Everything you’ve ever known has disappeared.

Time is now an echo, with few to record it and fewer to care.

Could this ever really happen?

Millions of people, from the Discovery Channel to big-time Hollywood directors, to you and me, have been asking this question forever.

Of course it could. The planet was here for 4 1/2 billion years before us. It’s a question of when, not if.

Maybe that’s why I’ve thought about it my entire life. Or maybe it’s because I started reading Stephen King, specifically The Stand, WAY too early in life. Either way, the idea that everything could end tomorrow intersects with another thought I’ve always held close.

Every minute matters.

I spend my life trying not to waste them. I miss dinner with my family a few days a year, turn down lucrative work when it interferes with my immediate goals, and record the highlights of my days with the permanence of my ink.

I never knew how important time was to me until I started writing. Now I think about it every day. How it fades, shines, and eventually, completely disappears. And how even though I hate it so much for promising to one day take everything from me, I will never, ever intentionally kill it.

Would the nature of time change if there was no world to wrap around it?

Those questions, along with a million others and a fierce love of serialized TV, drove me to write Yesterday’s Gone, the awesome-all-over-the-place post-apocalyptic serial co-authored by David Wright.

Passing time and pending death – the characters in Yesterday’s Gone are the few final survivors of a world that expired in a second, who must confront the brutal reality of meaningless time and lifetime regrets.

And it all happens in a blink.

What if the world was gone, everything you’ve ever known suddenly disappeared, and time was an echo, with few to record it and fewer to care.

Would you be happy with how you spent the last year?

The last week?

Yesterday?

If the world ended tomorrow, what would you do tonight?

Check out this trailer:

Click on the link to buy the Yesterday’s Gone pilot. It’s the best $.99 you could possibly spend, but if you want to get the full “season” now, $4.99 will put a smile on your face for a week.

Fair warning: if you don’t like serials like LOST and writers like Stephen King, you probably won’t like reading Yesterday’s Gone. But if you like stuff that starts out awesome, and then is awesome on every page until the WTF? cliffhanger ending, then you’ll totally dig Yesterday’s Gone.

Especially how it leaves you pondering your place in this world.

Click here to become a “goner,” and get exclusive chapters with shocking endings, along with a ringside seat to all the behind the scenes stuff Dave and I are doing at the Inkwell (perfect for readers AND writers!)sean

Please share this post!

Sean Platt is an author, publisher and creative entrepreneur. Follow him on Twitter.

Other people want you to change your opinion to suit them but they won’t change to suit you. They just go on living their lives. How does that work? – Quote by My wife, 2010

John Donne said “the death of any man diminishes me” but I think a worse fate than being dead is dying inside – being diminished – while you live.

That is what happens when you poison your growth through letting others diminish, marginalize and demoralize you from reaching your potential. Let me tell you, living in fear of other peoples’ opinions sucks. I know. I’ve done it.

Yes, – you live, but you live a sickly fearful existence stunted like a tree permanently in the shadow of other peoples’ opinions. As a result, both the branches you grow and the fruit you bear will be withered compared to what they could be. You behave like a rabbit darting from safe hole to safe hole avoiding the glare of other peoples’ disapproval. It’s no way to live.

If you are fortunate enough to get a moment of clarity you will realize that millions of people don’t live this way – they lead happy self-directed lives that are productive and focused – then you can start to question your own personal status quo…and that’s where the changes start.

Then, as you grow older and wiser you realize how unimportant other peoples’ opinions of your worth really are but the trick is to realize it young – and choose amongst all the mediocrity of others peoples’ lives to do something magnificent with your life and time from an earlier age.

The desire to please others rather than live the life we’re called too has probably killed a lot of dreams and is still strangling millions of others. But today I’m going to tell you what I’ve learned in my 37 years and in case you think my age counts me out from having any wisdom remember that being old does always mean you are wiser but it may mean you have made a lot more mistakes! The question is: have you learned from them?

