Are you the architect of your own destiny? Well, you are certainly a senior consultant within the core design team. You have much power over the shape that your future is most likely to take. But if you feel that, somehow, someone else is in charge of your life, you vastly reduce your own ability to be constructive and decisive. For as long as we see ourselves as helpless in the face of some injustice, we create a self-fulfilling, pessimistic, prophecy. You deserve better than that  Now go out and get it. Nothing happens until something moves. 
What are you wearing today? Why did you decide to put that on? Now, before we go any further,  I am merely drawing your attention to a thought process that we all undergo several times a day. We want to feel sure (or at least as sure as we can feel) that we will look okay in the eyes of others. We want to create a good impression. We want to be well thought of. If you can't get through to someone in any other way, you may yet try appealing to their vanity. It's the way that the modern world works, isn't it? Well, actually, it isn't fair and if it is the way that the world works, it is time the world started working in a different way. Don't get drawn into an unnecessary commitment and don't succumb to an irrelevant fear, show how the world can work a different way for you.
Some journalists are paid actually, they are paid for their ability to express their opinions in an interesting way. But to have something to say, they must first adopt one view or another. What are their opinions worth? Whatever their editors are prepared to pay for them! And what about the rest of us? What about you? What about me? Do we benefit in any way at all from having strong ideas and convictions? Now the ability to revise an old belief turns out to be your most valuable asset. Now, with this in mind, what kind of a conversation really needs to be held with someone special.
If I've got five buttons in my left hand and six buttons in my right, how many people are going to be interested in the rest of this sentence? The mathematicians are attentive. They suspect a puzzle is coming and they like solving those. Those with a penchant for haberdashery are on their toes too. What kind of buttons? Will they work for a shirt? But for most of us, buttons are boring. We want to talk about something more exciting instead? Stick with buttons, let other people worry about the so-called bigger stuff.
Swans glide gracefully. They give the impression of effortless progress. Yet if you look below the water, you soon see their legs kicking away wildly. Even the most seemingly smooth processes require effort and complexity behind the scenes. You are now behind a set of scenes. You are aware of the need to keep up a commitment and to carry out a delicate balancing act. Naturally enough, the weight of this responsibility is bearing down on you. But others can't see quite how much is entailed. Be gentle with them.  
We all like to think that we know what we are doing - and why. It suits us too, to feel that we are aware of the various consequences that might arise if we were to cease or continue. 'I'm doing this because, if I don't keep doing it, that will happen...' Or, 'I'm not doing that because if I do, it will lead to this...' Whilst you are undoubtedly right about most of the decisions that you have lately made or are currently in the process of making, might one of these now be based on an assumption that deserves a review? 
 None of us ever want to run into trouble. We do all we can to avoid it. Sometimes, indeed, that is precisely how we end up creating trouble. We try so hard to get out of trouble's way but we end up inadvertently walking straight into another kind of trouble altogether. That's why, under some circumstances, it can be better to simply shed one's fear of trouble. If you want to make sure that everything works out right, begin by resolving to worry a little less about what will happen if things go wrong.  
Some items, objects and experiences carry a formidable price tag. 'How on earth can one of those cost that?' we wonder to ourselves before swiftly turning our attention towards less infuriating topics. We don't have time to waste wishing for the ability to afford such luxuries. Instead, we grant ourselves the freedom from wanting them! And that very freedom is priceless! Just be careful that you don't rule out an option, simply because you are not a millionaire. There may yet prove to be a far cheaper alternative, find it. 
 People may be very good at acting tough but deep within they are soft, vulnerable and eager to please. We can never be entirely sure about whether we are stepping on someone's toes or touching on some topic that may trigger an emotional avalanche. Current events are making you keenly conscious of a colleague or companion's precarious position. You really don't want to say or do the wrong thing but surely, you have to do or say something. Try to be tough enough, to withstand any potential reaction.When people are trying to make decisions, they often take a piece of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle. On one side, they list the pros; the factors in favour of a proposition. On the other, they put the cons; the reasons why it may be a bad idea. Why don't we do that exercise for you, with regard to your entitlement to happiness, hang on a minute. What are you putting in your cons column? Why on earth does it contain anything at all? You are entitled to happiness and you are going to experience  and make sure you get it