Couldn't Ask For A Better Guide . . . “Brian's unique perspective and witty personality shine a brilliant light on a sometimes tough situation. You couldn't ask for a better guide.”

 - Shannon Bednowicz

 

 

Stepping Stones = the small stones we step on as we move along the path of life.

This is my personal collection of inspirational quotes that is growing all the time.

 

NOTE: The quotes that do not have a name assigned to them are attributed to me, Brian R. King

 

When you receive a piece of advice you hear it once. When you share it with others you hear it over and over which reinforces the lesson in your own mind. Thus the best learning takes place when you make the point of learning something so thoroughly that you’re prepared to teach it. Please approach these lessons in that fashion and you’ll be amazed at the results you experience.

Over the years I’ve shared my perspective on life in a variety of ways. Through several books, articles, presentations and through my website I’ve had the privilege of sharing my thoughts with countless others.

When I began sharing my observations about life I was overwhelmed with requests to compile them somehow. The reason for this request was because people enjoyed dialoging about what I had written.

I have felt for a very long time that dialogue is the greatest learning tool. I strongly encourage you to jot down your thoughts regarding both your reactions to these statements and more importantly your plan to implement this new way of thinking into your life. After all, knowledge doesn’t become wisdom until you apply it.

The quotes compiled here without citation were spoken by me and offer my thoughts on a variety of topics such as education, parenting, love, success, autism and more. I trust you’ll find many thoughts on these pages that will help you look at life in a more powerful way.

I have also included quotes from others that have meant a lot to me and will attribute them accordingly.

To get the most from these quotes please remember this very important point. I don’t offer these thoughts up for you to agree or disagree with. Instead, I encourage you to examine the thoughts, assumptions, and life experiences that inform any reaction you have to these statements. You’ll get far more from examining your reactions and thus your own conditioning and assumptions than from anything I’ve written. Best of luck on your journey.

 

If you'd like me to add a quote simply email it to me and let me know what category you feel it belongs in.

 

 

 

Abundance

 

‎"Only those who ask for more can get more and only those who know there is more, ask."
- Alan Cohen

 

 

Advocacy

 

An effective advocate is one driven by a passion to educate and not by anger that seeks to punish.

 

 

Authenticity

 

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

— Steve Jobs

 

 

I am defined by my dreams and my commitment to achieving them and not by any label that tries to tell me otherwise.

 

It's far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help. - Judith Martin

 

Instead of trying to figure out who you are, realize that living is growing and rediscovering yourself along the way is the best adventure life has to offer.

 

Coloring inside the lines is a fine motor skill but NOT a useful life skill.

 

You can postpose a lot of things in life. That list doesn't include: Being who you are, Living your life's purpose, and Having a Fulfilling Life.

 

“The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.” – Rita Mae Brown

 

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates." – Thomas Szasz

 

"A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company." – Charles Evans Hughes

 

"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free." - Charles Evans Hughes

 

You can never make a mistake when being yourself.  After all, how can you do you incorrectly?

 

Performing a neurotypical behavior is like forcing your foot into a shoe that doesn't fit, it's uncomfortable the whole time you have it on.

 

 

Beliefs

 

Where you are right now is a direct result of your beliefs and values, no more, no less.

 

Who ever told you change is hard is lying to you. Change is hard ONLY when you associate pain with it. It's the story you tell yourself about what the change means that makes it hard.

 

The way you think about a person influences what you believe is possible for them. Emphasizing disability emphasizes inability.

 

For every category you choose for life, your mind will demand that you find things to put in that category. Remove the category from your way of seeing the world and you'll never see things in the same way again. Take the categories of "can't" and "failure" for example. Hmmm something to think about. 

 

If someone believes in you, that's the one time in your life when you should agree with them without argument.

 

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)

 

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. 
- Mark Twain

 

"As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand." - Josh Billings

Beliefs are inherently disposable, to be discarded like items that have outlived their usefulness, and replaced with ones you can use.

 

A belief is a passionately held opinion. A truth is such whether one believes it or not.

 

 

Boundaries

 

"If your presence didn't make an impact in someone's life, your absence won't either!
Give the gift of your absence to those who do not appreciate your presence." - Unknown

 

"There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad, and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be… anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living." - Sarah Carter-Murray

 

It isn't failure when you're unable to help everyone who asks for it, it is human. As human beings, we can't be everything to everyone. We choose our passion and give everything to it. No need to apologize for not having the time, money or energy to care about everything.