I’ve been through some nasty hard stuff in life, stuff that has driven other people to suicide, and yet to look at me you’d never guess. Because I’m still here, I’m joyful, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s this. Live your life. Don’t be a jerk because it doesn’t pay but live your life. Or others will try to live it for you. Their greatest ambition is to stop you causing them any discomfort. Rise above it. Love them anyway.

You are designed to be great and to do great things. They may not be nine ‘o’ clock news things (Question: Do you think Mother Theresa would have stopped caring if she never got any publicity?) but you are here to make an impact for a worthy cause rather than being what George Bernard Shaw called “ a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”
Man and Superman: A comedy and a Philosophy

The first key to becoming great is, paradoxically, one of the hardest and most counterintuitive. You need to care first and foremost for what you think – and stop caring what other people think of you.

On the face of it, this sounds unbelievably selfish and arrogant (which is probably why so many people don’t ‘get it’) so let me explain.

You need to be the one who authorizes your point of view. That way, you can develop a determination to help people that transcends their disapproval. If you are to truly help another (with wisdom and vision) then you will need to do things that they might not like or understand. Hopefully, they will understand later but even if they don’t you need to know for yourself that you did the right things.

Secondly, if you decide what you think then you can decide to approve of yourself. By this I mean you can decide that you are worthwhile, you have value, and you are going to make an impact in the world.

For a long time I went around with the idea that it was somehow arrogant to approve of myself and as a Christian I wanted to have a humble view of myself. But then I realized I had not accepted what God said about me, which is that I am created in His image and precious to Him. I was being a hypocrite by not accepting my Creator’s (much more positive) view of me!

Here’s the point: My consciousness is the gatekeeper for what my mind lets in. I actually had
to let in the idea that God approves of me. Whether I let it in or not doesn’t change the fact that He does, but I have to be the one to authorize that thought as being valid in my mind.

What do you have to step up and give permission to work in your mind? Where do you need to say “Thought, come in”?

Caring too much what others think about us is an inhibitor to greatness, per se.

I am not saying we should not care at-all – I truly believe that striving to love our enemies and our neighbors as ourselves is exactly the right thing to do in a messed up world where hatred and anger only begets the same. As the book of Proverbs says “A wise man ignores an insult: it is to his glory to overlook an offense.”

However, giving others the right to question our worth (as opposed to our skills and performance) means we will forever live timidly in the shadow of needing their approval. And whilst we wait for a smile or a nod, they will carry on living their lives. Does that make you angry enough to want to change it RIGHT now? It should!

So why did you give others the right to diminish you? Because you want their approval so you simultaneously buy into their disapproval as well. Why do you want their approval? Well other than the fact that we are created as social animals and a certain level of approval is necessary for co-existence, the blunt fact is you don’t approve of yourself so you look for it from others.

The quote goes “The deepest desire of the human heart is to be appreciated.” That’s true, but unless you can appreciate yourself, you’ll always be a prisoner of other’s opinions.

Yet we don’t think we can approve of ourselves because we have blinded ourselves to our own capabilities and accepted the limitations others have placed on us. It is a sad but undeniable fact that our minds tend to reinforce what we currently believe and it takes a courageous man or woman to take a step back and question what seems like the reality of what we ‘are’.

So because we want the crumbs that comes from the significant other’s table we have allowed ourselves to be sold – or sold ourselves – reasons to let others criticise our worth and this is a death-sentence for the soul and foolishness of the highest order.

What really gives another human being the right (let alone the experience and the wisdom) to judge our worth and value? Are they not in the same boat as us? Were they not born, have to eat, get hungry and so on? If you prick them, do they not bleed? 

When the scales fall from your eyes and you see that mostly we judge ourselves by labels that have no lasting significance we become free to see all the posturing that we do in order to look good in the sight of others.

Do these others know all our secrets, all our dreams and aspirations? Do they know the good deeds we have done in secret or the evil we have wished on others? Do they know our joys and our griefs, our little celebrations of life and the desperation we can feel alone in the dead of the night?

