Why is this battle you versus you?

With all the complexity, all the obstacles out there,

why are you your greatest opponent?

Well, to put it simply,

because all those obstacles and all that complexity still can't tell you no.

They can't say enough is enough.

They can't look back at you and say,

let's just settle for what we have now.

No, only you can do that.

The world may create the landscape.

It may construct the terrain and those obstacles,

but you are the sole decider on where along the way you stop.

You decide how far you want to go and how much you are willing to endure.

When it comes to your advancement or limitation, you are in the drivers.

I just picked up a copy of Will Smith's recent book, and one of the ideas that stood out to me

was resilient.

And this part in the book, it's actually kind of uncomfortable to get through, but incredibly powerful.

He's talking about his childhood and the polarity of his father's personality.

A man who would do anything to provide for his family, he took pride in that and saw it as his primary responsibility,

but simultaneously was their greatest source of pain.

And he mentions his father, you know, hitting his mother from time to time.

In one particular example, struck his mother in the face so hard that it knocked her on the floor.

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