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Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.
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Bernard Branson
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Don't wait until people are dead to give them flowers.
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Sean Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide)
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DETOX your mind, body, AND your contact list.
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SupaNova Slom (The Remedy: The Five-Week Power Plan to Detox Your System, Combat the Fat, and Rebuild Your Mind and Body)
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How you spend your time when you are not working or studying says everything about who you are and what is motivating your life.
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Jennifer Elisabeth (Born Ready: Unleash Your Inner Dream Girl)
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The whole thing about bullying is: yes, the culture has to change. Yes, teens have the power to change it. It’s not going to happen overnight, but this is definitely something that I want to start motivating teens to do today." - Publisher Weekly
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Susane Colasanti (Keep Holding On)
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Freedom of Speech doesn't justify online bullying. Words have power, be careful how you use them.
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Germany Kent
“
In the moment of decision, may you hear the voice of the Creator saying, ‘This is right road, travel on it.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Don't promote negativity online and expect people to treat you with positivity in person.
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Germany Kent
“
Dear Young Black Males, Encourage yourself, believe in yourself, and love yourself. Never doubt who you are. Always believe in yourself, even if nobody else does. Strive to be self-motivated!
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Stephanie Lahart
“
Maybe, generations ago, young people rebelled out of some clear motive, but now, we know we’re rebelling. Between teen movies and sex-ed textbooks we’re so ready for our rebellious phase we can’t help but feel it’s safe, contained. It will turn out all right, despite the risk, snug in the shell of rebellion narrative. Rebellion narrative, does that make sense? It was appropriate to do, so we did it.
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Daniel Handler (The Basic Eight)
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Change is a contact sport.
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Romal J. Tune
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When we reach the end of our short lives on earth, Jesus isn’t going to ask us how many followers we had on social media; He’s going to ask us how many of those lives we touched.
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Tessa Emily Hall (Coffee Shop Devos: Daily Devotional Pick-Me-Ups for Teen Girls)
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The word try, means nothing. There's no such thing as trying to do something. The moment you begin a task, you're doing it. So just finish what you're doing.
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La Tisha Honor (Teen Roach)
“
I stare past her at the inspirational kitten posters. There's one of a soaking-wet kitten climbing out of a toilet with the caption "it could be worse!"
"Just tell me whatever it is you're thinking," Mrs. Paulsen says. "Whatever is going through your mind right now."
"I hope they didn't actually drop a cat in the toilet to get that picture," I choke out.
"...Pardon?"
"Nothing. Sorry.
”
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Robin Stevenson (The World Without Us)
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He has me pinned on my back in record time, his mouth crashing against mine as we frantically devour one another. “Awesome speech,” he murmurs, pushing my sweater up and planting his hot mouth against my equally hot skin. “Very motivational.
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Siobhan Davis (Keeping Kyler (The Kennedy Boys, #3))
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Keep your head up and your hopes high, friend; anything is possible.
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S.R. Crawford (No Secrets: Eternity series)
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I’m cancer-free today!
Cancer cannot keep up with my goals, enthusiasm, focus, passion, and determination. I will run you out of my body by not thinking about you, I will focus on what it will be like when you are gone.
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Gregory Q. Cheek (Three Points of Contact: A Motivational Speaker's Inspirational Methods of Success from Homeless Teen Through Cancer.)
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Your legacy is not simply a matter of what you do but a matter of who you do it for.
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
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When going for your goals, staying motivated, enthusiastic, and flexible are daily deeds of daring.
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Beverly K. Bachel (What Do You Really Want? How to Set a Goal and Go for It! A Guide for Teens)
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The more often you visualize your success and the more details you envision, the more motivated you’ll feel.
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Beverly K. Bachel (What Do You Really Want? How to Set a Goal and Go for It! A Guide for Teens)
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I'll tell you what you want to hear. I mean, what I need to hear. I'll tell the truth.
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S.A. Tawks (Misadventurous)
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Thanks to yoga, I live every day in absolute bliss.
Namaste!
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Gregory Q. Cheek (Three Points of Contact: A Motivational Speaker's Inspirational Methods of Success from Homeless Teen Through Cancer.)
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You may have a Porsche, a mansion, a vacation home, and all the money in the world. However, I have the handwritten thank you note, the greatest heartfelt equalizer of all time.
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Gregory Q. Cheek (Three Points of Contact: A Motivational Speaker's Inspirational Methods of Success from Homeless Teen Through Cancer.)
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Storms are a way of life!
You don’t have to outrun a storm.
Act Now!
Be properly prepared and make the storm work for you!
