“When we get really attached to how others will react to our work, we stop focusing on our work and begin to focus on controlling the outcome instead.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 86)
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“If the only measure of your worth is in the outcome of a transaction, not in the practice to which you’ve committed, then of course it makes sense to cut corners and to hustle.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 85)
“If our focus is on external validation, then the journey will always be fraught. It’s culturally impossible to do important work that will be loved by everyone. The very act of being ‘important’ means that it will have a different impact on people.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 72)
“The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice, but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility. And if the sheer force of his own self-confidence communicates itself to other people and gives them the impression that he really is a saint, such a man can wreck a whole city or a religious order or even a nation. The world is covered with scars that have been left in its flesh by visionaries like these.”
Thomas Merton, via Sunbeams (Page 77)
Happy But Never Satisfied – Motivational or Misleading?
Excerpt: Many people love the phrase “Be happy, but never satisfied” and they find it motivational. But, what if it was actually misleading and dangerous for our mental framework?
Read More »Happy But Never Satisfied – Motivational or Misleading?
“A key component of practical empathy is a commitment to not be empathic to everyone. A contemporary painter must ignore the criticism or disdain that comes from someone who’s hoping for a classical still life. The tech innovator has to be okay with leaving behind the laggard who’s still using a VCR. That’s okay, because the work isn’t for them. ‘It’s not for you’ is the unspoken possible companion to ‘Here, I made this.'”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 71)
“In order to say no with consistency and generosity, we need to have something to say ‘yes’ to.”
Justine Musk (writer), via The Practice (Page 58)
“Selling can feel selfish. We want to avoid hustling people, and so it’s easy to hold back in fear of manipulating someone. Here’s an easy test for manipulation: if the people you’re interacting with discover what you already know, will they be glad that they did what you asked them to?”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 46)
“I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.”
Harry S. Truman, via Sunbeams (Page 76)
“The truth is more important than the facts.”
Frank Lloyd Wright, via Sunbeams (Page 76)
“It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much.”
Bernard de Fontenelle, via Sunbeams (Page 76)
“The biggest fear most of us have with learning to say no is that we will miss an opportunity. An opportunity that would have catapulted us to success, or that will never come again. And most of the time, that simply isn’t true.
Grace Bonney, Saying “No”
I’ve found that the first part of learning to say no is learning to accept that offers and opportunities are merely an indication that you’re on the right path—not that you’ve arrived at a final destination you can never find again.
If someone is choosing you, it means you’re doing something right. And that is the biggest opportunity you can receive—the chance to recognize that your hard work is paying off. And if you continue to do good work, those opportunities will continue—and improve—over time.”
“Maintain a margin of safety—even when it’s going well. Rich people go bankrupt chasing even more wealth. Fit people get injured chasing personal records. Productive people become ineffective taking on too many projects. Don’t let your ambition ruin your position.”
James Clear, Blog
“It’s almost always better to learn from peers who are 2 years ahead of you than mentors who are 20 years ahead of you. Life evolves and most insights get outdated.”
James Clear, Blog
“Writers write. Runners run. Establish your identity by doing your work.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 35)
“Flying across the country is safer than driving. If your goal is to get to Reno, the safest choice is to fly there, not to drive. And if you know of someone who dies in a plane crash on the way to Reno, they didn’t make a bad decision when they chose to fly. There was certainly a bad outcome, though. Decisions are good even if the outcomes aren’t.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 26)
“You can’t really decide to paint a masterpiece. You just have to think hard, work hard, and try to make a painting that you care about. Then, if you’re lucky, your work will find an audience for whom it’s meaningful.”
Susan Kare, The Practice (Page 24)
“When an apprentice gets hurt, or complains of being tired, the workmen and peasants have this fine expression: ‘It is the trade entering his body.’ Each time that we have some pain to go through, we can say to ourselves quite truly that it is the universe, the order and beauty of the world, and the obedience of God that are entering our body.”
Simone Weil, Waiting For God, via Sunbeams (Page 75)
“I do not like work—no man does—but I like what is in work: the chance to find yourself.”
Joseph Conrad, The Heart Of Darkness, via Sunbeams (Page 75)
“Millions of persons long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon.”
Susan Ertz, via Sunbeams (Page 75)