“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” ~Henry David Thoreau
 
How many self-defeating paths have we worn into the fields of our mind? How many fearful beliefs of our own self-loathing have we dug into the terra firma of our thoughts? How many lies of helplessness have we carved into the stony walls of our psychological mountainside?
 
For me, there have been many. Some call them scars, I call them paths. While others may have given me the map, it is I who walked in their direction.
 
Equal to the once self-defeating task I endured, I have been in creating new paths, new stories, that reverse the trends of my life. No longer do I accept mediocrity, nor do I seek to change that which others see as my flaws. A diamond is a flaw to the lump of coal that birthed it, yet look at that beauty when exposed to the right light.
 
We are all beautiful in our own way, in our own time, to the right people in the right light. Change nothing save that which makes you unhappy. Alter nothing except that which you use to defeat yourself. See no one else as competition, for the only path you need to make is the one that gives you joy.