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    “Before you help someone, you should find out why that person is in trouble.  You shouldn’t merely assume that he or she is a noble victim of unjust circumstances and exploitation.  It’s the most unlikely explanation, not the most probable.  In my experience—clinical and otherwise—it’s just never been that simple.  Besides, if you buy the story that everything terrible just happened on its own, with no personal responsibility on the part of the victim, you deny that person all agency in the past (and, by implication, in the present and future, as well).  In this manner, you strip him or her of all power.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 80)

      “Not everyone who is failing is a victim, and not everyone at the bottom wishes to rise, although many do, and many manage it.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 76)

        “The best way to empower someone is not to give them anything; Is not to treat them as if they need to be put on the sidelines. The best way to empower someone is to encourage them to give something to the world—to demand something.” ~ Claire Wineland (20), EEM LA 2018

          “If you won’t give a dime out of a dollar, you won’t give $1 million out of $10 million.  The time to give is now!  When I had nothing, I began this process.  The reward is that if you give, even at the times when you think you have very little, you’ll teach your brain that there is more than enough.  You can leave scarcity behind and move toward a world of abundance.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game

            “We are all capable of contributing to the world in a way that makes a profound difference.  A rare few go big.  Make the big gesture.  Take the big risk.  Expose themselves on a grand scale.  Create and then ride the big wave.  But most of us, myself included, take a different yet equally valid path.  It’s the path of the ripple.  Simple actions, moments, and experiences.  Created, offered, and delivered with such a purity of intention and depth of integrity and clarity that they set in motion a ripple that, quietly, in its own way, in its own time, expands outward.  Interacting with, touching, mattering to people we’ve never met in ways we never conceived.” ~ Jonathan Fields, How To Live A Good Life

              “When we think about giving, we often think about grand gestures, setting aside hours or days to volunteer, mentor, or contribute to some person or group we want to see rise.  Or we think about specific charities, foundations, and organizations to donate to.  But giving even on the smallest level has power.  So often, we miss the momentary opportunities to contribute, the countless moments to be generous, to help, to be of service in the moment, for a moment.” ~ Jonathan Fields, How To Live A Good Life

                “If the only reason you help is so that you can tell people that you help, I don’t need your help.” ~ Iain Thomas, I Wrote This For You

                  “It is not enough to be compassionate, we must act.” ~ Dalai Lama

                    “If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.” ~ Jack Kornfield

                      “[My wife] likes to think of money as a big magnifying glass.  If you are a good person before you had money… then money makes you an even better person.  If you were a charitable person before you had money… then money makes you even more charitable.  But if you were an asshole before you had money… well then, money makes you an even bigger asshole.” ~ Jesse Itzler, Living with a SEAL

                        “The main way you generate bodily tension is by turning your attention back on yourself in self-concern, curling into yourself so tightly you feel all knotted up.  Therefore, the main cure is to give yourself to others.  Whenever you notice that you are mulling over your own problems, knotting energy into your body as tension, take that energy and create a gift for others.  It could be as simple as doing the dishes in the sink, or as complex as building a business that will benefit others.  Convert into service the energy that is knotting up the front of your body.  Your tension is only the energy of a gift that has become backed up, unexpressed, in your body.” ~ David Deida, The Way of the Superior Man

                          “It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. Its appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one’s spiritual balance. Therefore, children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.” ~ Ohiyesa, American Indian

                            “Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations