What you believe about yourself is not real, and it’s not important unless you want to create a better story for yourself. Truth or fiction; either way, the story that you’re creating is a work of art. Words are your paintbrush, and your life is the canvas. You can paint whatever you want to paint; you can even copy another artist’s work —  but what you express with your paintbrush is the way you see yourself, the way you see the entire reality. What you paint is your life, and how it looks will depend on how you are using the word. When you realize this, it may dawn on you that the word is a powerful tool for creation. When you learn to use that tool with awareness, you can make history with the word. What history? Your life’s history, of course. The story of you.

From The Fifth Agreement © Miguel Angel Ruiz, M.D., Jose Luis Ruiz, and Janet Mills

Reprinted by Permission of Amber-Allen Publishing, Inc., San Rafael, California