 Jimmy watches as Bob, two years older than he is, lifts 150 pound weight over his head. As Jimmy is also smaller, he just wonders if he can get it up to his chest. When Bob steps away, he gives it a try, but is only able to barely stand up with it, and only lifts it a few more inches before he has to put it down. Bob, glancing over to see this, notes, that's way too heavy for you, kid. You have to start with lighter weights and work your way up. There are many today who would consider this as a failure to lift the weight. That is what comes from process-based thinking. Jimmy's purpose was to test himself. Bollywood certainly have enjoyed it if he had been able to lift that weight. That was not really his purpose. He was testing himself. He just didn't get the answer that other people would have applauded. He rather got the right answer that he could not lift the weight. The only way he could have failed would be if he had refused to even try. He succeeded because he acted to his purpose, and he was rewarded with knowledge of himself and his capacities. Performance is not based on action. It is based on fulfillment of purpose. It is not based on what those who put forth no effort want someone else to do. It is based on what the one who chooses to act decides to accomplish. Performance is built on accomplishment, accomplishment of something that has value, not on activity. Performance is not based on meeting a goal or reaching some objective. It is based on achieving a result that is valued by the one who acts. Self-control is never performance. It is what keeps people from accomplishing things. While self-control may be personally valued, it is not an accomplishment. It deals only with activity. Each of us is a performance unit. We each decide when and where we will commit our own time and energy. Others may influence this, but our decision is what is most important in determining what each of us will accomplish. When you were an infant, your parents decided what to set before you for action. But even the decision to eat was yours. They would not force-feed you, but responded to what they saw as your wants and needs. As you have grown, such decisions are given more and more into your hands. You are offered options instead of directions. You are offered choices instead of demands. It is a necessary part of becoming an adult, where your efforts become more and more what you choose to put forth. I tell you that Jimmy was not a failure when he could not lift the weight, nor was he wrong to try. He was a success because he achieved the knowledge he sought. Other people will have their own sense of value and may not accept Jimmy's purpose as reasonable. That is their determination, not the determination of the one who acts. Your time and your effort are yours to spend. What you accomplish is value only if you value it. The options of others may indeed have value to you, especially as there is some bobby there to announce what he thinks, but the performance, success or failure is yours. Consider the space station. It is a marvel of technology and harmless inhuman ingenuity. I tell you that every person who worked on it, and every person who designed any part of it, were once teenagers just like you are today. There is nobody else, no special people who were born with the ability to do these things. Just like you, they had to learn to be adults. They had to grow into the people they became. They had to be given choices as they grew. Choices that more and more affected what they learned and their abilities to develop. As your parents have made choices for you, so will you one day be making choices for children of your own. That is the true wonder of performance, that you are the one who will perform and even now are learning to be effective in what you choose to do. You are not just a teenager, you are also the unit of human civilization. You are the ones who will build the great things of the future, but only if that is what your choice is.