Habit 1: Be Proactive
The foundation of effectiveness lies in taking responsibility for your life and actions. Being proactive means being in charge of your own destiny, making conscious choices, and not simply reacting to circumstances. It involves focusing on what you can control and influence rather than being victimized by external forces. Embrace a proactive mindset, and you’ll find yourself empowered to tackle challenges head-on and create the life you desire.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Effective people have a clear vision of their goals and aspirations. They start with a well-defined end in mind and use this vision as a compass to guide their decisions and actions. By clarifying your purpose and setting meaningful, achievable goals, you can align your efforts with what truly matters to you, leading to increased motivation and fulfillment.

Habit 3: Put First Things First
Time is our most valuable resource, and how we use it determines our success. Highly effective individuals prioritize their tasks based on importance and urgency, emphasizing activities that align with their values and long-term objectives. Implementing effective time management techniques, such as creating a to-do list and setting boundaries, will help you focus on what truly matters and avoid getting caught up in distractions.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Cultivate an abundance mindset and seek mutual benefits in your interactions with others. Highly effective people understand that collaboration and cooperation lead to greater success for everyone involved. Rather than engaging in zero-sum thinking, strive to find solutions where everyone can win. This approach fosters healthy relationships and builds a positive and supportive environment.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Effective communication is not just about speaking but also about listening with genuine empathy. Practice active listening and seek to understand the perspectives and feelings of others before expressing your own. This habit enhances your problem-solving abilities, minimizes misunderstandings, and builds trust and respect in your relationships.

Habit 6: Synergize
Synergy is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Embrace diversity, appreciate different viewpoints, and work collaboratively to find innovative solutions to challenges. By tapping into the strengths and talents of those around you, you can create a harmonious and productive team or community.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
To be highly effective, you must take care of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Regularly invest time in activities that rejuvenate and nourish you, such as exercise, reading, meditation, or spending quality time with loved ones. By maintaining a balanced lifestyle, you’ll have the energy and clarity of mind to excel in all areas of your life.

Conclusion:

Incorporating these seven habits into your daily life requires commitment and consistent effort, but the rewards are immeasurable. Remember, effectiveness is not a destination but a journey of continuous growth and self-improvement. By practicing these habits, you’ll become a better version of yourself and inspire positive change in those around you. Here’s to your journey towards becoming a highly effective person!

Video Guide— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKMwyPFX_74&t=368s

Well, we’re entering an era that changes everything. A few critical technology breakthroughs and fundamentally more accessible platforms are changing everything. From free web-based tools with templates that help conquer the fear of the blank screen to powerful generative artificial intelligence that conjures up anything from a text prompt, expressing yourself creatively no longer requires climbing creativity’s notoriously steep learning curve.

Most of those who have succeeded in life can trace their success back to the essential education they obtained from parents, teachers and/ or friends.

T-Ralph Olaniyi

People from communities of color are underrepresented in publishing. Our books make up less than six percent of the titles released each year, and that’s despite a century of fighting against the gatekeepers. The results of this systematic exclusion are clear: we are also elided from the national conversation, starting in elementary school. Those who live in this country are trained by textbooks, libraries, classrooms, TV, and cinema to see US life as almost exclusively white.

The Death of Creativity’s Learning Curve

Welcome to an era in which the friction between an idea, and creatively expressing that idea, is removed. Whether it is as an image, an essay, an animated story, or even a video, you can simply talk about what you see in your mind’s eye.

“But that’s not real creativity!” some may exclaim. Until now, “creativity” has conflated both the generation of ideas and the process involved to express those ideas. Michelangelo, for instance, believed that each stone has a statue inside it and the sculptor discovers it by chipping away. Most artists today can’t afford 13 human assistants, but they use other tools to reduce the laborious parts of creativity, including AI-powered shortcuts, component libraries for product designers, templates, and now generative AI. This latest breakthrough has elicited both fanfare and fear because of its ability to conjure up an original piece of media based solely on a text prompt.