 

Can't

 

You may tell yourself you accept your limitations when in many cases what you've actually done is decide not to learn how to do something.

 

"Can't" doesn't serve the future of our children. "How" does. As parents we owe it to our children to model only the possibilities for what life has to offer them. If we ask less of ourselves so will they.

 

"I can't do it" can be translated as "I won't work to figure out how."

 

I've met too many people who use the word "hard" as though it were synonymous with "impossible." They also tend to talk about the "right way" which is code for "easy."

 

 

Choices

 

"It is the height of absurdity to sow little but weeds in the first half of one's lifetime and expect to harvest a valuable crop in the second half." - Percy Johnston

 

We have the freedom to be courageous but still many choose fear.
We have the freedom to grow but still many choose to remain stuck.
We have the freedom to do and be so much yet many resign themselves to less.
We have the freedom to model all of this for our children, and yet many choose to say one thing and do another.
Our circumstances don't determine our freedom, our choices do.

 

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next to best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." — Theodore Roosevelt

 

Where your life is now and where it will go doesn't depend on who you are or where you've been. It is determined by the decisions you make about who you must become to get where you want to go.

 

If you aren't where you want to be in life, it's because you keep making decisions that keep you where you are.

 

How you got here matters far less than how you're going to get where you're going. Each moment you can choose to change course.

 

The eyes aren’t the window to a person’s soul. Their choices are.

 

The only choice you have with change is whether to embrace or resist.

 

The difference between a stupid person and a stubborn person is that a stupid person can't learn while a stubborn person won't. In a sense, the stubborn choose to be stupid.

 

Profound change begins with a single action, that action is usually a decision.

 

Circumstances do not define a person unless a person decides he is powerless to define his circumstances. 

 

The only thing in the future you can predict is your next choice.

 

 

Communication

 

We all talk to ourselves but you know you suck at it when you feel worse afterward.

 

"Your ears are the closest to your mouth so you must listen to what you say first." - Matt James

 

 

An assumption is taking the bold step to inaccurately read someone's mind.

 

In the Autism debate, many are trying so hard to be heard that they often forget to listen.

 

Chit Chat is a style of conversation in which many words are used yet no information is exchanged.

How many of us have been condemned to hell by another for commiting the unforgivable sin of telling that person something s/he didn't want to hear?

 

The three steps to effective communication are 1) State clearly, 2) Listen intently and 3) Clarify Continuously.

 

I'm unable to read between the lines because there isn't anything written there.

 

I've learned that even the best argument no matter how many times it's made is lost on people who aren't willing to learn and have forgotten how to listen.

 

Putting an autistic child into a classroom with instructors who have inadequate training in autism is like putting a deaf child with teachers who don’t know sign language.

 

"We can only see with open eyes, we can only listen with open ears, we must only think with open minds." - Gandhi

 

 

 

Connection

 

Feeling significant can result in the impression that I'm better than you or in the realization that I'm better because of my connection with you.

 

I don't have to look into your eyes to see into your heart.

 

 

 

Contribution

 

You can't be everything to everyone, but I recommend giving everything you have to everything you do. Don't settle!

 

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... the ones who see things differently ... they're not fond of rules.... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things ... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do." - Steve Jobs

 

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." - William James

 

Changing the world occurs by changing the parts of it that you touch.

 

I don't have a disability. I have instead, daily opportunities to solve everyday problems in brand new ways. Then through my example, the world learns to see what is possible for me as well as what is possible for all of us.

 

I don't want to be just like you. I just want to appreciate the unique things about you that make my life better. In return, I'll do the same for you.

 

Find a way to provide value to others every day and you will always be loved and you will never be alone.

 

"Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster."
- Robert M. Pirsig

 

My ultimate goal in life is not measured by how well I "fit in" but how well I "stand out." I have to "stand out" to be "out standing" at whatever it is I'm meant to do in order to make my contribution to this world.

 

I find life more fulfilling when my energies are spent creating what I am “for” instead of fighting what I am “against.”

 

When aspiring to fit in, is it in order to disappear like a drop of water in the ocean? Or is it like a puzzle piece? You fit and yet your contribution is a unique and obvious one. Perhaps it's both.

