Motivation Manifesto, 2014 book by Brendan Burchard.

animation-summary video by AlwaysImproving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXEfm8XyS94

4-minute summary

partial excerpts

The Declaration of Personal Power

Why, having been endowed with the courageous heart of a lion, do we live as mice?

We must look squarely into our own tired eyes and examine why we waste so much time sniffing at every distraction, why we cower at the thought of revealing our true selves to the world, why we scurry so quickly from conflict, and why we consent to play small

We believe the greatest of human powers is the ability to independently think for ourselves, to choose our own aims, affections, and actions. For in the hearts of humankind lives a natural instinct for freedom and independence, a psychological predisposition for self-direction, a biological imperative toward growth, and a spiritual joy in choosing and advancing one’s own life

To secure these Rights and this Personal Freedom, men and women of conscience must not consent to be controlled by fear, convention, or the will of the masses

We have patiently suffered long enough, hoping that someone or some kind of luck would one day grant us more opportunity and happiness. But nothing external can save us

We are too often lost in the abyss of unawareness. We regularly miss the energy and blessings around us, and the importance of this very moment

The white space of a free day seems unfathomable because we have become hypnotized by a false but compelling need to respond to all the needs of others

We must remember we are not the sum of our intentions but of our actions.

Generation after generation is failing to hold the line on the ideals and virtues of humanity.

Nor can we allow apathetic, small-thinking men and women to lay waste to our future

solemnly publish and declare that our lives are—and, of right, ought to be—free and independent

On Freedom

Humankind’s main motivation is to seek and experience Personal Freedom.

That is ultimately what Personal Freedom is: liberty from the restrictions of social oppression and the tragic self-oppression that is fear

freedom can be achieved only by diligent will and volition. Seeking to ascend in life takes grit and resolve, struggle and courage.

On the ground of such personal liberation stand the world’s most noble figures: Gandhi and Frankl and King and Mandela were free even as they were imprisoned.

The ultimate narrative of the human species
is its quest for more freedom
and the related struggles to ascend
to higher standards of living and relating.