When people give you advice, they’re basing it on what they would do, what they can perceive, on what they think you can do. People’s advice is based on their fears, their experiences, their prejudices, and at the end of the day, their advice is just that: it’s theirs, not yours. advice at its best is one person’s limited perspective of the infinite possibilities before you.

When we lose hope, we lose our central source of strength and resilience. The ability to envision and imagine a brighter day gives meaning to our suffering and renders it bearable. Hope is the elixir of survival during our darkest times. We all want to feel good about ourselves, but many of us don’t recognize how much work that actually takes.

In order to feel confident and secure, you need to have something to feel confident and secure about. To succeed in love, the ones you care for must constantly applaud. To me, love was a performance, so if you weren’t clapping, I was failing. everywhere I go, I try to make everything I touch better. We imagine all sorts of things to be true about ourselves or the world, not because we’ve seen evidence for it, but because it’s the only thing that keeps us from collapsing back into fear. We invent these stories to protect ourselves. We concoct entire narratives about other people’s lives when in fact we have no clue what they’re thinking or feeling or struggling with. We all delude ourselves a little bit around the things that scare us. The bigger the fantasy you live, the more painful the inevitable collision with reality. Living in your own little world with your own rules can be an advantage sometimes, but you have to be careful. While this somewhat skewed perception of myself would often end in ridicule or getting my ass kicked when I was young, on many occasions throughout my life, it served as a superpower. I would think, What do they need to hear to be OK?! It became a defense mechanism-my mind wouldn’t even contemplate what was true. I would get lost sometimes I would lose track of what was real and what I had made up. I didn’t lie about my perceptions, my perceptions lied to me. “ one man’s fantasy is another man’s lie.” It’s hard to be really funny if you’re not really smart.” “Never argue with a fool, because from a distance, people can’t tell who’s who.” I redesign it and replace it with whatever suits me. To shine it up a little bit so it doesn’t hurt so much.

My first impulse is always to clean up the truth in my mind. In the movies, we call it a character in real life, we call it personality.” “We choose the behaviors that we believe will deliver safety, stability and love. “Some of the most impactful lessons I’ve ever received, I’ve had to learn in spite of myself.” In this post, you’ll find collected quotes from Will Smith’s book: Will, with page numbers.

Will by will smith book