My beloveds, life does not discourage you. You discourage yourself. That has to be so, for you are the decider of you. You decide what you will make of things. You decide what you will emphasize in life. If that is the case, and I say it is, well, then, you might just as well encourage yourself.

If you are an artist, you have a choice of what art you paint.

If you are a musician, you have choice over the kind of music you practice.

You are not, emphatically not, at the mercy of events in life. You are the one who decides what any event means to you.

If you ignite fear in your heart, you can just as well ignite love. Have you not more experience in fear, when it comes to yourself, than in love? No wonder you have found yourself in misery. You have put yourself there.

"Someone drove by and splashed mud on me," you say. And you stand there and say, "I am muddy."

I say to you: "Wash it off, and keep going. No mark from another has to stay on you. Splashes of mud are just that, no more. They are not an indictment of you. They do wash off. Mud has to land somewhere. Sometimes it's on you. It is up to you to wash yourself of it."

Whatever you have let discourage you from fullness of heart — what is its worth? What usefulness does it serve? Any? Oh, perhaps to rub off a little ego. But now get on with it.

Cinderella rose from the ashes. She did not stay there. What was once does not have to continue.

Again We come to not taking personally that which occurs. The true occurrence is in your mind. Therefore, you have the say of it. You are the interpreter. And what you say goes.

If you are knocked out cold on the mat in a boxing ring, you don't stay there. You are knocked down only for a little while.

It is often said that nothing is forever. Well, remember that when things do not go the way you want. You are quick to see the disappearance of what gives you happiness but not so quick to see the equal disappearance of that which seems to block your way. You are your own blocker. There are no exceptions.

Whatever transpires outside you transpires outside you. You do not have to take it in. You are a free agent in whatever space you occupy. No matter how dismal what goes on around you may be, you do not have to merge with it. You are separate from events. They do not own you. You do not own them.

You and I cannot be separate, and the world does not make Me what I am anymore than it makes you. You need not bobble according to what goes on around you. You are a sovereign being linked to God.

Discouragement is not a stranger to you. You have had enough of it. Discouragement makes your heart small. Discourage yourself no more.

Encouragement makes your heart swell. Befriend encouragement. Encouragement is the real goods.

Discouragement is cheap. It is sold around every corner. Don't buy anymore.

You are the chooser of what you spend yourself on. Choose well. Do not choose lowering. Choose rising.