Finding Hope in a Hopeless Situation — The Story of Antwone Fisher
Excerpt: The following is an excerpt from Today Matters by John C. Maxwell. In it, he shares the incredibly powerful story of Antwone Fisher and how he found hope and changed his life for the better in an utterly hopeless situation. I’ll turn it over to Maxwell to lay out the details. Enjoy.
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“Though you cannot go back and make a brand-new start, my friend, you can start now, and make a brand-new end.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Today Matters
“You cannot buy or win happiness. You must choose it.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Today Matters
“I believe that everyone chooses how to approach life. If you’re proactive, you focus on preparing. If you’re reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Today Matters
“Most people don’t lead their own lives – they accept their lives.” ~ John Kotter, Leading Change
“Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
“There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
“A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
“Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplished anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
You Will Be What You Will Be
You will be what you will be;
Let failure find its false content
In that poor word, “environment,”
But spirit scorns it, and is free.
It masters time, it conquers space;
It cows that boastful trickster, Chance,
And bids the tyrant Circumstance
Uncrown, and fill a servant’s place.
The human Will, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless Soul,
Can hew a way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene.
Be not impatient in delay,
But wait as one who understands;
When spirit rises and commands,
The gods are ready to obey.
“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
“Man is manacled only by himself: thought and action are the jailers of Fate – they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of Freedom – they liberate, being noble. Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
“A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
“Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
“As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called ‘spontaneous’ and ‘unpremeditated’ as to those that are deliberately executed.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh



