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

In contrast, the universe doesn’t care about our external success; its goal is to develop our inner strength. We care about what we achieve on the outside; the universe is interested in who we are on the inside.

The twentieth-century Scottish explorer W. H. Murray described it this way: “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too … raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.”

The expressive power of the inner self is released through this bond with the Shadow. Once you become an advanced practitioner of the tool, you’ll be able to express yourself freely in situations that you would’ve frozen in previously.

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

The “Shadow” is everything we don’t want to be but fear we are, represented in a single image. It’s called the Shadow because it follows us wherever we go.

“When I don’t get immediate results, I become even more committed to using the tool.”

Most wrongs that people commit cause no lasting damage; if you were to let go of the initial hurt, you could go on with life immediately. But you don’t. You obsess about what was done to you in the past. As a result, you turn your back on your own future.

although they require energy at the outset, they increase your energy in the long run.

When AA uses the term self-will, they’re referring to the delusion that the universe will conform to your expectations.

It bypasses your opinion about what should be and gives you an active way to accept what is.