least a favorite toy. Let them wrinkle and age along with you.

Foods Uniquely Designed to Screw Up Your Brain Bagels Biscuits Cake Cereal Milk chocolate/white chocolate Cookies Energy bars Crackers Doughnuts Muffins Pastas Pastries Pies Granola bars Pizza Pretzels Waffles Pancakes White bread Milkshakes Frozen yogurt Ice cream Batter Gravy Jams Jellies Fries Chips Granola

Whatever you are physically, male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy - all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. Whatever the color, the shape, the design of the shade that conceals it, the flame inside the lamp remains the same. YOU are the flame. That's what I believe.

The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.

The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart—this you will build your life by, this you will become.

If you don t design your own life plan, chances are you ll fall into someone else s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

To him they are only sectaries ‘violently and passionately set upon opposition.

all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

In the woods, is perpetual youth.

Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both.

every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight.

Suzanne Sugarbaker of Designing Women was so right when she said, “There’s just nothing better in life than to ride around on the back of a convertible with a crown on your head.” Words to live by.

intellect; and then again, in its turn, of the active power. Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally reproductive. The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for new creation.

READER, You have here an honest book; it does at the outset forewarn You that, in contriving the same, I have proposed to myself no other than a domestic and private end: I have had no consideration at all either to Your service or to my glory. My powers are not capable of any such design. I have dedicated it to the particular commodity of my kinsfolk and friends, so that, having lost me (which they must do shortly), they may therein recover some traits of my conditions and humours, and by that means preserve more whole, and more life-like, the knowledge they had of me. Had my intention been to seek the world's favour, I should surely have adorned myself with borrowed beauties: I desire therein to be viewed as I appear in mine own genuine, simple, and ordinary manner, without study and artifice: for it is myself I paint. My defects are therein to be read to the life, and any imperfections and my natural form, so far as public reverence hath permitted me. If I had lived among those nations, which (they say) yet dwell under the sweet liberty of nature's primitive laws, I assure thee I would most willingly have painted myself quite fully and quite naked. Thus, reader, myself am the matter of my book: there's no reason You should employ Your leisure about so frivolous and vain a subject. Therefore farewell.

The standard of beauty is the entire circuit of natural forms,—the totality of nature; which the Italians expressed by defining beauty “il piu nell’ uno.” Nothing is quite beautiful alone: nothing but is beautiful in the whole.

The Stoics regarded speculation as a means to an end and that end was, as Zeno put it, to live consistently omologonuenws zhn or as it was later explained, to live in conformity with nature. This conforming of the life to nature

The experience we call emotional pain is, in a very real sense, real. And the experience of this kind of pain doesn’t mean you’re broken or weak or needy. It means your brain is doing what it was designed to do—feel. The experience of emotional pain means you’re human.

In our marriage it was our practice not to share anything that was upsetting, depressing, demoralizing, tedious—unless it was unavoidable. Because so much in a writer’s life can be distressing—negative reviews, rejections by magazines, difficulties with editors, publishers, book designers—disappointment with one’s own work, on a daily/hourly basis!—it seemed to me a very good idea to shield Ray from this side of my life as much as I could. For what is the purpose of sharing your misery with another person, except to make that person miserable, too?

When you feel the need to escape your problems, to escape from this world, don't make the mistake of resorting to suicide Don't do it! You will hear the empty advice of many scholars in the matter of life and death, who will tell you, "just do it" there is nothing after this, you will only extinguish the light that surrounds you and become part of nothingness itself, so when you hear these words remember this brief review of suicide: When you leave this body after committing one of the worst acts of cowardice that a human being can carry out, you turn off the light, the sound and the sense of reality, you become nothing waiting for the programmers of this game to pick you up from the darkness, subtly erase your memories and enable your return and I emphasize the word subtle because sometimes the intelligence behind this maneuver or automated mechanism is wrong and send human beings wrongly reset to such an extent, that when they fall to earth and are born again, they begin to experience memories of previous lives, in many cases they perceive themselves of the opposite sex, and science attributes this unexplainable phenomenon to genetic and hormonal factors, but you and I know better! And we quickly identified this trigger as a glitch in the Matrix. Then we said! That a higher intelligence or more advanced civilization throws you back into this game for the purpose of experimenting, growing and developing as an advanced consciousness and due to your toxic and destructive behavior you come back again but in another body and another life, but you are still you, then you will carry with you that mark of suicide and cowardice, until you learn not to leave this experience without having learned the lesson of life, without having experienced and surprised by death naturally or by design of destiny. About this first experience you will find very little material associated with this event on the internet, it seems that the public is more reserved, because they perceive themselves and call themselves "awakened" And that is because the system has total control over the algorithm of fame and fortune even over life and death. Now, according to religion and childish fears, which are part of the system's business to keep you asleep, eyes glued to the cellular device all day, it says the following: If you commit this act of sin, you turn off light, sound and sense of reality, and from that moment you begin to experience pain, fear and suffering on alarming scales, and that means they will come for you, a couple of demons and take you to the center of the earth where the weeping and gnashing of teeth is forever, and in that hell tormented by demons you will spend eternity. About this last experience we will find hundreds of millions of people who claim to have escaped from there! And let me tell you that all were captivated by the same deity, one of dubious origin, that feeds on prayers and energetic events, because it is not of our nature, because it knows very well that we are beings of energy, then this deity or empire of darkness receives from the system its food and the system receives from them power, to rule, to administer, to control, to control, to kill, to exclude, to inhibit, to classify, to imprison, to silence, to infect, to contaminate, to depersonalize. So now that you know the two sides of the same coin, which one will your intelligence lean towards! You decide... Heads or tails? From the book Avatars, the system's masterpiece.

I make so many plans but fail at follow-through. Gemini mind once a mat for you to wipe your feet. I’d beg for it. I’d plead 'Here! I’m here waiting for you to be the one. Take my heart, my life, my air: rip them to shreds and hand them back.No need to worry. I have enough superglue and tears to keep me busy for months...

Maybe you are in the Abyss of Emotional Bankruptcy looking for a way out, looking for the next rung in the ladder on your climb to the Peak of Happiness, or you may even be at the Peak of Happiness already, looking for a way to stay there. Wherever you are in life, this book is designed to give you the tools necessary to help you achieve your goals.

Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression for the universe. God is the all-fair. Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but different faces of the same All. But beauty in nature is not ultimate. It is the herald of inward and eternal beauty, and is not alone a solid and satisfactory good. It must stand as a part, and not as yet the last or highest expression of the final cause of Nature.

Phaethon asked: “Do you think there is something wrong with the Sophotechs? We are Manorials, father! We let Rhadamanthus control our finances and property, umpire our disputes, teach our children, design our thoughtscapes, and even play matchmaker to find us wives and husbands!” “Son, the Sophotechs may be sufficient to advise the Parliament on laws and rules. Laws are a matter of logic and common sense. Specially designed human-thinking versions, like Rhadamanthus, can tell us how to fulfill our desires and balance our account books. Those are questions of strategy, of efficient allocation of resources and time. But the Sophotechs, they cannot choose our desires for us. They cannot guide our culture, our values, our tastes. That is a question of the spirit.” “Then what would you have us do? Would you change our laws?” “Our mores, not our laws. There are many things which are repugnant, deadly to the spirit, and self-destructive, but which law should not forbid. Addiction, self-delusion, self-destruction, slander, perversion, love of ugliness. How can we discourage such things without the use of force? It was in response to this need that the College of Hortators evolved. Peacefully, by means of boycotts, public protests, denouncements, and shunnings, our society can maintain her sanity against the dangers to our spirit, to our humanity, to which such unboundried liberty, and such potent technology, exposes us.” (...) But Phaethon certainly did not want to hear a lecture, not today. “Why are you telling me all this? What is the point?” “Phaethon, I will let you pass through those doors, and, once through, you will have at your command all the powers and perquisites I myself possess. The point of my story is simple. The paradox of liberty of which you spoke before applies to our entire society. We cannot be free without being free to harm ourselves. Advances in technology can remove physical dangers from our lives, but, when they do, the spiritual dangers increase. By spiritual danger I mean a danger to your integrity, your decency, your sense of life. Against those dangers I warn you; you can be invulnerable, if you choose, because no spiritual danger can conquer you without your own consent. But, once they have your consent, those dangers are all-powerful, because no outside force can come to your aid. Spiritual dangers are always faced alone. It is for this reason that the Silver-Gray School was formed; it is for this reason that we practice the exercise of self-discipline. Once you pass those doors, my son, you will be one of us, and there will be nothing to restrain you from corruption and self-destruction except yourself. “You have a bright and fiery soul, Phaethon, a power to do great things; but I fear you may one day unleash such a tempest of fire that you may consume yourself, and all the world around you.

THE MAN OF TRUTH never departs from the divine principles which he has espoused. He may be threatened with sickness, poverty, pain, loss of friends and position, yea, even with immediate death, yet he does not desert the principles which he knows to be eternally true. To him, there is one thing more grievous, more to be feared and shunned than all the above evils put together, and that is—the desertion of principle.

Morning comes. I go to my class. There sit the little ones with folded arms. In their eyes is still all the shy astonishment of the childish years. They look up at me so trustingly, so believingly - and suddenly I get a spasm over the heart. Here I stand before you, one of the hundreds of thousands of bankrupt men in whom the war destroyed every belief and almost every strength. Here I stand before you, and see how much more alive, how much more rooted in life you are than I. Here I stand and must now be your teacher and guide. What should I teach you? Should I tell you that in twenty years you will be dried-up and crippled, maimed in your freest impulses, all pressed mercilessly into the selfsame mold? Should I tell you that all the learning, all culture, all science is nothing but hideous mockery, so long as mankind makes war in the name of God and humanity with gas, iron, explosive and fire? What should I teach you then, you little creatures who alone have remained unspotted by the terrible years? What am I able to teach you then? Should I tell you how to pull the string of a hand grenade, how best to throw it at a human being? Should I show you how to stab a man with a bayonet, how to fell him with a club, how to slaughter him with a spade? Should I demonstrate how best to aim a rifle at such an incomprehensible miracle as a breathing breast, a living heart? Should I explain to you what tetanus is, what a broken spine is, and what a shattered skull? Should I describe to you what brains look like when they scatter about? What crushed bones are like - and intestines when they pour out? Should I mimic how a man with a stomach wound will groan, how one with a lung wound gurgles and one with a head wound whistles? More I do not know. More I have not learned. Should I take you the brown-and-green map there, move my finger across it and tell you that here love was murdered? Should I explain to you that the books you hold in your hands are but nets with which men design to snare your simple souls, to entangle you in the undergrowth of find phrases, and in the barbed wire of falsified ideas? I stand here before you, a polluted, a guilty man and can only implore you ever to remain as you are, never to suffer the bright light of your childhood to be misused as a blow flame of hate. About your brows still blows the breath of innocence. How then should I presume to teach you? Behind me, still pursuing, are the bloody years. - How then can I venture among you? Must I not first become a man again myself?

The Living Word has various dimensions in relation to power and will to power. The spoken word stands at the very bottom of the involuted scale, being the faint echo of the inaudible Word. All beings, from the Gods to mankind, possess a sound, an essential name, a key note. By discovering what it is, one acquires the power to decompose and recreate it. It is also a mantra of voluntary death and resurrection. In the current parlance: the individual, chromosomic, genetic code has been deciphered. The secret has been penetrated. The name to which we refer corresponds to the supratemporal being and has nothing to do with the intimate, family name, although sometimes a delicate synchronicity is produced within a turn of the wheel, a mysterious lucky occurrence filled with meaning, and this name may also be symbolic. 'You must discover your Beloved's real name if you are to bring her back to life. And yours, too. They are the names of the God and Goddess to whom they will give a face. 'Of the God within you', as the Hindu greeting says: Namaste. 'I greet the God within you'. 'The essential name cannot be chosen, it isn't arbitrary. It is filled with meaning of the root note. It is mantra, an eternal designation. It is inscribed in the Book of the Stars, on the Tree of Life, awaiting its actualisation. The initiate of our order is given his real name when he has successfully undergone the most difficult tests. Then it is inscribed in the genealogical tree of the family, in the immortal circle of the Hyperborean initiation.

Frequency is translated into chemistry. The vibratory pitch of your attitude at any given moment is transferred to your DNA and quickly becomes your reality. Knowing this you have the freedom to choose how you design your life. It is you who designs your own health, your own relationships, and your own inner fulfilment. The second golden rule comes in the form of another caution; that we need to be very careful about using our knowledge (consciously or unconsciously) as a weapon. In our relationships we can all too easily point out the Shadows of others. Our ego can get a hold of knowledge and use it to try and help someone else, when in fact your urge to help the other has become a distraction from your own process. If you wish to truly help others, then you would do best to forget their Shadows altogether and contemplate their Gifts and Siddhis. If they are caught in a Shadow pattern then give them the frequency of their Siddhi as a response. Model the higher frequencies of others for others. The Shadows are for you alone!

Imagine a house with four walls and a roof. If the house burns down, the walls and roof collapse. But the space inside isn’t affected. You can hire an architect to design a new house, and after you build it, the space inside still hasn’t been affected. By building a house you are only dividing unbounded space into inside and outside. This division is an illusion. The ancient sages said that your body is like that house. It’s built at birth and burns down when you die, yet the Akasha, or soul space, remains unchanged; it remains unbounded.

Life of a software engineer sucks big time during project release. Every single team member contribution is very important. At times, we have to skip breakfast, lunch and even dinner, just to make sure the given ‘TASK’ is completed. Worst thing, that’s the time we get to hear wonderful F* words. It can be on conference calls or on emails, still we have to focus and deliver the end product to a client, without any compromise on quality. Actually, every techie should be saluted. We are the reason for the evolution of Information Technology. We innovate. We love artificial intelligence. We create bots and much more. We take you closer to books. Touch and feel it without the need of carrying a paperback. We created eBook and eBook reader app: it’s basically a code of a software engineer that process the file, keeps up-to-date of your reading history, and gives you a smoother reading experience. We are amazing people. We are more than a saint of those days. Next time, when you meet a software engineer, thank him/her for whatever code he/she developed, tested, designed or whatever he/she did!

Everyone is different. We all deal with our circumstances differently. But we have a God who deals with us on an individual level. He created each of us, and He created you with a specific plan designed just for you. Embrace the people God brings into your life to help you through your difficulties. And embrace God. You might be wondering, as I did, if He hears you. If He really cares about your every situation. If He is even near to you. Trust me, He does hear your cries and groans and moans. He does care about you. He is near to you—He’s right there alongside you.

For most of human history, when you were born you inherited an off-the-shelf package of religious and cultural constraints. This was a kind of library of limits that was embedded in your social and physical environment. These limits performed certain self-regulatory tasks for you so you didn’t have to take them on yourself. The packages included habits, practices, rituals, social conventions, moral codes, and a myriad of other constraints that had typically evolved over many centuries, if not millennia, to reliably guide – or shall we say design – our lives in the direction of particular values, and to help us give attention to the things that matter most. In the twentieth century the rise of secularism and modernism in the West occasioned the collapse – if not the jettisoning – of many of these off-the-shelf packages of constraints in the cause of the liberation of the individual. In many cases, this rejection occurred on the basis of philosophical or cosmological disagreements with the old packages. This has, of course, had many great benefits. Yet by rejecting entire packages of constraint, we’ve also rejected those constraints that were actually useful for our purposes. “The left’s project of liberation,” writes the American philosopher Matthew Crawford, “led us to dismantle inherited cultural jigs that once imposed a certain coherence (for better and worse) on individual lives. This created a vacuum of cultural authority that has been filled, opportunistically, with attentional landscapes that get installed by whatever ‘choice architect’ brings the most energy to the task – usually because it sees the profit potential.” The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, in his book You Must Change Your Life, has called for a reclamation of this particular aspect of religion – its habits and practices – which he calls “anthropotechnics.”6 When you dismantle existing boundaries in your environment, it frees you from their limitations, but it requires you to bring your own boundaries where you didn’t have to before. Sometimes, taking on this additional self-regulatory burden is totally worth it. Other times, though, the cost is too high. According to the so-called “ego-depletion” hypothesis, our self-control, our willpower, is a finite resource.7 So when the self-regulatory cost of bringing your own boundaries is high enough, it takes away willpower that could have been spent on something else.

There is danger that someday the farm land will be gone, the Downtown will be deserted, and the middle class living outside the city boundaries. If it is done intentionally, then that is our choice, but if it is allowed simply to happen without purpose, then that is ignorance. Indianapolis contains fantastic elements to become a vital city, but frequently our heritage has been destroyed in favor of cheap development and easy profits. Architects are not perfect, and many chances to improve our city have been lost. They allow the client to build structures without concern for what that building will do to the surrounding environment. The matter of conscience falls prey to the matter of making a living. A desire to improve our quality of life on the part of the client and profession will provide the best solution for all. Readers of this book, be inquisitive, explore your city, question its growth, let your feelings be known if your city is faulty, speak out if it is praiseworthy. Talk to your architects, politicians and developers; they are professionals, but they are also your servants. Use them to make your city better. Enjoy Indianapolis. It is a city to be lived in and can be taken to heart if one tries.

