THOMAS STERNER

The four “S” words are Simplify, Small, Short, and Slow.

Simplify

When you work at a specific project or activity, simplify it by breaking it down into its component sections. Don't set goals that are too far beyond your reach.

Small

Focus...

• If you are not in control of your thoughts, then you are not in control of yourself.
• Without self-control, you have no real power, regardless of whatever else you can accomplish.
• If you are not aware of the thoughts that you think in each moment, then you are the rider with n...

With deliberate and repeated effort, progress is inevitable.

When we make staying focused on the process our real goal, we experience a sense of success in every moment.

Houses, cars, jobs come and go; you, however, are eternal.

Take time regularly to review all the things that ...

We have a very unhealthy habit of making the product — our intended result — the goal, instead of the process of reaching that goal. When we practice something, we are involved in the deliberate repetition of a process with the intention of reaching a specific goal.

When you focus your mind...

Most of the anxiety we experience in life comes from our feeling that there is an end point of perfection in everything that we involve ourselves with. 

We consciously or unconsciously pick a point of reference in whatever we do and decide t...

None of us learn anything except through our own direct experiences

Teach with your actions.

Children have much more to offer because we can learn from them if we listen to ourselves as we teach them.

Wisdom is not a by-product of age. Teach and learn from all those around you

At any point when you are feeling bored, rushed, or impatient, realise that you have left the present moment in your activity.

The next time you feel like not doing anything, tell yourself you will work on staying present-moment and Process-oriented for just the first half hour.

Don't...

If you force your mind to stay in the present moment and to stay in the process of what you are doing, many of your problems will melt away.

Staying in the present in the process is the first part of the perspective change that creates patience.

The second step in creating patience is...

Equanimity is defined as even-temperedness and calmness. It comes from the art of non judgment. Non judgment quiets the internal dialogue of our mind.

Judgments are necessary for us to function in life, but they have a downside : They are not executed with a detached nature. The more closel...

The problem with patience and discipline is that developing each of them requires both of them.

The ego is subjective. It judges everything, including itself, and it is never content with where it is, what it has, or what it has accomplished.

The observer is objective. It does not judge anything as good or bad. It just sees the circumstance or action as “being”.

Thus the observ...