Of course you battle despair. It is often a day-to-day fight, but it's one that can be won.

Master your responses to external events--don't attempt to control them.

Get a backbone, not a wishbone.

Power is at the root of the human experience. Our attitudes and beliefs--positive or negative--are all extensions of how we define and use power.

Facing personal truths and purging yourself of addictions or manipulative habits require strength, courage, humility, faith, and other qualities of a soul with stamina, because you are not just changing yourself; you are changing your universe. Your soul is a compass. Change one coordinate in your spiritual compass and you change your entire life's direction.

There is nothing easy about becoming conscious. My own life was much easier before I knew about the deeper meaning of choice, the power of choice that accompanies taking responsibility. Abdicating responsibility to an outside source can seem, at least for the moment, so much easier. Once you know better, however, you can't get away with kidding yourself for long.

You know an action is the correct one for you because you don't think, "This is costing me my power." I can be tired after a day's work at the right job, but I'm not psychically drained to where I feel like I'm losing life.