You can have excuses or you can have success; you can't have both.
We humans can get used to anything. It really is remarkable. The problem is that we often use this glorious ability of ours to stay stuck in mediocrity. Oh, the years we waste adapting to lousy marriages, soul-sucking jobs, being friends with people who are rude to waitresses.
If you're confident, then you don't feel weird about showing your vulnerability and opening yourself up to learning from somebody else. Insecure people stay where they are because they're afraid of admitting their weaknesses.
Technology gets a bad rap for keeping us glued to our screens instead of being present with whomever is around us, and while this can be true, it also allows us to connect with billions of people all over the world. For free.
Basically, I chose not to identify with being broke any longer. I realized I deserved a beautiful life, and abundance was something that I needed to welcome into my life.
Make an effort to do the things that you enjoy instead of being lazy about it. Life is worth the hassle.
I got my first real job, one that didn't involve wearing a hairnet or bending over the hood of a wet car with a towel in my hand, in the early '90s working for CBS Records. While there, I started my first of several rock bands and eventually wrote my first book, the semi-autobiographical novel, 'Don't Sleep With Your Drummer.'
When my plans to become a world-famous rockstar didn't pan out, I decided to try being a lesbian instead, didn't pull that off either, and wrote my second book, the national bestseller, 'The Straight Girl's Guide To Sleeping With Chicks.'
I'm in trouble with some activist women because I refuse to say I'm bisexual.
Will you lose everything you've got if you open your own restaurant? Who knows. Will unleashing your secret desire to teach tap dancing ruin your reputation as a professional wrestler? Who knows. And who cares? Unless your unknown puts you at risk of death, prison, or bodily harm, you have nothing to lose except living a dull, uninspired life.
Yes, there will be challenges, and things will blow up in your face, but learning experiences are different from wasting your life pushing a boulder up a hill.
Bravely going out into the world and trying, yet still deep down believing you're ruled by your past circumstances, is like forgiving someone but still hoping they sit in something wet.
This is part of what makes me, ahem, an excellent houseguest: I'm game. I'm flexible. I'll make you feel okay about eating an entire chocolate cake in one sitting because I'm right there by your side with my own fork.
I grew up in suburban New York, and my family wasn't much on traveling, so when I arrived at my alma mater, The Colorado College, I'd never been out West before, seen a 14,000-foot mountain, experienced snow in 70-degree weather, or come into contact with something called a 'dude.'
As far as self-confidence goes, so much of social media is about approval, getting likes, comparing our lives to others' - meanwhile, confidence is an inside job: it's about how you feel about yourself regardless of what anyone else does or thinks. It's a knowing that you're human, you're flawed, and you're awesome in your own way.
Pay attention to how you think and speak, and if it turns out that you're sounding snide or crappy or doubtful, make the conscious decision to change.
When we push against who we naturally are, we feel stress, things don't progress easily, we beat ourselves up for getting crappy results, and everything is an effort.
So many people subconsciously shy away from getting rich because they believe they'll be judged, they'll lose the people they love, they believe that desiring money is a bad thing, money is the root of all evil, etc.
Maybe, if you put your disbelief aside, roll up your sleeves, take some risks, and totally go for it, you'll wake up one day and realise you're living the kind of life you used to be jealous of.
If you're in a ditch, and you're looking down, you can see where you're going but you can't see the way out.
