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Accepted Imperfection / David Porter
Do not make me lose this. This is a part of who I am when you met me and you like me for me, you might not like that part of me, but it is a part of me, do not make me lose this, just because you do not like it.
Having that ability to say: I give to you in the hopes that you give to me and we have that reciprocity on all levels and no one feels like they are being taken advantage of, trust gets built better that way.
Be Yourself / Zak Ruppert
I would want to tell her, my daughter, to not fall into the trap of feeling you have to conform to what society wants you to be. That peer pressure is going to lead to always chasing the same thing, which is ever changing.
Chasing that level of acceptance can be detrimental, because you are going to have to change your personality every time. Be yourself and be happy with yourself.
Conditional Love / Will Cottingham
Love is not unconditional, it is riddled with condition. I am an objectively imperfect creature. Do I love this person and their imperfections?
Am I willing to understand that if I am to be a fluid human being and grow, learn, detract from, dive headfirst into, and be willing to be pliable and mold myself to meet the better version of me at every step in my life's journey, am I willing to provide that same grace to the other person? That is what love is.
Disciplined Results / Rasmus Elnæs
Discipline is the art of just doing it. It is an action. It is not about how you feel, what you are going to do, or what you have done.
It is sticking to your plan and trusting it because you know you will get the results. It is just a matter of time.
Human Wins / Emily LaFave
You have to lose. You have to fail. If you do not fail, then you cannot win. If you do not even try, you are not going to win.
Will you fail again? Probably. Not every mistake that you make is exactly the same. You are a human being. Life would be really boring if you were not.
Proud Setbacks / David Porter
Be proud of yourself despite your setbacks. Be proud of yourself especially when you lose.
Having that ability to say to yourself, “You are good enough, you did well enough,” and having that acceptance will lead you to making better choices later, which leads to better character development. Fail, fail again, fail better.
Respect Yourself / Roderick Harris
From day one, I instilled in them: respect yourself. Some things you will not do if you respect yourself, because you have a higher standard.
The higher the standard you hold for yourself, the less you will lower your standards for others.
ThinkTops
Complacent Suffering / Declaration of Independence
Accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Curb Temper / Abigail Adams
You must do it for yourself. You must curb that impetuosity of temper, which properly directed may be productive of great good. If you indulge yourself in the practice of any foible or vice in youth, it will gain strength with your years and become your conquerer.
Stubborn Facts / John Adams
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
IcHi-gO Icgi-e
One time, one meeting
Jigō-JitOKu
The consequences of one's own actions
futō-fuKutSU
The mind that does not bend and does not yield
teiKaN
The achievement of peace through the acceptance of reality and letting go
Wabi-sAbi
Beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness
Kaizen
Continuous improvement over delayed perfection
Shu Ha Ri
Learn the rules like a professional, so you can break them like an artist
Heritage of Faith
1 Corinthians 13 Love
Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails.
Isaiah 30 Teacher
Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers; and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”
James 1 Doers
Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
Romans 12 Transformed
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Romans 14 Judgement
Why do you judge your brother? Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Each one of us will give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.
Special Editions
Jiu-Jitsu Pretzel
The gentle art of folding another human into a pretzel.
Jiu-Jitsu Laundry
The gentle art of folding clothes with someone still wearing it.
Certain Victory / Sun Tzu
Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated. Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy.
Craving More / Lucius Annaeus Seneca
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
What does it matter how much a man has laid up in his safe, or in his warehouse, how large are his flocks and how fat his dividends, if he covets his neighbour's property, and reckons, not his past gains, but his hopes of gains to come?
Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough.
Perceived Understanding / Epictetus
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
As to things then which ought to be done and ought not to be done, and good and bad, and beautiful and ugly.
On these matters we praise, we censure, we accuse, we blame, we judge and determine about principles honourable and dishonourable.