”
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Gregory Q. Cheek (Three Points of Contact: A Motivational Speaker's Inspirational Methods of Success from Homeless Teen Through Cancer.)
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Everyone is entitled to making bad decisions from time to time, but the true test is in how you handle things after those decisions have been made.
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Alicia T. Bowens (L.O.V.E. for Teen Moms: You Can Still Have Lives of Vision & Empowerment)
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Whoever is messing with my daughter, messing with my home, will be sorry they chose to play this game. I’ll be screaming checkmate before they even realise I moved my pawns…
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S.R. Crawford (No Secrets: Eternity series)
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when someone doesn’t feel valued or heard, their desire to participate in a job or relationship disappears.
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Ben Crawford (2,000 Miles Together: The Story of the Largest Family to Hike the Appalachian Trail)
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It is no great accomplishment to take care of yourself—I’ve known children of ten or twelve who can do that. To become a true adult, you must become more than independent; you must become dependable.
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
A business model describes the flow between key components of the company: • value proposition, which the company offers (product/service, benefits) • customer segments, such as users, and payers, or moms or teens • distribution channels to reach customers and offer them the value proposition • customer relationships to create demand • revenue streams generated by the value proposition(s) • resources needed to make the business model possible • activities necessary to implement the business model • partners who participate in the business and their motivations for doing so • cost structure resulting from the business model The
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Steve Blank (The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company)
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Daily alone time
My ability to embrace stillness and meditation was the momentum swing in my health transformation. I breathed in and out with the musical sounds of the Pacific Ocean. I breathed in life, energy, and the universe and as I breathed out, I felt every red and white blood cell washing the cancer cells out to sea with the waves.
”
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Gregory Q. Cheek (Three Points of Contact: A Motivational Speaker's Inspirational Methods of Success from Homeless Teen Through Cancer.)
“
Dear Young Black Males… I encourage you to upgrade your thinking! Read books, articles, quotes, and other materials that will enhance your thinking and mindset. Embrace literature that will help propel you to greatness! Read information that will educate, empower, inspire, and motivate you. If you don’t understand the definition of a word, look it up in a dictionary. Broaden your vocabulary by utilizing the thesaurus, too. Knowledge is power, so make sure that you fill your mind with things that make you more and more powerful every day!
”
”
Stephanie Lahart
“
He wonders if it’s some sort of twisted joke the adults are having, shoving hormonal teens into tight quarters but making it impossible to do anything but breathe.
“I wouldn’t mind suffocating if it was with you,” the girl says, which is flattering, but makes him even less interested in her.
“There’ll be a better time,” he tells her, knowing that such a time will never come—at least not for her—but hope is a powerful motivator.
Eventually they settle into a sort of symbiotic breathing rhythm. He breathes in when she breathes out, so their chests don’t fight for space.
After a while, there’s a jarring motion. With his arm now around the girl, he holds her a little more tightly, knowing that easing her fear somehow eases his own.
”
”
Neal Shusterman (UnWholly (Unwind, #2))
“
Maybe your priority actually is money. Or maybe it’s family. Maybe it’s influence or change. Maybe it’s building an organization that lasts, or serves a purpose. All of these are perfectly fine motivations. But you do need to know. You need to know what you don’t want and what your choices preclude. Because strategies are often mutually exclusive. One cannot be an opera singer and a teen pop idol at the same time. Life requires those trade-offs, but ego can’t allow it. So why do you do what you do? That’s the question you need to answer. Stare at it until you can. Only then will you understand what matters and what doesn’t. Only then can you say no, can you opt out of stupid races that don’t matter, or even exist. Only then is it easy to ignore “successful” people, because most of the time they aren’t—at least relative to you, and often even to themselves. Only then can you develop that quiet confidence Seneca talked about.
”
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Ryan Holiday (Ego Is the Enemy)
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I expect it will be said that this Yank has some nerve, writing a book about, not just an event in Australian history, but Aboriginal history to boot. To which I reply, I have thought the same thing myself, despite having lived as an Australian citizen for thirty years.
For a number of years going back to the mid-20 teens, I was involved in a peripheral way with this story. So, I’ve known about it in some detail since then. I’ve always thought it was too important not to be made available to the general public. During these intervening years, no one else in the creative community (of which I number myself) has told this story. I was reluctant to write it for the obvious reasons already articulated. But as I began to think seriously about writing it, I concluded that it might be an advantage being an outsider. I can tell the story in a freer way, still respecting the truth but using my own voice as an observer.
For better or for worse, that has been my motivation and I make no apologies for it. It has been my goal to portray these characters as real people and to let them speak for themselves. Only you, the reader, can determine if I was successful or not.
