Ihr seid nur Brücken: mögen Höhere auf euch hinüber schreiten! Ihr bedeutet Stufen: so zürnt dem nicht, der über euch hinweg in seine Höhe steigt!

—Zarathustra

You have the right to make excuses, but excuses won’t produce results. In reality you have one of two choices: you can design and direct your future by setting goals and working to achieve them, or by default you lose the opportunity to create and control your own life. In the latter case, you not only allow your future but also your present to be controlled by other people, events, and daily pressures, all of which produce plenty of stress and frustration but not a feeling of accomplishment. Harsh but true. There are no other alternatives. Wishing or pretending it should be different won’t make it so.

—Charles Givens