Staying Centered in Life

To stay centered in life, I recommend printing this poem, "The Paradoxical Commandments" and keeping it on your desk, near your bed, or on your bathroom mirror. This message is so beautiful and helpful:

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered,
LOVE THEM ANYWAY
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives,
DO GOOD ANYWAY
If you are successful,
you win false friends and true enemies,
SUCCEED ANYWAY
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
DO GOOD ANYWAY
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY
What you spent years building may be
destroyed overnight,
BUILD ANYWAY
People really need help
but may attack you if you help them,
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY
Give the world the best you have
And you’ll get kicked in the teeth,
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU HAVE ANYWAY.

*The Paradoxical Commandments were written by Kent M. Keith when he was 19, a sophomore at Harvard College.

Mother Teresa put a condensed version of the Paradoxical Commandments up on the wall of her children’s home in Calcutta. According to Lucinda Vardey, in Mother Teresa: A Simple Path (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995), page 185, there was “a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, the children’s home in Calcutta.” The above is what the sign said.

Thank you dearly to Kent M. Keith.❤

(Artwork by me.)