”
”
Chris Wallace
“
Sharon passed around a handout: "Triangle of Self-Actualization" by Abraham Maslow. The levels of human motivation. It resembled the nutrition triangle put out by the FDA, with five horizontal levels of multiple colors. I vaguely remembered it from my one college psychology course in the 1970's.
"Very applicable with refugees," Sharon said. "Maslow theorized that one could not move to a higher level until the prior level was satisfied. The first level, the triangle base, is physiological needs. Like food and water. Until a person has enough to eat and drink, that's all one would be concerned with."
I'd never experienced not being able to satisfy my thirst or hunger, but it sounded logical that that would be my only concern in such a situation. For the Lost Boys, just getting enough food and water had been a daily struggle. I wondered what kind of impact being stuck at the bottom level for the last fourteen years would have on a person, especially a child and teen.
"The second level is safety and security. Home. A sanctuary. A safe place."
Like not being shot at or having lions attack you. They hadn't had much of level two, either. Even Kakuma hadn't been safe. A refugee camp couldn't feel like home.
"The third level is social. A sense of belonging."
Since they'd been together, they must have felt like they belonged, but perhaps not on a larger scale, having been displaced from home and living in someone else's country.
"Once a person has food, shelter, family and friends, they can advance to the fourth level, which is ego. Self-esteem."
I'd never thought of those things occurring sequentially, but rather simultaneously, as they did in my life. If I understood correctly, working on their self-esteem had not been a large concern to them, if one at all. That was bound to affect them eventually. In what way remained to be seen. They'd been so preoccupied with survival that issues of self-worth might overwhelm them at first. A sure risk for insecurity and depression.
The information was fascinating and insightful, although worrisome in terms of Benson, Lino, and Alepho. It also made me wonder about us middle-and upper-class Americans. We seldom worried about food, except for eating too much, and that was not what Maslow had been referring to. Most of us had homes and safety and friends and family. That could mean we were entirely focused on that fourth level: ego. Our efforts to make ourselves seem strong, smart, rich, and beautiful, or young were our own kind of survival skill. Perhaps advancing directly to the fourth level, when the mind was originally engineered for the challenges of basic survival, was why Prozac and Zoloft, both antidepressants, were two of the biggest-selling drugs in America.
"The pinnacle of the triangle," Sharon said, "is the fifth level. Self-actualization. A strong and deeply felt belief that as a person one has value in the world. Contentment with who one is rather than what one has. Secure in ones beliefs. Not needing ego boosts from external factors. Having that sense of well-being that does not depend on the approval of others is commonly called happiness."
Happiness, hard to define, yet obvious when present. Most of us struggled our entire lives to achieve it, perhaps what had brought some of us to a mentoring class that night.
”
”
Judy A. Bernstein (Disturbed in Their Nests: A Journey from Sudan's Dinkaland to San Diego's City Heights)
“
Motivation deficit in ADHD is associated with dysfunction of the dopamine reward pathway. Molecular Psychiatry, 302, 1084–1091; Volkow, N. D., Wang, G., Kollins, S. H., Wigal, T. L., Newcorn, J. H., Telang, F.,…Swanson, J. M. (2009).
”
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Thomas E. Brown (Smart But Stuck: Emotions in Teens and Adults with ADHD)
“
Many of us are driven to write through experiences born from pain, generating a need to uniquely express our own inner turmoil. Light-hearted inspiration is certainly an enviable reason to tap into one’s creative juices, but those feelings don’t stimulate the
kinds of thoughts that lodge within me and grow in complexity. I can pinpoint a tragic,
life-changing event occurring in my mid-teens that transformed me into a writer, and
it seems that the weightier side of life continues to be my motivation.
”
”
Keith Steinbaum (The Poe Consequence)
“
Jika berprestasi dan berkarya itu kewajiban, mengapa harus ragu untuk melangkah? Kita tak pernah tahu seberapa jauh kita melangkah hingga kita mencobanya, bukan?
”
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Lisa Isabella (The Elang)
“
Rasa iri sering datang begitu saja, tapi anak muda yang berpikir positif akan turut berbahagia, menghargai dan mendoakan. Maka berupayalah untuk memberikan yang terbaik agar tidak salah menghakimi orang lain.
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Lisa Isabella (The Elang)
“
Hari ini aku giat belajar, bukan karena aku tak menikmati masa muda, tapi aku paham bahwa belajar di masa tua bagaikan mengukir di atas air.
