When your personal safety or very life is on the line, to remain alert, mobile, and skillful is an immense feat of self-mastery.

One should get rid of the obtruding self and apply himself to the work to be done as if nothing particular were taking place at the moment. Use the ego as a tool rather than a possession. Inwardly, psychologically, be a nobody.

if you must compete, if that is a model that drives you (for now), then compete with yourself. Push yourself. Top yourself. Grow yourself.

Life is an ever-flowing process and somewhere on the path some unpleasant things will pop up—it might leave a scar, but then life flows on, and like running water, if it stops, it grows stale. Go bravely on, my friend because each experience teaches us a lesson. Keep blasting because life is such that sometimes it is nice and sometimes not.

My father said, “If you think a thing is impossible, you’ll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.”

“human, fully expressed.”

There is a concept in Buddhism called the Eightfold Path. It is usually presented something like this: Right View Right Purpose Right Speech Right Conduct Right Livelihood Right Effort Right Awareness Right Meditation

Dealing with an obstacle requires this discipline. Push yourself too hard, and you may flame out. Don’t push yourself hard enough, and you may never get there.

You can employ a systematic approach to training and practicing but never employ a method to living. Life is a process, not a goal; a means but not an end; a constant movement rather than an established pattern.