Deep down inside of you is a person that only you know. A person that only you get to see and a person that you will never be able to get away from. This person knows when you’re lying, pretending, and or seeking gratification/validation from external sources. I hypothesize and submit to you the idea today that the formula for living powerfully is in finding a way to gain the respect of that person deep inside. I think it’s interesting that when you are working for internal respect, external forces will challenge you. They will start to criticize you, call you arrogant, and ask you simply, who do you think you are?

But at the end of the day, these types of people mean nothing and if you will ever become strong enough to withstand their fiery darts it will be because you’ve done the work of earning/learning your true identity. Confidence comes from experience with yourself. True self-love occurs after you have faithfully done the work with discipline to become a person you can respect and adore. True integrity means that you do not break, you do not bend, you are not warped but you are internally and externally congruent with your highest values.

This relationship will not take care of itself because we live in a world that is trying to seduce you to find value outside of yourself, based on the global man-made necessity for you to be a consumer. Never forget however that the best things in life are free. Love yourself by disciplining yourself, exercise your body, learn with your mind, persevere with your soul, and listen with your spirit. Ultimately you will learn that if you do things correctly and internally with the man in the mirror or the person deep inside, everything outside of your life will unfold beautifully. As things are within, so they are without.

PROTECTOR by nature and by trade
Byron Rodgers