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Lisa Isabella
“
Aku telah berdamai dengan masa lalu. Apa pun yang menyedihkan sebelumnya, bukan menghancurkanku melainkan untuk membentuk diriku yang sekarang
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Lisa Isabella (The Elang)
“
Beri aku satu jawaban mengapa aku harus berhenti berprestasi dan berkarya, sedangkan hidup terlalu singkat untuk sekadar menghirup oksigen.
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Lisa Isabella (The Elang)
“
Prestasi dan kerja keras itu seperti sepasang sepatu, saling berdampingan. Oleh sebab itu, aku tak mudah menyerah. Khawatir menyesal di hari tua.
”
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Lisa Isabella (The Elang)
“
There is nothing so special or boring nor there are any weak or strong things in this world. It is we and our surficial perception that creates these types of environment
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Rajendra Ojha
“
Doing things familiar in anybody the solution is find something you you can do hand work if you old age, if is child buy for him or her hand work toy,Youth or teens get sport to play and handy work cause all crave start from the mind if there's nothing you do it mind desperation and end up doing things you're didn't think you were so it better to make a healthy back up while you on your way of fixing situations of finding something to keep your mind busy or start your own business will be an answer.
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Nozipho N. Maphumulo
“
How could I expect her to understand if I couldn’t explain it? It was not a secret that I struggled with anger at times in my life, and I didn’t want anyone misinterpreting my motives for tracking this kid. I had a gut feeling and nothing more.
”
”
Jonathan Epps (No Winter Lasts Forever (The American Wrath Trilogy))
“
You would argue that we’re not a parasitic life form?’ Arthur challenged. Morgan seemed wounded.
‘Do you think I’m parasitic, Arthur?’ asked Bedivere, his eyebrows raised.
‘No, but—’
‘How about Gwen?’ he added, teasing.
‘Of course not, I didn’t say that the individual is parasitic, just our current way of life. Consumerism is destroying the planet. No, it has destroyed the planet. Why do you think half the world has starved to death? There’s not enough left to support everyone.’
‘Says who?’ Morgan snapped.
‘Says common sense.’ He could feel the wine loosening his tongue. ‘People are lying when they say things aren’t that bad. What do you think all those wars were for? We were all just fighting over who got to eat the last éclair.’
Marvin’s stomach growled, and he awkwardly cleared his throat.
”
”
M.L. Mackworth-Praed
“
Now!’ Marvin interjected. ‘You must all be wondering why I invited you here. Well, you know why you’re here, Arthur; and I assume you’ve explained a little about the club to our members—’
‘We’re looking at alternative truths, right?’ Bedivere asked. ‘The darker side to Britain, and all that.’
‘Yes, yes, Bedivere, we shall cover that. We shall look at Europe, why we left and why ultimately the EU was disbanded; we shall look at the tragic situation in the United States, and we shall look at the abandonment of the Commonwealth states and the blight of Indonesia. But as well as that we shall also be looking closer to home, at our own histories, and I use the plural intentionally; at the rising rebels in the old Celtic countries, at the redefinition of New National Britain’s borders, and at our absolute ruler himself, George Milton, who thus far has used all his electoral power to claw hold of democratic immunity, whose Party has long since been a change-hand, change-face game of musical chairs with the same policies and people from one party to the next. This brings me to my former point of why I invited you here: because I believe that you three are the smartest, the most open, the most questioning, and that you will benefit most from hearing things from an alternative viewpoint—not always my own, and not always comfortable—that the three of you may one day take what you have learned here and remember it when the world darkens, and this country truly forgets that which it once was.’
There was a deep silence. Even Arthur, who was used to Marvin’s tangential speeches, was momentarily confounded, and in the quiet that followed he observed Bedivere to see what he thought of this side to their teacher. His eyes then slipped to Morgan, and he was surprised to find that she was transfixed.
‘But I must stress to all of you, it is my job at risk in doing this, my life at stake. So when you speak of this, speak only amongst yourselves, and tell no one what it is we discuss here. Understood?’
There was a series of dumbstruck nods of consent. Bedivere cleared his throat with a small cough.
‘And here I thought this was just going to be an extra-curricular history club,’ he joked.
”
”
M.L. Mackworth-Praed
“
Time spent under a burden is often time well spent.
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Unspoken lessons are easily missed or misunderstood, and help unoffered is its own imposition.
”
”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
There are people around the world who would risk their lives, who are currently risking their lives, for a tiny fraction of the opportunity you have obtained simply by virtue of having been born here and not there. You have been given a precious gift. Do not squander it.
”
”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
If you wish to leave a legacy, the things you do cannot matter only to you.
”
”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Anxiety and depression are your friends. They tell you there is something undone that must be done, something you must do. They demand action.