How possibly do they have the experience of us to make a reasoned judgement?

Can you possibly know all that about them? I think it was Confuscious that said “knowing you know nothing is the beginning of wisdom.” It’s time to approach what people really know and can do with a little humility. They do not know you – and you only know of them what you have seen and heard.

I have found it an 18 year project to get to the point where I don’t really care what other people think of my value in their eyes so I don’t say it lightly when I point out this needs to be done. Realising, truly realising that I decide what I think was my breakthrough moment.

There is a self-help saying: “What you focus on grows” and simultaneously what you authorise, grows in your mind as well. The moment I realised I could authorise myself to believe in my own worth was the moment I truly started valuing myself. And when I could value myself, it was easier to value others. And when I could value others it was easier to overlook their behaviour because there was a bigger picture to pursue – that of helping them realise their value.

Then you realise that you are equal in value to anyone and everyone. It’s not about economic status or looks. If I or you are to do anything worthwhile in this world we need to see ourselves as equals to others in value.

I know the present way society is going encourages us to value ourselves according to labels such as beauty (did you know obese women were considered beautiful in Picasso’s time?), money and career but all this is meaningless and leads eventually to terrible consequences such as the Holocaust or Year Zero.

You, as much as the smelly old bag lady in the street, are a living miracle. Your sperm and egg made it when all the others fell by the wayside (unless you’re a twin!) You already succeeded before birth and you succeed now, everyday, although not perhaps in the ways you would like!

You have to believe in yourself, like yourself, have a realistic evaluation of yourself and yet reach for a higher more potent moral and giving version of you. Human beings operate best when they transcend their selfish motives.

Earlier this year I left my church and along with that I left the approval of my friends some of whom I had known for 14 years. I joined another and I am happy there because I am being called to grow into what I can be. I had to make a decision to do what was best for me and my family – and although it has been hard I have not regretted it.

When you let other people diminish you, you do a disservice not only to yourself but to the whole human race. Don’t do it. Read and re-read this post, and rise up to do great things. Growth and striving for greatness are natural human states. Become all you can be, and in the striving you will be happier and a better person for everything.

Paradoxically, in order to do anything of worth for other people you have to stop caring what they think of you if you do things they don’t like. Then you can start.

Douglas Cartwright is a freelance blogger and the founder of The Self Hacker Blog.

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The large, maple tree that shades our house disperses whirly, helicopter seeds. From these seeds, trees grow almost anywhere, amongst flowers and between grape vines. Trees even weave in and out of metal fencing.

Have you ever noticed how trees grow in spite of limits? A tree makes space for its roots and leaves, changing directions as needed. We, too, can create space and adjust for personal growth.

For me, changing myself is a far greater challenge than academic learning. Iíve got the knowledge, yet applying it to my life is something different. Turning knowledge into action can get even tougher when I impose limits on myself.

What limits do you impose on yourself?

When we limit ourselves, we stunt our growth potential. Do any of these limiting assumptions sounds familiar?

• I’ll never be good enough, smart enough, or strong enough.
• I can’t change. I’ve always been this way.
• It’ll take too long. It ‘s too late to change.

What can we learn about change from a shade sharing, powerful tree? To grow through our limits. It’s time to break through, like a tree reaching for raindrops and sunlight.

What do you want to change or grow?

It can be anything, from a behavior, recurring pattern, nasty habit, to a new skill. A few things I’m working on:

• Not taking others’ reactions personally
• Letting others learn from their mistakes
• Defining myself when pressured to agree with others

I fantasize about fleeing from my goals when I get frustrated with slow change. Yet, I persist, loving the challenge of learning and breaking through limits.

4 Steps to Grow Through Your Limits:

Nurture Your Foundation : A tree creates roots to receive nutrients.

Look after yourself, and receive needed nutrients. Care for your physical body. Connect with loved ones. Give yourself a strong foundation of roots to grow.

