But this wasn’t what I thought I had decided to do initially, even though it was what I did every day. Degrees, titles, attire and accessories do not make a person those things create an image. It is state of our being and what we do with that, which makes us who we are.

This is where we can get stuck in “muck” by insisting that plan we charted be implemented immediately and sulking (which can express itself in a number ways) in meantime. This meantime is what is most dreaded and maybe even feared as what is in way of having it our way now. But choice is made to prolong meantime by not being willing to be engaged in creative solutions, which are ALWAYS possible, because we are angry. This immature response is then endured like a toddler throwing a tantrum, but how does punishing yourself with an extend trip through unpleasantness help?

From my experience it seems that anger cuts off love, so being mired in it effectively blocks love supply in same way that holding your breath would---- depriving brain of oxygen as self is robbed of its miraculous blessing--- life.

Let me share this with you in closing. I have a very dear friend who is facing his mortality because of kidney disease. A few friends and I were gathered at his house for dinner and in course of a philosophical debate about freedom he began to talk of how confronting his mortality had evolved into focusing on what it meant to live.

In his summation he stated that, to best of his understanding, that what gave his life value was living from a foundation of compassion.

I confess that previously his mention of his life ending was something I did not want to talk about or listen to, but I did listen because it was important to him. Finally, I think maybe I understood. My former junior high teacher and friend of twenty years was doing what he did best. Teaching. This is what he taught me at our gathering of educators’ dinner party.

Be compassionate with yourself so that you can learn to infuse that quality of being into your relationships with others. That is hope for transforming world, our only hope for world peace.

I hope that tempers any harshness of realities I’ve explored in this article, but believe me when I remind you that best thing you can do to improve state of world, is to improve state of yourself and your life. Be mindful of micro and macro and part you play in global drama.

Synthesize your own epiphanies into your simple plan, and utilize these articles to ensure that strategy factors in requirement for flexibility if happiness and success are even remotely fraternizing with your goals.