”
”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Not everything put into you is good or right, but it is good enough, and it is all important.
”
”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Learn to recognize useless guides without getting sanctimonious about it. There are good reasons there are bad adults; be thankful you are ignorant of a great many of them.
”
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Once you know who you are, you need not fear being misunderstood, or isolated, or bullied. You won’t care whether others respect you, because you know who you are.
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Life is a risk. Life is also punctuated by moments of great risk, and your identity and legacy are shaped by how you respond in those critical moments.
”
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Failing to recognize moments of great risk is like dancing in the dark. You may be on solid ground, or you may be twirling at the verge of a precipice—you don’t know.
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Your moments of great risk are not yours alone. The decisions you make in those moments are of great import to a great many people—people of great import to you.
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
You are not special, but you are unique.
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”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
There is never the potential for success without a corresponding potential for failure.
”
”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Worthy goals are always hard.
”
”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
Wisdom is found in nature only by mining a lot of rock.
”
”
Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
“
It’s important to think of what it means to powerfully and successfully rise to challenges, and all that it requires: determination, clarity, and steering clear of victim mentality
”
”
Emma R. Wilson (Not a Statistic: Emma Wilson's Story of Determination Through Tragedy)
“
Teen Reach responded aggressively to the closing, and filed a lawsuit against the state for violating its First Amendment right to the freedom of religion, as well as other claims. It also resolutely refused to obtain a license for its operations. A state judge rejected the argument that Teen Reach was not a child welfare agency, which means it will have to be licensed to reopen. Teen Reach is appealing.182 At roughly the same time it defied the state's licensing requirement, a bill was introduced into the Arizona legislature that would have exempted faith-based agencies from having to be licensed,183 which would permit religiously motivated abuse of children to go forward without state knowledge or oversight.
”
”
Marci A. Hamilton (God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty)
“
[D]oing nothing meant leaving things exactly the way they were, and that was unacceptable.
”
”
Caroline Goode
“
Be the "Liker"
“If you want to be liked, BE THE LIKER!” This was some of the best advice my enlightened mother ever gave me. Throughout my childhood, teen years, and adulthood, this golden nugget of simple wisdom empowered me to take personal responsibility for developing friendships.
When you want to reach out, make new friends, and increase your likeability factor, step up and “like” others first. They will usually mirror your initiative and like you back.
”
”
Susan C. Young (The Art of Action: 8 Ways to Initiate & Activate Forward Momentum for Positive Impact (The Art of First Impressions for Positive Impact, #4))
“
While motivation can play a significant role in teens’ behavior, it’s important to recognize that some behaviors reflect a skill weakness rather than a lack of motivation.
”
”
Richard Guare (Smart but Scattered Teens: The "Executive Skills" Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential)
“
Designers need to recognize that, though their goal is to influence consumers, the effect upon individuals and society must be considered. They must decide whether to use their creative energies and the power of symbol to present something that benefits society or to use it in a way that is false but personally advantageous. Today the pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion dollar business driven by the consumer's misplaced fear, ignorance, desire and hope. Take the example of antidepressants being administered to teens to treat behavior problems rooted in patterns that could be changed instead with structure, discipline, motivation and diet. Pharmaceutical drugs can certainly be a useful and effective treatment, but the industry sometimes creates a false need for the sake of profit. Symbolic
”
”
Maggie Macnab (Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication)
“
In order for kids to reach their full potential, they must first believe they have potential.
They must believe that they matter and that they have the power to choose a beautiful life story. They must feel empowered to discover and use their unique skills, interests, ideas, perspectives and ways of showing up in the world to embody the best possible version of themself and create the best possible life for themself. They must be taught that every great leader, activist and change-maker started as a kid who chose to take action to change the world.
It is imperative that teachers, parents, role models and mentors tell and show kids over and over again that they are valuable and important, that they matter, and that have the power to choose. They have the power to choose to embody the best version of themself. They have the power to choose to make life better for the people and world around them. They have the power to choose the legacy they leave behind. Whoever they want to be and however they want to be remembered, they have the power to choose that.
”
”
Lauren Martin (Insecurity is a Seed (Emotion Series))
“
In order to reach your full potential, you must first believe you have potential. You have unique skills, interests, perspectives, ideas and ways of showing up in the world that make you different than anyone else in the universe. The pain and suffering you feel now will one day be a blurry memory, and your challenges and darkest moments are what make you an inspiration to others. The things that make you different than your peers are the very things that make you important and valuable.