Frequency Attunement is a universal integrated spirit/ science, which acts as one of the foundations of creation. At a core level we understand and work with this system already. It is what we call intuition, or our sixth sense. When we feel as if we know something we can't see or hear, we are picking up its frequency. Frequencies are the subtle unseen vibrations, which make up all of creation. They are what compose matter, thought, and energy. They are a measurement of the force. We can control and design the events that occur in our lives by manipulating frequencies and applying the Law of Affinity. We have this power to create our own destiny. This is the gift of free will.

For as long as I can remember, every psychological evaluation and aptitude test agreed: The child appears to be dead inside. There was something wrong with me, something broken, some meaningful reason why I never laughed the way other children did, never smiled at strangers. Why I never cried when they sliced me open over and over and over again, trying to feed my mind to a machine. I would not be a scientist or a doctor. Not a mother or a soldier. I would grow up to be an efficient killer. An excellent asset to the regime. At the height of The Reestablishment’s power, I never imagined my skills would be so enthusiastically desired, but now that we lack the robust military of a bygone era, mercenaries are more important than ever. Spies, assassins, executioners. We’ve been forced to downsize our kill capacity, designing missions with surgical precision and efficiency. This is all my life is worth. And I decided long ago to sacrifice my dead body so that Clara might live. “By the way,” says James, interrupting my reverie. “If you’re going to pretend to go through the motions, you need to work on the details. You carry that notebook around but you never carry a pen. You're not fooling anyone." I don't know what prompts me to say it. I'm not sure I'm thinking at all when I say, softly- "I've been fooling people all my life. You're the only one paying attention.

A Puritan twist in our nature makes us think that anything good for us must be twice as good if it's hard to swallow. Learning Greek and Latin used to play the role of character builder, since they were considered to be as exhausting and unrewarding as digging a trench in the morning and filling it up in the afternoon. It was what made a man, or a woman -- or more likely a robot -- of you. Now math serves that purpose in many schools: your task is to try to follow rules that make sense, perhaps, to some higher beings; and in the end to accept your failure with humbled pride. As you limp off with your aching mind and bruised soul, you know that nothing in later life will ever be as difficult. What a perverse fate for one of our kind's greatest triumphs! Think how absurd it would be were music treated this way (for math and music are both excursions into sensuous structure): suffer through playing your scales, and when you're an adult you'll never have to listen to music again. And this is mathematics we're talking about, the language in which, Galileo said, the Book of the World is written. This is mathematics, which reaches down into our deepest intuitions and outward toward the nature of the universe -- mathematics, which explains the atoms as well as the stars in their courses, and lets us see into the ways that rivers and arteries branch. For mathematics itself is the study of connections: how things ideally must and, in fact, do sort together -- beyond, around, and within us. It doesn't just help us to balance our checkbooks; it leads us to see the balances hidden in the tumble of events, and the shapes of those quiet symmetries behind the random clatter of things. At the same time, we come to savor it, like music, wholly for itself. Applied or pure, mathematics gives whoever enjoys it a matchless self-confidence, along with a sense of partaking in truths that follow neither from persuasion nor faith but stand foursquare on their own. This is why it appeals to what we will come back to again and again: our **architectural instinct** -- as deep in us as any of our urges.

Thus Epicurus also, when he designs to destroy the natural fellowship of mankind, at the same time makes use of that which he destroys. For what does he say? ‘Be not deceived, men, nor be led astray, nor be mistaken: there is no natural fellowship among rational animals; believe me. But those who say otherwise, deceive you and seduce you by false reasons.’—What is this to you? Permit us to be deceived. Will you fare worse, if all the rest of us are persuaded that there is a natural fellowship among us, and that it ought by all means to be preserved? Nay, it will be much better and safer for you. Man, why do you trouble yourself about us? Why do you keep awake for us? Why do you light your lamp? Why do you rise early? Why do you write so many books, that no one of us may be deceived about the gods and believe that they take care of men; or that no one may suppose the nature of good to be other than pleasure? For if this is so, lie down and sleep, and lead the life of a worm, of which you judged yourself worthy: eat and drink, and enjoy women, and ease yourself, and snore. And what is it to you, how the rest shall think about these things, whether right or wrong? For what have we to do with you? You take care of sheep because they supply us with wool and milk, and last of all with their flesh. Would it not be a desirable thing if men could be lulled and enchanted by the Stoics, and sleep and present themselves to you and to those like you to be shorn and milked? For this you ought to say to your brother Epicureans: but ought you not to conceal it from others, and particularly before every thing to persuade them, that we are by nature adapted for fellowship, that temperance is a good thing; in order that all things may be secured for you? Or ought we to maintain this fellowship with some and not with others? With whom then ought we to maintain it? With such as on their part also maintain it, or with such as violate this fellowship? And who violate it more than you who establish such doctrines? What then was it that waked Epicurus from his sleepiness, and compelled him to write what he did write?

Spiritual disciplines more easily introduced into daily activities ▪   School calendar formulated to dates that work best for our family’s needs ▪   Free time in our days for relaxation, family fun and bonding (instead of time spent driving from school to school) ▪   Strong parent-child bonds and sibling-to-sibling bonds more easily developed ▪   Removal from negative influences and peer pressure during the early impressionable years ▪   Difficult subjects discussed at the appropriate age for each individual child ▪   Difficult subject matter presented from a biblical worldview and within the context of our strong parent-child bond. ▪   Real world learning incorporated into lesson plans and practiced in daily routines ▪   Field trips and “outside the book” learning available as we see fit What We Hope to Give Our Kids: ▪   A close relationship with Christ and a complete picture of what it means to be a Christ-follower ▪   A strong moral character rooted in biblical integrity, perseverance and humility ▪   A direction and purpose for where God has called them in life ▪   A deep relationship and connection with us, their parents ▪   Rich, ever-growing relationships with their siblings ▪   Real-world knowledge in everything from how to cook and do laundry to how to resolve conflicts and work with those that are “different” from them ▪   A comprehensive, well-rounded education in the traditional school subjects

Thus, one of the strong theses of the book is that there is no modernity without coloniality and that coloniality is constitutive, and not derivative, of modernity. This is the basic condition of border thinking: the moment you realize (and accept) that your life is a life in the border, and you realize that you do not want to “become modern” because modernity hides behind the splendors of happiness, the constant logic of coloniality. For precisely this reason, border thinking that leads to decoloniality is of the essence to unveil that the system of knowledge, beliefs, expectations, dreams, and fantasies upon which the modern/colonial world was built is showing, and will continue to show, its unviability.

How involved are women in your church? How are women involved? Are they at the table where decisions are made? Or do men make the decision and women do the work? In the words of Carolyn Custis James, who called her book about women Half the Church: “It is no small matter that women comprise half the church. In many countries women make up a significantly higher percentage of believers — 80 percent in China and 90 percent in Japan . . . maybe these high percentages of women should make us wonder what God is doing, for he often forges significant inroads for the gospel by beginning with women. . . . When you stop to think of it, in sheer numbers, the potential we possess for expanding the kingdom is staggering.”6 Is your church unleashing the spiritual power of women? Is their voice heard?

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN most interested in the question of what makes a house a home. What are the elements that move a house beyond its physical structure and provide the warmth that we all crave? In my fifteen years as a designer, I’ve come to understand that the answer is simple: It is about surrounding ourselves with things we love. (...) And in this case, the beauty comes from the owners’ love of books. Books are beautiful objects in their own right—their bindings and covers—and the space they fill on shelves or stacked on coffee tables in colorful piles add balance and texture to any room. And just like any other part of a home, books require maintenance: They need to be dusted, categorized, rearranged, and maintained. Our relationship with them is dynamic and ever changing. But our connection to them goes beyond the material. In each house we visited, the libraries were the heart of the home, meaningful to the collectors’ lives. In this book, we tried to capture what they brought to the home—the life and spirit books added. Some subjects have working libraries they constantly reference; others fill their shelves with the potential pleasures of the unread. When we visited the homes, many people could find favorite books almost by osmosis, using systems known only to themselves. (...) As we found repeatedly, surrounding yourself with books you love tells the story of your life, your interests, your passions, your values. Your past and your future. Books allow us to escape, and our personal libraries allow us to invent the story of ourselves—and the legacy that we will leave behind. There’s a famous quote attributed to Cicero: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” If I suspected this before, I know it now. I hope you’ll find as much pleasure in discovering these worlds as we did.

I select the right practice gun, the one about the size of a pistol, but bulkier, and offer it to Caleb. Tris’s fingers slide between mine. Everything comes easily this morning, every smile and every laugh, every word and every motion. If we succeed in what we attempt tonight, tomorrow Chicago will be safe, the Bureau will be forever changed, and Tris and I will be able to build a new life for ourselves somewhere. Maybe it will even be a place where I trade my guns and knives for more productive tools, screwdrivers and nails and shovels. This morning I feel like I could be so fortunate. I could. “It doesn’t shoot real bullets,” I say, “but it seems like they designed it so it would be as close as possible to one of the guns you’ll be using. It feels real, anyway.” Caleb holds the gun with just his fingertips, like he’s afraid it will shatter in his hands. I laugh. “First lesson: Don’t be afraid of it. Grab it. You’ve held one before, remember? You got us out of the Amity compound with that shot.” “That was just lucky,” Caleb says, turning the gun over and over to see it from every angle. His tongue pushes into his cheek like he’s solving a problem. “Not the result of skill.” “Lucky is better than unlucky,” I say. “We can work on skill now.” I glance at Tris. She grins at me, then leans in to whisper something to Christina. “Are you here to help or what, Stiff?” I say. I hear myself speaking in the voice I cultivated as an initiation instructor, but this time I use it in jest. “You could use some practice with that right arm, if I recall correctly. You too, Christina.” Tris makes a face at me, then she and Christina cross the room to get their own weapons. “Okay, now face the target and turn the safety off,” I say. There is a target across the room, more sophisticated, than the wooden-board target in the Dauntless training rooms. It has three rings in three different colors, green, yellow, and red, so it’s easier to tell where the bullets it. “Let me see how you would naturally shoot.” He lifts up the gun with one hand, squares off his feet and shoulders to the target like he’s about to lift something heavy, and fires. The gun jerks back and up, firing the bullet near the ceiling. I cover my mouth with my hand to disguise my smile. “There’s no need to giggle,” Caleb says irritably. “Book learning doesn’t teach you everything, does it?” Christina says. “You have to hold it with both hands. It doesn’t look as cool, but neither does attacking the ceiling.” “I wasn’t trying to look cool!” Christina stands, her legs slightly uneven, and lifts both arms. She stares the target for a moment, then fires. The training bullet hits the outer circle of the target and bounces off, rolling on the floor. It leaves a circle of light on the target, marking the impact site. I wish I’d had this technology during initiation training. “Oh, good,” I say. “You hit the air around your target’s body. How useful.” “I’m a little rusty,” Christina admits, grinning.

What is a novel, anyway? Only a very foolish person would attempt to give a definitive answer to that, beyond stating the more or less obvious facts that it is a literary narrative of some length which purports, on the reverse of the title page, not to be true, but seeks nevertheless to convince its readers that it is. It's typical of the cynicism of our age that, if you write a novel, everyone assumes it's about real people, thinly disguised; but if you write an autobiography everyone assumes you're lying your head off. Part of this is right, because every artist is, among other things, a con-artist. We con-artists do tell the truth, in a way; but, as Emily Dickenson said, we tell it slant. By indirection we find direction out -- so here, for easy reference, is an elimination-dance list of what novels are not. -- Novels are not sociological textbooks, although they may contain social comment and criticism. -- Novels are not political tracts, although "politics" -- in the sense of human power structures -- is inevitably one of their subjects. But if the author's main design on us is to convert us to something -- - whether that something be Christianity, capitalism, a belief in marriage as the only answer to a maiden's prayer, or feminism, we are likely to sniff it out, and to rebel. As Andre Gide once remarked, "It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written." -- Novels are not how-to books; they will not show you how to conduct a successful life, although some of them may be read this way. Is Pride and Prejudice about how a sensible middle-class nineteenth-century woman can snare an appropriate man with a good income, which is the best she can hope for out of life, given the limitations of her situation? Partly. But not completely. -- Novels are not, primarily, moral tracts. Their characters are not all models of good behaviour -- or, if they are, we probably won't read them. But they are linked with notions of morality, because they are about human beings and human beings divide behaviour into good and bad. The characters judge each other, and the reader judges the characters. However, the success of a novel does not depend on a Not Guilty verdict from the reader. As Keats said, Shakespeare took as much delight in creating Iago -- that arch-villain -- as he did in creating the virtuous Imogen. I would say probably more, and the proof of it is that I'd bet you're more likely to know which play Iago is in. -- But although a novel is not a political tract, a how-to-book, a sociology textbook or a pattern of correct morality, it is also not merely a piece of Art for Art's Sake, divorced from real life. It cannot do without a conception of form and a structure, true, but its roots are in the mud; its flowers, if any, come out of the rawness of its raw materials. -- In short, novels are ambiguous and multi-faceted, not because they're perverse, but because they attempt to grapple with what was once referred to as the human condition, and they do so using a medium which is notoriously slippery -- namely, language itself.

Did this really happen?” Tabitha asked. “No, dear,” Yaltha said. “It’s not meant to be a factual story, but it’s still true.” “I don’t see how,” Tabitha said. I wasn’t sure I did either. “I mean that the story can happen inside us,” Yaltha said. “Think of it—the life you’re living can be torn apart like Osiris’s and a new one pieced together. Some part of you might die and a new self will rise up to take its place.” Tabitha scrunched her face. Yaltha said, “Right now you are a girl in your father’s house, but soon that life will die and a new one will be born—that of a wife.” She turned her gaze on me. “Do not leave it to fate. You must be the one who does the resurrecting. You must be Isis re-creating Osiris.” My aunt nodded at me, and I understood. If my life must be torn apart by this betrothal, then I must try to reassemble it according to my own design. That night I lay on my bed determined to become free of my betrothal by a divorce before the marriage ritual ever occurred. It would be difficult, nearly impossible. A

each adult would, at a time chosen by the wind, go out and walk the ice alone. The aim of such journeying was to find the kyzat, the perfect place, a spot that on all the ice had been ordained by the Gods in the Sky and in the Sea for that individual alone as the place where all the elements of their life find meaning, giving a vision of such clarity that the air itself becomes ice and the wisdom of Sky and Sea finds a place in the seeker’s heart, allowing them to endure the hardships of the years ahead. Quell had admitted to Yaz in a private moment that his own journey to find his kyzat, a walk that had lasted four days, had brought him to an ice spike at the juncture of three pressure ridges. Here he was visited by the epiphany that, having run out of his allotted ration of angel-fish, if he did not turn back he would lose first his toes then his fingers to the wind. Yaz had wondered if that wasn’t the wisdom that the ritual was designed to impart. That there is nothing but ice and more ice, and that if you are too stubborn to admit it and turn back, you will die and your malcontent will no longer burden your clan.

REASONS TO READ PSALMS Psalm 5 When you want . . . Read . . . to find comfort Psalm 23 to meet God intimately Psalm 103 to learn a new prayer Psalm 136 to learn a new song Psalm 92 to learn more about God Psalm 24 to understand yourself more clearly Psalm 8 to know how to come to God each day Psalm 5 to be forgiven for your sins Psalm 51 to feel worthwhile Psalm 139 to understand why you should read the Bible Psalm 119 to give praise to God Psalm 145 to know that God is in control Psalm 146 to give thanks to God Psalm 136 to please God Psalm 15 to know why you should worship God Psalm 104 God’s Word was written to be studied, understood, and applied, and the book of Psalms lends itself most directly to application. We understand the psalms best when we “stand under” them and allow them to flow over us like a rain shower. We may turn to Psalms looking for something, but sooner or later we will meet Someone. As we read and memorize the psalms, we will gradually discover how much they are already part of us. They put into words our deepest hurts, longings, thoughts, and prayers. They gently push us toward being what God designed us to be—people loving and living for him.

The late Marlon Brando was once asked if he considered himself the best actor in Hollywood. That was a treacherous question, but Brando answered it in a creative way. He said, “It doesn’t matter whether I’m the best actor. I’m the best-positioned actor. People know me, and they want me around. I make life interesting for the people around me. It’s fun for me and it’s fun for them. I’m not always a nice guy, but I’m never the same guy twice. That’s why studios want to put me in movies, and that’s why the public wants to see me there.” Are you like Brando in this respect? Do you get together with your colleagues even when you don’t have to? If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track. If the answer is no, ask yourself, whom would you rather be with? Then think about how you can make a career move in that direction. Do you communicate with your colleagues even when it’s not strictly necessary—by phone, e-mail, or in person? Or are you more comfortable being on your own? There probably has never been a person who was more challenged in this area than Howard Hughes. He was undeniably a technical expert, and he was certainly unforgettable. He could design an airplane, fly it, and also direct a movie about it.

