Quotes about Taking Control
“Life isn’t a train ride where you choose your destination, pay your fare and settle back for a nap. It’s a cycle ride over uncertain terrain, with you in the driver’s seat, constantly correcting your balance and determining the direction of progress. It’s difficult, sometimes profoundly painful. But it’s better than napping through life.”
John W. Gardner, Self-Renewal (Page xii)
Freedom from the Known [Book]
By: J. Krishnamurti
Book Overview: In this classic work, Krishnamurti shows how you can free yourself from the tyranny of the expected. You are free to create your own future, and your departure from the confining expectations of ‘fate’ can be radical and immediate—no matter what your age. By changing yourself, you can change your relationships with others, consequently improving the whole structure of society. The vital need for change and the recognition of its very possibility constitute the rich essence of Krishnamurti’s message in Freedom from the Known.
Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
“What a waste of her life to spend herself trying to be something good enough for mother, when she was already good enough. Nothing could ever be good enough to finally satisfy such a mother. If she can face what a fool she has been to have tried and tried to transform her vitality into a power that would make this insatiable mother happy, she may then be able to reclaim her power for herself. She never had any real power over mother, or over the feelings of anyone else. Her only real power lies in taking charge of her own life, enjoying being who she is, and making her life as meaningful as she can for herself, whatever others may or may not expect of her.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 88)
“I had always known logically that I could choose not to study law. But emotionally it had never been an option. That’s when I realized that in sacrificing my power to choose I had made a choice—a bad one. By refusing to choose ‘not law school,’ I had chosen law school—not because I actually or actively wanted to be there, but by default. I think that’s when I first realized that when we surrender our ability to choose, something or someone else will step in to choose for us.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 34)
“Everything changes when we give ourselves permission to be more selective in what we choose to do. At once, we hold the key to unlock the next level of achievement in our lives. There is tremendous freedom in learning that we can eliminate the nonessentials, that we are no longer controlled by other people’s agendas, and that we get to choose. With that invincible power we can discover our highest point of contribution, not just to our lives or careers, but to the world.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 25)
“When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other people—our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our families—will choose for us, and before long we’ll have lost sight of everything that is meaningful and important. We can either make our choices deliberately or allow other people’s agendas to control our lives.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 16)
“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 10)
“Ambition is tying your well-being to what other people do and say… sanity is tying it to your own actions.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Life is not going to go your way. You have to go your way and take life with you.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page 275)
“We don’t control the vileness of the world or of other people. We do control whether we contribute to it though, whether we choose to contrast it with our own splendor and goodness. We control what we look for also–as Marcus [Aurelius] did, filling Meditations not just with somber or depressing notes but also observations about the beauty and majesty of nature and life. Will you be splendid or vile? That’s the call you get to make, always and forever.”
Ryan Holiday
“Senses recklessly transport our minds away from where we want them to be. Don’t tease your own senses. Don’t set yourself up to fail. A monk doesn’t spend time in a strip club. We want to minimize the mind’s reactive tendencies, and the easiest way to do that is for the intellect to proactively steer the senses away from stimuli that could make the mind react in ways that are hard to control. It’s up to the intellect to know when you’re vulnerable and to tighten the reins, just as a charioteer does when going through a field of tasty grass.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page 153)
