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When you meet some of your friends, you feel excited. You feel pumped up and you feel cared for.

And when you meet some of the other friends, your energy gets drained. Enthusiasm lowers each time. And you just don’t feel cared for!

These are the friends you chose to be with.
You were not born into these relationships.

And since you chose them, you can also choose to get out of them.

When you take energy-draining people out of your life, you stand up for yourself.

That’s not being mean. That’s an act of self-love.

Sir Isaac Newton’s discoveries changed the world.
Forever.

Once inquired about the secret of his success, he said that he stood on the shoulders of giants.

According to Newton, there had been a lot of people to direct him, inspire him, help him – which led to his success.

Imagine being one of the greatest contributors to science and being grateful for the help he received throughout.

Humility is power.
A power that doesn’t get to your head and still keeps you moving forward.

To rise higher, there’s just one golden law: To never get your feet off the ground.

We are with friends. Yet we feel bad at the end of the conversation.
They care for us. Yet something doesn’t feel right.
We are there for them through thick and thin. Yet we don’t see them happy when we are.

Too often, we are surrounded by beautiful toxicity in the form of friends.
People who are there for us sometimes, yet make us feel bad every time.
People who are themselves, yet never respect us for who we are.

Who you are is priceless.

The first few episodes of the Netflix series are boring.
However, you still keep watching the series.

Because a friend told you to stay at it because it gets interesting eventually.

What if we treat our goals and our journey the same way?
Keep at them even when they are boring early on — because it gets interesting eventually?

Persistence isn’t a one-day miracle, it’s a conscious choice translated into habit.

You want to pursue an art.
Maybe write, design or become a professional musician.
But your parents won’t let you.

That causes tension. Lack of communication. Anger and frustration.
And the belief that “getting there” or “doing something” will prove it to them.

However, parents don’t crave to be proven right.
They want the same things for us that we would want for ourselves. The path may be different.

What if we told them that the only thing you need from them is their support?
What if we got out of our own head and had that conversation from the heart?

We can’t convince our parents through things or actions.
Only difficult (and most important) conversations can.

We have different experiences with different people we meet.

People help us in trouble.
Or perhaps put us in one.

Embrace the ones who help us.
Let go of the ones who leave us.

Better still, do help them when they need you if you can.
And forgive the ones who put us in trouble. Let them go.

One of the best judgments to acquire is learning to deal differently with different people.
It will decide almost everything we do in life.

In ancient Eastern culture, trees used to be very thick and deeply rooted. It was impossible to cut them.

So, in order to kill them, the villagers used to gather around the trees and call them names. Abused them relentlessly. Kept telling them they didn’t serve any purpose. They were useless. Over a period of a few days, the trees would eventually die.

Sometimes, we end up doing the exact same thing to people

When we bring someone’s morale down, we kill them.
When we tell them they are inadequate and worthless, we kill them.
And most importantly, we kill them when we tell them that they aren’t required.

Eventually, the person dies.

We do not have the power to bring life.
But we do have the power to appreciate that life.

“Not my type!”
“Oh, this one is just like me!”
“It would be difficult to hang around him.”

The mind is constantly labelling people we meet.

However beneath the surface, there are no “types” of people.
They are just being themselves.

What if, instead of putting people into compartments, we saw them for who they are?
Tried listening to their perspective?
Understood their awareness and applied it in our lives?

People aren’t inherently different.
They are simply doorways to learn more about ourselves.

“Waking up early gives me energy.
But my friends are out partying tonight and I do not want to miss the fun.”

“Studying is important.
But this new Netflix series everyone is talking about makes me feel I am missing out.”

“I do not have the money.
But everyone seems to love the new iPhone and I do not want to miss out.”

For everything that we should do, there will always be something that we will miss out on.

The question then is, what is more important?

How will we ever enjoy what we have, if what we have is never enough?

You wake up all of a sudden and catch a thief!
He has already filled up his bags with your stuff.

Would you allow them to carry even a spoon with them? A pen? A small matchstick?
No, right?

Then how is it that someone enters the abode of our happiness, takes it away and we let them?
How is it that people make us unhappy, and we let them?
Why do we give people the permission to decide our happiness?

Our happiness, just like the possessions in our home, is earned by us, is to be protected by us and nurtured by us.

We are both the generators and the guardians of our happiness.