True strength comes not from what you do, but from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't. Whether it's thinking that learning a new language is too difficult, that a better job is out of reach, or that leaving an abusive relationship is near impossible, we can overcome these mental roadblocks we set for ourselves by:  Believing in ourselves  Adopting a positive mindset  Working hard to reach our goal  Accepting that occasional setbacks are normal  Never giving up You can do anything you set your heart and mind to. It may not happen exactly when and how you want it to, but you must never lose hope if you wish to prevail.  And achieving success sometimes involves taking difficult steps, like reaching out to others for help, reworking our whole strategy if not starting all over from scratch, putting up with people who may try to get in our way, and sacrificing ample resources (whether mental, financial, or time-oriented).  ...

Today's quote of the day comes from none other than Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804): "People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work."  You may have heard of Hamilton , the smash Broadway musical his rags to riches story inspired. Or, you might know him as the guy on the $10 bill. Hamilton gave new meaning to the word "workhorse." As the first U.S. secretary of the treasury, he was essentially the architect of the American financial system. He wrote 51 of the 85 essays that comprise  The Federalist Papers . He pushed for the establishment of the first national bank. He wrote some 28 essays which were instrumental in securing the ratification of the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. He established the U.S. Coast Card and founded The New York Post, the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the U.S. And, to boot, he married into one of the wealthiest families in New York City, even though he neve...

Though we may think of ourselves as brilliant, there are 10 or so people in the world who are so smart as to put our brights to shame. Among those with preternatural abilities are Terence Tao, Christopher Hirata, and Kim Ung-Yong, whom I highlight in this post. Terence Tao Tao gave the phrase "child prodigy" a whole new meaning. Now 41, the Australian-American mathematician was teaching 5-year-olds how to spell and add when he was only 2! When he was 10, he began participating in International Mathematical Olympiads. He won a bronze in 1986, silver in 1987, and gold in 1988, becoming the youngest Olympiad ever to win a gold medal. At 16, he'd already earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees; he'd go on to earn his Ph.D. four years later. He currently teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles. Christopher Hirata Hirata, a 35-year-old cosmologist and astrophysicist, has an IQ of 225! When he was 13, he received a gold medal at the Intern...

David Bowie, a pop music icon and master of makeovers, lost his valiant 18 month battle with cancer on Sunday. He was 69. Neither his publicist nor a statement posted on his social media accounts provided details on what type of cancer the singer had. Bowie's death has been at the center of various Internet hoaxes over the last few years. So the news came as a shock to fans and industry insiders when it was confirmed. "Genius is an overused word but I think musically, creatively, artistically, David Bowie was a genius," said British Prime Minister David Cameron. "He was a master of reinvention, and one of the things that's so incredible is almost all his reinventions were incredible successes and worked brilliantly. And so we mourn the loss of a great talent." The flamboyant artist's songs, from "Changes" and "Fame" to "Heroes" and "Modern Love," were huge hits, played constantly on the radio and inspiring ge...