Every great leader, activist and change-maker started as a child who chose to take action to change the world. Remind yourself over and over again that have the power to choose; You have the power to choose to embody the best version of yourself; You have the power to choose to make life better for the people and world around you; You have the power to choose the legacy you leave behind. Whoever you want to be and however you want to be remembered, choose that. Never forget you matter, and you choose your life story.
”
”
Lauren Martin (One Wave: A little book of oneness)
“
If you’ve ever suffered the accusations of people who objectified you as an emblem of darkness, it wasn’t your fault. If you’ve ever been haunted by the opinions of your friends, it wasn’t your fault. If they’ve ever assumed the worst of you, it wasn’t your fault. If you’ve ever been judged by your own parents, it wasn’t your fault. If you’ve ever been treated as an outcast, it wasn’t your fault. If you’ve ever made a decision based on an opinion, it wasn’t your fault. If you’ve ever been labeled, it wasn’t your fault. If you’ve ever been stuck in the middle of a love triangle, it wasn’t your fault. If you’ve ever been heartbroken, it wasn’t your fault. If you’ve ever cried yourself to sleep, it wasn’t your fault.
As you suffered and grew up, your soul got stained, your heart got shattered and your body paralyzed, which drove you into a deep state of slow sleep. As you opened your eyes, the atrocities of your past were glistening over your eyes and you knew, you had lost yourself in a place of utter darkness, but there was learning to be done in the cold dark. Like seeds of plants shaded by dirt, you twitched with the want to rise. As you grew tired of the shadows, you climbed into a world that was finally making room for light. Room for you and for all your truth. You ignited not in the light but in the distant shadows of the dark. In your chaos, you found clarity. In your suffering, you found purpose. You didn’t ignore the pain. You gave it reason. You used it. You reveled in it. As you began your journey to redefine yourself in misery and pain, your heart grew fonder but you didn’t give up. As stones of suffering came to dance, your feet took flight, the sun tried to burn you down, but God threw a shadow over the horizon and you saw a ray of hope and chased your way over the mightiest slopes. For a long time, you thought being different was a negative thing; but as you grew older, you started to realize that you were born to stand out, not blend in. Now, when people put a label on you, you find comfort in your true self because, in the end, you are proud to be who you’re. You’re a survivor. You and I come from completely different places, our world is a parallel space and we speak different languages, but one thing I’m sure of is that my heart beats the same as yours.
At end of the day, we’re all meant to be who we are; Our True Selves.
”
”
Kamil Alvi
“
I hope you don't get stuck in the atrocities of your past. For others, it may just be a story but for people like us, it's the epitome of scars and a mountain of insurmountable obstacles.
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Kamil Alvi
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I wonder what brought us here?
The analogy of our situation or the void we want to fill? Perhaps, our previous journey was a complete sham; both stuck in the atrocities of the past; impotent to move on from our former grievances and after all this time, we meet again. Maybe, this time it will be different; maybe this time we won't repeat the same mistakes we made; maybe this time we'll do better; maybe this time we'll be better.
But what if we didn't? What if this contemporary start of our new era destroyed us now more than ever? The question begs itself and the rest is silence!
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Kamil Alvi
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How can adults help adolescents manage the mismatch between their normal drive for autonomy, identity, and independence and what school asks of them? I think we're most useful when we bear in mind that sending our teens to school is like sending them to a buffet where they are required to try everything being served. As adults, many of us have figured out what we like and what we don't, and we select for ourselves accordingly. In my case, I happily consume psychology all day and haven't had a bite of physics since I was seventeen. Teenagers, however, must consume everything on the menu. There is no way they will like all of it, and we should not expect that they will. I find that the school-as-mandatory-buffet metaphor brings needed neutrality to the loaded topic of academic motivation, so I'm going to risk beating it into the ground.