 

It isn't the size of a person's contribution that makes one valuable, a person is valuable because they have a contribution to make.

 

 

 

Courage

 

Sometimes the greatest feat of strength is to let someone else hold you up.

 

"It is easy to be brave at a safe distance." - Aesop

 

 

 

Criticism

 

When can help be perceived as criticism? Typically when the help is offered to someone who didn’t ask for it and doesn’t think it’s needed.

 

 

 

Education and Learning

 

"A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living."
- Charles R. Swindoll

 

"Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery."
     - Benjamin Disraeli

 

Outside the box teaching is the only way to educate children who learn there.

 

If you have nothing to learn from your students, then you nothing to teach them either.

"Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know."
     - Gilbert Keith Chesterton

"Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college." 
     - Lillian Smith


"The essential dilemma of education is to be found in the fact that the sort of man (or woman) who knows a given subject sufficiently well to teach it is usually unwilling to do so."
     - Henry Louis Mencken

 

 

 

Excuses

 

Making excuses for your child doesn't support them, it disempowers them.

 

 

Faith

 

The faith others has in you can make you stronger. The faith you have in yourself can make you powerful.

 

 

Forgiveness

 

An important part of forgiveness is giving yourself permission to trust again.

 

 

 

Future

 

‎"There are two ways to face the future. One way is with apprehension; the other is with anticipation." - Jim Rohn

 

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." – James Allen 

 

 

 

Goals

 

Make mistakes early and often. The more you make the faster you get to what works. That will move you toward your goal in record time.

 

"Setbacks and stressors are bridges to be crossed to our goals... not barricades to keep us from them." — Stephen Pierce  

 

This is how most people set goals.

1) Think of a goal

2) Write down goal

3) Talk about how nice it would be to achieve your goal

4) Think of the reasons you probably won't achieve it

5) Complain that nothing in your life ever seems to improve.

 

 

 

Gratitude

 

Regret stems from a failure to be grateful for the things in your life that resulted from the choices you DID make.

 

"In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy." –  Albert Clarke

 

The healing side of grief is gratitude.

 

 

Growth

 

If you don't commit the time to growing yourself don't expect the other areas of your life to fare much better.

 

"If you're doing something the same way you have been doing it for ten years, the chances are you are doing it wrong." - Charles F. Kettering

 

"How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else." 
- R. Buckminster Fuller

 

If you're doing the best you can with the tools you've got and you're not getting the results you want then you need to get better tools. 

 

The most disabled person you will ever meet is the one who has decided they know enough and don't need to ask for help in order to grow.

 

What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. - Eleanor Powell

 

Many have recently expressed a fear of getting old. The fact is, you're only old when you stop making progress. When you become bogged down by habits and old ideas that slow you down. That's what makes you old. Stay curious, stay active, stay engaged and you will have far more younger days.‎

 

"You won't build muscle from the exercise someone else does for you." - Tony Robbins

 

"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow." - Robert M. Pirsig

 

Growth happens every time you move one step further that you thought you could. So reaching your potential is just one step away.

 

"The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history." - Carl Rowen

 

There are far too many people who are content to live in ignorance. Who lack the courage to grow. Ignorance isn't bliss my friends, it is intellectual poverty of one's own choosing.

 

"What's dangerous is not to evolve." — Jeff Bezos

 

"Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing." - William Butler Yeats

 

"Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance." - William Ellery Channing

 

"We are not unlike a particularly hardy crustacean.... With each passage from one stage of human growth to the next we, too, must shed a protective structure. We are left exposed and vulnerable,but also yeasty and embryonic again, capable of stretching in ways we hadn't known before." - Gail Sheehy

"You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety."
 - Abraham Maslow

 

"If everything feels like it's under control you aren't going fast enough." - Mario Andretti

 

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." - George Bernard Shaw

"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature." - Tom Robbins

 

"Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional." — Roger Crawford

 

 

"I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail — sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it — but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr

 

"If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today."

— Lou Holtz

 

In life, when you feel you've taken two steps back. You can either see it as a sign you've lost progress or as an opportunity to get a larger view of what's ahead of you.

 

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." – Alvin Toffler

 

Don't give up on your dreams just because you're afraid of your memories.

 

Complacency is the enemy of growth.

