By: Chief Tecumseh

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.

Love your life,
perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life. 

Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
even a stranger, when in a lonely place.

Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die,
be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.

Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Reference

SimonSomlai (Ed.). (2017, January 8). Live Your Life – Chief Tecumseh (Poem). Retrieved January 30, 2020, from http://www.basicgrowth.com/live-your-life/

Sometimes we must take time to learn what we want before we can go after it. Take some time to do some research, and find something you might want to try, then go for it.

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."
-William Faulkner

Invictus 

BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.

I have dreamed of this so long that now that I have made it this far I sometimes have to pinch myself. My intentions for my Mastery Journey is to learn as much as I can and to find as many ways as is possible to put that knowledge to use. This poem is an inspiration to me, a reminder that I am strong and capable of accomplishing anything I set my mind to. It speaks of showing bravery and strength in the face of adversity. “I am the master of my fate/ I am the captain of my soul” (Henley).

Reference