Peter McWilliams (1949-2000)

Quotes

• If you want peace, stop fighting. If you want peace of mind, stop fighting with your thoughts.

• In reality, serendipity accounts for one percent of the blessings we receive in life, work and love. The other 99 percent is due to our efforts.

• Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on?

• To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all.

• Resentment is anger directed at others--at what they did or did not do.

• Guilt is anger directed at ourselves--at what we did or did not do.

• Many people weigh the guilt they will feel against the pleasure of the forbidden action they want to take.

• If our early lessons of acceptance were as successful as our early lessons of anger, how much happier we would all be.

• To use fear as the friend it is, we must retrain and reprogram ourselves...We must persistently and convincingly tell ourselves that the fear is here--with its gift of energy and heightened awareness--so we can do our best and learn the most in the new situation.

• Pain (any pain--emotional, physical, mental) has a message. The information it has about our life can be remarkably specific, but it usually falls into one of two categories: "We would be more alive if we did more of this," and, "Life would be more lovely if we did less of that." Once we get the pain's message, and follow its advice, the pain goes away.

• The more severe the pain or illness, the more severe will be the necessary changes. These may involve breaking bad habits, or acquiring some new and better ones.

• Stubbornness is also determination. It's simply a matter of shifting from "won't power" to "will power."

• The simple solution for disappointment depression: Get up and get moving. Physically move. Do. Act. Get going.

• Acceptance is such an important commodity, some have called it "the first law of personal growth."

• Acceptance is not a state of passivity or inaction. I am not saying you can't change the world, right wrongs, or replace evil with good. Acceptance is, in fact, the first step to successful action. If you don't fully accept a situation precisely the way it is, you will have difficulty changing it. Moreover, if you don't fully accept the situation, you will never really know if the situation should be changed.

• Life is not a struggle. It's a wiggle.

• Mistakes show us what we need to learn.