Quotes by Shannon L. Alder

You will never change, unless you are honest with yourself or you are forced to be authentic by someone that was honest with him or herself.

Do you want to be in your own story or on the outside writing about it? Everyone battles fear and uncertainty every day. However, the only failure in life is believing that your value relies on other peoples approval or resources. The reality is this: When you are living your authentic self and not how people want you to act, then you are free to use the full spectrum of your creativity and gifts. People dont need resources to get out of any life situation. They need creativity to create resources. When you realize that, becoming stuck is impossible.

In order to be authentic, you have to make decisions based on what you want, rather than how it will be perceived.

If you can’t dream big, you will never see the vivid colors of probability over the darkness of possibility.

L I V E or E V I L -- to Live life is to spell forward. To not live life is to spell backwards.

Blessed are those with cracks in their broken heart because that is how the light gets in.

Never mistake the uncomfortable feeling of insecurity and the fear of the unknown with the Holy Ghost’s promptings. Sometimes those feelings are simply Satan keeping you stuck where you are because he knows you will have a half-life there. He knows that you will spend half of your life disconnected, discontented and convincing your mind of what its heart will never accept. He knows when you have settled, gave up and didn’t try. Inaction is his greatest weapon, while regret is his second.

Perspective is as simple as answering this question: If I had 5 months to live would I experience this problem differently?

I no longer follow the voices of the sane. I follow the ill because they see farther, feel much more and change what the sane will not. This is the paradox of philosophers---trying to understand mass delusion among great people that have faith and knowledge, yet they can’t graduate from their institutions of religious theology to apply the knowledge they have gained for the shifting of Zion---- from words to action; from comfort to uncomfortable; from self serving to self giving; from competition to supporting; to tradition to unity; from bias to acceptance; from me to us.

If you could do one thing to improve yourself today, it would be this: Rid yourself of bias. If you can do this, you can learn to listen. If you learn to listen, then you can learn to communicate. If you can communicate, then you can begin to verbalize your feelings. When you verbalize your feelings, then you can release stress and frustrations. When you free yourself of what bothers you, then you can fully give yourself to others. When you come this far, then you have learned to grow spiritually.

The person who says it can’t be done is almost always interrupted by the person who is doing it.

No matter how many sins you make or how slow you travel back toward Gods valley, you are still way ahead of a person who never made a mistake and doesnt know what it is like to climb out of a pit of shame and rise above their temptations.

It has always been simple, but making it hard was always your way of avoiding pain. If you want to change your life, you have to change what you are doing. It wasnt his fault, her fault, their fault or the circumstances. It was your inability to choose. So, life chose for you. Somewhere in that crazy mind of yours time stopped. You thought someone would rescue you, but they didnt. You have to rescue yourself. This is not a fire you can put out; you have to walk through it, in order to reach life. Getting burned is apart of growth, didnt you know?

To have a different life you have be a different person. You have to do what you havent done. You have to become the person that fits that dream. But most of all, you have to realize that if you dont step into your story it becomes the moral of the story. Your inaction is a lesson you leave to your kids-- I was too afraid to change.

Blame doesnt empower you. It keeps you stuck in a place you dont want to be because you dont want to make the temporary, but painful decision, to be responsible for the outcome of your own lifes happiness.

The higher you climb, the more Satan will take notice. Keep climbing! Heavens gate has a lock.

We are all a little schizophrenic. Each of us has three different people living inside us every day—who you were, who you are and who you will become. The road to sanity is to recognize those identities, in order to know who you are today.

Truth changes with the season of our emotions. It is the shadow that moves with the phases of our inner sun. When the nights falls, only our perception can guess where it hides in the dark. Within every solar system of the soul lies a plan of what truth is--- the design God has created, in our own unique story. This is as varying as the constellations, and as turning as the tide. It is not one truth we live to, but many. If we ever hope to determine if there is such a thing as truth, apart from cultural and personal preferences, we must acknowledge that we are then aiming to discover something greater than ourselves, something that transcends culture and individual inclinations. Some say that we must look beyond ourselves and outside of ourselves. However, we don’t need to look farther than what is already in each other. If there was any great plan from a higher power it is a simplistic, repetitious theme found in all religions; the basic core importance to unity comes from shared theological and humanistic virtues. Beyond the synagogue, mosques, temples, churches, missionary work, church positions and religious rituals comes a simple “message of truth” found in all of us, that binds theology---holistic virtues combined with purpose is the foundation of spiritual evolution. The diversity among us all is not divided truth, but the opportunity for unity through these shared values. Truth is the framework and roadmap of positive virtues. It unifies diversity when we choose to see it and use it. It is simple message often lost among the rituals, cultural traditions and socializing that goes on behind the chapel doors of any religion or spiritual theology. As we fight among ourselves about what religion, culture or race is right, we often lose site of the simple message any great orator has whispered through time----a simplistic story explaining the importance of virtues, which magically reemphasizes the importance of loving one another through service.

Life is messy.

But here is the thing about the stars and all of its faults: We dont understand everything about it, but we still love its beauty and wonder. We know of all the dangers, but we would still go there just because we wanted to touch the stars.