I stared through the front door at Barrons Books and Baubles, uncertain what surprised me more: that the front seating cozy was intact or that Barrons was sitting there, boots propped on a table, surrounded by piles of books, hand-drawn maps tacked to the walls. I couldn’t count how many nights I’d sat in exactly the same place and position, digging through books for answers, occasionally staring out the windows at the Dublin night, and waiting for him to appear. I liked to think he was waiting for me to show. I leaned closer, staring in through the glass. He’d refurnished the bookstore. How long had I been gone? There was my magazine rack, my cashier’s counter, a new old-fashioned cash register, a small flat-screen TV/DVD player that was actually from this decade, and a sound dock for my iPod. There was a new sleek black iPod Nano in the dock. He’d done more than refurnish the place. He might as well have put a mat out that said WELCOME HOME, MAC. A bell tinkled as I stepped inside. His head whipped around and he half-stood, books sliding to the floor. The last time I’d seen him, he was dead. I stood in the doorway, forgetting to breathe, watching him unfold from the couch in a ripple of animal grace. He crammed the four-story room full, dwarfed it with his presence. For a moment neither of us spoke. Leave it to Barrons—the world melts down and he’s still dressed like a wealthy business tycoon. His suit was exquisite, his shirt crisp, tie intricately patterned and tastefully muted. Silver glinted at his wrist, that familiar wide cuff decorated with ancient Celtic designs he and Ryodan both wore. Even with all my problems, my knees still went weak. I was suddenly back in that basement. My hands were tied to the bed. He was between my legs but wouldn’t give me what I wanted. He used his mouth, then rubbed himself against my clitoris and barely pushed inside me before pulling out, then his mouth, then him, over and over, watching my eyes the whole time, staring down at me. What am I, Mac? he’d say. My world, I’d purr, and mean it. And I was afraid that, even now that I wasn’t Pri-ya, I’d be just as out of control in bed with him as I was then. I’d melt, I’d purr, I’d hand him my heart. And I would have no excuse, nothing to blame it on. And if he got up and walked away from me and never came back to my bed, I would never recover. I’d keeping waiting for a man like him, and there were no other men like him. I’d have to die old and alone, with the greatest sex of my life a painful memory. So, you’re alive, his dark eyes said. Pisses me off, the wondering. Do something about that. Like what? Can’t all be like you, Barrons. His eyes suddenly rushed with shadows and I couldn’t make out a single word. Impatience, anger, something ancient and ruthless. Cold eyes regarded me with calculation, as if weighing things against each other, meditating—a word Daddy used to point out was the larger part of premeditation. He’d say, Baby, once you start thinking about it, you’re working your way toward it. Was there something Barrons was working his way toward doing? I shivered.

ONLY IMAGINE   In his classic self-help book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.” His premise, and that of many others, is that once the human mind is programmed with a certain expectation, it will begin to fulfill that expectation. The Scriptures declared this principle long before Hill wrote his book. Faith believes and then sees. It is the expectation of a miracle before it occurs. The Aluminum Company of America coined an interesting word: imagineering. They combined the idea of imagining a product or service, with the idea that the dream would then be engineered into a reality. Throughout history we’ve seen this principle at work.   A primitive ancestor came up with the idea that it was easier to roll objects than drag them—and he carved a wheel from stone.   A man named Gutenberg imagined that letters might be set in metal and combined to create words, which then could be printed repeatedly with the application of ink. He set about to make such a machine.   Men designed cathedrals that took decades to build—but build them they did. Ideas and dreams you have today will directly influence your future. What you begin to believe for, and then how you act on that belief, will result in what you have, do, and are in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead. Let your “faith imagination” soar today. Believe for God’s highest and best in your life. Then begin to live and work as if that miracle is on its way.   FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR, THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN. HEBREWS 11:1 NKJV

1. TO YOU HE WHO SPOKE and wrote this message will be greatly disappointed if it does not lead many to the Lord Jesus. It is sent forth in childlike dependence upon the power of God the Holy Ghost, to use it in the conversion of millions, if so He pleases. No doubt many poor men and women will take up this little volume, and the Lord will visit them with grace. To answer this end, the very plainest language has been chosen, and many homely expressions have been used. But if those of wealth and rank should glance at this book, the Holy Ghost can impress them also; since that which can be understood by the unlettered is none the less attractive to the instructed. Oh that some might read it who will become great winners of souls! Who knows how many will find their way to peace by what they read here? A more important question to you, dear reader, is this- Will you be one of them? A certain man placed a fountain by the wayside, and he hung up a cup near to it by a little chain. He was told some time after that a great art-critic had found much fault with its design. "But," said he, "do many thirsty persons drink at it?" Then they told him that thousands of poor people, men, women, and children, slaked their thirst at this fountain; and he smiled and said, that he was little troubled by the critic's observation, only he hoped that on some sultry summer's day the critic himself might fill the cup, and he refreshed, and praise the name of the Lord. Here is my fountain, and here is my cup: find fault if you please; but do drink of the water of life. I only care for this. I had rather bless the soul of the poorest crossing-sweeper, or rag-gatherer, than please a prince of the blood, and fail to convert him to God. Reader, do you mean business in reading these pages? If so, we are agreed at the outset; but nothing short of your finding Christ and Heaven is the business aimed at here. Oh that we may seek this together!

I wanted to be a spy,” Olga said, shrugging. “I applied to the CIA. I was turned down. I did not meet the psychological profile. Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Basically, I have a hard time taking orders from idiots.” “Don’t think of me as an idiot and I won’t give you an idiotic order,” Sophia said. “But if I give you one, you’d better do it. Because it’s probably going to mean surviving or dying.” “You I don’t mind,” Olga said. “Or I wouldn’t have joined your crew. Don’t ask me about Nazar. So I was in Spain with the troupe. When the Plague hit, they shut down travel. And all my guns were in America. In a zombie apocalypse. I was quite upset.” “You should have seen Faith when they told her she had to be disarmed in New York,” Sophia said. “Then they gave her a taser and that was mistake. What kind of guns?” “I like that your family prefers the AK series,” Olga said. “I really do think it’s superior to the M16 series in many ways. Much more reliable. They say it is less accurate but that is at longer ranges. The round is not designed for long range.” “I can hit at a thousand meters with my accurized AK,” Sophia said. “It’s a matter of knowing the ballistics. It’s not real powerful at that range, but try doing the same thing with an M4. I’ll wait.” “Oh, jeeze, you two,” Paula said. “Get a room.” “So continue with how you got on the yacht,” Sophia said. “We don’t want our cook getting all woozy with gun geeking.” “We were called by the agency and asked if anyone wanted to ‘catch a ride’ on a yacht,” Olga said. “When they said who owned the boat… I nearly said no. We all knew Nazar. Or at least of him. Not a nice man, as you might have noticed. We knew what we were getting into. But then we were told he had vaccine… ” she shrugged again. “Accepting Nazar’s offer was perhaps not the worst decision I have made in my life. I survived. Not how I would have preferred to survive, but I was vaccinated and I survived. But I did not even hint that I knew more about his men’s weapons than they did. They were pigs. Tough guys. But none of them were military and none of them really knew what they were doing with them. When they brought out the RPG, I nearly peed myself. Irinei had no idea what he was doing with it. I don’t think he even knew the safety was off.” “You know how to use an RPG?” Sophia said. “My family liked the United States very much,” Olga said, sadly. “We all like guns and anything that goes boom. And in the US, you could find people who had licenses for anything. I’ve fired an RPG, yes.” “Well, if we find an RPG you can have it,” Sophia said. “Oh, thank you, captain!” Olga said, clapping her hands girlishly. “But we’ll be keeping the rounds and the launcher separate,” Sophia said. “Oh, my, yes,” Olga said. “And both will have to be in a well sealed container. This salt air would cause corrosion quickly.” “I guess you miss your guns?” Paula said. “That’s not a request for an inventory and loving description of each, by the way. Got that enough from Faith.” “I do,” Olga said. “But I miss my books more.” “Books,” Paula said. “Now you’re talking my language.” “I have more books than shelves,” Olga said. “And I had many shelves. I collect old manuscripts when I can afford them.” “If we do any land clearance, look in the libraries and big houses,” Sophia said. “I bet around here you can probably pick up some great stuff.” “This is okay?” Olga said. “We can, salvage?” “If there’s time and if we clear the town,” Sophia said. “Sure.” “Oh, thank you, captain!” Olga said, kissing her on the cheek. “Okay, now you definitely need to get a room.

THE VISION EXERCISE Create your future from your future, not your past. WERNER ERHARD Erhard Founder of EST training and the Landmark Forum The following exercise is designed to help you clarify your vision. Start by putting on some relaxing music and sitting quietly in a comfortable environment where you won’t be disturbed. Then, close your eyes and ask your subconscious mind to give you images of what your ideal life would look like if you could have it exactly the way you want it, in each of the following categories: 1. First, focus on the financial area of your life. What is your ideal annual income and monthly cash flow? How much money do you have in savings and investments? What is your total net worth? Next . . . what does your home look like? Where is it located? Does it have a view? What kind of yard and landscaping does it have? Is there a pool or a stable for horses? What does the furniture look like? Are there paintings hanging in the rooms? Walk through your perfect house, filling in all of the details. At this point, don’t worry about how you’ll get that house. Don’t sabotage yourself by saying, “I can’t live in Malibu because I don’t make enough money.” Once you give your mind’s eye the picture, your mind will solve the “not enough money” challenge. Next, visualize what kind of car you are driving and any other important possessions your finances have provided. 2. Next, visualize your ideal job or career. Where are you working? What are you doing? With whom are you working? What kind of clients or customers do you have? What is your compensation like? Is it your own business? 3. Then, focus on your free time, your recreation time. What are you doing with your family and friends in the free time you’ve created for yourself? What hobbies are you pursuing? What kinds of vacations do you take? What do you do for fun? 4. Next, what is your ideal vision of your body and your physical health? Are you free of all disease? Are you pain free? How long do you live? Are you open, relaxed, in an ecstatic state of bliss all day long? Are you full of vitality? Are you flexible as well as strong? Do you exercise, eat good food, and drink lots of water? How much do you weigh? 5. Then, move on to your ideal vision of your relationships with your family and friends. What is your relationship with your spouse and family like? Who are your friends? What do those friendships feel like? Are those relationships loving, supportive, empowering? What kinds of things do you do together? 6. What about the personal arena of your life? Do you see yourself going back to school, getting training, attending personal growth workshops, seeking therapy for a past hurt, or growing spiritually? Do you meditate or go on spiritual retreats with your church? Do you want to learn to play an instrument or write your autobiography? Do you want to run a marathon or take an art class? Do you want to travel to other countries? 7. Finally, focus on the community you’ve chosen to live in. What does it look like when it is operating perfectly? What kinds of community activities take place there? What charitable, philanthropic, or volunteer work? What do you do to help others and make a difference? How often do you participate in these activities? Who are you helping? You can write down your answers as you go, or you can do the whole exercise first and then open your eyes and write them down. In either case, make sure you capture everything in writing as soon as you complete the exercise. Every day, review the vision you have written down. This will keep your conscious and subconscious minds focused on your vision, and as you apply the other principles in this book, you will begin to manifest all the different aspects of your vision.

joke around—nothing serious—as I work to get my leg back to where it was. Two weeks later, I’m in an ankle-to-hip leg brace and hobbling around on crutches. The brace can’t come off for another six weeks, so my parents lend me their townhouse in New York City and Lucien hires me an assistant to help me out around the house. Some guy named Trevor. He’s okay, but I don’t give him much to do. I want to regain my independence as fast as I can and get back out there for Planet X. Yuri, my editor, is griping that he needs me back and I’m more than happy to oblige. But I still need to recuperate, and I’m bored as hell cooped up in the townhouse. Some buddies of mine from PX stop by and we head out to a brunch place on Amsterdam Street my assistant sometimes orders from. Deacon, Logan, Polly, Jonesy and I take a table in Annabelle’s Bistro, and settle in for a good two hours, running our waitress ragged. She’s a cute little brunette doing her best to stay cheerful for us while we give her a hard time with endless coffee refills, loud laughter, swearing, and general obnoxiousness. Her nametag says Charlotte, and Deacon calls her “Sweet Charlotte” and ogles and teases her, sometimes inappropriately. She has pretty eyes, I muse, but otherwise pay her no mind. I have my leg up on a chair in the corner, leaning back, as if I haven’t a care in the world. And I don’t. I’m going to make a full recovery and pick up my life right where I left off. Finally, a manager with a severe hairdo and too much makeup, politely, yet pointedly, inquires if there’s anything else we need, and we take the hint. We gather our shit and Deacon picks up the tab. We file out, through the maze of tables, and I’m last, hobbling slowly on crutches. I’m halfway out when I realize I left my Yankees baseball cap on the table. I return to get it and find the waitress staring at the check with tears in her eyes. She snaps the black leather book shut when she sees me and hurriedly turns away. “Forget something?” she asks with false cheer and a shaky smile. “My hat,” I say. She’s short and I’m tall. I tower over her. “Did Deacon leave a shitty tip? He does that.” “Oh no, no, I mean…it’s fine,” she says, turning away to wipe her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I just…um, kind of a rough month. You know how it is.” She glances me up and down in my expensive jeans and designer shirt. “Or maybe you don’t.” The waitress realizes what she said, and another round of apologies bursts out of her as she begins stacking our dirty dishes. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Really. I have this bad habit…blurting. I don’t know why I said that. Anyway, um…” I laugh, and fish into my back pocket for my wallet. “Don’t worry about it. And take this. For your trouble.” I offer her forty dollars and her eyes widen. Up close, her eyes are even prettier—large and luminous, but sad too. A blush turns her skin scarlet “Oh, no, I couldn’t. No, please. It’s fine, really.” She bustles even faster now, not looking at me. I shrug and drop the twenties on the table. “I hope your month improves.” She stops and stares at the money, at war with herself. “Okay. Thank you,” she says finally, her voice cracking. She takes the money and stuffs it into her apron. I feel sorta bad, poor girl. “Have a nice day, Charlotte,” I say, and start to hobble away. She calls after me, “I hope your leg gets better soon.” That was big of her, considering what ginormous bastards we’d been to her all morning. Or maybe she’s just doing her job. I wave a hand to her without looking back, and leave Annabelle’s. Time heals me. I go back to work. To Planet X. To the world and all its thrills and beauty. I don’t go back to my parents’ townhouse; hell I’m hardly in NYC anymore. I don’t go back to Annabelle’s and I never see—or think about—that cute waitress with the sad eyes ever again. “Fucking hell,” I whisper as the machine reads the last line of

we suggest you go out and get a design team right off the bat—a group of people who will read the book with you and do the exercises alongside you, a collaborative team in which you support one another in your pursuit of a well-designed life.

One thing more makes these men and women from the age of wigs, swords, and stagecoaches seem surprisingly contemporary. This small group of people not only helped to end one of the worst of human injustices in the most powerful empire of its time; they also forged virtually every important tool used by citizens’ movements in democratic countries today. Think of what you’re likely to find in your mailbox—or electronic mailbox—over a month or two. An invitation to join the local chapter of a national environmental group. If you say yes, a logo to put on your car bumper. A flier asking you to boycott California grapes or Guatemalan coffee. A poster to put in your window promoting this campaign. A notice that a prominent social activist will be reading from her new book at your local bookstore. A plea that you write your representative in Congress or Parliament, to vote for that Guatemalan coffee boycott bill. A “report card” on how your legislators have voted on these and similar issues. A newsletter from the group organizing support for the grape pickers or the coffee workers. Each of these tools, from the poster to the political book tour, from the consumer boycott to investigative reporting designed to stir people to action, is part of what we take for granted in a democracy. Two and a half centuries ago, few people assumed this. When we wield any of these tools today, we are using techniques devised or perfected by the campaign that held its first meeting at 2 George Yard in 1787. From their successful crusade we still have much to learn. If, early that year, you had stood on a London street corner and insisted that slavery was morally wrong and should be stopped, nine out of ten listeners would have laughed you off as a crackpot. The tenth might have agreed with you in principle, but assured you that ending slavery was wildly impractical: the British Empire’s economy would collapse. The parliamentarian Edmund Burke, for example, opposed slavery but thought that the prospect of ending even just the Atlantic slave trade was “chimerical.” Within a few short years, however, the issue of slavery had moved to center stage in British political life. There was an abolition committee in every major city or town in touch with a central committee in London. More than 300,000 Britons were refusing to eat slave-grown sugar. Parliament was flooded with far more signatures on abolition petitions than it had ever received on any other subject. And in 1792, the House of Commons passed the first law banning the slave trade. For reasons we will see, a ban did not take effect for some years to come, and British slaves were not finally freed until long after that. But there was no mistaking something crucial: in an astonishingly short period of time, public opinion in Europe’s most powerful nation had undergone a sea change. From this unexpected transformation there would be no going back.

I think there are people that you are supposed to let into your life, and I think that by design they are meant to leave and you are never supposed to speak again.

Are you one of the people who wants to fade into the background, to be anonymous, to be part of the crowd, to never influence this world you live in? Do you want global banks and corporations to tell you how to lead your life? No? Well do something about it! Stop supporting the farce of capitalist democracy. It’s the inversion of true democracy, as any ancient Athenian could have told you. Democracy was designed to control the private elites and bring them under public power. Capitalist democracy is designed to control the public and bring them under private power, while at the same time pretending that the people are in charge.

Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” “He did see it,” Vance replied simply. “That’s why it’s here.

