The Tools: 5 Tools to Help You Find Courage, Creativity, and Willpower--and Inspire You to Live Life in Forward Motion

The central task of an adult is to find her purpose in the world.

The advertising industry spends billions of dollars each year—all of it preying on our need for acceptance. Every advertisement boils down to a simple message: if you buy our product you’ll be accepted, loved, part of the in-crowd; if you don’t you’re stuck … alone

A sense of purpose doesn’t come from thinking about it. It comes from taking action that moves you toward the future. The moment you do this, you activate a force more powerful than the desire to avoid pain. We call this the “Force of Forward Motion.”

John Milton, in Paradise Lost, expressed it this way: “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.”

As long as you insist that life treat you fairly, when someone wrongs you you’ll demand that the scales of justice be balanced immediately. You’ll dig in your heels and refuse

The Tool in Brief 1. Standing in front of any kind of audience, see your Shadow off to one side, facing you. (It works just as well with an imaginary audience or an audience composed of only one person.) Ignore the audience completely and focus all of your attention on the Shadow. Feel an unbreakable bond between the two of you—as a unit you’re fea

Pillar 2: When it comes to spiritual reality, each of us is his own authority.

gratefulness is a higher organ of perception, through which you can accurately appreciate a fundamental truth: the universe works—mysteriously—and you’re the constant beneficiary of its generosity. The Source is supporting you every moment from the day you’re born until the day you die.

“Black Cloud.” When you worry incessantly, regardless of the subject, you’re creating a negative energy that hangs over you like a cloud. The Black Cloud screens out everything positive and creates a sense of impending doom.

faith is the confidence that higher forces are always there to help when you need them.