This hit me hard, I’ve never been in a relationship and although I’m still only 17 its off putting. I don’t know what to do but now I see I just need to “take the step”. I need to adjust while in flight.

Thank you for continually challenging us. God bless you, too!

Well said, as always. And your timing with these posts is impeccable. 🙂

Before I give this a full read, I saw the part about my city and got excited. See you tomorrow x

And now I have read it fully and wow, that was really thoughtful, I’ll be keeping that one in mind for my weekend and days to come. x

You had me at continuous course correction #life

My life has been nothing but course corrections. I start to think I’m doing well, providing for my family, then BAM!! there’s a boulder in the road, or the path falls away, and I must find a new road to walk. I have come a long way in my life, both as a child growing up and a single mother, but to tell you the truth, I’m growing tired of fighting. I’m growing tired of having to pick myself up by the bootstraps and keep trudging along. I’m 42, shouldn’t I be somewhere close to enjoying life now? And yet, here I am again climbing my way out of another hole. I know, I know….another course correction. My control panel is starting to glitch.

Very inspirational. Much respect. I always wanted to be a rocket ship when I was younger too. But not because i thought it was just cool. I wanted to be a rocket ship because everyone always told me “Sky’s the limit” well, I wanted reach beyond the sky and just see how far I could push this limit with my dreams. I always wonderd why “Sky’s the limit”anyway? I mean I know astronauts and rockets go beyond the sky but I didn’t mean it in the literal sense. Doesn’t anybody have big enough dreams to wanna break the sky barrier?

As always Great Blog 🙂 I’m not really sure what I wanted at 5, But at 10 I thought I wanted to be a model. After being told by a few loved ones that Models have to be Very Beautiful, I assumed I wasn’t Beautiful enough and Let it go. Now that I am older I realize that I am a Model. I am a Role Model 🙂 I may not be the Best or most Beautiful but I am who I am and to me I am Shining!!! Thanks again for sharing Your Blogs with us. You lift us up when we are down. ♥ @jesican

First of all you make me cry with every blog you write. It’s not really what you are saying alone, it’s what you are saying and how it relates to my life directly. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
What you’ve written here makes me think of the plan I had for my life 25 years ago as a 20 year old. I was midway through college, engaged, and planning what my life would be like down the road. I look back now and see the twists and turns I both chose to make and the ones fate made for me. I am so happy where I am in life but it is so different than what I planned back then.
You’re very right, nothing is ever perfect and we can’t make plans based on that but we can’t be afraid to try and make out dreams come true. Tomorrow may not be there, I am painfully aware of this fact.
This is what I got out if what you’ve written.
Thank you for making me think about all of this.
Love and light to you my friend. <3

I eagerly await your blogs, Sean, and when you tweetered this afternoon that you would be posting a new one today, my day instantly got a whole lot brighter. I breezed through the rest of my work day, I endured standing in the cold with the wind chill factor of what I can only guess was 2 degrees while we jump started a friend’s dead car battery, and I scoffed at the black ice I carefully drove home on. All because I knew when I got home, I would have waiting for me an exceptional blog, a blog that would surely inspire me. Well, I wasn’t disappointed. But then again, you and your blogs have never once disappointed me, and that’s a fact.

I believe in the old adage “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” A person will never succeed if they’re too afraid to even try. Your blog affirms this.

And as serious as this blog is, and as educational as well, you still make me smile. A rocket ship? That’s just so darn cute.

This particular blog caught me at a very vulnerable period. We’re doing some testing and evaluations on my kid and right now, every step seems to lead to another step and then another step. There’s nothing like hearing that your child will struggle cognitively in every aspect of life. The feeling I got when they told me that he’ll probably struggle to get C’s in school, that his IQ isn’t high enough for him to ever go to college, that his behaviors will set him apart from everyone else for the rest of his life… it felt like my soul was being crushed by invisible hands. Now, it’s a struggle to see past all that… to reach down deep and realize that all the helplessness I feel in this situation is not helplessness at all but it’s me, giving up. You’re right. There are no definite guarantees and it’s possible that everything they tell me is true but if I don’t fight for him, if I don’t get him everything he needs right now, then I might as well throw in the towel and plant my ass on that bench for good. Yeah, sometimes I want to give up. Sometimes, I wonder if all these evaluations and therapy appointments are a lost cause but what if they aren’t? That “what if” is worth it to me when I get my ass off that bench and make that fucking three point shot to win the game. Thanks again, Sean.