 

Hope is the result of the belief that things can be better, the belief that you can make them better, and taking action to make them better.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how many people continue to believe that the only way their life will improve is when everyone else changes.

 

"Wise people learn when they can; fools learn when they must." – Arthur Wellesley

 

I have met few people incapable of changing their circumstances. I have, however, encountered countless numbers who are unwilling to.

 

Tell the universe what your heart truly desires. When you're ready for it and the responsibility that comes with it, it arrives.

 

To learn from books is to understand the facts. To learn from experience is to understand yourself.

 

"Life is a grindstone, and whether it grinds a man down or polishes him up depends on what he is made of." – Josh Billings

 

When looking for the best place to begin, simply look beneath your feet.

 

Autism is like the stitching in a quilt. Remove the stitching and the quilt falls apart. Add to the quilt and it becomes more beautiful.

 

Interesting how when you choose to step into something greater, those who aren't ready to join you leave. Not all of them quietly. That tells me one thing, I'm headed in the right direction.

 

If you're going to label yourself, use labels that expand not contract.

 

If you want to be miserable then pretend it's all about you. If you want to be at peace then realize that none of it is.

 

Think of the pain of growth as emerging from the cocoon of our former selves.

 

The only place growth occurs is outside your comfort zone.

 

I've learned to look at the events of my life as things that happen FOR me and NOT TOO me. I am then able to become BETTER instead of BITTER as a result.

 

Life will never move at the speed of impatience.

 

You can't bring out the best in people on the Autism Spectrum if you feel sorry for them because they're on the Autism Spectrum.

 

 

 

Habits

 

The only thing you can reasonably expect from others is for them to live up to their own standards. Unfortunately, they're standards may be much lower than yours.

 

"Before man can be free, and equal, and truly wise, he must cast aside the chains of habit and superstition; he must strip sensuality of its pomp, and selfishness of its excuses, and contemplate actions and objects as they really are." 
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

"We first make our habits, and then our habits make us." - John Dryden

 

 

 

Happiness

 

The secret of happiness (and therefore of success) is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm, always lucid . . . to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.- Cyril Connolly

 

"Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing." - William Butler Yeats 

 

"Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance." - William Ellery Channing 

 

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." - Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

Helen Keller

 

"Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all."

"We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world"

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved."

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart"
"Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows."

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."

"Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost."

"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everthing, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do."

"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."

"What I'm looking for is not out there, it is in me."

"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings."

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement "

"The best way out is always through."

"Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight."

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit."

"You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear."

"For, after all, every one who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone, and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own way. I slip back many times, I fall, I stand still, I run against the edge of hidden obstacles, I lose my temper and find it again and keep it better, I trudge on, I gain a little, I feel encouraged, I get more eager and climb higher and begin to see the widening horizon. Every struggle is a victory. One more effort and I reach the luminous cloud, the blue depths of the sky, the uplands of my desire."

"The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves."

"College isn't the place to go for ideas."

"We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough."

"Change: A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn."

"Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world."

"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into light."

"My friends have made the story of my life."

"Four things to learn in life: To think clearly without hurry or confusion; To love everybody sincerely; To act in everything with the highest motives; To trust God unhesitatingly."

"So much has been given to me I have not time to ponder over that which has been denied."

 

Help

 

I don't have weaknesses, I just have spaces for people to bless me with their strengths. 

 

Once you're at ease with not having all the answers, only then is there room for asking intelligent questions.

 

When offering help be aware of whether you’re providing a hand out or a hand up. A hand out enables while a hand up empowers.

 

When you don't need help it's because you know how. But when you did need help be grateful someone cared enough to take the time to show you how.

 

 

 

Inspiration

 

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
— Albert Einstein

 

"Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working." 

— Pablo Picasso

 

 

 

Jealousy

 

Jealousy is the foolish resentment of someone who chose to create an experience that you chose not to.

 

 

 

Judgmental

 

"Don't judge me until you know me, dont underestimate me until you challenge me and dont talk about me until you talked to me." - Author Unknown

 

"In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined." - Thomas Szasz

 

"The difference between high-functioning and low-functioning is that high-functioning means your deficits are ignored, and low- functioning means your assets are ignored." – Laura Tisoncik

 

Prejudice is an emphasis on the differences instead of the similarities.