Of course, behind the scenes, the machine learning engines that drive AI creation were trained using millions of pieces of content from real artists, many of whom never consented to have their work used in that way. To correct this, I anticipate a series of regulations, evolutions in copyright law, new walled gardens and token-gated portfolio experiences, and new compensation models for artists that opt-in and/or allow the use of their style for GenerativeAI purposes.

Welcoming & Adapting to Ubiquitous Creative Confidence

As the expression of ideas becomes exponentially easier, the ideas themselves become more of the differentiator (yes, I think “Prompt Engineering” will become a discipline in and of itself!). Good ideas aren’t derived solely from logic and patterns of the past; they’re also the product of human traumas, mistakes of the eye, and uniquely human ingenuity. I am excited about AI, but I am ultimately long on creativity (aka humanity).

Much like every sport’s top athletes improve every generation, so should creatives. I would argue that AI is like some breakthrough new racket or sneaker — it almost unfairly elevates the game for every player and allows the very best to advance the game itself. Revolutionary tennis rackets and string technology allowed any weekend player to hit shots they never would have been capable of before. But it didn’t turn them into Rafa Nadal or Roger Federer. People with extraordinary talent, dedication, and fortitude will always stand out.

Well, we’re entering an era that changes everything. A few critical technology breakthroughs and fundamentally more accessible platforms are changing everything. From free web-based tools with templates that help conquer the fear of the blank screen to powerful generative artificial intelligence that conjures up anything from a text prompt, expressing yourself creatively no longer requires climbing creativity’s notoriously steep learning curve.

Most of those who have succeeded in life can trace their success back to the essential education they obtained from parents, teachers and/ or friends.

T-Ralph Olaniyi

People from communities of color are underrepresented in publishing. Our books make up less than six percent of the titles released each year, and that’s despite a century of fighting against the gatekeepers. The results of this systematic exclusion are clear: we are also elided from the national conversation, starting in elementary school. Those who live in this country are trained by textbooks, libraries, classrooms, TV, and cinema to see US life as almost exclusively white.

The Death of Creativity’s Learning Curve

Welcome to an era in which the friction between an idea, and creatively expressing that idea, is removed. Whether it is as an image, an essay, an animated story, or even a video, you can simply talk about what you see in your mind’s eye.

“But that’s not real creativity!” some may exclaim. Until now, “creativity” has conflated both the generation of ideas and the process involved to express those ideas. Michelangelo, for instance, believed that each stone has a statue inside it and the sculptor discovers it by chipping away. Most artists today can’t afford 13 human assistants, but they use other tools to reduce the laborious parts of creativity, including AI-powered shortcuts, component libraries for product designers, templates, and now generative AI. This latest breakthrough has elicited both fanfare and fear because of its ability to conjure up an original piece of media based solely on a text prompt.

Of course, behind the scenes, the machine learning engines that drive AI creation were trained using millions of pieces of content from real artists, many of whom never consented to have their work used in that way. To correct this, I anticipate a series of regulations, evolutions in copyright law, new walled gardens and token-gated portfolio experiences, and new compensation models for artists that opt-in and/or allow the use of their style for GenerativeAI purposes.

Welcoming & Adapting to Ubiquitous Creative Confidence

As the expression of ideas becomes exponentially easier, the ideas themselves become more of the differentiator (yes, I think “Prompt Engineering” will become a discipline in and of itself!). Good ideas aren’t derived solely from logic and patterns of the past; they’re also the product of human traumas, mistakes of the eye, and uniquely human ingenuity. I am excited about AI, but I am ultimately long on creativity (aka humanity).

Much like every sport’s top athletes improve every generation, so should creatives. I would argue that AI is like some breakthrough new racket or sneaker — it almost unfairly elevates the game for every player and allows the very best to advance the game itself. Revolutionary tennis rackets and string technology allowed any weekend player to hit shots they never would have been capable of before. But it didn’t turn them into Rafa Nadal or Roger Federer. People with extraordinary talent, dedication, an

Well, we’re entering an era that changes everything. A few critical technology breakthroughs and fundamentally more accessible platforms are changing everything. From free web-based tools with templates that help conquer the fear of the blank screen to powerful generative artificial intelligence that conjures up anything from a text prompt, expressing yourself creatively no longer requires climbing creativity’s notoriously steep learning curve.

