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“Success is a tyrant that will enslave you just as quickly as failure.”

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Last Arrow: Save Nothing for the Next Life (p. 43). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I have been sitting here reading and having a problem finding a thought to write on today.   You see I have had a good week of the number of people who have read this blog and that success has made it more difficult in finding a thought to write about today.   So, I got up and walked around the block and sat down in a different place and started looking back on thoughts that I have passed up and this one jumped out at me.   So here it goes. Earlier Erwin said, “There is a subtle difference between your identity being rooted in your essence and your identity being rooted in your success. What you do comes out of who you are, but who you are must exist apart from what you do. If your identity is rooted in your success, then you will lose who you are when failure comes you

“You have to know where you need to settle and where you should never settle.”

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Last Arrow: Save Nothing for the Next Life (p. 28). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Each of us needs to settle on some things and let go of some things.   Have you found that true yet? Erwin says, “One of the nuanced skills of people who maximize their capacity and optimize their impact on the world is that they know which battles not to fight. They know which ground to give up. They know where to settle. This is not because they’re postured for compromise; it’s because they have a clarity about what really matters to them. They know what their lives are about. They have profound intention, and that intention informs every arena of their lives. Those who care about everything actually care about nothing.” He goes on, “You have to know what matters; you have to know who you are; you have to know what your life is to be given to. For in the end, the o

“We can become so afraid of death that we never live.”

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Last Arrow: Save Nothing for the Next Life    (p. 18). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) That is so true for so many of us. The whole thought is, “We can become so afraid of death that we never live, so afraid of failure that we never risk, so afraid of pain that we never discover how strong we really are.” Erwin later says, “Sometimes we forget that people respond differently to trauma. At the same time, it is those moments when we are confronted with the uncertainty of life that allows us to see ourselves most clearly. Even as I write these words, I am a few hours away from learning the results of a recent biopsy. But I am convinced of this: you must not allow fear to steal your future, and every day that you walk this earth you must make sure you save nothing for the next life. You must never allow fear to keep you grounded. The moment you choose