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Lisa Damour (The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents)
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Chemically induced joy comes at a cost. That cost can be high. Very, very high. So high that you’re going to think twice after reading what science has to say about drug use. One study found that adolescents who smoke just a couple of joints of marijuana show changes in their brains. That’s not a couple of years of smoking or the decades that some adults rack up. It’s just two joints. A research team led by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a professor and psychiatrist at the McGill University Health Center in Montreal, discovered that teenagers using cannabis had a nearly 40% greater risk of depression and a 50% greater risk of suicidal ideation in adulthood. Dr. Gobbi stated that “given the large number of adolescents who smoke cannabis, the risk in the population becomes very big. About 7% of depression is probably linked to the use of cannabis in adolescence, which translates into more than 400,000 cases.” The research that revealed these startling numbers was not just a single study of adolescent marijuana use. It was a meta-analysis and review of 11 studies with a total of 23,317 teenage subjects followed through young adulthood. Further, Gobbi’s team only reviewed studies that provided information on depression in the subjects prior to their cannabis use. “We considered only studies that controlled for [preexisting] depression,” said Dr. Gobbi. “They were not depressed before using marijuana, so they probably weren’t using it to self-medicate.” Marijuana use preceded depression. The specific findings of Gobbi’s research include: The risk of depression associated with marijuana use in teens below age 18 is 1.4 times higher than among nonusers. The risk of suicidal thoughts is 1.5 times higher. The likelihood that teen marijuana users will attempt suicide is 3.46 times greater. In adults with prolonged marijuana use, the wiring of the brain degrades. Areas affected include the hippocampus (learning and memory), insula (compassion), and prefrontal cortex (executive functions). The authors of one study stated that “regular cannabis use is associated with gray matter volume reduction in the medial temporal cortex, temporal pole, parahippocampal gyrus, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex; these regions are rich in cannabinoid CB1 receptors and functionally associated with motivational, emotional, and affective processing. Furthermore, these changes correlate with the frequency of cannabis use . . . [while the] . . . age of onset of drug use also influences the magnitude of these changes.” A large number of studies show that cannabis use both increases anxiety and depression and leads to worse health. Key parts of your brain shrink more, based on how early you began smoking weed, and how often you smoke it. That’s a “high” price to pay.
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Dawson Church (Bliss Brain: The Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy)
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imaging studies may help explain why people with ADHD tend to be less able than their peers to anticipate pleasure or register satisfaction with tasks for which the payoff is delayed. An important effect is that often they have great difficulty in activating themselves to get started on tasks that are not especially interesting to them and in sustaining motivation to complete tasks for which the rewards are not imminently available.
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Thomas E. Brown (Smart But Stuck: Emotions in Teens and Adults with ADHD)
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Eric's challenge is a clear example of a problem faced by many young adults, especially those with ADHD who feel and act apathetic toward work.5 It is often very difficult for them to feel motivation strong enough and consistent enough today for doing tasks that will pay off for them only much further down the road. If the task today is not intrinsically interesting to them, they find it very difficult to get started and to sustain sufficient effort to complete those tasks that are likely to offer them substantial payoff years later.
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Thomas E. Brown (Smart But Stuck: Emotions in Teens and Adults with ADHD)
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Positively Georgia: Chin Up, Pup: Canine Confidence
Book Three in the Positively Georgia series
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Positively Georgia: Chin Up, Pup aims to help teens and adults realize their inner potential, build up their self-confidence, and follow their dreams. Georgie-Girl is a one-year-old Airedale Terrier who discovers magical abilities that will help readers transform their thoughts. "Balls—it takes balls to step outside your comfort zone." This book will show you that with determination, a clear vision of what you want, positive energy, and gratitude, you can be the star of your own life.
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Elizabeth Ferris (Positively Georgia: The Motivational Tale of a Unique Airedale)
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Please come and stand beside me,
If you can,
Hold my fingers forever and see
This young true man.
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Kuntal Dhara (December: Poems by a Teen)
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We're sitting on a hill,
reminiscing about our deeds.
These are mesmerising moments of ease;
scenes are harmonising in keys.
But we're in a state of oblivion,
shunned from the view of fate in this period.
We think about the nice days from our teens;
the things that we did at our free will.
We're in sync with the future and past tensions.
Indeed, we could enjoy the present intentions.
But we're in a state of oblivion,
shunned from the view of fate in this period.
We envision our problems gone;
with collisions exposed and pawned.
Oh! We could enjoy this peaceful time,
on this hill, watching the sunrise.
But we're in a state of oblivion,
shunned from the view of fate in this period.
The beautiful birds stride pass our face.
Thick cuticles blurred, striped by hours of grace.
They flap their wings, forming art;
tail lamps for us, bleeding hearts.
But we're in a state of oblivion,
shunned from the view of fate in this period.
People of different cultures come to us.
Simple, they offer their services; no Judas.
Wave their hands with care;
give their food to share.
But we're in a state of oblivion,
shunned from the view of fate in this period.
What a sad case this is; our mindfulness is butchered.
Heads are swimming between the past and the future.
Opportunities to love others in truth are being missed.
Communities could share true love; limiting the rifts.
But we're in a state of oblivion,
shunned from the view of fate in this period.
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Mitta Xinindlu
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Emotions motivate action—action to engage or action to avoid. Many people with untreated or inadequately treated ADHD can readily mobilize interest only for activities offering very immediate gratification; they tend to have severe difficulty in activating and sustaining effort for tasks that offer rewards only over the longer term.
