What motivates you?

Pay attention to the weight of time.  The increase in weight is imperceptible at first, but it builds, and if you fail to notice, it will crush you.

A flutter of panic in the heart when the heart realizes its beats are finite.  The agonizing regret of misused moments that add up to hours, days, weeks, months, years that could have been used.  Pairing the crush of time with tired bones, fear of pain, and dread of failure makes each day less likely to be "the one" where it all changes for the better.

Motivation should have started when there was what seemed to be an eternity of time, but eternity breeds procrastination.  Wisdom would say that even now there is an eternity of time compared to the weight that will be added in another ten, twenty, or thirty years.  My age could double, and yet now it feels too late.

Fear crushes motivation.  Action crushes fear.  Doubt crushes action.  Doubt and fear build upon each other.  Action builds motivation.  Analysis: act.  Even if you're wrong, act.  Be wrong.  Be disappointed.  Be reprimanded.  Lose a job.  Lose your money.  Catch a cold.  Fight for change and be thwarted.  Whatever you do, though, ACT.  Be excited for the failure so you can banish the fear.  If success comes, be delighted, but delight in the disappointment, too.  Act to banish fear and doubt.  Act to boost motivation, and motivation will boost your action.  Time will lift from your heart and the ache will lift from your bones and you, in thirty years, will look back and you can say that every moment was used to its fullest.

Pageant Question 19: Would you consider yourself to be an optimist, a pessimist or a realist?

It is not true that there is a finite amount of happiness a person can have.  When good comes to you, there is no reason why more good should not follow, and furthermore, there is no reason why the good should be interrupted for any reason in the future.  Often, people who find themselves benefiting from what they perceive as "good luck" will assume that it is a one-shot deal.  They may even believe that the good luck must be balanced by bad.

Untrue!

Good may follow good may follow good until you finally realize that none of the "good" is happening separately from any other part of life: it is life.  At this point, many happy people living a good life may feel a sense of guilt.  There is no reason for guilt because happiness is infinite.  Because you are happy doesn't mean anyone else will be unhappy.  Because you experience a good event doesn't mean it needs to be balanced with bad somewhere else.  You can be happy and experience good, and so can everyone else.  It is infinite.

Plus: it is always within you.

A person has a very small sphere of influence--it is only him or herself.  You control how you think and react.  Thoughts, however, can be habits, and you may need to re-groove paths in your brain to realize the happiness that lies within.  It will take work.  It will take patience with yourself.  You will have setbacks, but it will work.

Pageant Question 16: Tell us about a book you’ve read that has influenced your life, and why?

Jamie's toes had gone numb from the cold and her knees would have bruises from  scuttling around the Circle of Power she had drawn on the stone slab floor in her workroom, but she couldn't stop until the Summoning was finished.  She had worked for months leading up to this moment, and her discomfort was nothing compared to the agony Falk must have suffered all this time.  Jamie used her fear for her mentor's life as motivation to learn the most complicated and dangerous spell she had ever attempted.  If it went wrong, the best possible scenario was sending herself into one of the various hells that could open within the Circle.  The second best possible scenario was sending only half her body and bleeding to death.  The other scenarios were worse.


Because I was inspired to think about which books have influenced me, I include here for you a partial list, from earliest read to most recent, and I heartily recommend them all:

On Beyond Zebra, Dr. Seuss
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Dr. Seuss
The House with a Clock in Its Walls, John Bellairs
The Haunting of Cassie Palmer, Vivien Alcock
I Will Make You Disappear, Carol Beach York
The Silent Tower and The Silicon Mage, Barbara Hambly
The Talisman, Stephen King
The Dark Tower series, Stephen King
It's Always Something, Gilda Radner
Cruel Shoes, Steve Martin
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline

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What is holding you back from the lifestyle you desire?  Money?  Health?  Job?  Family?  No matter your current situation, you CAN achieve your dreams, in less time than you think!  By making small, easily sustainable changes in your life, you will smoothly transition into the person you always knew you could be, with the money, health, job and family of which you've always dreamed.

How?

Your first step is VISUALIZATION.  You need to picture yourself where you've always wanted to be.  Make a list of your desires, and even add pictures.  Post it where you will see it every morning when you awake, and look at it before you leave your bed.  Visualize your ideal life for five minutes every morning.  Now you're well on your way!

180

You are allowed to be happy ALL the time.

Many of you who read the opening sentence scoffed, most consciously and many more unconsciously.  You may have thought, "Yes, but..."  But, what?  But, you're not always happy?  True, but you are allowed to be happy all the time.  You can be.  You may be.  It is a possibility, and it comes without any caveats.  "Yes, but..."  But, what this time?  But if you're happy now, there's bound to be unhappiness later?

Why?

Remind yourself, "I am allowed to be happy ALL the time."  There is infinite happiness allowed to you.  It doesn't need to be balanced by unhappiness.  A happy time is not waiting for an unhappy time.  A happy time doesn't mean you'll need to "pay" for it later.  You can just be happy.

If you're finding this idea difficult, not to worry--I found it difficult, too.  I sometimes still find it difficult, but I keep reminding myself that I may freely and truly be happy and not worry that it will come to an end.  Repeat it to yourself, and soon you will believe, and you will be freer than you have felt in a long time, or maybe ever!  Be happy.  No one is unhappy because you are happy.  As a matter of fact, your happiness will make even more people happy.

This book will take you through exercises to find your happiness, keep your happiness and spread happiness.  This book will also remind you over and over:

Yes.  You are allowed to be happy.  All.  The.  Time.

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You have taken the first step.  By reading this book, you have acknowledged that not only are you poor, but that you no longer wish to remain poor.  Let this book be your inspiration, your first step up and out of poverty.  Hopefully, you didn't pay too much for it.

In this book you will find:

• Inspirational stories from regular people who prove that you can get out of poverty.
• Thrifty tips and tricks to help you gather wealth.
• Tips and tricks to make you appear (and feel!) richer than you currently are.
• Motivational quotes and facts.
• NEW!  Special added chapter for those who have never been poor, designed to help them realize that being poor is not a character defect.

Your journey from poverty begins now.  Good luck!

149

The trick to remaining active is to be active.

The trick to eating right is to eat right.

The trick to feeling well is to do the activities and consume the consumables that will make you feel well.

The trick is that there is no trick.

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Walking is a miracle.  Like the giant bumblebee that shouldn't be able to fly with its tiny wings, humans walking is not fully explainable.  Walking is falling.  You fling yourself off balance and, at the very last moment, you catch yourself with your other foot, and you do this over and over and over again: walking.  Perhaps it is a metaphor for life.  You fling yourself forward with reckless abandon, considering all the bad that could befall you, and catch yourself at the last moment.  You don't know how you make it, but somehow you're moving forward.  It's a miracle, but you manage, and, sometimes, you can even chew gum while you do it.

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After all that I've been though, you might think my advice about men would be: "Be suspicious." It's not. In regards to your love life, you should always love freely and with all your heart. Becoming suspicious will only make you miserable; you can always be miserable later. For now, enjoy the freedom and possibility of Love.

That does not mean: "Be stupid." There is room for whole-hearted love and independent thought. Loving freely should never mean losing your Self; it will only make you bitter. You don't want to hate the person you love just because you couldn't stand to love yourself, too. Love yourself freely and with all your heart: you deserve it.

Be honest, especially to yourself.

Have fun. If it's not fun and you can't make it fun, why are you doing it?

Love. Love keeps away wrinkles, lowers blood pressure, prevents irritable bowel syndrome and will make you lighter. What's not to love about Love?