NOVELIST SINCLAIR LEWIS was supposed to deliver an hour-long lecture to a group of college students who planned to be writers. Lewis opened his talk with a question:
"How many of you really intend to be writers?"
All hands went up.
"In that case," said Lewis, "my advice to you is to go home and write."
With that, he left.

DOING WHAT YOU LOVE, whether it is having children, working in a profession, being a nun, being a journalist, is all-encompassing, all-engrossing, it is like a great love affair occurring every day. It is not fun, no games, not winning or losing, not making money or having your 15 minutes on television. It is what no one can take away from you. It is pure joy.

THERE IS A little island off the coast of British Columbia whose stony crags are inhabited by a species of bird called the "puffin." It is a tufted small bird, a tufted puffin. The most amazing characteristic of this bird is its habit of living in that spot only. Take it away from that area and it cannot survive. It has no resistance. This tufted puffin is so fragile that is cannot endure or overcome stress. It dies if you take it away from its normal habitat.

What kind of bird are you? Are you a tufted puffin with sawdust stuff in’? Or are you a goal-striver, a stress-survivor? That is what success is all about¾ rising above a problem, a stress.

There is a poem by Victor Hugo called "Wings":

Be like the bird that,
Pausing in its flight awhile
On boughs too light,
Feels them give way,
Yet sings!
Knowing she hath wings.

Do you have wings? Of course you have. Your wings are your faith and belief in yourself. And you can soar to your destination if you’ll only give yourself a chance. Through frustration and despair you tie your wings, and you cannot get off the ground.

What kind of bird are you? A tufted puffin? Or can you, with wings of faith and belief, reach your destination? I believe you can; you have to believe it too. You have to believe that you came into this world to succeed; to rise above fear, to rise above a stress, turning your life into a continuous creative opportunity.

WHEN IN DOUBT, make a fool of yourself.  There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on the earth.  So what the hell, leap.

HAVE PATIENCE with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them every day begin the task anew.

LIFE IS LIKE A BOOK with many different chapters. Some tell of tragedy, others of triumph. Some chapters are dull and ordinary, others intense and exciting.
 
The key to being a success in life is to never stop on a difficult page, to never quit on a tough chapter.

Champions have the courage to keep turning the pages because they know a better chapter lies ahead. 

PEOPLE WHO make the worst use of time may be the same ones who complain that there is never enough time.

WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, DO IT SLOWLY

TIMES CHANGE, jobs change, rules change. So what do you do? Throw up your hands? Quit? No. If you don't know what to do next, if the next step is unclear, go to the things you know. Rebuild the scenario. Look for things you might have missed. Move ahead slowly. Take small steps, and complete them one at a time. The fastest way to do it is to do it slowly.

IF I WERE ASKED to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice of all humanity, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye, and say, "I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me."

THERE'S ONLY two rules for being successful. One, figure out exactly what you want to do, and two, do it. 

I CAN SAY, "I am terribly frightened, and fear is terrible and awful, and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won't do that because it's uncomfortable."  Or I could say, "Get used to being uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable doing something that's risky." But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?

KNOW THAT IT IS good to work. Work with love and think of liking it when you do it. It is easy and interesting. It is a privilege. There is nothing hard about it but your anxious vanity and fear of failure. 

TO GET UP, go to work, and be happy with what you’re doing is being successful. I try to be untouched by triumph and untroubled by failure you try to keep a center in yourself. 

IF YOU WANT to manage your time better, the first thing you should do is determine what your goals are, Edwin C. Bliss says in his book, Getting Things Done

Take a blank sheet of paper. List your personal lifetime goals, the things you would like to be able to look back on when you’re 80. Not general things, such as to be happy, but specific goals a trip to Europe, a master’s degree, a vacation home, a specific weight loss, a working knowledge of Spanish, and so on.

Now list your professional goals. Not such generalities as a higher salary or a promotion or greater prestige, but specific things like a salary of certain amount, promotion to a particular job, or election to a specific office in a professional society.

Then make a list of short-term goals, the things you would like to accomplish in the next six months.

Beside being specific, goals should be authentic and attainable in other words, things you really want and are willing to work for. Keep in mind that they are subject to change at any time; indeed, one of your priority tasks should be to look over your list of goals and update it. But the list should represent your best judgment of what you’d like to accomplish as of this moment.

Now, analyze your lists. They probably include more things than you can reasonably expect to do, so assign priorities. Select the three or four goals in each category that you consider most important and write them down some place where you will see them every day. Memorize them. And keep asking yourself each day, "Is what I am doing now moving me closer to one of my goals?" If the answer is no, figure out some way the activity can be eliminated, delegated to someone else, or downgraded in priority so that it can be accomplished in your least productive time.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING as luck. We make our own, good or bad. We make it by our attitudes and actions. We make it by keeping our eyes open for opportunities, then following them up with our God-given intelligence. Life it too important to trust to luck. Believe me, luck is what you make it. 

IF YOU CANNOT do great things, do small things in a great way.