SAL Book: Creating Your World from the Inside-Out

LAW 6:

Long-term solutions to most of your problems are found inside, not outside, your world.

For the most part, the biggest problems you will face in your life will not be rooted in external difficulties; they will be rooted in your own deficiencies as a self-action leader.
There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Forces of nature, others’ choices, structural inequality, and numerous other variables can sometimes genuinely be at fault for your given situation or circumstance. [1] Bad things do happen to good people. But remember, even in unfair circumstances, you still maintain control over how you choose to respond. In the long run, your response is usually more important and influential than what actually happens to you. 

Your freedom to choose endows you with enormous personal power. Armed with this power, it is possible to transcend many external challenges—even those you thought were initially outside your sphere of influence. The lives of many great self-action leaders illustrate this truth. A few of my favorite examples include Mohandas Gandhi, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Oprah Winfrey. The lives of such individuals—and countless others—illuminate the penetrating truth spoken first by Plutarch and then Otto Rank, into which I have chosen to make a SAL Mantra:

SAL Mantra

What you achieve inwardly changes your outer reality.

The next chapter tells the story of a remarkable woman who demonstrated the tremendous power that can be accessed inside your world, regardless of the external challenges and realities of your life.


[1] Sixteen (16) of these self-leadership variables are specifically listed and addressed in BOOK THE FIRST, Chapter 16.