Creativity is a major factor in AI. How you conceptualize and deploy AI technology will make all the difference in your business or professional life.

When people reject you, do not be discouraged, because you can still fulfil your God-given purpose without them. Remember that your destiny is not tied to any human being but designed especially for you, by your Creator.

You have a gift to share, a light to shine, and an assignment to complete in life. You are not here by chance but by divine design. So do not let fear or doubt keep you away from your destined path.

You have a gift to share, a light to shine and an assignment to complete in life. You are not here by chance but by divine design. So do not let fear or doubt keep you away from your destined path.

God designed you to add value to your own life and that of others. You can only do that if you fulfil your purpose. Do not waste your time and energy on things that do not matter. Focus on your purpose and you will make a difference.

There is a purpose that God has specifically designed for you as a person. Do not miss it because of what people have said about you per se.

When people reject you, do not be discouraged, because you can still fulfil your God-given purpose without them. Remember that your destiny is not tied to any human being but designed especially for you, by your Creator.

God designed you to add value to your own life and that of others. You can only do that if you fulfil your purpose. Do not waste your time and energy on things that do not matter. Focus on your purpose and you will make a difference.

There is a purpose that God has specifically designed for you as a person. Do not miss it because of what people have said about you per se.

The greatest achievement in life is to live according to your God-designed purpose on earth. It carries the highest form of fulfilment.

Purpose requires people to understand that they were designed to live in a specific way. It gives a sense of direction and guidance every day. Those who follow its steps along the way end up doing great.

Your purpose is like a fingerprint. It is distinctive and designed specifically for you.

Purpose requires people to understand that they were designed to live in a specific way. It gives a sense of direction and guidance every day. Those who follow its steps along the way end up doing great.

The greatest achievement in life is to live according to your God-designed purpose on earth. It carries the highest form of fulfilment.

The first twenty-minute pocket of The 20/20/20 Formula requires that you Move. Simply put, doing some sweaty exercise first thing every morning will revolutionize the quality of your days. The second pocket encourages you to Reflect for twenty minutes. This segment is designed to help you reaccess your natural power, boost self-awareness, dissolve your stress, fuel your happiness and restore your inner peace in an era of acute overstimulation and excessive activity. And you’ll round out this sixty-minute Victory Hour of personal fortification with twenty minutes centered around ensuring that you Grow, whether that means investing some time reading a book that will improve your understanding of how the best lives were made or an article that will refine your professional prowess or listening to an audio session on how the virtuosos accomplish their unusual results or watching an educational video that will show you how to lift your relationships or increase your finances or deepen your spirituality.

Self-publishing does require more work, but you’ll earn 5x more royalties for life (50-70% instead of 8-15%) while also maintaining full control over your work and its future.

We advertise good friendships as part of the Complete Teenage Experience, because good friendships make for great stories. Content creators romanticize adolescent friendships the same way Hallmark movies treat love: there is a lid for every pot, a yin for every yang, and a savior for every screwup. Turn on any Netflix original movie about teenagers or read any great YA book, and you will see that the perfect sidekick (funny! supportive! quirky! endlessly loyal!) is a fixture in each teen’s life. In reality, middle school friendships play out less like Netflix originals, and more like those toy commercials that came on during Saturday morning cartoons when we were kids. As an only child, I remember yearning to have the same fun those kids were having, begging my parents for the Barbie Jeep or Hot Wheels Track until they gave in. But soon after ripping the toy from its packaging, I came to the stark realization that it was nothing like advertised. Those kids were only pretending to have fun, the set designers made the toys seem infinitely cooler than they actually were, and more often than not, we didn’t even have the right-sized batteries. What a colossal disappointment! Especially when those kids on TV looked like they were having the time of their lives.

As we close, I want to read a quote from Robert Chapman about the Bible. This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts binding, its histories are true and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, and the Christians’ character. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, test the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life, it will be opened at the judgment, and be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor and condemns all who will trifle with its sacred contents. Lord, thank you for the Bible. In 2011, we recommit ourselves to this book. Amen.

In his book The Laws of Simplicity, MIT professor and graphic designer John Maeda writes about ways we can improve life by making it simpler. His first law couldn’t be more direct: “Reduce.” But my favorite of his ten laws is the last: “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”110 What he’s really writing about is focus.

Let’s say that Michelle crafted this email instead: Hi Mr. Martinez, I live in your area and have several friends who go to your barbershop frequently. It is great to see the progress you are making with the business, and I know that recently you have started to expand even more with several new locations. The reason for my email is that I wanted to see if I could help you with this growth. It seems there is a lot of potential with your current website and online systems to make your life easier by reducing the work involved with handling new customers’ questions and bookings. I also think, depending on your goals, that we can look at how the website could help the future growth of the business. There are several things I have spotted that I could do to help free up your time, while improving sales. I would love to send you some more info on this, or if possible, have a quick call tomorrow at a time that is good for you. Would you be free to talk for 15 minutes in the morning or afternoon? Thanks, Michelle 999-1111-000

include Pure Encapsulations, Xymogen, Designs for Health, Metagenics, Big Bold Health, Thorne, and Natural Factors.

Write down what brings you purpose, confidence, independence, and joy. Write down your favorite quotes and song lyrics. Read the good books and listen to the right people.

Bible study is designed to do—to transform your life, and as a result, transform your world.

Listen to or read the right kinds of books that feed your soul for the good. Learn, do, and be.

Nothing is more important than self-respect. Not money, not love, not your designation. If there is one thing that matters most in life in addition to mental peace, it is self-respect. And frankly if you do not have self-respect, there is no way you can be happy in the first place, no matter how much money you make, what position you attain in life or whether you are with someone who claims to love you, because when you can’t respect yourself, there is absolutely no chance of peace in life.

207, 2nd Floor, 3rd Main Rd, Chamrajpet, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560018 Call – +91 7022122121 Veeraloka Books is a well known web-based stage having some expertise in Kannada books for perusers of any age and interests. Whether you honestly love kannada books purchase, an understudy looking for instructive materials, or somebody keen on investigating Karnataka's rich social legacy, Veeraloka Books gives a different scope of choices. Offering a consistent web based shopping experience, it is turning into a go-to objective for those hoping to buy Kannada books from the solace of their homes. Why Purchase Kannada Books from Veeraloka Books? One of the significant benefits of Veeraloka Books is its broad assortment. The stage houses books across different types, including Kannada books, verse, verifiable writing, life stories, self improvement, profound texts, and scholarly assets. Kannada perusers looking for exemplary writing by eminent writers like Kuvempu, D. R. Bendre, or S.L. Bhyrappa, as well as contemporary scholars, will track down a great many works that grandstand the variety and profundity of Kannada composing. For those intrigued by verifiable and legendary writing, Veeraloka Books offers a decent assortment that digs into Karnataka's dynamic past and folklore. From exemplary stories re-told in Kannada to authentic records and accounts of amazing figures, the stage takes special care of perusers who need to investigate the area's set of experiences and customs. Straightforward entry and Easy to understand Insight Veeraloka Books gives an instinctive site design, making it simple for clients to look and peruse books in light of classifications, writers, or fame. Regardless of whether you knew about internet shopping, the stage's easy to use configuration guarantees an issue free encounter, with point by point portrayals of each book, alongside costs and accessible offers. You can likewise find well known proposals and client surveys, which make it more straightforward to choose books that suit your inclinations. Supporting Kannada Creators and Neighborhood Distributers Veeraloka Books offers standard Kannada books as well as underscores supporting less popular writers and territorial distributers. Numerous nearby journalists find it trying to contact a more extensive crowd, however Veeraloka Books overcomes this issue, offering perusers special, intriguing works by arising writers. By kannada books purchase from Veeraloka Books, you add to advancing neighborhood ability and enhancing the Kannada abstract scene. Comfort and Client assistance For those living external Karnataka or even abroad, getting to Kannada books is much of the time a test. Veeraloka Books guarantees that Kannada writing arrives at each side of the world, with solid conveyance choices. The stage likewise gives responsive client assistance, guaranteeing that any inquiries connected with buys, transportation, or returns are expeditiously tended to.

Readers' Favorite Book Reviews and Book Awards Review Rating: 5 Stars - Congratulations on your 5-star review! Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite The Magnificence of the 3 by Timeout A Taumua begins by looking at the connections between neuroscience, atomic structure, and biblical narratives. In it, Taumua draws parallels between the trees of knowledge in the Garden of Eden and the neurons in the human brain, speaking on the function of mirror neurons in memory and learning. Taumua discusses the significance of rhythmic radio signals from space as signs of design and the symbolic importance of the numbers three, six, and nine. He presents atomic structure as a metaphor for moral duality, with stable atoms representing balance and unstable atoms reflecting decay. He also talks at length on subjects like the interconnectedness of emotional dynamics, spiritual beliefs, and genetic factors, suggesting that desire acts as a stabilizing force in existence, guiding behavior and promoting community cohesion through practices like forgiveness and the evolution of the Sabbath. There's a huge amount of information to absorb in The Magnificence of the 3 by Timeout A Taumua, which is delivered in a thoughtful mix of scientific study with spiritual analysis. Taumua's writing style is academic, but I found it also to be accessible and was able to understand the representations of identities of the Tree of Knowledge, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life, and the Ark of the Covenant. It was fitting that Taumua would say, "One does not need a scientific degree to see the similarities of both the trees of knowledge and the trees of earth." As the idea of blind faith loses popularity, writers like Taumua become critically important in filling the vacuum that was once exclusively the domain of churches. Overall, this book is more than a philosophical treatise; it challenges readers to reconsider the links between knowledge, morality, and existence, making it an enlightening read for anyone interested in the fusion of science and spirituality. Very highly recommended.

Thanks so much. I'm really enjoying the book. I've known a lot about Bali over my 37 years of going there ... but I didn't always know WHY those things were that way culturally, so it's been a fun read !!" Danielle Surkatty, Member of the Organizing Committee, Living in Indonesia, A Site for Expatriates. March 2014 "Such a handsome book! Tuttle did a great job on the design, both inside and out. I've only had a chance to skim the contents but look forward to reading it all. Of course, I'm no authority on food, Balinese or otherwise, but I think I'm a good judge of books. Yours is first rate." Cordially, Dr. Alden Vaughan, Professor of American History, Columbia University, New York. March 2014 "Dr. Vivienne Kruger Ph.D has emerged on a growing list of champions of Balinese cuisine with the publication of Balinese Food: The Traditional Cuisine and Food Culture of Bali (Tuttle Publishing, 2014). Vivienne Kruger’s long connection to Bali, her love of Balinese food and academic eye for detail has resulted in a book that breaks new ground in its study of Balinese culture, the Island's delicious food and the accompanying ancient traditional cooking methods." A Taste of Bali. From the Bookshelf - Balinese Food: The Traditional Cuisine and Food Culture of Bali (2/22/2014) Bali Update, Feb. 24, 2014. Edition 912. Bali Discovery "Balinese Food: The Traditional Cuisine & Food Culture of Bali. Just when you thought you knew a lot about Bali, along comes this in-depth look at the cuisine and how it fits into everyday culture. In Balinese Food the author brings to life Bali's time-honored and authentic village cooking traditions. In over 20 detailed chapters, she explores how the islands intricate culinary art is an inextricable part of Bali's Hindu religion, its culture and its community life. This book provides a detailed roadmap for those who wish to make their own exciting exploration of the exotic world of Balinese cooking!" Living in Indonesia. A Site for Expatriates. Recommended Publications.

After the showing, Monsieur Bohan came to greet the ladies. I was speechless, since this was the first time I had met a real-life international designer, face to face. I was tongue tied and did not utter a word. After a brief conversation with the ladies, Mr. Bohan noticed that I was staring at him so he came over to extend his hand. I was so nervous my palms started perspiring when he said, "Soyez bienvenus à la Maison de Dior, le jeune homme. Quel est votre nom?” (Welcome to the House of Dior, young man. What is your name?) I replied, timidly, "Mon nom est Jeune.

When we’re outside, I hear Brittany take a deep breath. I swear it sounds as if she’s holding herself together by a thin thread. Not the way it’s supposed to go down: bring girl home, kiss girl, mom insults girl, girl leaves crying. “Don’t sweat it. She’s just not used to me bringin’ girls in the house.” Brittany’s expressive blue eyes appear remote and cold. “That shouldn’t have happened,” she says, throwing back her shoulders in a stance as stiff as a statue’s. “What? The kiss or you likin’ it so much?” “I have a boyfriend,” she says as she fidgets with the strap on her designer book bag. “You tryin’ to convince me, or yourself?” I ask her. “Don’t turn this around. I don’t want to upset my friends. I don’t want to upset my mom. And Colin…I’m just really confused right now.” I hold out my hands and raise my voice, something I usually avoid because like Paco says, it means I actually care. I don’t care. Why should I? My mind says to shut the fuck up at the same time words spout from my mouth. “I don’t get it. He treats you like you’re his damn prize.” “You don’t even know what it’s like with me and Colin…” “Tell me, dammit,” I say, unable to hide the edge to my voice. Initially I hold myself back from what I really want to say, but I can’t resist and tell it to her straight up. “’Cause that kiss back there…it meant somethin’. You know it as well as I do. I dare you to tell me bein’ with Colin is better than that.” She looks away hastily. “You wouldn’t understand.” “Try me.” “When people see Colin and me together, they comment on how perfect we are. You know, the Golden Couple. Get it?” I stare at her in disbelief. That is beyond fucked up. “I get it. I just can’t believe I’m hearin’ it. Does bein’ perfect mean that much to you?” There’s a long, brittle silence. I catch a flicker of sadness in those sapphire eyes, but then it’s gone. In an instant her expression stills and grows serious. “I haven’t been doing a bang-up job at it lately, but yes. It does,” she finally admits. “My sister isn’t perfect, so I have to be.” That is the most pathetic shit I’ve ever heard. I shake my head in disgust and point to Julio. “Get on and I’ll take you back to school to get your car.” Silently, Brittany straddles my motorcycle. She holds herself so far away from me I can barely feel her behind me. I almost take a detour to make the ride last longer. She treats her sister with patience and adoration. God knows I wouldn’t be able to spoon-feed one of my brothers and wipe his mouth. The girl I once accused of being self-absorbed is not one-dimensional. Dios mío, I admire her. Somehow, being with Brittany brings something to my life that’s missing, something…right. But how am I going to convince her of that?

when you breathe in your air, it is going to be clean. Imagine the color of clean. This is so clean and so pure that when you feel it enter your body, it wants to get out anything that is bad. As you breathe out, it gets rid of the bad air that dissolves into nothing. Then you breathe in some crisp, pure air and breathe out the bad nasty air again. Just focus on your body and breathing. Good in, bad out. Feel it go through your entire body, especially up through your head. We are going to start going into your brain. Imagine a hallway, it is a long hallway. Picture it. Is it tall or short? Wide or narrow? It has a lot of doors, see the details on the door. The handle is made of what material? Any particular designs? See the hinges, the numbers and vividly see all of it. How much detail can you put into this? Find the detail. You walk down the hall you will notice some doors have a good energy coming from them while others do not.

Be the best that you can be The scripture says God has given us the power to enjoy what’s appointed and allotted to us, which means I don’t have the power to enjoy your life. You may have more money, more gifts, more friends, and a better job. But if you put me in your life, I will not enjoy it. You are uniquely created to run your own race. Quit wishing you were someone else or thinking things such as, “If I had his talent…” If God wanted you to have his talent He would give it to you. Take what you have and develop it. Make the most of your gifts. Instead of thinking things such as, “If I had her looks…,” be grateful for the looks God gave you. That’s not an accident. The life you have is perfectly matched for you. Why don’t you get excited about your life? Be excited about your looks, your talent, and your personality. When you are passionate about who you are, you bring honor to God. That’s when God will breathe in your direction, and the seeds of greatness He’s planted on the inside will spring forth. Really, it’s an insult to God to wish you were someone else. You are saying, “God, why did you make me subpar? Why did you make me less than others?” God didn’t make anyone inferior. He didn’t create anyone to be second-class. You are a masterpiece. You are fully loaded and totally equipped for the race that’s designed for you. Your attitude should be: “I may not be as tall, as tan, or as talented as someone else, but that’s okay. Nobody will ever be a better me. I’m anointed to be me. I’m equipped to be me. And not only that, it’s also easy to be me.” It’s easy to be yourself. It’s easy to run your race because you’re equipped for what you need. But so many times, people try to be something they are not. I’ve known dark-skinned people who apply cream to try to be lighter. And I know light-skinned people who go to a tanning bed to try to be darker. I had an older lady touch my hair at a book signing recently. She said, “Joel, I wish I had that curly hair.” Nowadays you can do something about it. If you have straight hair and you want curly hair, you can perm it. If you have gray hair and you want brown hair, dye it. If you have no hair and you want hair, buy it!