Most of those who have succeeded in life can trace their success back to the essential education they obtained from parents, teachers and/ or friends.

T-Ralph Olaniyi

People from communities of color are underrepresented in publishing. Our books make up less than six percent of the titles released each year, and that’s despite a century of fighting against the gatekeepers. The results of this systematic exclusion are clear: we are also elided from the national conversation, starting in elementary school. Those who live in this country are trained by textbooks, libraries, classrooms, TV, and cinema to see US life as almost exclusively white.

The Death of Creativity’s Learning Curve

Welcome to an era in which the friction between an idea, and creatively expressing that idea, is removed. Whether it is as an image, an essay, an animated story, or even a video, you can simply talk about what you see in your mind’s eye.

“But that’s not real creativity!” some may exclaim. Until now, “creativity” has conflated both the generation of ideas and the process involved to express those ideas. Michelangelo, for instance, believed that each stone has a statue inside it and the sculptor discovers it by chipping away. Most artists today can’t afford 13 human assistants, but they use other tools to reduce the laborious parts of creativity, including AI-powered shortcuts, component libraries for product designers, templates, and now generative AI. This latest breakthrough has elicited both fanfare and fear because of its ability to conjure up an original piece of media based solely on a text prompt.

Of course, behind the scenes, the machine learning engines that drive AI creation were trained using millions of pieces of content from real artists, many of whom never consented to have their work used in that way. To correct this, I anticipate a series of regulations, evolutions in copyright law, new walled gardens and token-gated portfolio experiences, and new compensation models for artists that opt-in and/or allow the use of their style for GenerativeAI purposes.

Welcoming & Adapting to Ubiquitous Creative Confidence

As the expression of ideas becomes exponentially easier, the ideas themselves become more of the differentiator (yes, I think “Prompt Engineering” will become a discipline in and of itself!). Good ideas aren’t derived solely from logic and patterns of the past; they’re also the product of human traumas, mistakes of the eye, and uniquely human ingenuity. I am excited about AI, but I am ultimately long on creativity (aka humanity).

Much like every sport’s top athletes improve every generation, so should creatives. I would argue that AI is like some breakthrough new racket or sneaker — it almost unfairly elevates the game for every player and allows the very best to advance the game itself. Revolutionary tennis rackets and string technology allowed any weekend player to hit shots they never would have been capable of before. But it didn’t turn them into Rafa Nadal or Roger Federer. People with extraordinary talent, dedication, an

Well, we’re entering an era that changes everything. A few critical technology breakthroughs and fundamentally more accessible platforms are changing everything. From free web-based tools with templates that help conquer the fear of the blank screen to powerful generative artificial intelligence that conjures up anything from a text prompt, expressing yourself creatively no longer requires climbing creativity’s notoriously steep learning curve.

Most of those who have succeeded in life can trace their success back to the essential education they obtained from parents, teachers and/ or friends.

T-Ralph Olaniyi

People from communities of color are underrepresented in publishing. Our books make up less than six percent of the titles released each year, and that’s despite a century of fighting against the gatekeepers. The results of this systematic exclusion are clear: we are also elided from the national conversation, starting in elementary school. Those who live in this country are trained by textbooks, libraries, classrooms, TV, and cinema to see US life as almost exclusively white.

The Death of Creativity’s Learning Curve

Welcome to an era in which the friction between an idea, and creatively expressing that idea, is removed. Whether it is as an image, an essay, an animated story, or even a video, you can simply talk about what you see in your mind’s eye.

