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    “Any plan is better than no plan, and a good plan executed now is far better than a perfect plan executed too late.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

      “If you’re looking for a big opportunity, seek out a big problem.” ~ H. Jackson Brown, via The Way of the Seal

        “Failure does not deserve to be addressed with recrimination or pity.  Rather, failure must be honored for the insight it provides.  Failure is the grist for learning; it is our teacher.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

          “I believe the world is chaotic and destiny favors the prepared.  Unfortunately, sometimes chaos just refuses the harness, no matter how well you bulletproof your mission and how committed you are to finding a way.  Moving forward despite chaotic conditions—and sometimes because of them—is inherently risky, and since we don’t shy away from risk, you will inevitably experience failure, probably more often than you succeed, actually.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

            “The tougher things get, the smaller your goals should become.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

              “I don’t think that people realize that you’re not supposed to go peacefully.  After I came out of almost dying, it really dawned on me how distorted people’s concept of dying is because they think that if they can go peacefully that that means that they’ve lived a good life.  That if you can just let it go and you can be completely detached to the outcome, that that means you’re more spiritually enlightened, or that you’re doing it better, or that you’ve had a better life—the truth is, the whole point of dying is to be scared.  Because that means that your life meant something to you.  You should fear dying.  You should be terrified of it.  Even though it’s natural, even though it’s going to happen, even though you should come to terms with it in a certain way and go through the feeling of it and have a relationship with it—you also should acknowledge the fact that when it’s going to happen, no matter how much you prepare, you’re going to be terrified.  Because life does mean something.  And there’s a part of your brain that knows you’re letting it go.  And you’re always going to grieve that when it happens.  And that’s okay.  It’s okay to be terrified.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube

                “No matter how spiritually enlightened you are, or how many times you’ve thought about death and think you’re okay with it, you will grieve the life you could’ve lived when you’re dying.  You’re losing the person you could’ve become, the things you could’ve done, the things you could’ve made with your life—you’re losing that.  And there’s no way to get around that.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube

                  “I am not opposed to people thinking about death, or processing it, or questioning it—I think that’s wonderful.  What I am opposed to is this notion that you can somehow do death properly.  For me, there was no amount of preparation, no amount of thinking about death, wondering what it felt like, coming to terms with what it means, questioning the great beyond—none of that meant jack sh*t when I actually was dying.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube

                    “Death is actually not a scary thing.  The scary thing is living life without a passion and then realizing at the very last moment that it’s over and you haven’t done what you wanted to do—and that you’re not proud of your life.  That is much more terrifying.” ~ Claire Wineland (15), TEDxMalibu

                      “I was dying.  And I couldn’t gain any kind of control on the situation.  There was no, ‘mind over matter-ing’ it for me.  My lungs were failing.  And I got hit with this huge wave of grief.  Which is not something that I had expected.  As someone who had always known that I would die young—and I had always accepted that and been okay with that—I was expecting maybe some fear, maybe some hesitation, maybe to turn into a 5-year-old then cry and want my mom… But I wasn’t expecting grief.  And what I felt grief for wasn’t the fact that I was dying, it wasn’t about fear of the unknown, it was none of that.  I felt grief for the life I could’ve lived.  I felt grief for life itself.  For all of the possibilities that it held.  And I was mad at myself.  I spent, literally, 30 minutes as my CO2 levels were rising and I slowly started to hallucinate, being thoroughly pissed at myself for waiting around for the world to tell me I was okay even though I was sick.  For waiting around for someone to tell me that I was healthy enough, that I was better enough, I was good enough to live a life that I wanted to live.  I wish that I yelled at every single person that had come into the room and said that they were sorry for me.” ~ Claire Wineland (20), EEM LA 2018

                        “When you spend a lot of time in a hospital and you know a lot of other people with your condition you start to see patterns emerge in the way that they take care of themselves.  I saw these two different extremes: There were these patients who did not give any sh*ts and just never did their treatments, were completely un-compliant, would hide under their covers and not talk to any of the doctors, and were pretty much just giving a giant, “F U” to life — and then there were the patients who were overly compliant, that were perfect with their treatments, that were perfect with their health care, and wanted so desperately to be a good patient.  And I saw both of these extremes fail.  I saw people who spent every single waking hour of the day focusing on their health and trying to get better and I saw them pass away before I did.  I saw them pass away without having become anything more than just a patient.  I saw them pass away without having made anything in the world that they were proud of.  And of course the other end didn’t work either because they happened to die as well.  So I was trying to find some kind of balance.  If I only lived to get better, if I only lived for fixing myself, for getting healthy—then what was I actually contributing to the world?” ~ Claire Wineland (20), EEM LA 2018

                          “I challenge you all to look at your ‘problems,’ and stare them in the eye and say, ‘Listen, this is how it’s going down… I’m not going to try and overcome you anymore or try and face you anymore—you are going to become my friend.  And I am going to learn from you as much as I possibly can.” ~ Claire Wineland (14), Positively Positive

                            “I’m sure you have challenges, things that you wish you could overcome, or things that you could get over… Stop.  Stop trying to get over it.  Because if we’re trying to get over all of the problems in our lives then our entire lifetimes are just going to be trying to get over problems—that’s all there is going to be.  And that is not a life to be proud of.  Instead, find those challenges in your life and use them!  Use them and turn them into an opportunity.” ~ Claire Wineland (15), TEDxMalibu