6 Things You Need for a Fulfilling Life

I have survived cancer four times, two open-heart surgeries and multiple brushes with death over my 46 years.

What do I know about life? Or more accurately, what do I think I know?

Well, I think I know this.

I need love as much as I need air, water and food to survive and flourish. I have to love everyone but you don’t have to like him or her.

The closer people are to me, the more love I radiate towards them and the more I accept their presence.

Acceptance is the key to serenity.

I only control my actions, not others’ and certainly not my higher powers’. Take the action, live with the results.

That it is a constant battle for emotional balance inside me.

Action cures my fear and true action requires courage.

Courage for me is knowing the difference between right and wrong and doing the right thing no matter your state or the state it will leave you in. It is also standing up and speaking out, but sometimes it is sitting down and listening.

Remember that nothing changes until you face it directly; I never leave well enough alone and to thy own self be true helps everything (especially looking in mirrors).

Having an open mind is the highest form of intellect and a mind once expanded, never returns to its original dimensions, in my opinion.

Share your pain if it eases others.

Hope is what brings me back, wakes me up and makes me believe. I found out what my hopes were and lived inside them and strived for them.

If I don’t have faith, nothing is possible, if I do everything is possible. Remembering that faith without works is dead.

There came a time in my life when I had an epiphany, at that point I accepted what it was and went for it.

Normality is the ultimate sacrifice of potential. I have been myself no matter what “they” say. Adulation is easy, respect is hard. There is a difference between appointed and anointed.

Being serious is a shelter for the shallow. I smile a lot and often. People are going to talk about me anyway; I make sure I give them something entertaining to say.

I am trying to live an honorable life, so when I look back it will be mostly with fondness.

It doesn’t matter what you dream, what you think. In the end, it only matters what you do.

My belief is that the only thing that separates man from God is ego and life is more progress than perfection, so love yourself, so you can fully love others.

I definitely know this much for sure. I intend to leave this planet exhausted, used up and with no other options left.

I will then go to a peaceful rest, connected with the whole universe and with a smirk on my face, knowing that I did the best to live fully and completely.