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Thomas E. Brown (Smart But Stuck: Emotions in Teens and Adults with ADHD)
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Adolescence is an inside job. In the 1990s, Suniya S. Luthar, Ph.D., studied adolescents and found that ninth-graders with an internal locus of control - those who felt they had some command over the forces shaping their lives - handled stress better than kids with an external orientation - those who felt others had control over forces shaping their lives...Locus of control is not an all-or-nothing concept. None of us are entirely reliant on one or the other...But more and more often, the teenagers I observe aren't even partially internally motivated. They persistently turn outward toward coaches, teachers, and parents...A startlingly large number of these teens are behaving like younger children. They're stuck performing the chief psychosocial tasks of childhood - being good and doing things right to please adults - instead of taking on the developmental work of separation and independence that is appropriate for their age. When faced with teenage-sized problems, they often have nothing more than the skills of a child.
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Madeline Levine (Ready or Not: Preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World)
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Yes, trying new things may be scary, maybe even unrealistic. But do you really want to live your entire life without being able to look back at how many obstacles you have overcome? Sometimes, you need to briefly step out of the real world to give yourself the inspiration you can’t find anywhere else; set your own boundaries for what is real to you.
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Michelle Fridman (Future Titans)
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There's only one person better than you, and you see them in the mirror every single day. Never stop being you.
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Hissam Effendi (Future Titans)
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As he became a teenager, there is strong evidence that he began to drink alcohol on a regular basis. It was not at all unusual for Dahmer to show up to school with a paper cup of alcohol taken from his parents’ house that he sipped from before school started for the day. This could explain some of Dahmer’s lack of motivation and the desire to be left alone, as well as his low ambitions as far as deciding what he wanted to do with his life. Dahmer drank to ease the pain of his loneliness, and perhaps to make it easier to be around other teens, to ease or lessen the anxiety. It was also likely a distraction from the problems that were going on at home when his parents fought.
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Patrick Kennedy (GRILLING DAHMER: The Interrogation Of "The Milwaukee Cannibal")
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keep it positive rather than competitive
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Teen Vouge Editor
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You should neither attempt to justify a bad risk because it turned out well nor regret too much a good risk that turned out badly.
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Shawn Davis (The Talk: A Young Person's Guide to Life's Big Questions)
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Getting to know people is important
Caring for others feelings is a priority
Never judge a person by a few conversations
You can never really know a person
But at least you can get to know them a little better
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Kabashe Pillay (A Broken Woman: From a child that was loved dearly into a teen that has lost her strength)
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There's not much to do in a small town. Teens have to make their own fun. This usually means partying. Cheap beer. Making babies. But we had other ideas. We'd film movies. Write songs. "Attack of the Demonic Broccoli People" is a lost horror classic. Shut down by a teacher who said it was "Of The Devil." "Angie Girl" lyrics rhymed porch swing with ding-a-ling. We were the new New Romantics. I'd leave handwritten stories with confused cashiers. Pass proto-folk-punk tapes around school. You can get a lot done with no money. If the motivation is there.
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Damon Thomas (Too Weird To Share: A Rural Gloom Sampler)
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Growth begins where comfort ends. Embrace challenges, push boundaries, and success will follow.
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Shivani Tomar (Midnight Curiosity: A teens inquisitiveness)
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Around the time I turned thirty and was beginning to explore the science behind the gut microbiome, I decided to revolutionize my diet. In a desperate attempt to bring back the microbes I had for so long neglected, I drastically increased my fibre intake. An immediate attempt to eat thirty types of plant foods in a week just resulted in an irritable bowel and an even more irritable mood. Deducing that I’d slightly overdone things, I decided to start low and go slow. A clove of garlic here, half an onion there. Over the following weeks and months I gradually increased the diversity of plant food in my diet, slowing down if I felt that it was a bit much for my microbes to take. Within a few months I was easily eating around thirty a week, and now I no longer bother counting, as experimenting with different plant foods has become second nature. While I appreciate that I only have a study population of one, this change in diet has had dramatic effects on all aspects of my defence system. I’ve been plagued with eczema since my late teens – a disease caused in part by immune system dysfunction. Since altering my diet, it has never been better. I have also noticed positive changes in my mood and motivation, as well as a markedly improved resilience to stressors. As with all of us, life happens, and a number of difficult personal events hit me around six months after I’d established a diverse plant diet. These challenges, while difficult, did not elicit the stress responses I mounted to similar struggles a few years previously. A healthy diet is not a magic cure for life’s struggles, but it is a fantastic foundation for a resilient defence system.
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Monty Lyman (The Immune Mind: The Hidden Dialogue Between Your Brain and Immune System)