Perspective

The Failure Paradox: You have to fail more to succeed more. Our greatest moments of growth often stem directly from our greatest failures. Don’t fear failure, just learn to fail smart and fast.

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light, and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.’

Even in perceived chaos, there is order and pattern. A cosmic undercurrent running through all things, which no story is immense enough to contain.

"Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in morning’s hush, I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there. I did not die."

Some things take time. Some things take years before you see how it comes together. But the more you can remember the wholeness of it all, the more you will find that despite your unknowing, the grass, the trees, and the creatures throughout this vast landscape are still growing, and somehow, through it all, it all works together, and you too, are part of that. and it’s okay if it takes time to see this. Wisdom is gathered over years, not minutes. Trust in slowness. Trust in thoroughness. - Morgan Harper Nichols

No one has the same measures of greatness.

You will receive a body. You may like it or not but it is yours for the entire time you’re on Earth. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called “life.” Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant or stupid. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much as the process as the experiment that ultimately works. A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. Then you can go on to the next lesson. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned. “There” is no better than “here.” When your “there” has become “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that is, again, better than “here.” Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need – what you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours. The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust. You will forget all this. You can remember whenever you want.