“But that’s not real creativity!” some may exclaim. Until now, “creativity” has conflated both the generation of ideas and the process involved to express those ideas. Michelangelo, for instance, believed that each stone has a statue inside it and the sculptor discovers it by chipping away. Most artists today can’t afford 13 human assistants, but they use other tools to reduce the laborious parts of creativity, including AI-powered shortcuts, component libraries for product designers, templates, and now generative AI. This latest breakthrough has elicited both fanfare and fear because of its ability to conjure up an original piece of media based solely on a text prompt.

Of course, behind the scenes, the machine learning engines that drive AI creation were trained using millions of pieces of content from real artists, many of whom never consented to have their work used in that way. To correct this, I anticipate a series of regulations, evolutions in copyright law, new walled gardens and token-gated portfolio experiences, and new compensation models for artists that opt-in and/or allow the use of their style for GenerativeAI purposes.

Welcoming & Adapting to Ubiquitous Creative Confidence

As the expression of ideas becomes exponentially easier, the ideas themselves become more of the differentiator (yes, I think “Prompt Engineering” will become a discipline in and of itself!). Good ideas aren’t derived solely from logic and patterns of the past; they’re also the product of human traumas, mistakes of the eye, and uniquely human ingenuity. I am excited about AI, but I am ultimately long on creativity (aka humanity).

Much like every sport’s top athletes improve every generation, so should creatives. I would argue that AI is like some breakthrough new racket or sneaker — it almost unfairly elevates the game for every player and allows the very best to advance the game itself. Revolutionary tennis rackets and string technology allowed any weekend player to hit shots they never would have been capable of before. But it didn’t turn them into Rafa Nadal or Roger Federer. People with extraordinary talent, dedication, an

The experience reminds us that there are so many things we want to tell Mac as soon as possible, before he’s in high school with his friends and too cool to hear our little nuggets of wisdom—and before we go from “Mommy and Daddy who both know best” to “Mom and Dad who couldn’t possibly understand.”

So in no particular order, here are forty things we intend to tell him and his little friends, repeatedly, over the next several years:

1. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. Don’t base your attitude on how things are. Choose your attitude so it supports and expresses the way you wish them to be. Frustration and stress come from the way you respond and react, not the circumstance itself. Adjust your attitude, and the frustration and stress is gone.

2. What you experience starts with your perception. In almost every case, nothing is stopping you. Nothing is holding you back but your own thoughts about yourself and “how life is.” Your perception creates your beliefs. And your beliefs create your behaviors. And your behaviors produce your experience.

3. Let go of the need to complain about life. Spend your moments actually living its beauty. Change the phrase “have to” to “get to.” So many things we complain about are things others wish they had the chance to do.

4. Positivity always pays off. Your thoughts do not end when you finish thinking them. They continue to echo through your life. Choose wisely and intentionally. Be outrageously and unreasonably positive. Be funny and creative and ridiculous and joyful all at the same time. Smile as often as possible. A smile actually changes the vibe of your body. It alters, physiologically, the chemistry of your being. It will make you feel better and do better.

5. Negativity just shortens your life. Before you waste it on anger, resentment, spite, or envy, always think of how precious and irreplaceable your time is.

6. Worry is the biggest enemy of the present moment. It does nothing but steal your joy and keep you very busy doing absolutely nothing at all. When you spend time worrying, you’re simply using your imagination to create things you don’t want.

7. Don’t run away from things; run toward them. The best way to move away from something negative is to move toward something positive.

8. Nothing is as bad as it seems. Nothing. There’s a benefit and a blessing hidden in the folds of every experience and every outcome.

9. Gratitude helps every situation. How can you transform suffering into joy, and struggle into peace?

   Gratitude. Start being grateful for all the problems you do not have.

10. Everything is falling together perfectly, even though it looks as if some things are falling apart. Trust in life’s process. Happiness is allowing yourself to be perfectly okay with what is, rather than wishing for and worrying about what is not. When life is “falling apart,” things could actually be falling together . . . maybe for the first time.

11. Change is necessary. Change is the process of life itself. In fact, everything is changing every second of our lives. However good or bad the situation is now, it will change. That’s one thing you can count on. So never assume that you’re stuck with the way things are. Life changes, and so can you. Take a breath of fresh air. The past is long gone. Focus on what you can do, not on what you could have or should have done.