Build on Learning : A tree knows where to grow to get the best nutrients.

View each step as learning, even if you step backwards, sideways, or freeze. Learning what works and what doesnít work.† Small steps build into big change over time.

Befriend Repetition : A tree has many branches and leaves to receive nutrients.

Breaking through limits takes time. You may start acting or thinking in a new way before your feelings catch up. The more you practice your new skill, the easier it will get. Repetition creates a new pathway in your brain.

Tap Into Strength : A tree is a powerful living system with innate growth potential.

We can do hard things. Our strength is larger than we imagine. Chose long-term growth over short-term discomfort. Move toward growth and break through self-imposed limits.

Limitless growth can be unlocked at any age. Greyson Chance is living his dream at 13 years old. He shares his inspiration with others in ‘Waiting Outside the Lines’.

Embrace your personal journey, the triumphs and the pit stops. Don’t let the lines you’ve drawn inside yourself hold you back. Unlock nature’s secrets.

What helps you break through self-imposed limits?

—————————————————————————————————

Marci writes for Liberating Choices, inspiring others to break through worry. She’s passionate about coaching others to reach their goals, one step at a time.

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Jill Gets Ambushed, Again

The knot condensed like a heavy weight in Jill’s stomach. Suddenly gasping for air, she recognized she had been here before. Yet again, just when she thought she had finally put it all together, something had sabotaged the fulfilling life that she dreamed about. “Not again,” she announced silently as she looked forlornly at her scales, “I can’t believe I’ve gained the weight back.” Jill could feel the power to change her life slipping through her fingers – it had not been the first time.

Taking responsibility for her life and changing it for the better was something Jill took seriously. She tried hard. She practiced positive thinking, the law of attraction, visualization, goal setting, yoga – and she prayed and meditated regularly for abundance. Yet after enthusiastic initial successes, something unseen seemed to pull her back into her “de-ja-vu all over again”.

“It’s not that I have a bad life”, Jill reminded herself, “It’s just that I know there is more. And it’s right outside of my grasp. What am I missing? Why do I keep repeating the same thing over and over again? How do I really claim my potential?”

These four questions were about to change Jill’s life.
1. What Am I Missing?
2. Why Do I Keep Repeating the Same Things Over and Over Again?
3. How Do I Train the Brain to Disrupt Old Limiting Patterns and Create New Empowering Ones?
4. How Do I Open the Door to Claiming My Potential?

Let’s examine the first three of these questions. Why not all four? Because until you skillfully address the first three questions, fulfilling your potential will remain an elusive dream. The first three questions deal with the influence your biology has over who you believe yourself to be. The answer to the last question becomes apparent when you learn how to better manage your body and mind.

What Am I Missing?
Your Biology and Brain Have Far More Influence Over the Course of Your Life Than You Imagine.

You may have been sleeping during high school or college biology – particularly neuro-biology. And not understanding what you missed will blind you to why you keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

What Jill did not understand is the power of her biology and brain to create and maintain patterns. Without learning how to work with your biology, these patterns will overwhelm even your best intentions to change. As an example, think about Jill’s dieting. It is common for people to get highly motivated to lose weight. They set goals, visualize success, use positive self talk, affirm themselves, spend a lot of money, and reward themselves for weight loss. And they lose weight – initially. A piece of cake, right?

Yet, 95% of people regain the weight they lost. And seriously declared New Year’s Resolutions routinely are broken within 3 weeks. Why, you ask? This is that pesky neuro-biological pattern in action. Your brain and mind cannot be neatly separated. Without learning to manage your biology’s influence over your mind, your neuro-biology will pull you back into its historical hardwired pattern. Your mind emerges from your brain (biology) and the brain is interested in building perceptual maps that are organized around emotions and patterns.

It’s not that we are only our biology. However, once the brain builds successful short term patterns, they lock in and start replicating what we see as possible in our lives. And that causes us to be blind to any possibility outside of the familiar pattern in which the brain organized us.

