It's not personal, but it's never personal.

Life is not capable of giving you some vengeful narrative or sad storyline.

Life can only give you pieces.

You decide what to make of them, what to build with them, what they mean.

Why'd you quit? Well, because things got difficult. I had to. Why'd you keep going?

I had to. Why'd you keep going? Well, things were difficult.

I had to.

It all comes back to the basic premise that our worlds are defined within.

They're merely validated externally.

And when you think about it, it becomes obvious, right? Very rarely will someone see strength in you

that you don't see in yourself.

That doesn't originate internally.

Very rarely will you be held to a higher regard

than that which you hold yourself to.

You dictate.

The world reacts.

It is, in a way, almost funny that we look everywhere for solutions,

except the place where solutions are manufactured.

Tolstoy famously said,

everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Well, the quickest way to change your life is to understand that the quote-unquote bad things, they're just not personal.

When people hurt you, those people are in pain.

They're insecure. They're fighting their own demons.

...