12. You are capable of handling far more than you think. Accept each moment, without judgment or anxiety. Remind yourself that all is well and that you can handle whatever comes along.

13. If you’re having problems, that’s good. It means you’re making progress. The only people with no problems are the ones doing nothing.

14. It takes just as much energy to waste your time as it does to use it wisely. It is far better to be exhausted from lots of effort and learning than to be tired from doing absolutely nothing.

15. There’s a big difference between being busy and being productive. Don’t confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but never makes any forward progress.

16. You can’t achieve what you do not attempt. Everything you achieve comes from something you attempt. Everything! Make the attempt. The path between wanting and having is doing.

17. The right thing and the easy thing are rarely the same thing. Do what matters, not just what is convenient. Do what is fulfilling, not just what is easy. When faced with a choice, choose the path that strengthens you. Choose to learn, choose to grow, choose to more fully become who you are.

18. You can’t be your best without first being yourself. Be highly effective by being highly authentic. Take a moment to pause and remember who you are and what you stand for. Take a moment to reflect on the ideas and principles that have real and lasting meaning in your life.

19. Meaningful work is important. You are at your best when you are moving toward a meaningful, positive, and ambitious goal. So never follow goals you’re reluctant to pursue. Find ones that will keep you awake at night with excitement.

20. Always realign yourself with your highest priorities. If you’re being pulled in every direction by forces beyond your control, take time to realign yourself with what you value most in life. What is important in your

    life is what you decide is important, and this decision will ultimately create who you are.

21. Set your sights high. Make your dreams big, exciting, and undeniable. They’re the ones that will push you forward. Whatever is beyond your reach right now will not always be beyond your reach. Keep going.

22. Miracles happen every day. If we think that miracles are normal, we will expect them. And expecting a miracle is the surest way to get one.

23. If you’re going to do something, do it with enthusiasm and devotion. Hold nothing back. In life. Or love. Or business. Or anything at all. Every morning, ask yourself what is really important, and then have the courage to build your day around your answer.
24. Focused effort pays. An attitude of “whatever is convenient” won’t accomplish much, ever. An attitude of “whatever it takes” is impossible to stop. So remember, effort does not cost you—it pays. What you invest in effort is never wasted. Sincere, focused effort always brings something of value—an outcome that teaches you what the next step is.

25. What you are capable of achieving is heavily based on how much you want it. When something means enough to you, then you can do it. When you are willing and committed and persistent, you will get yourself there every time.

26. You can always take a small step in the direction of your dreams. There is absolutely nothing about your present situation that prevents you from following your dreams, one step at a time. Use each setback,

    each disappointment, as a cue to push on ahead with more determination than ever before.

27. Set time aside to celebrate your progress at least once a month. Look at how far you’ve come. You have made progress. And now, imagine how far you can go.

28. Other people’s opinions don’t have to be your reality. Let the opinions of others inform you, don’t let them limit you. Learn to value yourself and what you stand for. Allow yourself to be yourself. If you don’t want what the world says you should want, have the courage to say so.

29. Break the rules sometimes. Don’t break the law, but break the rules. If all you are doing is following someone else’s rules, then you have not grown—you have only obeyed.

30. You alone get to choose what matters and what doesn’t. The meaning of everything in your life is the meaning you give it.

31. Listen to your intuition. When something feels right, that means it is right for you. When something feels wrong, that means it is wrong for you. Pay attention to your authentic feelings, and follow where they lead.

32. Own and embrace your imperfections. Because once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.

33. Every mistake is a step forward. You cannot make a mistake; you can only make a decision that will be your next best step.

34. Every day is a clean slate. Don’t you dare give up on today because of the way things looked yesterday. Don’t even think about it. Every day is a new day to try again.

35. No moment is wasted when you live it with presence and purpose. Value and enjoy the journey, even when there are detours along the way. Appreciate every moment, whatever each moment may bring.