 

 

 

Leadership

 

When supervisors are focused on the numbers they also need to be counting how many times they said, "thank you" or praised the very people in their employ who are directly responsible for the results they measure their own success by.

 

"A mentor is anyone in your life who is on the same path but is farther down the path than you are." - Matt James

 

True leadership is more invested in getting the result than it is in getting the credit.

 

 

 

Marriage

 

"Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years." - Simone Signoret

 

 

 

Morality

 

"The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life: the children; those who are in the twilight of life: the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life: the sick, the needy and the handicapped. " - Hubert H. Humphrey

 

 

 

Motivation

 

Let your life burn with the passion in your heart instead of with the flames of the fires you're always trying to put out.

 

Instead of fear call it excitement, instead of pain call it growth. Then what you once avoided you will now pursue.

 

 

If you fear change but you enjoy being right, then start telling yourself  and everyone else that you are going to make the necessary changes to finally move forward in life. You wouldn't want to turn out to be a liar would you? No, you'll work your butt off to prove that you're right.

 

Don't confuse quitting with acceptance. Acceptance is about embracing the things you can't change. Quitting is about not doing what's necessary to change the things you can change and want to change.

 

"Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence." - Thomas Szasz

 

"Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is." - Thomas Szasz

 

People who are bored are waiting for life to come to them.

 

Motivation begins with the realization that leaving things as they are is unacceptable and that the action to change them must take place without delay.

 

"If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up, he needs education to turn him around." – Jim Rohn

 

People have an easier time remembering what they want to do than what they have to do.

 

 

 

Parenting

 

Fake it till you make it doesn't apply to parenting.

 

Too many parents utter the words, "I'm just too busy" and end up not doing the things their child really needs. It's important to realize that "busy" doesn't equal progress. Make a point of acknowledging whether where you put your time and money is getting you the results you want.

 

If you believe no one has the right to tell you how to raise your child, I wonder what else you believe you know everything about.

 

A mother isn't defined by having a child. A mother is defined by helping that child discover all that s/he has to offer the world. While also compelling the child to make use of every opportunity to offer it.

 

Sometimes the greatest mother in the world isn't the one who carried the child in her body, she's the one who carries the child in her heart as though she had.

 

 

 

Partnership

 

Don't dwell on who let you down, cherish those who hold you up. - Unknown

 

If you don't let people in on your dreams, then they can't help you accomplish them.

 

It's hard to be a burden to someone who's looking to serve you.

 

 

Patience

 

Life doesn't move at the speed of impatience. It moves only at the pace of your commitment to consistently act to create the change you want.

 

 

Perception

 

Negative thinking is simply a conversation you have with yourself about the options you believe you don't have.

 

I'm learning to see through what life gives me, and instead look to what I can create with it.

 

"The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything."
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

 

In life, when you feel you've taken two steps back. You can either see it as a sign you've lost progress or as an opportunity to get a larger view of what's ahead of you.

 

Doubt makes the possible impossible.

 

More has been accomplished through the acts of one person powered by certainty than one thousand people sharing the same doubts.

 

It is more difficult to find meaning in life when you spend your time reacting to it instead of reflecting upon it.

 

"There are lots of people who mistake their imagination for their memory." – Josh Billings

 

Focus on the spare, not the flat.

 

One of the greatest falsehoods of human thinking is the idea that something is correct simply because it is common.

 

The lesson learned isn't always the lesson taught.

 

Don’t be upset when your child has special needs. Be upset when those needs go unmet.

 

I maintain a strong sense of humility by believing my perception is always wrong until proven otherwise.

 

Different doesn't equal suffering.

 

Life is more wonderful when experienced with a sense of wonder.

 

 

 

Perseverance

 

The only time you should use the word "NEVER" is when it's followed by the words "Give Up."

 

 

 

Priorities

 

Life gets in the way easier when you haven't decided what your priorities are.

 

What is time for? Some waste it, others kill it. I choose to invest it. An investment always gives you more in return.

 

It's not that I lack focus. It's that I find only a few things worthy of my attention.

 

 

Proactivity

 

It isn't enough to say, "Yes I can." It matters more to say, "Yes I am" while actually doing it.

 

If you wait around to be told what to do, you're life will always be dictated by someone else's desires.

 

Good things come to those who wait, Bad things to those who procrastinate.

