It ain't over yet.

     Gloom. Doom. Psychologist Nathaniel Branden said why do we have to equate growing up with giving up? I agree. But giving up is a complex problem. What causes a person to give up? That too is complex. 
     This from Scientology: A New Slant on Life by L. Ron Hubbard:


And when we go into this we find out that a person has stopped making life because he himself has decided that life cannot be made. Some failure, some small failure, maybe not graduating with the same class, or maybe that failure that had to do with not marrying quite the first man or woman that came along who seemed desirable or maybe the failure of having lost a car, or some minor thing in life started this attitude. A person looked around one day and said, "well, I've lost," and after that life makes him, he doesn't make life anymore.

     Is that you? I used to think it was me. 
     There are other reasons a person loses his fire. Big reasons. We all know what they are. 
     Is that the final word though? Are we done? Just watching from the sidelines as other people live lives we can only dream about? 
     Like hell we are. 
     You're only done when you believe you're done. If you've got a smoldering spark left in you, you've got a chance to live a big life. Why not you? Oh, it'll take work. A lot of work. But you can work. You've worked incredibly hard at times in the past. And you can get back that fire, that intensity. You can knock 'em dead. You know you can.
     This may sound silly. But I know it helped me when somebody told me this: I give you permission to live a big life. I give you permission to max out on your potential. I give you permission to do what you want to do, be who you want to be, get all you can out of life.
     What do you need to make a start? Guts. 
     Oh, but I don't have a lot of guts, you say. Yes, you do. Maybe it's buried, but you've got it. And so what if you can't conquer the world today--make a start. Show a little bit of guts. And it can be anything. Say hi to your neighbor. Brush the snow off somebody's car. Take a risk at work. Stand up for what you believe in.
     This world is whirling by and it's just waiting for you to make your move.
     Make your move right now!