That really hit home, sir, seriously. The zigs, zags and course corrections of life set me off course some time ago, and only recently managed to get back on course; however, not before I sat on the bench trying to make sure that all conditions were optimal for launch for a couple of years. The good news is that after many years of letting others talk me out of it, and talking myself out of it, I really DID initiate the launch sequence and, at 36 years old, went back to school. There are still course corrections, being the single mother of a special needs child makes things interesting (if occasionally complicated), especially with classes and homework thrown into the mix. Can’t remember ever being happier though. I think I need to print this one out and hang it somewhere I’ll read it regularly, just in case I get discouraged somehow.

Yanno Sean, since first meeting you last year I have been so inspired. It took me awhile but I took a step in a right direction in February, I lost 6lbs last week, and even though I hit a hard snag this week, it’s started to make me look at things a bit clearer and paying attention to what im putting in my body. Im looking forward to the next 6lbs that will drop. I didn’t think 6lbs was much but I remembered what you said about every loss is a victory, I got six! I hope by the time we meet again this August I’ll have lost much more to show you! I’ve started to put my writings up online and shopping my short stories around to Literary magazines while I work on my book WHICH I also started!!!! I took another step into my book and now the pages are just flying! I’m not sitting on the sidelines anymore! I’m in the game and I’m finally taking shots, I might miss a few but getting a few isn’t half as bad! Thank you for the inspiring words you always give us and the time you take for us as fans.

Inspiring and clever as usual, sir. Your words have a tendency to stick in my head and keep me going on the worst of days, and this post is no different. People seem to get so caught up in the how/when/why and somewhere along the way they get too scared to actually do. I’m guilty of this just myself. At the beginning of the year, you told us all to testify, to write down our plans and goals and make ourselves responsible. But actually getting out there, jumping off the cliff, making an attempt at that impossible shot without knowing where you’ll land or if you’ll make it…that’s a whole different step. And once you do it it’s the most exciting and invigorating thing in the world. I recently took a little leap and joined martial arts for the first time. I have no idea what I’m doing or if I’ll be any good (or if I’ll ever be able to keep up with the rest of them), but it’s the best damn thing I’ve ever done. Here’s to jumping off the cliff! Thank you, Sean!

I was just sitting here trying to make a decision about whether or not to do something I wanted to do but puts me waaaaaay out of my element. This blog hit the nail on the head! Sometimes encouragement comes from where you least expect to find it. Thank You!

I couldn’t agree with you more. Here’s the way I see it…Nothing in life worth having comes easy. If it did, then nobody would bother to strive for anything. I also believe that nothing is guaranteed. The beauty in that statement is the fact that surprises abound in life. How exciting to know that things can & will always change on your path to achieving your personal goals. There are people who can’t adapt as well to change as others, bench warmers if you will. I have never been that person. I thrive on change, the constant shift & realignment. I don’t know why that is, but I just embrace it. Much has changed within me since I wrote my proclamation to you on NYE: I have snapped out of the funk I fell into. I have lost 3 dear friends since the 2nd week of January, with the latest being a close friend of 22 years on February 7th after having surgery to repair a broken ankle 24 hours prior at the age of 44. I could have gotten lost in my grief, instead choosing to do the opposite. I would have chosen a different wake up call to stop wasting time & get back to living the life I worked so hard to create for myself, but we don’t have a choice regarding all the things that happen to & around us, we only control the way in which we react. These days I live with the reality that tomorrow is not guaranteed, yesterday isn’t worth regretting unless you plan to change the action for a different result & we are all capable to greatness, as long as we believe….because if we don’t, then who is supposed to believe in us? I’m excited for the next step, even if it happens to be sideways, diagonal or circular…whichever way I go, I think I’ll be dancing =)

I like your philosophy,inspiring ppl to stand up and fight to achieve their goals,it’s a form of ‘méthode Coué’,you’d been an amazing nurse in my staff ah!<3

I’ve had my path changed so many times over the last few years, but I refuse to give up. I went back to college late in life. I’d been left with a child to raise alone [not an easy task] at a young age, but I did it and looking at the young man he is now, I dont regret a single sleepless night or all the penny-pinching, scraping and long hours I had to put in on any job I could find to make sure he had all he needed. I was a mom, first.
Once the raising was done, it was my turn. I enrolled in college and was working hard towards making it through, when not one, but two total-loss car crashes [in a 6-month period, at that] resulted in injuries that knocked me off course.
I took the time spent in recovery to start writing my first book. I also re-enrolled in college and I’m making my way through that life again [and on the Dean’s List].
It’s not over, yet, but I’m getting there.