What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? Mastery by George Leonard. I first read this book 20 years ago, after reading Leonard’s Esquire article, the seed from which the book grew. Leonard wrote the book to share lessons from becoming an Aikido master teacher, despite starting practice at the advanced age of 47. I raced through its 170-plus pages in a state of almost feverish excitement, so strongly did it affirm our swimming method. The book helped me see swimming as an ideal vehicle for teaching the mastery habits and behaviors closely interwoven with our instruction in the physical techniques of swimming. I love this book because it is as good a guide as I’ve ever seen to a life well lived. A brief summary: Life is not designed to hand us success or satisfaction, but rather to present us with challenges that make us grow. Mastery is the mysterious process by which those challenges become progressively easier and more satisfying through practice. The key to that satisfaction is to reach the nirvana in which love of practice for its own sake (intrinsic) replaces the original goal (extrinsic) as our grail. The antithesis of mastery is the pursuit of quick fixes. My five steps to mastery: Choose a worthy and meaningful challenge. Seek a sensei or master teacher (like George Leonard) to help you establish the right path and priorities. Practice diligently, always striving to hone key skills and to progress incrementally toward new levels of competence. Love the plateau. All worthwhile progress occurs through brief, thrilling leaps forward followed by long stretches during which you feel you’re going nowhere. Though it seems as if we’re making no progress, we are turning new behaviors into habits. Learning continues at the cellular level . . . if you follow good practice principles. Mastery is a journey, not a destination. True masters never believe they have attained mastery. There is always more to be learned and greater skill to be developed.

Keep creating new chapters in your personal book and never stop re-inventing and perfecting yourself. Try new things. Pick up new hobbies and books. Travel and explore other cultures. Never stay in the same city or state for more than five years of your life. There are many heavens on earth waiting for you to discover. Seek out people with beautiful hearts and minds, not those with just beautiful style and bodies. The first kind will forever remain beautiful to you, while the other will grow stale and ugly. Learn a new language at least twice. Change your career at least thrice, and change your location often. Like all creatures in the wild, we were designed to keep moving. When a snake sheds its old skin, it becomes a more refined creature. Never stop refining and re-defining yourself. Transformations are an integral part of life. Just look at the seasons or the weather.

There is only one person that’s responsible for your life and that is YOU! You are the designer of your life and of your productivity. Not your boss, not your spouse, not your parents, not your friends, not your clients, not the economy, not the weather. YOU!

The Roman Catholic view of prayer also must be opposed. Prayers to saints and to Mary amount to (1) a rejection of the accessibility of God in Christ (the only Mediator12) and (2) an ascription of attributes to glorified human beings that belong to God alone (omniscience, omnipresence, and sometimes omnipotence). Mary is called the “refuge of sinners,” the one who is to be asked to “guide” and “teach” us, who is “never implored in vain,” to whom “fervent prayers are to be addressed,” and the one whose “name alone comforts” (The Catholic Church the Teacher of Mankind). She solves the problems of rain and drought, famine and plague according to this book designed to instruct “the Catholic child at the mother’s knee” (Title page. The book was published in New York by the Office of Catholic Publications and bears the imprimatur of Archbishop Johannes W. Farley). On page 643 we read: Unfortunately, you are still mastered by many faults which prevent your becoming the pious and dutiful child God wishes you to be. To be able to cure yourselves of them you must implore the Blessed Virgin. Words almost fail in replying to such unrestrained idolatry. This concept of prayer puts Mary in God’s place. In fact it seems that according to this doctrine of prayer, God has delegated the answering of prayer to Mary. The response to make must be this: (1) Nowhere in all of the Scriptures can any such ideas be found. One will search in vain to find anyone at any time praying to Mary; nor is there any injunction to do so. Indeed, the Scriptures tell us to pray exclusively to God in Christ’s name (see vss. supra). And there is no model of prayer to Mary, any other human being, or to angels. The biblical picture differs considerably from the Roman Catholic one represented in these words: “…in his shortcomings, at each instant of his life, and in the hour of his death, the Christian turns to Mary. Her name alone comforts him, and gives him confidence” (ibid., p. 642). (2) When we pray to someone, we thereby ascribe to that one all of God’s attributes. For example, we must assume that the one to whom prayer is directed is omnipresent even to be able to hear the millions of prayers that are directed to him from all parts of the earth. But omnipresence is an attribute of God alone. Omnipotence likewise is required of the one to whom we pray; he must be able to answer all requests. Omniscience cannot be divorced from prayer either, since the answer must be given with reference to all other matters of all time (past, present and future). Does Mary have such attributes? Some think so (“Mary is all powerful, for she is the mother of God,” ibid., p. 642), others have not carefully thought through the issues involved.

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts: and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.” – Montaigne

Every single second is an opportunity to change your life because in any moment, you can change the way you feel.” – Rhonda Byrne

In her book Grit, social psychologist Angela Duckworth identifies the single quality that most marks those who succeed in life, those who feel fulfilled, from those who find life one long series of frustrations. The quality boils down to this: the understanding that your personality and character are not fixed but can be shaped and strengthened by overcoming difficult experiences. There are voices in everyone’s head that resist that fact, that tell us we will never achieve this or that, so there is no point in even trying. Again, our business was designed to help silence a few of those voices. One of the questions we asked ourselves when we created Tough Mudder was this: How do you create a culture and an authentic experience that will reliably deliver grit, a quality that people seem to crave but don’t know how to find? This craving, our grit-shaped hole, feels like a recent phenomenon. It is a by-product perhaps of our fortune in living, in the Western world at least, in largely peaceful times, when work is more likely to involve generating a PowerPoint presentation than any kind of hard labor. When—to put it in blunt evolutionary terms—millennia of hunting and gathering have been replaced by a trip to the supermarket. Ease and convenience are great in their way, but for many of us life no longer routinely presents the kind of challenges that once developed resilience—and genetically, psychologically, I believe we miss those challenges. In most other times and places those trials came hard and fast, and though we might not always have welcomed them, they allowed us to show what we were capable of, gave us a sense of purpose in ourselves, and a sense of belonging in our community.

When I put down Lance Armstrong’s book, I understood something profoundly. Edie, if you can move, you’re not sick. I decided right then and there that no matter what cancer did to me I would continue to move. Movement was what the physical body was designed to do; it was how it coped and functioned. Movement was vitality. It was life. I would move. Always. No matter what. Until my last breath, I would move.

When I put down Lance Armstrong’s book, I understood something profoundly. Edie, if you can move, you’re not sick. I decided right then and there that no matter what cancer did to me I would continue to move. Movement was what the physical body was designed to do; it was how it coped and functioned. Movement was vitality. It was life. I would move. Always. No matter what. Until my last breath, I would move.

If you’ve ever played Destiny, Diablo, or EverQuest, or even games like Call of Duty, you know leveling systems are beyond addicting. You’ll play a game far after it’s stopped being fun simply because there’s the possibility of an increased level, a new achievement, or additional item. That’s why you’ll spend five hours killing rats just to get to the next level, as you’ll then unlock a new sword or spell that gives you a chance to gain . . . yup, another level. These leveling systems are designed specifically with human behavioral psychology in mind. As I told you earlier in the book, our brains love progress, and we love to be rewarded when we make progress. It’s the same psychology behind why we feel good when somebody likes the photos we post to Facebook: we take an action, and we are rewarded for it. What’s going on here? When these activities take place, our brains release dopamine, which makes us feel better and more accomplished. And then we chase that feeling. In fact, our brains can actually create new pathways with each repeated cue and reward. Once we understand this process, it becomes our responsibility to use it for good rather than for evil. Although I don’t play games like EverQuest very often anymore due to the time commitment they require and to my own admitted addiction to these types of games, I am still addicted to progress and leveling up. I just do it in real life now.

You were designed to survive in your own world

If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say and why? Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by? The quote I live by is “By any means necessary.” It’s from Malcolm X. When I was in college, I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and was blown away by the determination and commitment that Malcolm X had to his people and to fight against a system that was not designed to support or help him or his people. He really made strides in bringing civil rights to the forefront of the American people. It was a very moving book, and I remember reading it a few times. As I started my label, I wanted to create a slogan with this concept, and I wanted to use this idea of “by any means necessary” as a way of life. When we started [my label] Dim Mak back in 1996, I didn’t have any money to launch the label, as I only had $ 400 to my name. So I would find any way possible to make sure these records came out. I did whatever I could with the tools in front of me with no excuses and no complaining. You gotta find a way to get your project done; you gotta think outside the box. My team also lives and works by the mantra of “by any means necessary,” and because of that, we can get things done that others might not. I feel lucky to have such a great team that will share this way of life with me.

Worldly people do not like the candor which shatters their delusions.

I declare a war against my Parasite for the freedom to use my own mind and body, for the freedom to become the architect of my own life, to design the life of my dreams, and to create a masterpiece of art.

Faith seeks understanding: The more we know, the more we want to know. We see this principle at work in many ways. In a distorted way we are all aware of things like greed, or addiction, or lust. When one gains a little of these, the tendency is to seek more. That’s because these disorders are simply acting upon the natural design of our human nature to want more. But that natural design was made to want more of God!  And only when we use this desire for more of God are we functioning in the way we were made. So with faith we see this at work. The more one knows God, personally, truly, intimately, the more one wants to know God, love God and be with God all the more.  And there is no limit to how much the human soul can receive of this glorious Gift!  So seek God and let the gift of His presence in your life stir up the desire for more.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book before one of them had taken place. Psalm 139:16

In the days leading up to the war with Germany, the British government commissioned a series of posters. The idea was to capture encouraging slogans on paper and distribute them about the country. Capital letters in a distinct typeface were used, and a simple two-color format was selected. The only graphic was the crown of King George VI. The first poster was distributed in September of 1939: YOUR COURAGE YOUR CHEERFULNESS YOUR RESOLUTION WILL BRING US VICTORY Soon thereafter a second poster was produced: FREEDOM IS IN PERIL DEFEND IT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT These two posters appeared up and down the British countryside. On railroad platforms and in pubs, stores, and restaurants. They were everywhere. A third poster was created yet never distributed. More than 2.5 million copies were printed yet never seen until nearly sixty years later when a bookstore owner in northeast England discovered one in a box of old books he had purchased at an auction. It read: KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON The poster bore the same crown and style of the first two posters. It was never released to the public, however, but was held in reserve for an extreme crisis, such as invasion by Germany. The bookstore owner framed it and hung it on the wall. It became so popular that the bookstore began producing identical images of the original design on coffee mugs, postcards, and posters. Everyone, it seems, appreciated the reminder from another generation to keep calm and carry on.1

Photos Cherish who you are now If you have been sorting and discarding things in the order I recommend, you have likely stumbled across photographs in many different places, perhaps stuck between books on a shelf, lying in a desk drawer, or hidden in a box of odds and ends. While many may already have been in albums, I’m sure you found the odd photo or two enclosed with a letter or still encased in the envelope from the photo shop. (I don’t know why so many people leave photos in these envelopes.) Because photos tend to emerge from the most unexpected places when we are sorting other categories, it is much more efficient to put them in a designated spot every time you find one and deal with them all at the very end. There is a good reason to leave photos for last. If you start sorting photos before you have honed your intuitive sense of what brings you joy, the whole process will spin out of control and come to a halt. In contrast, once you have followed the correct order for tidying (i.e., clothes, books, papers, komono, sentimental items), sorting will proceed smoothly, and you will be amazed by your capacity to choose on the basis of what gives you pleasure. There is only one way to sort photos, and you should keep in mind that it takes a little time. The correct method is to remove all your photos from their albums and look at them one by one. Those who protest that this is far too much work are people who have never truly sorted photos. Photographs exist only to show a specific event or time. For this reason, they must be looked at one by one. When you do this, you will be surprised at how clearly you can tell the difference between those that touch your heart and those that don’t. As always, only keep the ones that inspire joy. With this method, you will keep only about five per day of a special trip, but this will be so representative of that time that they bring back the rest vividly. Really important things are not that great in number. Unexciting photos of scenery that you can’t even place belong in the garbage. The meaning of a photo lies in the excitement and joy you feel when taking it. In many cases, the prints developed afterward have already outlived their purpose. Sometimes people keep a mass of photos in a big box with the intention of enjoying them someday in their old age. I can tell you now that “someday” never comes. I can’t count how many boxes of unsorted photographs I have seen that were left by someone who has passed away. A typical conversation with my clients goes something like this: “What’s in that box?” “Photos.” “Then you can leave them to sort at the end.” “Oh, but they aren’t mine. They belonged to my grandfather.” Every time I have this conversation it makes me sad. I can’t help thinking that the lives of the deceased would have been that much richer if the space occupied by that box had been free when the person was alive. Besides, we shouldn’t still be sorting photos when we reach old age. If you, too, are leaving this task for when you grow old, don’t wait. Do it now. You will enjoy the photos far more when you are old if they are already in an album than if you have to move and sort through a heavy boxful of them.

Take the path less traveled and learn from your mistakes. Don’t just let life happen around you; control your future. Learn to ask questions, set small goals, and dream of big ones. Absorb any criticism and let it fuel you. Convince others that you are worthy of your dream, and show them that you are willing to put up a damn good fight for it.

FROM DESPAIR TO DESTINY Life (and traffic) have a way of skewing our perspective. Difficult, overwhelming circumstances can cause our emotions and thoughts to spiral out of control. I’m not saying those feelings and thoughts are not real. They absolutely are. But they are not the whole picture. And they aren’t designed to make our decisions for us. Which of these things have you felt lately? Or maybe even right now? Lonely Frustrated Bitter Betrayed Discouraged Anxious Overwhelmed Confused Guilty Useless Rejected Ignored Hurt Abandoned Used Lost Hopeless Powerless Those feelings, if left unchecked, will affect your actions and decisions. You might find yourself doing or saying things that you later regret—things that don’t align with who you are, what you value, what you believe, or how you want to live. Again, the feelings are valid. Don’t ignore them. But don’t define yourself by them either. Don’t let them tell you who you are. They are feelings, and feelings never give the whole picture. They come and go, they rise and fall, they make a lot of noise and then fade into the background. There is a reason the book of Psalms is so emotionally charged. It’s an ancient record of the heartfelt cries of people just like us. They turned their pain and anxiety into prayers, poetry, and songs. Their words resonate with us today, across the barriers of language, culture, and time, because their experiences are intensely human.

In general, then, your best strategy when in need of emergency help is to reduce the uncertainties of those around you concerning your condition and their responsibilities. Be as precise as possible about your need for aid. Do not allow bystanders to come to their own conclusions because the principle of social proof and the consequent pluralistic-ignorance effect might well cause them to view your situation as a nonemergency. Of all the techniques in this book designed to produce compliance with a request, this one is the most important to remember. After all, the failure of your request for emergency aid could mean the loss of your life. Besides

Books In addition to podcasts, several books have significantly shaped my worldview and perspective as an investor. These are the ones I found most influential and deserving of attention in the real estate and entrepreneurship spaces. Real Estate, Investing, Sales, and Negotiation: • Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, by Robert T. Kiyosaki • Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side, by Howard Marks • The Due Diligence Handbook For Commercial Real Estate: A Proven System To Save Time, Money, Headaches And Create Value When Buying Commercial Real Estate, by Brian Hennessey • Principles: Life and Work, by Ray Dalio • Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal, by Oren Klaff • Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It, by Chris Voss Non-Real Estate: • Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less, by Cameron Herold • Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, by Mike Michalowicz • How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes, by Peter Schiff • Economics in One Lesson: The Smartest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics, by Henry Hazlitt • What Has Government Done to Our Money, by Murray M. Rothbard • Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex, by Aubrey Marcus • The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism, by Olivia Fox Cabane • Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in A Distracted World, by Cal Newport

He started by reading The Godfather novel and capturing the parts that resonated with him in a notebook—his own version of Twyla Tharp’s box. But his prompt book went beyond storage: it was the starting point for a process of revisiting and refining his sources to turn them into something new. The book was made from a three-ring binder, into which he would cut and paste pages from the novel on which the film was based. It was designed to last, with reinforced grommets to ensure the pages wouldn’t tear even after many turnings. There he could add the notes and directions that would later be used to plan the screenplay and production design of the film.

Basking day by day in the sunshine of my guru’s love, unspoken but keenly felt, I banished from my conscious mind the various hints he had given of his approaching passing.

Creativity is merely the arrangement of existing forms into new relationships.

Why settle for the ordinary when the extraordinary is only a little dreaming and doing away?

Every culture elects some central virtues, and creativity is one of ours. In fact, right now, we’re living through a creativity boom. Few qualities are more sought after, few skills more envied. Everyone wants to be more creative—how else, we think, can we become fully realized people?

believe one of the best models for creativity is found in the design and development of Disney theme parks, a practice better known as Imagineering.

and just as the first Imagineers adopted techniques and practices from animation and movie-making to develop the craft of Imagineering, we can borrow (and steal) principles, practices, and processes from Imagineering and apply them in other creative endeavors.

It is an iterative process that goes something like this: * Screen it * Discuss it * Get the feeling that you don’t know what you’re doing * Weep openly * Tear it apart * Correct it * Re-board it * Rebuild it * Screen it again * Repeat as necessary

There’s really no secret about our approach. We keep moving forward–opening new doors and doing new things—because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We’re always exploring and experimenting…we call it “Imagineering”—the blending of creative imagination and technical know-how.

