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    “When we create rituals around powerful tools for performance and awareness, such as the morning and evening rituals, or when we train the fundamentals common to our missions or critical nodes, then we are grooving peak performance behavior into our subconscious.  These are good routines that will help unlock creativity and success.”

    Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

      “None of us are perfect. We have biologies and pathologies that will inevitably trip us up. What we need then is a philosophy and a strong moral code—that sense of virtue—to help us resist what we can, and to give us the strength to pick ourselves back up when we fail and try to do and be better.”

      Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 117)

        “Lust is a destroyer of peace in our lives: Lust for a beautiful person. Lust for an orgasm. Lust for someone other than the one we’ve committed to be with. Lust for power. Lust for dominance. Lust for other people’s stuff. Lust for the fanciest, best, most expensive things that money can buy. And is this not at odds with the self-mastery we say we want? A person enslaved to their urges is not free—whether they are a plumber or the president.”

        Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 114)

          “No one has less serenity than the person who does not know what is right or wrong. No one is more exhausted than the person who, because they lack a moral code, must belabor every decision and consider every temptation. No one feels worse about themselves than the cheater or the liar, even if—often especially if—they are showered with rewards for their cheating and lying. Life is meaningless to the person who decides their choices have no meaning.”

          Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 99)

            “Mental stillness will be short-lived if our hearts are on fire, or our souls ache with emptiness. We are incapable of seeing what is essential in the world if we are blind to what’s going on within us. We cannot be in harmony with anyone or anything if the need for more, more , more is gnawing at our insides like a maggot.”

            Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 94)

              “Most of us would be seized with fear if our bodies went numb, and would do everything possible to avoid it, yet we take no interest at all in the numbing of our souls.”

              Epictetus, via Stillness is the Key (Page 83)

              Richard Carlson Quote on Blowing Things Out of Proportion

                “We forget that life isn’t as bad as we’re making it out to be. We also forget that when we’re blowing things out of proportion, we are the ones doing the blowing.”

                Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

                Beyond the Quote (108/365)

                The powerful thing about perspective is that it has the ability to change how we see.  And if how we see changes, well, everything in the world will look different.  In life, many of us disproportionately view our world as larger than it is—we blow it out of proportion.  Why?  Because from our perspective, our world is the world.  The size of our perception of life is the size of our understanding of the world.  And when we hyper focus on the trivialities of our life in comparison to all that’s happening in life throughout the world?  Those trivialities can start to look much bigger than they really are.

                Read More »Richard Carlson Quote on Blowing Things Out of Proportion

                  “Most students, whether it’s in archery or yoga or chemistry, go into a subject with a strong intention.  They are outcome-focused.  They want to get the best grade or the highest score.  They bring their previous ‘expertise’ with them.  They want to skip the unnecessary steps and get right to the sexy stuff.  As a result, they are difficult to teach and easily discouraged when the journey proves harder than expected.  They are not present.  They are not open to experience and cannot learn.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 78)

                    “There are going to be setbacks in life.  Even a master or a genius will experience a period of inadequacy when they attempt to learn new skills or explore new domains.  Confidence is what determines whether this will be a source of anguish or an enjoyable challenge.  If you’re miserable every time things are not going your way, if you cannot enjoy it when things are going your way because you undermine it with doubts and insecurity, life will be hell.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 73)

                      “Confident people know what matters.  They know when to ignore other people’s opinions.  They don’t boast or lie to get ahead (and then struggle to deliver).  Confidence is the freedom to set your own standards and unshackle yourself from the need to prove yourself.  A confident person doesn’t fear disagreement and doesn’t see change—swapping an incorrect opinion for a correct one—as an admission of inferiority.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 72)

                        “Find people you admire and ask how they got where they are.  Seek book recommendations.  Add experience and experimentation on top of this.  Put yourself in tough situations.  Accept challenges.  Familiarize yourself with the unfamiliar.  That’s how you widen your perspective and your understanding.  The wise are still because they have seen it all.  They know what to expect because they’ve been through so much.  They’ve made mistakes and learned from them.  And so must you.”

                        Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 66)

                          “[On reading] I cannot understand how some people can live without communicating with the wisest people who ever lived on earth.”

                          Leo Tolstoy, via Stillness is the Key (Page 65)