In real life what does this look like? Let’s go back to Jill. Jill has struggled with her weight for a number of years. Every time she would finally get it back under control and was able to look into her mirror and see the “true” Jill emerging, she would sabotage her efforts. During these times of sabotage, she went on “auto-pilot” and did not “see” herself losing her discipline – and eating too much. Then she would wake up a couple of months later only to discover the weight had snuck back on her. What happened?

Why Do I Keep Repeating the Same Things Over and Over Again?
Getting Stuck in the Box of Your Comfort Zone

Jill just encountered the pattern-making machinery of her brain – which, by the way, no one had ever told her about. Until this time, she thought that losing weight was about discipline, exercise, and envisioning a healthier self. (No one had told her biology and her brain about her plan!) Evidence did not match experience though. No matter how advanced her “head game” became, somehow the weight was able to sneak back on her body.

The brain creates patterns to adapt us to successfully survive in whatever environment to which we are born. Once established though, these patterns go on automatic and become highly resistant to change – as Jill experienced as “de-ja-vu all over again”. And once established, you do not have a pattern. Rather, the pattern has you. And until you wake up to its power, the pattern creates your experiences in life. This is why you keep doing the same things over and over again. And this is why Jill kept losing and gaining her weight back.

In Jill’s case, she had learned to use food to “comfort” herself during adolescence. Like many teenagers she experienced periods of feeling isolated (which produces a sense of discomfort for the brain). The way she found to calm this discomfort was by eating, which produced a sense of comfort for her. The brain seized on this successful solution to the discomfort of feeling isolated and created a hardwired neruo-pathway of eating behavior to solve a primitive survival problem. Jill got stuck with the brain’s pattern of eating to comfort her feeling of discomfort. And the battle of weight began. The brain’s short term solution produced temporary comfort in exchange for a long term problem of weight gain. But the brain only cares to produce short term problem solutions and, if successful, these will become locked in as familiar pattern.

Your Brain, Mind, and Comfort Zone
Create the Prison of Your Donut.

This is what I call being stuck in the box (prison) of your comfort zone. The brain has created a comfort zone for a survivable life – not a life in which you thrive. And the box of your comfort zone is highly resistant to change. As an example, think of a huge donut, and you are in the hole of that donut.

The donut surrounds you. And you are stuck in the donut hole. It’s safe, familiar, and pretty sweet in that donut hole – even if it does close down the possibility of exploring the adventure you would like to take. You have a desire to leave the prison that the donut hole has become, but every time you climb out of the familiarity of the donut hole something begins pulling you back. As you approach the edges of your self knowledge (that’s the edges of the donut), you begin to experience the uncertainty of the unknown. You simply do not know what exists outside the cocoon of your donut.

Your brain is wired to keep you in familiar pattern – that’s the donut and donut hole. That is how your brain (with its bias for survival) has adapted you. There is an adventurer living within you that wants to expand beyond the self imposed comfort zone, but the brain’s survival motivation wants you back in the box of your comfort zone (that is the donut hole). Suddenly thinking, possessed by the force of the comfort zone, creates a story in your mind about how sweet the donut hole really is. And it may not be what you want for growth, but it is safe. A lot safer than the uncertainty that lies beyond the comfort zone called your donut.

This is exactly what is happening to our friend Jill. She is not aware of the influence of the patterns created by her brain, but that does not stop their influence. And until she wakes up to its influence, she will continue to be swept away by the unseen forces that seem to be shaping her fate. Waking up to the power of her biology to create a self fulfilling pattern changes everything. More about that later.

By the time your psychology shows up (that’s the mind), you experience this uncertainty and shrinking of the self as fear or self doubt. Why should your biology be subjected to uncertainty? (That is exactly what it is mandated to avoid.) So you stay stuck in a particular way of being in the world called your life. This scenario is played out countless times over a lifetime. And it will stay in place until you learn how to observe, disrupt, and create new pattern as a designer of your life.

