I guess my own personal credo is: Never give in and never give up.
I don't know exactly when I decided this would be my life statement,
but I can tell you it was a firm aspect of my life by the time I reached
my mid-teens.

Was my family an influencing factor? Certainly – but not for the
reasons you think! I come from a family of losers. They were people
who blamed everyone but themselves for all misfortunes, large and small.

Everything was put in the "too hard" basket unless the outcome was
a guaranteed success and little or no effort had to be expended in order
to achieve the outcome. Is it any wonder I spent two years thinking
I'd been adopted?

By the time I started high school (at the ripe old age of eleven) I had
already decided I didn't want to be like my parents. I determined to
be more disciplined than they, to be proactive instead of reactive, and
to be positive about life instead of negative. As a result, I became
the black sheep of the family BUT I invariably get what I want.

My best friend's father (when I was a teenager) had a favourite
expression: "No point in having a rudderless ship". I often
wondered if he had been a sailor! His daughter was a very focussed
person: when she decided what it was she wanted, nothing stood in her
way. She was organized, prepared to do anything (well, almost anything)
and above all, she was patient.

Family doesn't have to be the major influence when writing your own
personal credo. You could find it in literature, for example.
A friend of mine was (and probably still is) a William Shakespeare nut.
I swear the woman could recite every soliloquy The Bard had penned! Her
credo was based on a speech from her favourite play – As You Like It.
Perhaps you know it: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and
women merely players. They each have their exits and their entrances
….."

This speech became her "I am the main player on the stage of my
world" credo. Sometimes she dominated in the lead role (when she
wanted to be the centre of attention or be noticed in some way) and
sometimes she chose a supporting role.

She enjoyed rewriting the script by which her life played out – and I
can tell you now, life around her was never boring!

Katherine Hepburn, actress and woman extraordinaire, found her credo –
"Listen to the song of life" – cut into the stone mantel of the
house where she lived as a child. And she was certainly a woman who
lived life to the full, wasn't she.

At a seminar I recently attended, the facilitator said, "Whatever it
takes. I will do, whatever it takes." He then wrote the phrase on
the board, thereby telling us all that we should also be prepared to do
"whatever it takes". Unfortunately, during the weekend he showed
himself to be a man of little integrity: his "whatever it takes"
included lying to get business and bending the truth to get people on
side.

On the other hand, a friend of mine has adopted "Whatever it takes –
within reason" as her statement for empowerment. I'm not quite sure
what causes the after-thought ("within reason") to be activated!

If you want to live life on your own terms, you need a credo to live by.
A (positive) statement which encourages you in the down times, keeps
you on track in the difficult ones, and helps you achieve your goals and
dreams.

So, the question is: What is your credo?
And how does it impact on your life?

About the author: Barbara Rose is a writer with a passion for
everything! She is also a mentor, coach, teacher and alternative
therapist who specializes in helping people reach their potential at all
levels (spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical). Please visit
www.barbaras-library.com for a complete list of Barbara's articles and
books. To find out more about Barbara please go to
www.barbara-rose.name.