    From the genuine appreciation of these little moments will come a remarkable life.

36. Treat everyone, especially yourself, with kindness and respect. Treat yourself as the most important person in the world, and treat others as you treat yourself. Do not miss a single chance—not one single opportunity—to tell someone how wonderful they are, how beautiful they are inside and out. Live so that

    people will enjoy your presence when they’re with you, and will appreciate you just as much or even more when they’re apart from you.

37. Accept important apologies you never receive. If you love someone and you want to forgive them, relieve them of the need to apologize to you, for anything.

38. True love is freedom. Love lets go. Let go of expectation, let go of requirements and rules and regulations that you would impose on your loved ones. The gift of pure love allows you to bless others and accept them without condition, granting them freedom to make their own choices.

39. Everyone you meet can teach you something important. In fact, the people who are the most difficult to deal with can also be your most valuable teachers.

40. No matter how much you know, there’s a whole lot you don’t know. In almost every situation, a little more willingness to acknowledge that there may be something you do not know could change everything. Go somewhere new, and countless opportunities suddenly appear. Do something differently, and all sorts of great new possibilities spring up. Keep an open mind.

It comes in handy for when you want to listen to a document while multitasking, sense-check that paper or article you’ve just written, or help you retain information easier if you’re an auditory learner.

Even better, however, are its uses in the real world. The best free text-to-speech software can be enormously helpful for the visually impaired, or for someone who has a condition like dyslexia that makes reading on screens tricky. It can also help overcome language barriers for people who read a language but don’t speak it, or are in the process of learning.

Loading the finished file into your smart device such as an iPhone, it enables you to leave your office and listen to an updated manuscript or a report like a podcast as you finish an errand.

If you’re looking for the best free text-to-speech software out there to help with this, then you’re in luck. We’ve rounded up our top picks for reading either individual paragraphs or whole documents aloud.

For ripping audio from videos, do check out our guide to the best YouTube to MP3 converters.

We’ve also featured the best text-to-speech software.

There are a couple of ways to use Balabolka’s free text-to-speech software: you can either copy and paste text into the program, or you can open a number of supported file formats (including DOC, PDF, and HTML) in the program directly. In terms of output, you can use SAPI 4 complete with eight different voices to choose from, SAPI 5 with two, or the Microsoft Speech Platform. Whichever route you choose, you can adjust the speech, pitch and volume of playback to create a custom voice.

In addition to reading words aloud, this free text-to-speech software can also save narrations as audio files in a range of formats including MP3 and WAV. For lengthy documents, you can create bookmarks to make it easy to jump back to a specific location and there are excellent tools on hand to help you to customize the pronunciation of words to your liking.

With all these features to make life easier when reading text on a screen isn’t an option, Balabolka is best free text-to-speech software around.

Natural Reader is a free text-to-speech tool that can be used in a couple of ways. The first option is to load documents into its library and have them read aloud from there. This is a neat way to manage multiple files, and the number of supported file types is impressive, including ebook formats. There’s also OCR, which enables you to load up a photo or scan of text, and have it read to you.

The second option takes the form of a floating toolbar. In this mode, you can highlight text in any application and use the toolbar controls to start and customize text-to-speech. This means you can very easily use the feature in your web browser, word processor and a range of other programs. There’s also a built-in browser to convert web content to speech more easily.

As the name suggests, Panopreter Basic is the best free text-to-speech software if you’re looking for one without frills. It accepts plain and rich text files, web pages and Microsoft Word documents as input, and exports the resulting sound in both WAV and MP3 format (the two files are saved in the same location, with the same name).

The default settings work well for quick tasks, but spend a little time exploring Panopreter Basic’s Settings menu and you’ll find options to change the language, destination of saved audio files, and set custom interface colors. The software can even play a piece of music once it’s finished reading – a nice touch you won’t find in other free text-to-speech software.

If you need something more advanced, a premium version of Panopreter is available. This edition offers several additional features including toolbars for Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, the ability to highlight the section of text currently being read, and extra voices.