How Do I Train the Brain to Disrupt Old Limiting Patterns and Create New Empowering Ones?

This is where Jill began to wake up to the influence her biology had exerted over her mind and her ability to maintain a healthy weight. First and foremost, she had to come to a new understanding of her biology. Body, mind, and our spiritual nature cannot be separated. Central to that new understanding is the assertion that neuro-biology has given us – that mind emerges from brain.

Second, she had to learn the skills of diaphragmatic breathing as part of mindfulness training. Fear, as an emotional state, cannot be maintained as a driver of thought while breathing diaphragmatically. Herbert Benson, MD proved that our emotional state was linked to the way we breathe. Fear requires a shallow breathing style (or holding of breath) to maintain itself or to accelerate its intensity. And fear determines our state of mind (the way we think). What Dr. Benson was able to demonstrate was that fear states could be disrupted by managing breathing style and by relaxing tension in the body. He coined the term “Relaxation Response” to describe this important skill.

Jill learned how to breathe her way through “bouts” of emotional and psychological discomfort. She realized that, when she felt isolation, she stopped breathing and held her breath. By consciously breathing deeply, she was able to learn how to override the build up of anxiety that triggered her comfort eating.

SafePlace Generation:
Distinguishing Biological Fear and Psychological Discomfort

But Jill did not stop with developing the skill of breathing as a tool to manage her inherent anxiety that lead to comfort eating.

Once you grasp that your biology is organized around fear as an evolutionary force, you can appreciate how important this breathing skill is to develop. The body, your biology, cannot tell the difference between biological fear (threat to life) and psychological discomfort (something you deal with and grow from). By learning to breathe diaphragmatically, you can disrupt the power of fear to compel you to avoid conflict. This calms the body.

But that’s never enough. Fear has to be distinguished between a real biological threat and psychological discomfort. Once biological fear is separated from psychological discomfort, you will need to learn how to take fear off-line – or calm the mind. This entails creating a sense of safety for the mind to focus on. In the Ignite Your Spark work that I teach, this is called SafePlace generation. Fundamentally it is creating a highly enriched soothing memory that can be called up in your mind. The trick is in training yourself so this state of mind will trigger simultaneously as fears and self doubt emerge in the mind.

This training requires that the body and mind calm down so that conflict can be observed from a calm state of mind rather than an agitated (whether by fear or anger) state of mind. Here, conflict shifts from an object of fear to be avoided to an object beyond the comfort zone. And a natural state of calm curiosity opens to explore possibility. Conflict is no longer interpreted as a threat; rather it can now be viewed as an opportunity of growth.

This is where Jill began to flourish. Taking the discomfort off line allowed her to stop avoiding the sense of isolation that lay at the root of her brain’s organization about isolation. She could approach the internal conflict within her in a state of calm, rather than in a state of anxiousness. This made all the difference in the world. Conflict was not the problem, she discovered, it was her approach to her internal struggle that had blocked her from a more fulfilling life.

Without conflict there is no growth. And conflict is inescapable. What matters is not the avoidance of conflict, but, rather, how we approach conflict. Think about it this way. Would you rather solve a problem in a fearful state of mind, or from a calm state of mind? That’s a no-brainer.

Very different worlds open up to us depending on our emotional states. As we become more competent in managing our emotional states of mind, the greater our capacity becomes to move beyond the box of our comfort zone. It is by managing the uncertainty (fear) that keeps us a prisoner in our comfort zone that we expand the possibility of who we can be.

How Do I Open the Door to Claiming My Potential?

As you can tell from the way Jill changed the way she worked with her discomfort, transformation begins by disrupting the brain’s familiar patterns by learning how to manage the biology of our mind. She learned how to self sooth rather than reach for comfort food. But there is more possible.

Like Jill had to learn in the example at the start of this article, the first step is to learn how to manage emotional states by skillful breathing. The next essential step for creating positive change is to calm the mind through self soothing, such as SafePlace generation. That calms the body and slows down the stream of thoughts going on in your mind. Then something powerful happens. You discover that there is an internal dialogue going on in your mind to which you can become an observer.