Thank you, Flanery! Perfect message for me to read today. Long story short…I’ve tossed around quitting my teaching job to pursue my dream of becoming a full-time visual artist. After surviving breast cancer last year, I have an unrelenting case of “life’s too short”. Confronting death has pushed me unlike anything I’ve ever experienced…but if I’m not careful…my impulsivity might just push me right over the edge. I have determined my goal and I’ve realized that I’m going to have to double up for a while, sharpen the axe so to speak, in order to achieve that goal. I’ll teach during the day and create like a mad woman at night. A change won’t happen unless I change some things…so I’m becoming that artist…each day…one step at a time…and it feels so good to have a plan and ACTUALLY working toward it!! I’ve taken that first step…and I know it’s not going to just fall in my lap and there will inevitably be some bumps along the way, but I had to start somewhere. I have to kick life in the balls, right!?

I want to share with you the story of someone whose fate wanted to put him on the bench. His name is Dan, is my brother and this year will turn 32 years old.
9 years ago he broke his neck and was left in a wheelchair. Due to complications, they had to keep him in ICU for 6 months. When they managed to stabilize and move him into physical rehab was almost a vegetable. For 3 months he did exercises in bed, to prepare him to sit in the wheelchair without being bound by it. We were eager to see him starting the exercises in the recovery room, but then we had a shock: he refused to go. What scared us the most was what we’ve read in his eyes when he looked at those trying: irony and hatred. He was letting us to take him out for walks, but he did not wanted to hear about going to recovery. His attitude has attracted the interest of 65 years old, in wheelchair as well. One evening he came and told us his story. It was for the 2 nd time in a wheelchair. 20 years ago fell from a tree and broke his neck. He recovered in time, but here it was again: in a wheelchair , falling from the same tree. Still do not know if his story was true, but reached its target. After he heard the story, Dan stayed for a week with a towel on his face, refusing visits, walks, talks. Wanted to be left alone and not hear anything. And we left him and wait. The first morning after that week, he woke up and rushed me with his breakfast and his toilet. He asked me to put his clothes, shoes and take him to the recovery room. It begins, literally and figuratively, the story of his first step.
Together with the therapist we’ve raised him from the wheelchair and waited primarily to the pass his dizziness and then try the first step. But it did not. He looked at me and said: ‘you got mail’. I was like: ‘what?’ He said: ‘I shit myself! Let’s go wash and we return.’ And we came back and he took the first step, but ‘I got mail’ again. We washed again and we returned, again. The same thing happened, after the first step. After the 4th time washing him I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I was about to suggest him to stop for today and try again tomorrow, when I see his cheeky smile and asks me: ‘ how many diapers do we have left?’ – ‘ A whole box’, I respond. Starts to laugh and says: ‘ well…good!!, because a lot of shit will happen today.’ And that’s what happened in that day and in the next one. When he started to take steps without ‘mail coming’, I asked how he did it. He said he was not afraid anymore that he will fall. Also, I wanted to ask him about the week he spent with the towel on his face, but I waited two years for this. When I asked, he answered smiling: ‘I had to let go of what I use to be and the life I use to know. I was born twice in the same life time, if you know what I mean …’
Today he is still in a wheel chair, but not on the bench. He have his own small business, has a girlfriend, is going to parties and have fun … the only help he needs is for someone to put and remove his wheelchair in and from his car.
The only universal truth is that nothing is permanent, everything changes: time, circumstances and us. We can choose between being managed by the change or manage the change.

These words are simply inspiring and honestly came at a time when I needed them the most. It is always funny how fate can direct you to things you need to hear or read to keep from giving up. I am two weeks into a 5k training program and was becoming frustrated at my slow progress. Constantly fighting with my weight and knee problems even before I had my child left me with a complex that I had to fight with for years. My daughter is a huge source of inspiration and I am doing this to make her proud. So thank you for being as a wonderful human as you are and helping to encourage those on that need that extra push.

This speaks to exactly what I have been struggling through recently and has given me exactly the encouragment that I needed to keep pushing forward. Thank you.

Very inspiring, in fact I think I needed to hear this, as i approach some new opportunities..(I just got my first acting gig!! yay!) I have conquered the first step and that is the unfailing belief in myself, a new self confidence if you will, which is most definitely relieving compared to the self loathing, negative person I had been for years.
We can all come off the bench with ease, it just starts with the belief in ourselves. <3

I only regret the time I lost when I felt the bench was my final resting place.