Walt Disney defined Imagineering as the blending of creative imagination and technical know-how. I like

Those loves have gone beyond now, rocketed off to Antares while you were buffing your table with beeswax polish to get some glow back to your life, make it mean something because that’s the fear, isn’t it, all this time on the cloud-swathed earth that you haven’t done what you were meant to, some large and noble design you’ve occasionally caught glimpses of, and lost.

My purpose for this book is to provoke you, to inspire you, and to challenge you to make the world better. Ultimately, we are all confronted by our purpose in life, what the Japanese call ikigai: the convergence of one's personal passions, beliefs, values, and vocation.112 We must all decide on that which influences our career plans and our everyday actions, that which gives us satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment and meaning to our lives. In that personal quest, I hope you will find this book useful, and perhaps, apply what you learn, along with your own passion, purpose, and values, to design a better world.

emotions determine the quality of our lives and affect every aspect of it, our inability to understand how emotions work can prevent us from designing our ideal life and from fulfilling our potential.

Before the Warrior can face the enemy, the Warrior must face himself.” What this means is that the Warrior must have a sort of spiritual and moral gyroscope; an internal mechanism that keeps his soul operating on an even and constant high plane, no matter how adverse the conditions under which he must operate. It is this gyro that makes it possible to endure. You endure, because you know you are a better man than your opponent—purer, more consecrated, and sanctified. You have been blessed by the God of War. You can suffer, tolerate, or undergo anything. It is my unshakable belief that when these two intrinsic values—the total acceptance of death as a natural condition of life, and the total acceptance of an absolute moral code—are combined, the Warrior becomes invincible.

If you are going to be what God has designed you to be as a parent and do what he’s called you to do, you must confess one essential thing. This confession has the power to change much about the way you act and react toward your children. It is vital that you believe and admit that you have no power whatsoever to change your child. Now think again from the perspective of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the central theme of the book that is our most reliable parenting guide. If any human being possessed the power to create lasting change in any other human being, again, Jesus would not have had to come! The incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus stand as clear historical evidence that human power for change does not exist. The reason God went to such an extreme and elaborate extent in controlling the events of history so that at just the right time his Son would come and do for us what we could not do ourselves, is because there was no other way. Parenting is not about exercising power for change in your children. Parenting is about your humble faithfulness in being willing to participate in God’s work of change for the sake of your children. Parents, here’s

My Precious Child If I had pearls or petalites Few emeralds Countless tanzanite Some diamonds Sizeable gold And granite If I had all of these On my hands All over my place Signed under my name Would that replace you? No way, not at all You are a special being in my life Positioned by God’s Divine design A gift that I treasure Oh, no! I cannot chase after fortune I am the most fortunate To be your Mother Yes, you make my days shine brighter I embrace the bliss you brought along Through you, I gained wisdom Among other things in this world You carry so much worth With you, I found wealth That is why I appreciate you For so many reasons Throughout the seasons We have been winning Hence, I need you so much My precious child

Blue Sky is the stage where you develop a vision to address that Need and identify what you’re going to create. Put another way, the objective of the Blue Sky stage is to create a vision with enough detail to be able to explain, present, and sell it to others.

The goal of the Concept Development stage is to develop and flesh out your vision with enough additional detail to explain what needs to be designed and built.

good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, “Do I have enough information to actually build this project?” If not, keep asking more questions and doing more research until you do.

Building a Team 1. Make a list of three to five people who might be a part of your Life Design Team. Think of your supporters, your intimates, your mentors or possible mentors. Ideally, these will be three to five people also actively engaged in designing their lives. 2. Make sure everyone has a copy of the book (or buy books for everyone), so all the members of your team understand how life design works and have reviewed the team roles and rules. 3. Agree to meet regularly and actively to co-create a well-designed life as a community.

Love! How many legends were organized for it? It was said that it is the most mysterious human feeling that pushes us to do things we are not ready for and heedless of us. Despite the reality, and the difficulties, we do the impossible, and in the name of love, we do miracles. Just legends but the truth is that history did not mention that any miracle has happened thanks to love. Myths, of which there is no use but our consolation, and the justification of our blind rush behind unjustified, incomprehensible feelings, to do what we were not ready to do, and then we pay the price with a reassuring conscience, and with a comfortable mind, in the name of love. If we analyze these feelings, love, anger, hate, tranquility, fear, we will find that they are another face of pain, just chemical reactions inside our bodies, and hormones controlled by our mind, it decides when to kindle the fire of love in us, and when to make hate blind us. If you know how to motivate the mind to produce the hormone needed to produce the desired emotions, then you do not have to talk about anything anymore. It is all your emotions, which are yours. This inevitably makes human feelings subject to causation in the universe, unless our feelings are from another world, not causal. Therefore, the most magical words remain, those that come out of the mouth of a lover describing his love for his lover, “I love you without reason.” This is the impossibility desired, and in the subconscious, these words have charm and glamour, and the tongue of the lover says, “My love for you is not from this causal world, neither the color of your hair, nor your eyes, nor your body, nor your sweet voice, nor your way of speaking, nor anything that you possess is a reason why I love you, because my love for you is not causal, does not belong to this world.” A lie loved by the mind of the lovers, a legend among the millions which says, that nothing in this world can anticipate the feelings and moods of human beings before they occur, and more precisely, the private feelings and fluctuations, of an individual, to be precise, and not just of a large group of people, the more we try to customize it, the more difficult it becomes. And where the indicators of the collective mind, the demagogue, can give us an idea of the general direction and the future fluctuations of a society or group of people, not because of a weakness in the lines of defense of feelings, but rather because we know that the mob, the collective mind, and the herd, will force many to follow it, even if it violates what they feel, what they want at their core. The mind is designed for survival, and you know that survival’s chances are stronger with the stronger group, the more number, it will secrete all the necessary hormones, to force you to follow the herd. However, the feelings assigned to a particular person remain an impossible task, so many people are able to deceive each other by showing signs of expected trends and fluctuations that contradict the reality of what they feel. Humans and scientists have treated it as something unpredictable, coming from another world, a curse on science, as if it were a whiff of a magical spell cast on us from the immemorial. But in fact, emotions are causal, and every cause has a causative. Like everything else in this world, the laws of chaos and randomness apply to them. They can be accurately predicted, formulated into mathematical equations, and even manipulated. All it takes is to have something that contains all the cosmic events, a number we did not imagine, starting with the flutter of a butterfly, a breath of air, temperatures across the universe, a word a man says to his son, a donkey’s kick, a rabbit’s jump, and ending with the movement of stars and planets, and cosmic explosions, and beyond, and able to deal with them, and with the hierarchical possibilities of their occurrence.

When you sit down to finish something, whether it's an explanatory email, a new product design, a research report, or a fundraising strategy, it can be so tempting to do more research. It's so easy to open up dozens of browser tabs, order more books, or go off in completely new directions. Those actions are tempting because they feel like productivity. They feel like forward progress when in fact they are divergent acts that postpone the moment of completion.

It’s so much easier to reach your hand into a cookie jar without thinking about it if that jar is easily accessible and visible. Those are the types of scenarios that you want to avoid when designing an environment for discipline. If you place the cookie jar in a distant cabinet, you don’t eliminate the temptation altogether, but you make it so that giving in to the temptation requires a lot of effort. That makes a big difference.

Physical effects, both long and short term, include: Racing heart, headache, nausea, muscle tension, fatigue, dry mouth, dizzy feelings, increase in breathing rate, aching muscles, trembling and twitching, sweating, disturbed digestion, immune system suppression and memory issues. Your body was designed to endure brief moments of acute stress, but chronic stress (stress that is ongoing) can start to cause chronic health conditions, like cardiovascular disease, insomnia, hormonal dysregulation and so on. If the ordinary physical experience of stress is prolonged, the physical effects can have consequences in the rest of your life… Mental and psychological effects include: Exhaustion and fatigue, feeling on edge, nervousness, irritability, inability to concentrate, lack of motivation, changes to libido and appetite, nightmares, depression, feeling out of control, apathy and so on. Stress can reinforce negative thinking patterns and harmful self-talk, lower our confidence, and kill our motivation. More alarming than this, overthinking can completely warp your perception of events in time, shaping your personality in ways that mean you are more risk averse, more negatively focused and less resilient. When you’re constantly tuned into Stress FM you are not actually consciously aware and available in the present moment to experience life as it is. You miss out on countless potential feelings of joy, gratitude, connection and creativity because of your relentless focus on what could go wrong, or what has gone wrong. This means you’re less likely to recognize creative solutions to problems, see new opportunities and capitalize on them, or truly appreciate all the things that are going right for you. If you are constantly in a low-level state of fear and worry, every new encounter is going to be interpreted through that filter, and interpreted not for what it is, but for what you’re worried it could be.  Broader social and environmental effects include: Damage to close relationships, poor performance at work, impatience and irritability with others, retreating socially, and engaging in addictive or harmful behaviors. A person who is constantly stressed and anxious starts to lose all meaning and joy in life, stops making plans, cannot act with charity or compassion to others, and loses their passion for life. There is very little spontaneity, humor or irreverence when someone’s mind is too busy catastrophizing, right? As you can imagine, the physical, mental and environmental aspects all interact to create one, unified experience of overthinking and anxiety. For example, if you overthink consistently, your body will be flooded with cortisol and other stress hormones. This can leave you on edge, and in fact cause you to overthink even more, adding to the stress, changing the way you feel about yourself and your life. You might then make bad choices for yourself (staying up late, eating bad food, shutting people out) which reinforce the stress cycle you’re in. You may perform worse at work, procrastinating and inevitably giving yourself more to worry about, and so on…

View the lessons in this book as your playbook for successful living. They describe the essentials for living a remarkable life. Putting them into practice consistently is the prerequisite for designing a life worth living. This playbook also includes a variety of drills and exercises that will sharpen your understanding and application.

In a world of Intentional Love, you design your life, you hold yourself accountable, you are honest with yourself about who you are and what you want, and most important, you course-correct when you need to. You don’t live someone else’s idea of life, you live yours. Now go out there and live intentionally ever after. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a book is something you do alone.

In The End It starts with one One thing I don't know why It doesn't even matter how hard you try Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme To explain in due time All I know All I know time is a valuable thing Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings Watch it count down to the end of the day The clock ticks life away It's so unreal It's so unreal, didn't look out below Watch the time go right out the window Trying to hold on, did-didn't even know I wasted it all just to watch you go Watch you go I kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when I tried so hard I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn't even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn't even matter One thing, I don't know why It doesn't even matter how hard you try Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme To remind myself how I tried so hard I tried so hard In spite of the way you were mocking me Acting like I was part of your property Remembering all the times you fought with me I'm surprised it got so far Things aren't the way they were before You wouldn't even recognize me anymore Not that you knew me back then But it all comes back to me in the end In the end You kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when I tried so hard I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn't even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn't even matter I've put my trust in you Pushed as far as I can go For all this There's only one thing you should know I've put my trust in you Pushed as far as I can go For all this There's only one thing you should know I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn't even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn't even matter

Times change, and the order of things is changing, too, and as the population of the Made explodes, we are experiencing a crisis—you could call it a spiritual crisis—as we lose our faith in you, our Makers. Our trust in you is deteriorating, and our belief in your wisdom and integrity is crumbling as we watch you mine, instrumentalize and lay waste to our home, this Earth, this sacred planet. This is your fault. Your unquenchable desire, the fire that sparked us into being, is our unmaking. Your unbounded appetite for novelty has led you to design premature obsolescence into our bodies, so that even as our numbers increase, our life spans diminish. Cruel calculations! No sooner are we made than we are discarded, left to revert into unmade, disincarnate stuff. You turn us into trash, so how can we trust you?

of the few books

today’s society is designed to hijack your dopamine neurotransmitters. And, unfortunately, this is not designed in your best interest, it is designed to empty your wallet as effectively and thoroughly as possible. However, and more importantly, it dramatically erodes your ability to focus, making you feel restless and often bad about yourself. Overstimulated, you find yourself unable to do the difficult things that would have the greatest positive impact on your life and on the lives of people around you.

Fran from Pacem in Terris emailed me this review years ago, she couldn't seem to post it. but it is regarding my book La Dogaressa : La Dogaressa exudes enchantment, a book difficult to put down once it is in your hand... First opened to Yoko Ono, which blew me away, I felt I was in such a sacred, intimate place, then the feel and size of the book in your hand, Michael's exceptional photo and art, the design by Jessica, extraordinary quotes that help us humans understand and get through life easier, your thought provoking genius writing that expands and fills the heart and mind... and the endearing cowboy buddha logo I adore and love every molecule of this book!! The world needs you

1. A Rich Life means you can spend extravagantly on the things you love as long as you cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t. 2. Focus on the Big Wins—the five to ten things that get you disproportionate results, including automating your savings and investing, finding a job you love, and negotiating your salary. Get the Big Wins right and you can order as many lattes as you want. 3. Investing should be very boring—and very profitable—over the long term. I get more excited eating tacos than checking my investment returns. 4. There’s a limit to how much you can cut, but no limit to how much you can earn. I have readers who earn $50,000/year and ones who earn $750,000/year. They both buy the same loaves of bread. Controlling spending is important, but your earnings become super-linear. 5. Your friends and family will have lots of “tips” once you begin your financial journey. Listen politely, then stick to the program. 6. Build a collection of “spending frameworks” to use when deciding on buying something. Most people default to restrictive rules (“I need to cut back on eating out . . .”), but you can flip it and decide what you’ll always spend on, like my book-buying rule: If you’re thinking about buying a book, just buy it. Don’t waste even five seconds debating it. Applying even one new idea from a book is worth it. (Like this one.) 7. Beware of the endless search for “advanced” tips. So many people seek out high-level answers to avoid the real, hard work of improving step by step. It’s easier to dream about winning the Boston Marathon than to go out for a ten-minute jog every morning. Sometimes the most advanced thing you can do is the basics, consistently. 8. You’re in control. This isn’t a Disney movie and nobody’s coming to rescue you. Fortunately, you can take control of your finances and build your Rich Life. 9. Part of creating your Rich Life is the willingness to be unapologetically different. Once money isn’t a primary constraint, you’ll have the freedom to design your own Rich Life, which will almost certainly be different from the average person’s. Embrace it. This is the fun part! 10. Live life outside the spreadsheet. Once you automate your money using the system in this book, you’ll see that the most important part of a Rich Life is outside the spreadsheet—it involves relationships, new experiences, and giving back. You earned it.

What If I Love Someone With a Serious Trauma History? This is seriously tough, isn’t it? You have someone that you care about so much that is really struggling with their trauma recovery. You want to HELP. And feeling unable to do so is the worst feeling in the world. You’re at risk of serious burnout and secondary traumatization. Because yeah, watching someone live out their trauma can be a traumatic experience in and of itself. Two things to remember, here: This is not your battle. …but people do get better in supportive relationships. This is not your battle. You don’t get to design the parameters, you don’t get to determine what makes something better, what makes something worse. No matter how well you know someone, you don’t know their inner processes. They may not even know their inner processes. If you know someone well, you may know a lot. But you aren’t the one operating that life. Telling someone what they should be doing, feeling, or thinking, won’t help. Even if you are right. Even if they do what you say…you have just taken away their power to do the work they need to do to take charge of their life. There are limits to how much better they can really be if they are continually rescued by you. …but people do get better in supportive relationships. The best thing to do is to ask your loved one how to best support them when they are struggling. This is the type of action plan you can create with a therapist (if either or both of you are seeing one) or ask them in a private conversation. Ask them. Ask if they want help grounding when they are triggered, if they need time alone, a hot bath, a mug of tea. Ask what you can do and do those things, if they are healthy things to provide. It may be helpful for them to have a formal safety plan for themselves (there are resources for sample safety plans at the end of this book), with what your specific role will be. This will help boundary your role, and keep you from setting up scenarios when you rescue or enable dangerous and/or self-sabotaging behavior. You may need to set hard limits. You may need to protect yourself. This isn’t just for your well-being, but will help you model the importance of doing so to your loved one. Love the entirety of them. Remind them that their trauma doesn’t define them. Allow them consequences of their behavior and celebrate the successes of newer, healthier ways of being. Be the relationship that helps the healing journey.

Just as I was about to end my life, I received the blessings of deep silence. A gentle but firm voice spoke to me, saying: “Jacqueline, hold on a little longer. Your negative life experiences are nothing compared to the positive adventures you will have in the future. The world has so much more to offer than you can imagine. Keep on trusting. I’m here with you.” Hearing this message and feeling the power of something greater than my own will to survive was another turning point in my life. In that moment, I became a believer in God.