And that internal dialogue, masquerading as thoughts in your mind, is the key to understanding self and to personal transformation. By tuning into your internal dialogue, you will discover that there is a lot going on underneath the hood of your mind. Behind your thoughts are powerful forces. It is these internal conversations within the self that determine what you see as possible in your life and what you act on.

These conversations of the internal dialogue will be explored in the future. At this moment what I hope you have learned is the importance of breathing to calm the body and generating safety as a way of taking fear off-line. It is at this moment that an entirely new way of understanding the unseen forces that create our lives becomes possible.

It is not enough to manage the body and mind. Once these skills are developed, possibility for a much more fulfilling life opens. Now Jill is ready to open the door to deeper transformation. She has learned to face her fears and push through them. Now her job is to challenge the very assumptions that have locked her into a world that has constricted the possibility of who she can be.

How about you? What happens when you are able to move beyond the box of your comfort zone and explore your deeper potential? It’s an exciting journey. My hope is that you are now motivated to learn how to manage your body and mind so that you can move beyond the limitations that your brain (and its organization of the emerging mind) has placed upon you. It is a courageous voyage of discovery.

Rande Howell is a guest blogger for PickTheBrain. He writes about Igniting the Spark of Your Potential and Creating a Lasting Transformation at www.randehowell.com

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If you have plans on becoming great, you’ll want to read this brief article.

They say success leaves clues; this implies, “if we look at people who are great, we’d find a common denominator, a golden thread tying them all together.”

Here’s what I think we’d find:

We’d find people who discovered their talent and then showcased that talent to the world in a ”new” and creative way.

Most of the people we’d find wouldn’t be doing anything “new.”  They would be doing something that’s been done before, in a “new” and unique way.

There’s nothing new under the sun

Take Thomas Edison the inventor of the everyday light bulb as an example; many scientist of his day knew that a heated piece of carbon filament would produce a light.  However, the light would only last for a brief moment.

…So what did Edison do?

Did Edison come up with a new idea?  No; Edison improved upon an existing idea through creativity and concentration, by finding a carbon filament that would burn for over 1500 hours if enclosed in an oxygen free case.  It wasn’t a new idea, but his improvement on an existing idea made him great, while most people don’t even remember who invented the first electric light bulb.  It was Humphry Davy back in 1800, in case you were wondering.

William Faulkner said, “The artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important, since there is nothing new to be said.”

Becoming Great

To become great we must focus our attention on developing our unique and dominant gifts.

The full unhindered expression of our creativity is what can make all of us great.

What do you do best?

“The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.” – Malcolm S. Forbes

Do you love to sing, fix broken things, talk to people, or sell?  Whatever it is, you must focus your attention on doing it to the best of your ability.  Give that dominant talent your focus, and allow it to develop through training.  Given enough time, and enough focus, we will consider you great.

Remember: There’s always room at the top for those who are dedicated to greatness, so whatever you do, do it well or not at all.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Life is too short for you not to be great

I’m often criticized for telling people to go after their dreams.  My critics would say, “Get your head out of the clouds; face the realities.”  BUT, I believe life is too short to only give 50 percent.  You only get one bite at the apple, you only live once, why not live it to the fullest, why not play it to the hilt, why not die empty, with no regrets.

In the words of Paris Hilton, “Life is too short to blend in.”  It really is, you were born an original, don’t die a copy.

You can do it

Just like a seed, you have everything you need on the inside of you to succeed.  You just need to put yourself in the right environment so you can grow and become all that you were destined to become.  See you at the top!

“Life is too short to be small.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Mr. Self Development is an author who teaches a practical guide to success and wealth. Please visit him at Mr. Self Development.com. If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, then you may want to subscribe to his feed, follow him on Twitter, or read one of his most popular articles, “How I Manifested a Seven Bedroom Home at 24.”

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