FILL UP YOUR TANK

"How do we keep our inner fire alive? Two things, at minimum, are needed: an ability to appreciate the positives in our life - and a commitment to action. Every day, it's important to ask and answer these questions: 'What's good in my life?' and 'What needs to be done?'" -- Nathaniel Branden

AWARENESS

"Relative to the level of awareness that is possible for us, our ordinary state of consciousness is as far from a direct experience of reality as sleep is from waking consciousness." -- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson "The thought 'I exist' is not the same thing as the awareness of one's own existence. ... Thought is not the same thing as consciousness." -- Jacob Needleman

INNER CRITICS

"The Inner Critic makes each of us a child. As we become the child in our relationships, we lose our sense of self. We are no longer self-contained, self- respecting adults. We look to others for validation. Our self-worth is based upon their opinion of us. Thus, everyone around us becomes a mother or a father whose support and approval is desperately needed to protect us from the constant criticism of the Inner Critic." -- Hal and Sidra Stone

BEWARE OF DUTY

"Should is an ordinary, everyday word -- except when it is used to indicate an order that may not be refused. Then should becomes a finger waving under the nose. ...Should users build prison cells for themselves. They are so focused on what they should do -- that they cannot think about what they can do, what they might do in the future." -- Dr. Arthur Freeman and Rose Dewolf

SPEAK KINDLY TO YOURSELF

"What is this self inside us, this silent observer, Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us, And urge us on to futile activity, And in the end, judge us still more severely, For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?" -- T. S. Eliot

LOOK INSIDE FOR DIRECTION

"If you see your path laid out in front of you -- Step one, Step two, Step three -- you only know one thing... it is not your path. Your path is created in the moment of action. If you can see it laid out in front of you, you can be sure it is someone else's path. That is why you see it so clearly." -- Joseph Campbell

WHY DO YOU WANT MONEY?

"If all the gold in the world were melted down into a solid cube, it would be about the size of an eight room house. If a man got possession of all that gold -- billions of dollars worth -- he could not buy a friend, character, peace of mind, clear conscience or a sense of eternity." -- Charles F. Bunning