Eighty percent of success is showing up.
Woody Allen

Don't let "Real Life" get in the way of what is real.
M. Alibrando

Don't daydream your life away.
Write your dreams down.
M. Alibrando

How does one get to Carnage Hall?
Practice, practice. practice.

How does one get to Amazon.com?
See above.
M. Alibrando

Great musicians practice everyday
even if just a little bit.
So, too, should a great writer
write a little something every day.
M. Alibrando

Write something everyday whether it is good or not.
Good takes practice,
Everyday requires discipline.
M. Alibrando

Important things take time to develop.
M. Alibrando

Set a new goal each day...

...baby steps.
M. Alibrando

If you do not know what you want to become then find out the hard way.

Begin by listing everything you are certain you do not want to be.

Often the process of elimination is the only viable option to discover The True You.
M. Alibrando

Some of the most important things ever written
opened up a "world of trouble" for the author.

Boldly seek new worlds.
M. Alibrando


Life is making choices...

...Make some wrong ones once in a while.
M. Alibrando

Your life may not be unlike a story.

If it is written as a play,
you are one of the performers in your play.
Perhaps you may even be directing
the actions of some of the players,
demonstrating some leadership of
yourself as well as others.

If it is written as a novel,
you are not being an active participant.
You are only acting as an observer.
Which is participation,
but is not nearly as much fun as
playing at being someone
you would rather be.

Originally written - May 20, 1992

"In order to understand people,
you must try to hear what they do not say.
And it may be something they will never say."
J. Powell

"If you practice being fictional for a while,
you will understand that fictional characters
are sometimes more real than people
with bodies and heartbeats."
R. Bach

Originally written - May 20, 1992

"There is always more to discover."
L. Buscaglia

"Change is the end result of all true learning."
L. Buscaglia

"No matter. I still believe that at heart man is good."
Anne Frank

"Man is happiest when he is creating."
L. Buscaglia

"Love always create, it never destroys.
In this lies man's only promise."
L. Buscaglia

These ideas are kernels of nutmeat found inside the shells of life lessons.
M. Alibrando

"Anger is energy for change."

"We don't have complete knowledge or control over the world, but we do have choices. And choices lead to outcomes."
G. Colnaghi

Originally written - November 28, 1994

"Feelings, unverbalized, can be destructive."
L. Buscaglia

"Give gifts of love without reason...

...verbalize your happiness."
L. Buscaglia

Originally written - August 4, 1993

"No man ever steps into the same river twice,
for it is not the same river and he is not the same man."
Heraclitus

How does one vacinate against boredom?
M. Alibrando

"If you are quite and tranquil you can become the ruler of the world."
Lao-Tzu

"The farther you go, the less you know."
Lao-Tzu

All of the ages of the past exist in every spec of dust.

All of the possibilities of the future are also in that same spec of dust.
M. Alibrando

By playing a role you become that role.
M. Alibrando

Day follows night without effort.
M. Alibrando

Searching for meaning IS the meaning of life.
M. Alibrando

At some point in your life you must
try and put your words out there for others to read and
decide if they also have meaning for them.

M Alibrando


Do not expect everyone to
take away the same meaning
that your words have for you.
M Alibrando

Whatever you are doing right now -
it doesn't matter what it is -
consider it a work in progress.

Life is a work in progress.

Bringing a painting or a novel to completion may allow one too pause -
for a moment -
to bask in the glory of one's body of work,
before continuing to build once again
upon that which has already been accomplished.

The greatest achievers of any age -
upon their egress-
have often left behind that next great masterpiece -
unfinished.  
And thou we might look for some mysteriously hidden meaning
in their uncompleted task -
we find there is none.

The meaning is in the task itself.
M. Alibrando

Originally written - March 6, 1995

Express yourself.
If you are a singer or a musician, be music.
If you are a writer, be language.
An artist -- art.
A dancer -- movement.
And if you are a dreamer...
...then become the dream.
M. Alibrando

Originally written - March 9, 1995

The real you can stand alone surrounded by daylight,
while the false you must hide amongst the shadows of the night.

There is no final universal truth to be discovered which can put an end to the process of seeking truths.
The closest one might come to finding a universal truth of this lifetime is that learning never ends.

Keep seeking truth.
Keep learning.
Keep growing.

It is impossible to teach something without learning something.
M. Alibrando

Originally written - February 27, 1996

Is it possible to learn a lesson so well that you cannot remember ever learning it?

Can a skill become so ingrained that it's origin is forgotten?
How about walking and talking?
How about reading and writing?
And what about thinking?
That's right thinking. That thing that you're doing right now. How about thinking?
Can you remember where you learned to think?
Can you remember who taught you to think?
Do you remember what they taught you to think?
Is what you think what you choose to think or is it what someone else taught you to think?
Can you rethink what you think and teach yourself not to think as you were taught to think, but instead think as an independent thinker?
Can you remember when you first thought to think of yourself as an independent thinker?
Who was it that taught you to think of yourself as an independent thinker and asked you to think independent thoughts?
Did he or she think of himself or herself as an independent thinker?  And who taught him or her how to think as an independent thinker?
How did he or she teach you to be an independent thinker without you thinking as he or she does?
Are you an independent thinker who only thinks likes other independent thinkers or are you a truly independent thinker who thinks that you think just like everybody else?

It is possible to learn something so well that you cannot ever remember learning.
M. Alibrando

Originally written - February 26, 1996

Sometimes the greatest philosophies lie hidden
on a blank page like invisible ink or lemon juice.
M. Alibrando

Originally written - April 1, 1996
Originally posted using "invisible text," April 1, 2010

Sometimes the greatest philosophies lie hidden

on a blank page like invisible ink or lemon juice.

M. Alibrando

Originally written - April 1, 1996