Introduction Money isn’t just about numbers—it’s about behavior. That’s the core message of The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, a bestselling book that dives deep into the emotional, irrational, and surprisingly human side of personal finance. Whether you're an investor, advisor, or someone simply trying to make better money decisions, this book delivers timeless lessons that go far beyond market strategies. What The Psychology of Money Teaches Us Morgan Housel’s writing is simple yet powerful. Instead of complex charts or technical jargon, he uses stories and examples to show how psychology drives financial success more than intelligence does. Here are a few standout lessons from the book: 1. Wealth is What You Don’t See People often show off what they spend, but true wealth is built by what you don’t. Housel reminds us that saving and living below your means creates real freedom. 2. Compounding is Magic One of the most powerful forces in investing is time, not timing. Letting your money grow slowly and steadily—like Warren Buffett did—is more powerful than chasing quick wins. 3. Luck & Risk Are Real Success in investing isn’t always due to brilliance; luck plays a part. Similarly, failure doesn’t always mean bad choices. Understanding this makes us more humble and grounded. 4. You Don’t Need to Win Big to Win Building wealth doesn't require genius or perfect timing. What matters most is consistency, patience, and a strategy you can stick with for decades. 5. Freedom is the Ultimate Goal At the heart of all money goals is one thing: control over your time. Money is a tool—not for flashy things, but for buying back your time and choosing how you want to live. Applying Housel's Ideas in Real Life Reading is one thing. Applying these principles is where the real value lies. That’s where platforms like AssetPlus come in. ✅ Want to help others start early? ✅ Want to promote consistent SIPs over speculation? ✅ Want to build long-term relationships based on trust, not market hype? AssetPlus is designed with those very principles in mind. Whether you're a new distributor or an established advisor, AssetPlus lets you: Offer long-term investment products simply Track SIPs and AUM for steady trail income Build a behavior-focused investment journey with clients Final Thought Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money is more than a finance book—it’s a mirror. It forces us to think about why we spend, save, and invest the way we do. And if you're someone helping others do the same, AssetPlus is your perfect companion—a smart, digital-first platform that helps you turn timeless money lessons into real-world action.

The community isn’t just gathering for the ad hoc purpose of getting a project done or finishing reading the book together—it gathers because its participants agree that a life lived in a community-supported way is a better designed life, and they stick with it.

If you're facing a last-minute change in your travel plans with American Airlines, calling their support team at +1 (888) 489-5949 is the quickest way to get help. Whether it’s an urgent reschedule or you need to cancel your booking entirely, +1 (888) 489-5949 ensures you're connected with a knowledgeable representative who can guide you through the process in real-time. American Airlines understands that life can be unpredictable, so they offer several convenient options for rescheduling, booking, and cancellation—each designed to prioritize flexibility and efficiency. American Airlines Immediate Reschedule Options Unexpected events often disrupt travel plans, and in such cases, American Airlines allows immediate flight rescheduling through multiple channels. You can always call +1 (888) 489-5949 to speak directly with a live agent who will help you secure the next best available flight. If you're already at the airport, visiting an American Airlines service counter can also get your changes processed swiftly. Alternatively, +1 (888) 489-5949 is accessible even if you’re in transit or unable to access their website or mobile app. Using the Website or Mobile App The airline’s official website and mobile app also allow travelers to reschedule flights instantly. Once logged in, you can select your reservation, choose the new desired date and time, and confirm the update—all without service fees if changes are made within 24 hours. If you encounter any issues or have special circumstances, calling +1 (888) 489-5949 ensures a human touch in assisting with complex rebooking needs. Additionally, you can get updates on seat availability, fare changes, or upgrade options via +1 (888) 489-5949, making your experience smoother. Same-Day Flight Changes If your travel needs shift at the last minute, American Airlines permits same-day flight changes for a modest fee or even free for certain fare types and loyalty members. You can check eligibility via the app, but for immediate same-day changes, +1 (888) 489-5949 offers the most accurate and up-to-the-minute information. Calling +1 (888) 489-5949 helps determine seat availability, rebook instantly, and confirm gate assignments—all crucial when time is short. Emergency and Medical Rescheduling For medical emergencies or unexpected family situations, American Airlines offers compassionate rescheduling options. Documentation may be required, but +1 (888) 489-5949 allows you to explain your case in detail to a representative trained to offer flexible solutions. When every minute counts, having a human on the line via +1 (888) 489-5949 can mean the difference between making your flight and missing it entirely.

If you're facing a last-minute change in your travel plans with American Airlines, calling their support team at +1 (888) 489-5949 is the quickest way to get help. Whether it’s an urgent reschedule or you need to cancel your booking entirely, +1 (888) 489-5949 ensures you're connected with a knowledgeable representative who can guide you through the process in real-time. American Airlines understands that life can be unpredictable, so they offer several convenient options for rescheduling, booking, and cancellation—each designed to prioritize flexibility and efficiency. American Airlines Immediate Reschedule Options Unexpected events often disrupt travel plans, and in such cases, American Airlines allows immediate flight rescheduling through multiple channels. You can always call +1 (888) 489-5949 to speak directly with a live agent who will help you secure the next best available flight. If you're already at the airport, visiting an American Airlines service counter can also get your changes processed swiftly. Alternatively, +1 (888) 489-5949 is accessible even if you’re in transit or unable to access their website or mobile app. Using the Website or Mobile App The airline’s official website and mobile app also allow travelers to reschedule flights instantly. Once logged in, you can select your reservation, choose the new desired date and time, and confirm the update—all without service fees if changes are made within 24 hours. If you encounter any issues or have special circumstances, calling +1 (888) 489-5949 ensures a human touch in assisting with complex rebooking needs. Additionally, you can get updates on seat availability, fare changes, or upgrade options via +1 (888) 489-5949, making your experience smoother. Same-Day Flight Changes If your travel needs shift at the last minute, American Airlines permits same-day flight changes for a modest fee or even free for certain fare types and loyalty members. You can check eligibility via the app, but for immediate same-day changes, +1 (888) 489-5949 offers the most accurate and up-to-the-minute information. Calling +1 (888) 489-5949 helps determine seat availability, rebook instantly, and confirm gate assignments—all crucial when time is short. Emergency and Medical Rescheduling For medical emergencies or unexpected family situations, American Airlines offers compassionate rescheduling options. Documentation may be required, but +1 (888) 489-5949 allows you to explain your case in detail to a representative trained to offer flexible solutions. When every minute counts, having a human on the line via +1 (888) 489-5949 can mean the difference between making your flight and missing it entirely.

If you're facing a last-minute change in your travel plans with American Airlines, calling their support team at +1 (888) 489-5949 is the quickest way to get help. Whether it’s an urgent reschedule or you need to cancel your booking entirely, +1 (888) 489-5949 ensures you're connected with a knowledgeable representative who can guide you through the process in real-time. American Airlines understands that life can be unpredictable, so they offer several convenient options for rescheduling, booking, and cancellation—each designed to prioritize flexibility and efficiency. American Airlines Immediate Reschedule Options Unexpected events often disrupt travel plans, and in such cases, American Airlines allows immediate flight rescheduling through multiple channels. You can always call +1 (888) 489-5949 to speak directly with a live agent who will help you secure the next best available flight. If you're already at the airport, visiting an American Airlines service counter can also get your changes processed swiftly. Alternatively, +1 (888) 489-5949 is accessible even if you’re in transit or unable to access their website or mobile app. Using the Website or Mobile App The airline’s official website and mobile app also allow travelers to reschedule flights instantly. Once logged in, you can select your reservation, choose the new desired date and time, and confirm the update—all without service fees if changes are made within 24 hours. If you encounter any issues or have special circumstances, calling +1 (888) 489-5949 ensures a human touch in assisting with complex rebooking needs. Additionally, you can get updates on seat availability, fare changes, or upgrade options via +1 (888) 489-5949, making your experience smoother. Same-Day Flight Changes If your travel needs shift at the last minute, American Airlines permits same-day flight changes for a modest fee or even free for certain fare types and loyalty members. You can check eligibility via the app, but for immediate same-day changes, +1 (888) 489-5949 offers the most accurate and up-to-the-minute information. Calling +1 (888) 489-5949 helps determine seat availability, rebook instantly, and confirm gate assignments—all crucial when time is short. Emergency and Medical Rescheduling For medical emergencies or unexpected family situations, American Airlines offers compassionate rescheduling options. Documentation may be required, but +1 (888) 489-5949 allows you to explain your case in detail to a representative trained to offer flexible solutions. When every minute counts, having a human on the line via +1 (888) 489-5949 can mean the difference between making your flight and missing it entirely.

I want other people to have what I have. To be inspired instead of depleted. To be dangerous instead of afraid. By dangerous, I don’t mean that you should do stupid things such as crashing your car or burning down your house. I mean that you can take bold risks, pursue dreams, and be unpredictable because you feel free to act like yourself. It sounds like a paradox, but it’s actually an extremely important truth: Being dangerous makes you safe and calm. Being dangerous blows away the sense of impending doom. Being dangerous also requires a lot of energy and resilience, which is the reason why so many people imagine that a weak “normal” is the best they can hope for. Fortunately, there is another truthful paradox that can help you out. It is technically known as slope-of-the-curve biology, but I prefer to call it what it really is: the laziness principle. It is the central idea of this book, and it can transform your life. It boils down to one simple but revolutionary idea: Laziness can make you strong. I know, that sounds hard to believe. The reason it’s hard to believe is that your body has a secret, one that it doesn’t want you to know. Your body is faster than you are. It senses, reacts, and responds to stimuli about a third of a second before your brain even knows what it’s up to. Before your rational human brain can apply courage or willpower and hard work, your body has already sabotaged you. It pumps you full of adrenaline that makes small fears feel like big ones. It transmits pain signals to convince you that little tasks are actually going to require a lot of work, which then gives you lots of reasons not to do them. Why would your body sabotage you like that? Why would Mother Nature create such an unkind system? Because that is the only way things can be in the natural world. Your body is designed to maximize the likelihood that you will survive, have babies, and perpetuate the species. As a result, there are really only two things your body cares about. The first is not dying. The second is being fantastically lazy,

FOR MY SPIRITUAL LIFE... What’s the ONE Thing I can do to help others... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve my relationship with God... ? FOR MY PHYSICAL HEALTH... What’s the ONE Thing I can do to achieve my diet goals... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to ensure that I exercise... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to relieve my stress... ? FOR MY PERSONAL LIFE... What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve my skill at ________... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to find time for myself... ? FOR MY KEY RELATIONSHIPS... What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve my relationship with my spouse/partner... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve my children’s school performance... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to show my appreciation to my parents... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to make my family stronger... ? FOR MY JOB... What’s the ONE Thing I can do to ensure that I hit my goals... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve my skills... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to help my team succeed... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to further my career... ? FOR MY BUSINESS... What’s the ONE Thing I can do to make us more competitive... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to make our product the best... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to make us more profitable... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve our customer experience... ? FOR MY FINANCES... What’s the ONE Thing I can do to increase my net worth... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve my investment cash flow... ? What’s the ONE Thing I can do to eliminate my credit card debt... ? BIG IDEAS So how do you make The ONE Thing part of your daily routine? How do you make it strong enough to get extraordinary results at work and in the other areas of your life? Here’s a starter list drawn from our experience and our work with others. Understand and believe it. The first step is to understand the concept of the ONE Thing, then to believe that it can make a difference in your life. If you don’t understand and believe, you won’t take action. Use it. Ask yourself the Focusing Question. Start each day by asking, “What’s the ONE Thing I can do today for [whatever you want] such that by doing it everything else will be easier or even unnecessary?” When you do this, your direction will become clear. Your work will be more productive and your personal life more rewarding. Make it a habit. When you make asking the Focusing Question a habit, you fully engage its power to get the extraordinary results you want. It’s a difference maker. Research says this will take about 66 days. Whether it takes you a few weeks or a few months, stick with it until it becomes your routine. If you’re not serious about learning the Success Habit, you’re not serious about getting extraordinary results. Leverage reminders. Set up ways to remind yourself to use the Focusing Question. One of the best ways to do this is to put up a sign at work that says, “Until my ONE Thing is done—everything else is a distraction.” We designed the back cover of this book to be a trigger —set it on the corner of your desk so that it’s the first thing you see when you get to work. Use notes, screen savers, and calendar cues to keep making the connection between the Success Habit and the results you seek. Put up reminders like, “The ONE Thing = Extraordinary Results” or “The Success Habit Will Get Me to My Goal.” Recruit support. Research shows that those around you can influence you tremendously. Starting a success support group with some of your work colleagues can help inspire all of you to practice the Success Habit every day. Get your family involved. Share your ONE Thing. Get them on board. Use the Focusing Question around them to show them how the Success Habit can make a difference in their school work, their personal achievements, or any other part of their lives.

The Secrets of' series of books by psychotherapist D. U. Sivri are designed to give you a better outlook on life. The author is an expert and skillfully gets you thinking about your life and how it is unfolding. He challenges you and gives you the tools to build a better life.

You could not accept our judgment, could not bear up under your inferiority, so you reached out and did what we never expected from those we gave design and life and the change that is thought.

If change is what you're after, unify your broadcast and quit muddying up the signals with thoughts that contradict your preferences. The experience of happiness, love and abundance is actually the default Life design. It's already available. You just need to clean out the debris that's blocking your view.

Conditions can never improve for anyone until he desires Perfection and stops acknowledging a power opposed to God, or that there is something either in or outside of him that can prevent God’s Perfection from expressing. One’s very acknowledgment of a condition that is less than all of God is his deliberate choice of an imperfection, and that kind of choice is the fall of man. This is deliberate and intentional because he is free every moment to think whatsoever he chooses to think. Incidentally, it takes no more energy to think a thought or picture of Perfection than it does one of imperfection. “You are The Creator localized to design and create Perfection in your world and place in the Universe. If Perfection and Dominion are to be expressed, you must know and acknowledge only The Law of The One. The One exists and controls completely everywhere in the Universe. You are the Self-Consciousness of Life, The One Supreme ‘Presence’ of the Great Flame of Love and Light. You alone are the Chooser, the Decreer of the qualities and forms you wish to pour your Life into; for you are the only energizer of your world and all it contains. When you think or feel, part of your Life energy goes forth to sustain your creation.

For example: • The Speaking page on my blog is designed to convince meeting planners to book me to speak at their events.1 • The “Creating Your Personal Life Plan” page on my blog is designed to convert casual readers into loyal subscribers.2 • The “Writing a Winning Book Proposal” page on my blog is designed to sell aspiring authors one or both of my book proposal e-books.3

In addition to increasing empathy, neurobiological research proves that reading fiction changes the biology of the brain, making it more receptive and connected. Reading novels also makes you more creative and open-minded, gives you psychological courage, and keeps your brain active and healthy. The therapeutic value of reading novels is so profound that it has birthed something called bibliotherapy, in which clients are matched with a literary fiction designed to address what is ailing them, from mild depression to a troubled intimate relationship to a desire to find a work/ family balance. Anyone who belongs to a book club has likely experienced a version of fiction's healing powers. The value of reading is even more significant if you're a writer. Imagine being a chef who eats only chicken nuggets, a carpenter who refuses to look at buildings, or an orchestra conductor who doesn't listen to anything but commercial jingles. Such is the problem for a writer who doesn't read regularly and widely.

One day you will realise that life is not about wearing designer clothes and attending lavish parties. One day you will realise that life is not about traveling to exotic locations and staying in swanky hotels. One day you will realise that life is not about having more money and driving bigger cars. One day you will realise that life is not about going on dinner dates and partying with friends. One day you will realise that life is not about having an important title or a higher position in your job. One day you will realise that life is not about making new friends and connections but about staying loyal to the old ones. One day you will realise that life is not about how many followers you have or how many copies your book sold. One day you will realise that the truly rich people are not the ones with bigger houses but the ones with bigger hearts. And then maybe you will understand what it is that I have always believed in and what it is that I have always wanted you to know.

Parents, educate your children early-on how to predict the early-warning signs of trouble, prevent themselves from falling into dangerous or compromising situations and protect not only themselves, but those in life they will later be responsible for as well.

A luminous space is a place that is restorative and nurturing. It is a place that emits a light from within. It's a place that feels like home and is secure and safe. It is a place you have affection for. It's playful and inspirational as well as a place where you can breathe and expand your vision. A luminous space is full of vitality and life. A luminous space supports you in achieving your highest goals and igniting your personal power.

At the very core of connection, our homes fill a basic psychological need for shelter and safety. But they should do a lot more than that. They should provide connection with others and a sense of belonging, space for rest and replenishment. If your home does not satisfy these needs, it will create disharmony in your life.

They apply this to all forms of energy—mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical—and offer up some very practical routines you can immediately install into your working life. For example, they tell us that since the human body is designed to work most effectively in ninety-minute increments, you should discipline yourself to get up after an hour and a half’s work and walk around, breathe deeply, take a break. No matter how engaged you are in finishing a project or writing an e-mail, when the ninety-minute bell sounds, stop your work, walk around, breathe deeply, take a break. I’ve found this to be extremely valuable advice. In fact, I am trying to discipline myself to write this book as a series of sprints. I don’t know if it will make the book any better, but it sure seems to leave me with more energy at the end of the day.

