life on planet earth on Self-Achievement

Who, then, are we, we prideful late-twentieth-century creatures? Lord knows, we no longer think of ourselves as belonging to anyone or anything. We do not belong – we own; we possess. And that, to say...

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Achievement is the alcohol of our time.

Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values.

In his book, Scary Close , Donald Miller acknowledges that over time he developed a mask, or a persona that kept even those closest to him from experiencing with him. As he began to peel back layers ...

With vainglory, we crave notice of our achievements with pride, we take full credit for the progress we have made and do not think that God has been involved at all, let alone been our indispensible h...

You follow your desires wherever they take you, and you approve of yourself so long as you are not obviously hurting anyone else. You figure that if the people around you seem to like you, you must be...

To know oneself, is above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against the Truth, and not the other way around.

Self-acceptance gives assent to be who I am—a small, limited person with bents toward sin as well as hungers for holiness—and allows me to live with all my contradictions, because my will, at least on...

The person striving for superiority is “always outside himself, is capable of living only in the opinion of others ​and, so to speak, derives the sentiment of his own existence solely from their judgm...

We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.

Self-Discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from expectations and the demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear—and doubt.

The Double Helix, James Watson’s 1968 memoir about discovering the structure of DNA, describes the roller coaster of emotions he and Francis Crick experienced through the progress and setbacks of the ...

Self-judgment may be the greatest barrier to self-understanding.

If our identity is in our work, rather than Christ, success will go to our heads, and failure will go to our hearts.

As Ellen DeGeneres put it in a 2009 commencement address, “My advice to you is to be true to yourself and everything will be fine.” Celebrity chef Mario Batali advised graduates to follow “your own tr...

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.

Thomas Merton describes those who never experience the gift of a contemplative life. His explanation for why some people never experience this can be found in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation: [T...

Selfishness is the making a man's self his own centre, the beginning and end of all he doeth.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.

Before any great achievement, some measure of depression is very usual.

In this excerpt, musician and author Ginny Owens shares a childhood exercise that only makes specific what all of us as human beings struggle with, the desire for wholeness: I wish you could know my ...

“My therapist says I’m afraid of success. I guess I could understand that, because after all, fulfilling my potential would really cut into my sitting-around time.”

Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.

The road to character often involves moments of moral crisis, confrontation, and recovery. When they were in a crucible moment, they suddenly had a greater ability to see their own nature. The everyda...

Know thyself — but don’t tell anyone.

It is estimated that over 80 percent of the books published in any given year are about the self.

Nothing worth doing can be accomplished in a lifetime.