Henry Miller has always been among my favorites. Here, Miller discusses Supreme Self-Confidence.

“Every day, we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty.”

“Every (hu)man, when (s)he gets quiet, when (s)he becomes desperately honest with himself (herself), is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, to discover what is already there.”

What is the song that you long to sing that you would sing . . . if only? If ONLY you had the Supreme Self Confidence to believe in Yourself?

Read the above Henry Miller quote OUT LOUD – and then try it a few times more OUT LOUD. Monitor the feelings in your gut. How does it feel to examine self-doubt and its opposite? Please let me know the results of your experiment.

Isn’t it funny how Time can sometimes feel as though it’s moving slowly or even almost standing still – or it can feel that it’s moving really fast? How a long time in years can feel as though it has passed in minutes?

Time is in the perceptions of the beholder. Author Norman Cousins, who famously wrote Anatomy Of An Illness, said: “Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.”

Are the consequences – the results – of your actions consistent with your relationship to Time? Do you feel the effects of your chosen variables in your life experience? What has happened to You that has you capable or incapable of feeling the effects of Time?

What do you look forward to? How can you expand that?

Among the frequent questions about goal setting is the degree to which it’s best to reveal your goals to others. Likely, all of us have had the experience of telling someone else a goal and having that other person squash it in some way, including:

* Telling us that we can’t do it

* Reminding us when we’ve not met the goal yet, and not in a kind way

* Making fun of us for trying

* Not believing in us, but rather in our failing

Disclose wisely because the survival and ultimate accomplishment of your goal may depend on it. Get the agreement of those to whom you disclose that they will only support you and never engage in any of the behaviors above. The support of others can be determinative.

Bottom line: it’s your goal and you are the only one who, by definition, can ultimately be responsible for it. It’s not a terrible idea to hold your goals closely and disclose on a “need to know” basis at first and then slowly reveal as success toward the goal is had.

What has been an approach that best works for you? Is it best for you to disclose your goals? When and to whom? Is there someone whom you can always count on to support you and believe in you?

What would the world be without poetry? Poets translate the world into infinite ways for us to experience it from the bittersweet, to the tragic, to the humorous. Poems were often sung in ancient times, and we are surrounded by song lyrics that often aspire to poetry.

Plato said, “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.” This makes sense in that poetry at its best is an open window into the human condition. Whether or not you read poetry, if you sing along to songs, you are engaging in a form of human poetry that is as old as language.

How is poetry a part of your life? Do you remember song lyrics, and do you consider them poetry? Do you have a favorite poem, passage or line that speaks to you in some way?