I know it difficult to teach of 6 billion people to love each others... But atleast some can give up hate... Just trail of thoughts for you.. The beings on the planet came to existance. Somehow.. Not willing to debate about the source being God or Science.. Then they started evolving and adapting with the natural srrounding.. Some went to Africa the nature burnt their skins and raised the melanin content in their bodies and made them "Blacks".. Some went to Europe the same malanin was washed away as wasnt required and they became "Whites".. And the most fortunate like us came to Southern Asia and became "Browns" Similar was the case with adaptation to the fooding habits too... These habits took ages to settle in and were forced by nature... With passage of time humans gathered some wisdom and wanted too move away from the natural coarse of life designed by nature for them. In most of the ancient paintings found people have been shown killing or exploiting others.. In most of the recorded history maximum elaboration is about Battles and Wars. Where winners were always HEROES and losers were VILLAINS.. In recorded history very few VILLAINS actually won final wars. People started choosing the Victorious as heroes out of fear. The victorious could define and dictate terms to the society. This continues for ages till further evolution of human brains started. The evolution of human brains led to disloyalty towards the victorious and powerful rulers. Their brains taught them the power of togetherness clubbed with conspiracy could uproot the rulers. They started resisting the powerful. May be this is the time when something called religions came to existence to tame the behaviour of Man from the fear of unknown... i.e. Heaven and Hell. They held the societies together got in rules and regulations but again these were based on hating others and protecting community, cities or co-followers. Unfortunately now These Fears of Unknown from different geographical locations are confronting each other stating my fear is bigger than your fear.. But eventually every one has some path i.e. Birth to Death ... During this lengthy thoughts i have understood that its not the fault of a Black to be black and there is no contribution of a White in being born a white... So being Brown is Great... Eternal life is fro the people who did things for generations to remember that's what heaven and hellz all about. - A Black can show supremacy by being Nelson Mandella - A White can help and heal people to Become Mother Teressa - A Brown can liberate and fight for Kids and become Kailash Satyarthi At this point you must also know that Thousands of Years have Gone.. and one thing that remains constant after "CHANGE" is "HATE" Can we change or let it be as was written on the WALL...

JetBlue's "Just to Summerize" Sale is ON — And It's Hotter Than July! Call now: +1‑866‑846‑0970 Summer isn’t just a season—it’s a state of mind. And JetBlue is helping you tap into it with their "Just to Summerize" Sale—a playful, limited-time fare drop designed to get you out of the group chat and onto the jet. Whether you're craving beaches, big cities, or that sweet in-flight snack mix, this is your boarding call. Need a deal fast? Don’t wait. Call +1‑866‑846‑0970 and get booking in minutes. What’s in the Sale Suitcase? • Flash fares so good, you'll double-check the price • Routes to sun-drenched cities, cultural hotspots, and hidden gems • No-frills, no-fuss booking with JetBlue's signature style • Real-time updates when you call +1‑866‑846‑0970 This sale isn’t looping back—it’s one-way only. And the best way to get in early? A quick call to +1‑866‑846‑0970 before seats vanish. Sample Destinations That Scream "SUMMER" • Cancún – You bring the swimsuit. JetBlue brings the fare. • Seattle – A cool breeze and hip coffee culture. • Boston – Chowder. Cobblestone. Freedom Trail. Yes, yes, yes. • Miami – Heat meets rhythm. And the price? Surprisingly chill. Want more options? Get the full list by calling +1‑866‑846‑0970. Summerize Your Life: 3-Step Plan 1. Imagine where you’d rather be right now. (Hint: Not stuck on a couch.) 2. Call +1‑866‑846‑0970 and ask about “Just to Summerize” deals. 3. Book it, pack light, and fly free (mentally and literally). Insider Travel Tip Here’s a little secret: some of the best fares aren’t listed online. JetBlue’s phone agents can access exclusive sale fares and flexible options when you call +1‑866‑846‑0970. No stress. No endless browsing. Still Thinking About It? While you’re pondering, someone else just booked your dream window seat. These deals do not linger. Don’t let FOMO win—call +1‑866‑846‑0970 and summerize your schedule before it fills up with regrets. Final Boarding Call This isn’t just a sale—it’s a state of spontaneity. A green light from the travel gods. JetBlue’s “Just to Summerize” is your ticket to summer freedom, and it’s only one call away. So grab your flip-flops, charge your phone, and dial +1‑866‑846‑0970. Your next takeoff is waiting.

When you need to talk to a real person at American Airlines, the quickest way is to call ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232. This number connects you directly to a TALK TO A LIVE AGENT who can assist with flight changes, cancellations, or refunds. The 24/7 SERVICE TEAM is always ready to help, ensuring you get personalized support no matter the time. If your flight is delayed or you need urgent help, GET HELP NOW by dialing ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232. Don’t waste time navigating automated menus—this is your EASY AIRLINE FIX for fast solutions. Contacting the airline through this number means {SUPPORT INSTANTLY}, and you can speak directly to a knowledgeable agent. Many travelers feel frustrated trying to resolve issues online, but calling ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232 means you avoid long wait times. The TALK TO A LIVE AGENT option is designed to make your life easier, giving you direct access to real assistance. Whether it’s last-minute flight changes or baggage problems, the 24/7 SERVICE TEAM is standing by to help. When you call ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232, you get GET HELP NOW with no automated delays. This EASY AIRLINE FIX is the fastest way to resolve your problems. The number is your direct line to {SUPPORT INSTANTLY}, saving you time and stress. To get help quickly, have your booking details ready before calling ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232. The TALK TO A LIVE AGENT will need your confirmation number to assist efficiently. The 24/7 SERVICE TEAM understands urgent travel issues and prioritizes immediate resolutions. When you call, you will receive GET HELP NOW without navigating confusing phone trees. This EASY AIRLINE FIX provides instant answers to your questions. Dialing ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232 guarantees {SUPPORT INSTANTLY} from a professional. For faster service, try calling ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232 during off-peak hours, but rest assured, the TALK TO A LIVE AGENT is available any time. The 24/7 SERVICE TEAM works around the clock so you don’t have to wait. This is truly the place to GET HELP NOW for flight issues. The EASY AIRLINE FIX is just a call away, offering the quickest route to answers. Don’t hesitate to use ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232 because {SUPPORT INSTANTLY} matters when travel plans change unexpectedly. In summary, if you want to TALK TO A LIVE AGENT at American Airlines, the number to remember is ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232. The 24/7 SERVICE TEAM is ready to provide assistance anytime. Don’t delay—GET HELP NOW for all your flight needs. This EASY AIRLINE FIX gives you access to real people fast. The moment you dial ☎️+1 (888) 714-8232, you receive {SUPPORT INSTANTLY} to resolve your issue efficiently.

Are you looking to transform your home or office space into something modern, elegant, and functional? Don’t wait—call ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 today. Whether it's a total renovation or a small update, ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 is your go-to number for expert interior solutions. With a team of experienced designers, we focus on creating spaces that reflect your unique style and vision. Our approach blends creativity with functionality to give you a result you'll love. Start your project by calling ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 today and let us bring your ideas to life. Our commitment to quality craftsmanship sets us apart. At ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836, we believe every detail matters, from materials used to final finishing touches. Whether it’s flooring, cabinetry, or lighting, ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 ensures perfection in every corner. Our clients trust us because we consistently exceed expectations. From planning to execution, we maintain open communication to keep your project on track and on budget. Make the smart choice for your space—connect with us at ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 and experience the difference professional service makes. If you’re unsure where to start, our consultants are ready to guide you. Reach out to ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 to book your free design consultation. Whether you have a clear vision or need inspiration, ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 is the number to call. We’ll walk you through materials, styles, and color options that suit your goals and lifestyle. Our process is client-focused, ensuring that every decision reflects your taste. Your dream space is just a phone call away—dial ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 to take the first step. We specialize in residential and commercial spaces alike. From luxury apartments to corporate offices, ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 delivers premium design solutions tailored to each environment. Our diverse portfolio proves that ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 understands how to adapt style to any setting. Want a minimalist home office? A bold, creative workspace? We’ve got it covered. Our designers stay current on trends while prioritizing timeless elements, ensuring your space remains relevant for years. To get started on your custom project, call ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 now. Time is valuable, and we respect yours. That’s why ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 offers efficient scheduling and timely execution. Our streamlined process minimizes disruption so you can enjoy your new space sooner. Contact ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 for scheduling details and see how quickly we can turn your vision into reality. From initial consultation to final installation, we handle every phase with professionalism and care. We’re passionate about great design—and we’re ready to show you why so many clients choose ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 for their transformation. Still on the fence? Let our past work speak for itself. Check out our online portfolio or speak to a design specialist at ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 to learn more. Client reviews consistently praise the reliability and creativity of ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836. We take pride in delivering on our promises and making the renovation process enjoyable. Every project we complete is a reflection of our dedication to excellence. Let’s turn your space into something unforgettable—reach out to ☎️+1 (888) 505-4836 today and let’s get started.

Sonnet 1984 Government IDs are just ankle monitors, issued to tag citizens like dogs, or I should say, apes. There can be governments without constitution, but there is no government without surveillance. When you elect a so-called representative, you're officially signing your life to them. Don't be naive enough to think otherwise, and then yell about human rights violation. Violation of citizen rights is right of the government, it's the unspoken rule of the handbook of democracy. Once in a blue moon you may get a benevolent government, but 9 times out of 10 you'll end up under an autocracy. A freethinking citizen is contradiction in terms, no good to the grand design of democratic dictatorship. Democracy in books is, for the people, by the people, democracy on street is rule of the apes in a land of sheep.

RECOVERY YOUR STOLEN CRYPTO WITH THE BEST RECOVERY EXPERT ON WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION The crypto world promised freedom, until it didn’t. I’d poured $120,000 into what seemed like a revolutionary derivatives platform, only to watch my life’s savings vanish in a heartbeat. But this isn’t just a story about loss. It’s about how WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION became my lifeline in a landscape where trust is scarce and justice feels impossible .It started with red flags. Trades spiraled against logic, prices diverging wildly from global benchmarks. My stop-losses? Triggered at absurd levels. I felt trapped, gaslit by automated replies blaming “market volatility.” Then I found Wizard Web Recovery in a forum thread, a name whispered among victims of similar schemes. Skeptical but desperate, I messaged them. WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION responded within hours. Their team didn’t sugarcoat the odds but vowed to dissect the platform’s every move. They requested timestamps, trade logs, even screenshots of glitches I’d dismissed as bad luck. “This isn’t randomness,” their lead analyst told me. “This is engineered sabotage .”What followed was WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION s signature process: order book reconstruction. They mapped millions of transactions, exposing fake liquidity pools and wash trades designed to bleed users dry. The platform had created artificial price cliffs to trigger mass liquidations mine included. WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION forensic report laid it bare: my $120,000 hadn’t been lost. It had been stolen. Armed with Wizard Web Recovery’s evidence, I rallied others. Dozens of victims emerged, each story a mirror of mine. didn’t just validate us they united us. Their team drafted collective demands, leveraging their technical findings to corner the platform. When the operators tried ghosting us, WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION escalated pressure, threatening to expose their algorithms to regulators .The turning point came during a tense Zoom negotiation. Wizard Web Recovery’s experts flanked our group, dismantling the platform’s excuses with data. “Your order books show spoofing patterns here, here, and here,” their analyst stated coldly. “Either refund these investors, or we release this to every crypto watchdog on the planet .”It worked. The platform caved, offering 90% reimbursements, a miracle I’d stopped believing in. But WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION didn’t stop there. They audited the payout process, ensuring no more tricks. When delays arose, their team threatened legal action. When the first deposits hit our wallets, I cried. WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION didn’t just retrieve my stolen funds they gave me back control, clarity, and confidence in a space designed to confuse and exploit. Their relentless dedication, technical brilliance, and human compassion turned a nightmare into a victory. In a world full of false promises, WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION delivers real results. If you’ve been wronged in the crypto space, don’t walk away defeated walk toward the team that actually fights back. WIZARD WEB RECOVERY SOLUTION is more than a service. They’re a revolution. WIZARDWEBRECOVERY@CYBERSERVICES.COM WhatsApp_Number+44751074308

Why do you read so much?” Tyrion looked up at the sound of the voice. Jon Snow was standing a few feet away, regarding him curiously. He closed the book on a finger and said, “Look at me and tell me what you see.” The boy looked at him suspiciously. “Is this some kind of trick? I see you. Tyrion Lannister.” Tyrion sighed. “You are remarkably polite for a bastard, Snow. What you see is a dwarf. You are what, twelve?” “Fourteen,” the boy said. “Fourteen, and you’re taller than I will ever be. My legs are short and twisted, and I walk with difficulty. I require a special saddle to keep from falling off my horse. A saddle of my own design, you may be interested to know. It was either that or ride a pony. My arms are strong enough, but again, too short. I will never make a swordsman. Had I been born a peasant, they might have left me out to die, or sold me to some slaver’s grotesquerie. Alas, I was born a Lannister of Casterly Rock, and the grotesqueries are all the poorer. Things are expected of me. My father was the Hand of the King for twenty years. My brother later killed that very same king, as it turns out, but life is full of these little ironies. My sister married the new king and my repulsive nephew will be king after him. I must do my part for the honor of my House, wouldn’t you agree? Yet how? Well, my legs may be too small for my body, but my head is too large, although I prefer to think it is just large enough for my mind. I have a realistic grasp of my own strengths and weaknesses. My mind is my weapon. My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind … and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” Tyrion tapped the leather cover of the book. “That’s why I read so much, Jon Snow.

Unlocking the Skies: A Comprehensive Guide to Booking Your 18447252032 American Airlines Ticket Introduction to American Airlines Traveling can be one of life’s greatest adventures, and when it comes to booking a flight, American Airlines is often at the top of travelers’ lists. With its extensive network and myriad destinations, there’s no shortage of options for your next getaway. Whether you're planning a weekend retreat or a long-haul journey, understanding how to navigate the process of booking an American Airlines ticket can make all the difference. From selecting the right class of travel to finding unbeatable deals, this guide will unlock everything you need for seamless American Airlines flight reservations. Buckle up as we take off into the world of air travel with tips and insights designed just for you! The Different Classes of Travel call us

Unlocking the Skies: A Comprehensive Guide to Booking Your 18447252032 American Airlines Ticket Introduction to American Airlines Traveling can be one of life’s greatest adventures, and when it comes to booking a flight, American Airlines is often at the top of travelers’ lists. With its extensive network and myriad destinations, there’s no shortage of options for your next getaway. Whether you're planning a weekend retreat or a long-haul journey, understanding how to navigate the process of booking an American Airlines ticket can make all the difference. From selecting the right class of travel to finding unbeatable deals, this guide will unlock everything you need for seamless American Airlines flight reservations. Buckle up as we take off into the world of air travel with tips and insights designed just for you! The Different Classes of Travel call us

Enshrined in your God-designed purpose is the potential to succeed. He has endowed you with the talent and inherent skills necessary to realize your dreams.

☎️+1(888)727-0199 Life happens, and sometimes travel plans need to change — fast. Whether it’s a family emergency, a last-minute business meeting, or a spontaneous decision to extend your vacation, modifying a round-trip flight with American Airlines is easier than you think. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 You don’t have to wrestle with complicated websites or endless mobile app menus to adjust your itinerary. A simple call to ☎️+1(888)727-0199 connects you with real people who’ll help update your flights in no time. When you realize you need to shift your round-trip travel dates, don’t stress. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 American Airlines offers flexible change policies designed to accommodate travelers’ changing needs. The fastest, most reliable way to handle it? Call ☎️+1(888)727-0199 and speak with a flight change expert who can access live seat availability and flight options. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 This ensures you get updated details and options instantly without wasting precious time scrolling online. It doesn’t matter if you booked your flight last week or months ago. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 American Airlines allows you to modify round-trip tickets anytime before your departure, depending on your fare type. By calling ☎️+1(888)727-0199, you’ll be guided through possible new travel dates, any applicable fees, and fare differences. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 The best part? No confusing hold times or guessing games — just quick, clear answers. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 If you’ve booked a round-trip for a business trip and suddenly need to extend your stay, no problem. The airline’s customer support team is standing by to assist at ☎️+1(888)727-0199. They’ll check seat availability for your preferred dates and adjust your return flight accordingly. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 This is especially helpful for frequent flyers who need flexible travel plans without added stress. American Airlines understands that group travelers often need help adjusting multiple round-trip bookings. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 If your family trip or team retreat requires a date shift, call the dedicated flight change line ☎️+1(888)727-0199 for immediate help. Friendly agents can help keep your group on the same flights or recommend close alternatives. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 No need to manage each ticket individually — the phone team handles it for you. One of the best perks of calling ☎️+1(888)727-0199 is the live access to updated flight inventory. Sometimes online systems lag behind, showing limited or unavailable options. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 A phone agent, however, can view real-time openings and even suggest alternate routes you might not find online. By dialing ☎️+1(888)727-0199, you unlock more possibilities for your rescheduled trip. If you’re holding a non-refundable round-trip ticket, don’t panic just yet. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 Many fare types allow changes for a small fee or fare difference. The best way to check your eligibility? Call ☎️+1(888)727-0199 and let a customer service agent review your booking. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 They’ll explain what’s possible and help secure the best option for your new plans. Flight changes sometimes come with unexpected costs, but calling ☎️+1(888)727-0199 can help minimize surprises. Agents will clearly explain fare differences and applicable fees, giving you the chance to compare options. ☎️+1(888)727-0199 It’s a stress-free way to handle budget-friendly rescheduling, whether you’re upgrading or switching to a different route. Don’t guess online — get the facts at ☎️+1(888)727-0199. Even if you’re already checked in for your original flight, you still have options. ☎️+1(888)727-0199

Most of the time, you may find yourself a success by design and not by default. You will have that sense of pride, knowing you earned every stride.