 

"People who soar are those who refuse to sit back, sigh and wish things would change. They neither complain of their lot nor passively dream of some distant ship coming in."
 - Chuck Swindoll

 

You're never stuck in life. You are either not considering your options or are afraid to act on them.

 

Dreams are the seeds, opportunity the soil, action the fertilizer.

 

I find it more beneficial to do right than to be right. The first being about my efforts, the second about my ego.

 

To experience a radical change in your life, take the positive thoughts, feelings and actions you practice on holidays and practice them every day of your life.

 

"If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done." –  Norman Vincent Peale

 

Nothing works in theory only in application.

 

Profound change begins with a single action, that action is usually a decision.

 

I'm all for positive thinking. As long as it is supported by action.

 

 

 

Problem Solving

 

Only spend as much time on a problem as it takes to define it. Then get to work on solving it.

 

"In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete." - Buckminster Fuller

 

When all the changes in your environment are made and things still don't improve. Consider that what's around you is not the problem.

 

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." – Lucille Ball

 

Face reality, I've been told. I see reality only as the things I cannot change. So I will face it briefly then focus on changing what I can. That is a much better use of my time.

 

The second step in problem solving is responsibility NOT blame.

 

We are all born into this world with our own problems to solve. Some of us have bigger problems than others. Big problems don't make us broken or less than. It simply means we have more work to do.

 

If you want to move forward in life learn to solve problems. If you want to remain stuck in life deny having problems.

 

A Problem is a Solution that hasn’t grown up yet.

 

 

Progress

 

If you don't feel like you're getting anywhere in life it's likely because you don't know what you want or you do and aren't taking action to create it.

 

The difference between a busy day and a productive one, is the difference between completing tasks and making progress.

 

 

Relationships

 

"You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success – or are they holding you back?"- W. Clement Stone

 

Just because a rose grows among weeds doesn't mean they have to tangle.

 

My definition of a healthy relationship is one that makes you better by being a part of it.

 

Those committed to remaining in abusive relationships are most committed to the one they have with themselves. 

 

 

 

Resilience

 

The important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all - Carenegie

 

"You can easily determine the caliber of a person by the amount of opposition it takes to discourage him." - Unknown

 

I would rather suffer from a hundred disappointments than one regret.

 

Adversity is a sail not an anchor.

 

When life gives you lemons, turn it into raspberry lemonade. . .THHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

 

 

Responsibility

 

Time is short, why waste it blaming others for what you chose to do with it?

 

 

 

 

Role Model

 

"The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity."— Benjamin Franklin

 

It is both ridiculous and pointless to expect anyone to follow anything other than your example.

 

Teacher = someone who passionately seeks opportunities to learn and grow while modeling this approach to those who choose to be his/her students.

 

 

 

Sensory

 

Sensory Overload at its worst feels like having the flu while being drunk.

 

 

 

Significance

 

There are two kinds of pride, the kind that leads to arrogance and the kind that leads to gratitude.

 

Don't mistake being ineffective with being insignificant. The first may be true, the second never is.

 

I'm Autistic, I May Not Be Perfect But It Doesn't Make Me Broken.

 

 

 

 

Standards

 

If you truly want a fulfilling life then you MUST NOT settle for mediocrity in any part of it or any part of yourself. 

 

When a society abandons its ideals just because most people can't live up to them, behavior gets very ugly indeed. - Judith Martin

 

 

Success

 

Success isn't measure by being normal. It's measured by having the strategies to accomplish what you want in life. Being normal may prevent criticism and gain you some acceptance. But it's only by daring to stand out and grow that we move forward and become happy living the life we've created for ourselves.

 

I doubt you'll ever find a book called, "Pity Parties as a Pathway to Success."

 

The first step of success is believing it is possible. The second step is deciding it is inevitable.

 

You are just as capable as I am and can accomplish as much or more. The main difference between you and me is the strategies we use.

 

“Success each day should be judged by the seeds sown, not the harvest reaped.” — John C. Maxwell

 

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."— Michael Jordan

 

The shortest distance between you and failure, is doubt.

 

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. - Robert F. Kennedy

 

"In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore… they had better aim at something high." – Henry David Thoreau

 

The location of success is at the intersection of passion and ability.

 

Progress is meaningful regardless of it's speed and success is meaningful regardless of it's size.

 

 

 

War

 

"War does not decide who is right, but who is left." - George Bernard Shaw