I was reading an interview by Sophia Loren and her response to a question by the interviewer made me smile…big time 🙂

Interviewer: “Ms Loren, how would you say life has treated you?”

Sophia Loren: “Life doesn’t treat me…I treat life by living it on my terms.”

This brought to mind a question…is there any other way to live?

When I was a child & growing up, I was made to feel that I could conquer the world and nothing was impossible. This created in me an insatiable desire to achieve and achieve. It led to me becoming competitive. You may ask…what’s wrong with that.

Everything! Everything because I was competing with the external world. However, this was something I did not understand for a very very long time in my life. With every new achievement in my life there was a sense of exultation which I mistook for happiness. Or maybe it was happiness at that moment.

Funny things happen as you grow older. There was a kind of restlessness in me that I could not get over with. And it persisted. I had two choices then – either I continue to live with that restlessness or acknowledge it and do something about it. The question was what do I do?

It was time for some soul searching in my life…the only answer that came back to me again and again was a quote by an unknown person…”What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” Failure still made a difference…it was so ingrained in me that I could not fail. Some more soul searching led me to read Napolean Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” in which he says “What if you fail?” That got me thinking…would I faint or worse would I die if failed? It was more to do with what would others think? Failure isn’t expected of me in any role that I play in my life. How many of us go through our lives with this foundation???

Books have always been my best friends…and I started finding my answers. It was then that I realised that the competitive spirit I had all my life had to be directed in a totally opposite direction. I had to compete with myself…if I had to grow as a human being. And since then my life changed…and how!!!

Once I discovered I could design my life in ways that I had only dreamt of earlier…it was an addiction. And it got it me hooked! Since then I have lived my life based on my dreams, wild, free and with integrity. I have been true to what my heart says…not what logic says. This has bought an insatiable desire to edify everyone who came into my life. Because everyone taught me something that I could use to lead a joyous life. 

This in turn helped me become more and more fearless…in my mind. That was the most liberating feeling! It got me in touch with my own self…forgiving myself, loving myself and therefore healing myself. So, in the spirit of that love and freedom I am sharing 18 quotes that I live my life by…challenging everyone out there to live life on their own terms. Go ahead…do it folks…you will never look back with regret.

My Life…My Terms Building Blocks

1. Be grateful for what you have…all magic stems from gratitude.

2. “If you’re not willing to go all the way, don’t start the journey at all!” — Charlemagne

3. You are more important than you realize.

4. Be the type of person you want to meet.

5. Be so good that they can’t ignore you!

6. Wear your invisible crown every single day. Only then will you be treated like a king or a queen. 

7. “Don’t do anything you don’t believe in.” — Russell Simmons

8. Don’t change so someone will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you!

9. Understand what you tolerate. You will also realize why you tolerate.

10. Always always pay attention to your relationship with yourself.

11. Sometimes life is all about dolce far niente – it is all about the sweetness of doing nothing.

12. “Make no small plans for they cannot stir your soul.” Machiavelli

13. “Feet? Why do I need them when I have wings to fly.” Frida Kahlo

14. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds…explore, dream, discover” Mark Twain

15. Be drawn by what you really love. You will never go astray.

16. Never be afraid to make mistakes or change courses mid stream. It is better to put your heart and soul into something you are passionate about rather than work on mediocrity.

17. It’s important to dream, plan and act. More fundamental is to believe.

18. Never ever give up on yourself, your dreams or your life.

Time to get out of bed every morning feeling excited about life…to be charmed by what the universe has to offer and pick and choose what you want for your dream life. Celebrate your life!!!