Developed by the University of Edinburgh, WordTalk is a toolbar add-on for Word that brings customizable text-to-speech to Microsoft Word. It works with all editions of Word and is accessible via the toolbar or ribbon, depending on which version you’re using.

The toolbar itself is certainly not the most attractive you’ll ever see, appearing to have been designed by a child. Nor are all of the buttons’ functions very clear, but thankfully there’s a help file on hand to help.

There’s no getting away from the fact that WordTalk is fairly basic, but it does support SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 voices, and these can be tweaked to your liking. The ability to just read aloud individual words, sentences or paragraphs is a particularly nice touch. You also have the option of saving narrations, and there are a number of keyboard shortcuts that allow for quick and easy access to frequently used options.

Despite its basic looks, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader has more to offer than you might first think. You can open numerous file formats directly in the program, or just copy and paste text.

Alternatively, as long as you have the program running and the relevant option enables, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can read aloud any text you copy to the clipboard – great if you want to convert words from websites to speech – as well as dialog boxes that pop up. One of the best free text-to-speech software right now, this can also convert text files to WAV format.

Unfortunately the selection of voices is limited, and the only settings you can customize are volume and speed unless you burrow deep into settings to fiddle with pronunciations. Additional voices are available for an additional fee which seems rather steep, holding it back from a higher place in our list.

1. They do not believe every feeling they have means something.
They don’t assign value to everything they feel. They know that conviction doesn’t make something true.

2. They aren’t threatened by not being right.
They understand that having a misinformed belief or incorrect idea does not invalidate them as a person.

3. They do not use logic to deny their emotions.
They validate their feelings by acknowledging them; they do not say someone “shouldn’t” feel a particular way if they do.

4. They do not project meaning onto everything they see.
Particularly, they do not assume that everything they see or hear has something to do with them. They do not compare themselves to other people, simply because the idea that other people exist in comparison to oneself is mindless at best and selfish at worst.

5. They do not need to prove their power.
Rather than embody an inflated image of their invincibility, their disposition is predominantly peaceful and at ease, which is the mark of a truly secure person.

6. They do not avoid pain, even if they are afraid of it.
They cope with discomfort in favor of breaking an old habit. They trace the root of a relationship issue rather than deflect from the symptoms. They recognize that the discomfort is in avoiding the pain, not the pain itself.

7. They do not seek out other people’s flaws in an effort to diminish their strengths.
They do not respond to someone’s successes with observations about their failures.

8. They don’t complain (too much).
When people complain, it’s because they want others to recognize and validate their pain; even if it’s not the real problem, it’s still a form of affirmation.

9. They do not filter out certain aspects of an experience to catastrophize it.
People who jump A-Z and only think up worst-case scenarios usually do not have the confidence that they can take care of themselves if something unexpected were to arise— so they prepare for the worst and rob themselves of the best in the process.

10. They do not keep a list of things people “should” or “shouldn’t” do.
They recognize that “right” and “wrong” are two highly subjective things and that believing there is a universal code of conduct to which all people need to adhere only makes the person who believes that consistently disappointed.

11. They do not consider themselves a judge of what’s right or wrong.
Especially when it comes to offering friends advice, they don’t assume their ideal response to a situation is the solution everyone needs.

12. They do not draw general conclusions from their personal experiences.
They do not draw their own generalized conclusions about the human race based on the small percentage of the world that they experience each day.

13. They do not change their personality based on who they’re around.
Everyone fears rejection, but not everyone gets to truly experience the kind of acceptance that comes from being yourself unconditionally.

14. They can stand up for themselves without being aggressive or defensive.
Though it sounds like a contradiction, aggressiveness or defensiveness is indicative of insecurity. Calmly standing up for oneself is indicative of inner resolve and self-esteem.

15. They do not assume that this is always the way their life will be.

They are always conscious of the fact that their feelings are temporary, be they good or bad. This makes them focus on the positive and let the negative go with more ease.