Quotes from Peter McWilliams

To overcome a fear, here's all you have to do: realize the fear is there, and do the action you fear anyway.

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.

Guilt is anger directed at ourselves - at what we did or did not do. Resentment is anger directed at others - at what they did or did not do.

I see nothing wrong with the human trait to desire. In fact, I consider it integral to our success mechanism. Becoming attached to what we desire is what causes the trouble. If you must have it in order to be happy, then you are denying the happiness of the here and now.

Some people think that meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that's true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes.

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.

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

Crises bring out the best in people—and the worst. They also bring out the best people—and the worst. What can one say about ignorant, arrogant, politically active people who say things like, AIDS is God's curse upon homosexuals? I can remember the words of Jesus: Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do, but then I remember Jesus said that moments after he was nailed to the cross.

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.

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

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.

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

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

That's the trouble, of course: we have taken sins out of God's domain, where they can be forgiven, and put them in the domain of law, where they can only be plea-bargained.

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

To the degree we're not living our dreams, our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves.

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.

You should be allowed to do whatever you want with your own person and property, as long as you don't physically harm the person or property of a nonconsenting other.

We can consciously end our life almost anytime we choose. This ability is an endowment, like laughing and blushing, given to no other animal... in any given moment, by not exercising the option of suicide, we are choosing to live.

Negative thinking is always expensive--dragging us down mentally, emotionally, and physically--hence I refer to any indulgence in it as a luxury.

Whenever something good happens write it down. Buy a special notebook . . . and use it to list all the good in your life.

The road to positivity is strewn with the abandoned vehicles of the faint-hearted.

Willingness opens the doors to knowledge, direction, and achievement. Be willing to know, be willing to do, be willing to create a positive result. Be willing, especially, to follow your dream.