Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.

Everyone wants to “be,” but much fewer want to do the work. 

It doesn’t matter what the work entails, it is seldom as fun as the aspect of “having arrived.” 

But the truth is, we never arrive. We are never “there.” There is always more work to be done and more growth awaiting us.

I think we delude ourselves regularly in the prospect of envisioning a time, a place, a moment, an event where it has all finally snapped together. But I think that is a delusion, fostered out of hope and dreams, and satiated (temporarily) with the internal promise that one day…. the growth will finally be behind us and the rest of life will be spent enjoying and living as we fantasize. 

My personal experience is that the growth is, in reality, nonstop. There are plenty of moments to look over our shoulder and see the vast distances that have been covered in our growth to date. These moments give us the fuel and ammunition to accelerate further towards the desired endgame we are aiming for. But whatever that endgame appears to be in one’s mind is, in fact, just an internal illusion of a finish line, a destination, a moment where we can exhale and believe that we are finally what we set out to be.

And then the sun rises the next day and, like it or not, the growth continues in ways that perhaps we have yet to contemplate, or through circumstances that we have not allowed for.

Whether the growth is anticipated and planned for, or if it comes out of left field and blindsides us with circumstances that we did not prepare for, it is always coming. There really is very little stasis in life. We just delude ourselves in believing that this is possible or true.

So as the pressures and circumstances of your life deliver lessons that you could not foresee or should have foreseen, the best any of us can do is to be gentle with ourselves as we navigate the troubled water and recognize that this truly is life. The rest is delusion. And if you are aware and present in life, then at a minimum, you can be assured that you are on the path of growth and that perhaps patience is the single greatest strength that any of us could possibly possess. 

Happy Monday!

If you like what you are reading in the blog, you will even love the book more. Take a free preview below and watch the Sizzle Reel. It will give you a sense of how this book might be of help in your life when you are looking to make some tough decisions.

Changing the world…One thought at a time.

This book is written for you. Whether you are just embarking on your journey in life, or if you are a seasoned veteran, we all have so much more to learn. Lessons from the Mountain is a conversational exploration of countless topics of personal and professional self help.

Mr. Weiner has collected a diverse assortment of thoughts from the great sages of the last two millennia, each sparking personalized discussions, intended to stimulate you into deeper contemplation of the subjects that intrigue you.

Leveraging his experiences in building The Illusion Factory and then, Sizzle, Mr. Weiner reflects on numerous moments of engagement that are relevant to all of us as we navigate our path in life.

In this zen entrepreneurial discussion, the myriad topics range from:

• Narrowing choices to increase opportunity

• Assuaging a hurt ego

• Managing the depression that comes with a failure

• Learning to continuously improve

• Owning your mistakes

• Increasing your likelihood for success

• Making ethical choices

• Pursuing seemingly impossible goals

• Coping with a loss

• Making unpopular decisions

• Communicating with compassion

• Learning to collaborate with others more skilled than you

• Accepting your reality, while working to change it

• Stopping bullies in their tracks

• Letting go of anger

• Deepening self-respect

• Understanding love

• Making the planet a better place

• Taking giant risks and succeeding

• The elusive pursuit of happiness

• The art of honesty and friendship

• Following your heart

• Overcoming PTSD

• Learning when to become impartial

• Questioning reality

• The probability of UFOs

• Attracting positive outcomes

• The benefits of being a zen entrepreneur

and many other interesting topics of exploration.

The book has been written over a couple of years of climbing a mountain in the darkness in order to be atop for the sunrise. Photos from those journeys accompany the beautifully illustrated aphorisms, whose content spark each of the philosophical discussions.

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Written by Brian Weiner
When I was 5 years old, I discovered that the lemon tree in the backyard + dixie cups + water and sugar and I was in business. I have been hooked on that ever since. In 1979, I borrowed $14,000 to create a brand new product... photographic greeting cards with no text on the inside, called Paradise Photography. That was the start of The Illusion Factory. Since then, The Illusion Factory has been entrusted by all of the major studios and broadcasters with the advertising and marketing of over $7 billion in filmed, live, broadcast, gaming, AR, VR and regulated gaming forms of entertainment, generating more than $100 Billion in revenue and 265 awards for creativity and technology for our clients. When I took a break from film school at UCLA to move to Hawaii, my mother did not lecture me. Instead, she took 150 of her favorite aphorisms and in her beautiful calligraphy, wrote them artistically throughout a blank journal. That is the origin of the Lessons from the Mountain series. Since then, on my journeys to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise, I have spent countless hours contemplating words of wisdom from the sages of all races, genders and political persuasions, constantly accumulating the thoughts to guide me on my life path. I hope you enjoy my books. Please let me know your thoughts, as I highly value your feedback!