Life in the 21st century is definitely a wild ride. In the age of social media, we are constantly balancing societal expectations with our parents’ expectations, our friends’ expectations, our partners’ expectations, and our own expectations. With all of these influences acting on us, it’s not surprising that a lot of us lose ourselves in the chaos. The truth is, pretending to be someone or something you’re not can make you lose sight of the

In Cobra Kai, Johnny makes the point that in the real world, you can’t expect people to do what they are supposed to do. They also aren’t going to always do what you would do or what you think they should do. And the more you dependent on a certain outcome, the more you set yourself up for feeling defeated.   Yes, friends. Like Shakespeare said expectation is the root of all heartache.  The truth is

In the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Dumbledore tells Harry that “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live” while he is looking into the Mirror of Erised. The mirror reflects Harry’s deepest desires, and Dumbledore cautions him about focusing too much on those dreams. Dumbledore says this quote to Harry after declaring that the mirror is going to be moved and warns him not to go looking for

Have you ever become lost within your own thoughts? Have you ever known that you couldn’t change something, but that thing consumed your mind anyway? We tend to ruminate on negative thoughts, and that rumination prevents us from moving on with our lives. If something is out of your hands and there is nothing that you can do about it, it deserves freedom from your thoughts, too. At that point we need to stop ruminating

This quote comes from a line in the third verse of Bob Dylan’s song titled, Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right. There will be some relationships, be them romantic or not, that will want more from us than what we can give. I have found that even if you are totally emotionally available, some people just want more than what any one person can reasonably provide. In my posts I often talk about giving too

Have you ever had someone promise that they would do something that they never followed through on? Or maybe someone told you they cared for you only to treat you like you don’t matter? A person’s words fall flat when their actions don’t match what they claim. The truth is, you only truly know where a person’s intentions and heart lie when you see them follow through on their word.  This quote has resonated with

Sometimes, we are stereotyped or cast into a mold that we didn’t choose for ourselves. Perhaps someone tells us that we are not smart enough to go to college or to work a certain job. They place our abilities in a box, and we believe it, remaining constrained by them. It’s kind of like the conditioning of elephants. As babies, they are tethered to a rope that is tied to a stake in the ground.

Ah, another good ‘miyagism’! When Daniel-san is concerned about not having learned as much karate as he expected to, Mr. Miyagi reminds him that, “You trust the quality of what you know, not quantity.  When I first started out in business, I had many different projects going on at the same time. I worked night and day on them. I found myself frustrated that I wasn’t making as much progress as I had hoped in