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Susan David Quote on Having Emotional Agility and Staying Balanced in the Face of Complexity

    “How we deal with our inner world drives everything. Every aspect of how we love, how we live, how we parent and how we lead. The conventional view of emotions as good or bad, positive or negative, is rigid. And rigidity in the face of complexity is toxic. We need greater levels of emotional agility for true resilience and thriving.”

    Susan David, Ph.D, Mindful

    Beyond the Quote (127/365)

    As a result of people being in quarantine because of COVID-19, there have been two conversations that have been happening at large. One group has been pushing for productivity. The idea is to use all of this extra time to do more of that you felt you never had time to do before. Start that blog; write that book; lose that weight; create that website; become that person. The other group has been pushing for conscientious recovery. The idea is that this global pandemic has radically affected all of our lives and has redefined “normal.” We need to be taking this time to mindfully cope with all of new unknowns and pay close attention to our mental health during this global crisis. Both of these schools of thought should be carefully considered by everybody.

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    Miyamoto Musashi Quote on Making The Warrior Walk Your Everyday Walk and Living With Balance

      “One must make the warrior walk his everyday walk.”

      Miyamoto Musashi

      Beyond the Quote (126/365)

      One concept that gets focused on intensely in Martial Arts training is balance. Having good physical balance is important, of course, as you need to be able to kick, punch, and block without falling down or getting tripped up in poor technique. But, balance runs much deeper than just the obvious ability to execute moves without falling. In order to perform optimally in self-defense situations and, more importantly, in life situations as a Martial Artist, we need to be balanced physically, mentally, and emotionally.

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      Tony Robbins Quote on Seeing Frustration As A Positive Sign—Not The Opposite

        “Frustration is a very positive sign. It means that the solution to your problem is within range, but what you’re currently doing isn’t working, and you need to change your approach in order to achieve your goal.”

        Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within

        Beyond the Quote (125/365)

        Frustration is the feeling you get when you try, try again; yet fail, fail again. And what do most people do when faced with ‘fail, fail again?‘ Quit. They stop trying to do whatever it was that they were failing at and move on to something else—something that they can succeed at again. Something that is most likely back inside of their comfort zone and well within their range of already proven skills, knowledge, and understanding. Why? Because succeeding feels good and failing feels bad. But, the price of giving in to frustration is steep.

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        Paulo Coelho Quote on How People Only Hear What They Want To Hear (and Why I Disagree)

          “Don’t waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.”

          Paulo Coelho

          Beyond the Quote (124/365)

          I disagree. I stumbled upon this quote on Instagram and I can see why people would share it and agree with it from a superficial standpoint, but I feel that there’s something deeply wrong about it that needs to be discussed. If you never took the time to explain, how would anybody ever be influenced to change their mind? Certainly people change their minds. And in my estimation, it’s ONLY through conversation and explanation that it ever happens: conversations you have with other people, conversations you listen to between other people, and conversations that you read from other people. It’s through this constant exchange of ideas—these explanations—that we only ever advance our thoughts forward. How else could we possibly do that?

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          Yoda Quote on Facing Your Fears

            Yoda Quote on Facing Your Fears

            “Named must your fear be before banish it you can.”

            Yoda

            Beyond the Quote (123/365)

            Many times we don’t even realize that we’re living in fear. When we find our comforts, we get comfortable living with them. It’s instinctual. It’s natural. It’s how we’re wired and what we’re drawn to. We’re living in a sort-of primal state of constant pleasure seeking and pain avoidance. Why wouldn’t that be the case? Who actually would want to seek out fear? Confront fear? Work to overcome fear? It’s scary! It’s uncomfortable! There’s so much resistance! You’d have to have a really good reason to do any of that.

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            Seth Godin Quote on Facing Failure So That You Can Keep Playing (and Win)

              “If I fail more than you do, I win.  Built into this notion is the ability to keep playing.  If you get to keep playing, sooner or later you’re gonna make it succeed.  The people who lose are the ones who don’t fail at all, or the ones who fail so big they don’t get to play again.”

              Seth Godin

              Beyond the Quote (121/365)

              If you try and you fail—and you quit—you lose. If you try and you fail—and you adjust and try again—you win. The ultimate failure in life isn’t the failures we inevitably stumble upon from our trials, it’s the failure to not try (or to stop trying) at all. Without trial in life, you defer to passivity. You choose to watch rather than play. And while it’s fun to watch sometimes, playing is where all of the magic happens. Playing is the active process of interacting with your surroundings in a way that allows you to learn. When you try, your whole being makes an incalculable number of adjustments and improvements so that you can better play moving forward. You just can’t do that from the sideline.

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              Ryan Holiday Quote on Leisure and Recharging Constructively

                “[Leisure] is a physical state—a physical action—that somehow replenishes and strengthens the soul. Leisure is not the absence of activity, it is activity. What is absent is any external justification—you can’t do leisure for pay, you can’t do it to impress people. You have to do it for you.“

                Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 237)

                Beyond the Quote (120/365)

                Too often we associate “replenishing” and “recharging” with shutting down and binging. We finish a long stretch of work and we immediately resort to plopping down in front of the TV and mindlessly zoning out for a few hours to “recover.” And while it is okay to do that every now and again, what might be worth exploring is the idea of recharging, not by checking out, but by checking in to activities that engage you.

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                Epicurus Quote on What The Wise Will Accomplish in Their Life

                  “Epicurus once said that the wise will accomplish three things in their life: leave written works behind them, be financially prudent and provide for the future, and cherish country living. That is to say, we will be reflective, we will be responsible and moderate, and we will find time to relax in nature.”

                  Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 183)

                  Beyond the Quote (119/365)

                  If there was ever a time to prioritize reflection, responsibility/ moderation, and nature, this would be the time. COVID-19 has had a drastic impact on the world—our world. It took almost everything that we grew to rely on as part of our daily lives and flipped it all upside down. Family dynamics aren’t the same. Work isn’t the same. Education isn’t the same. Extracurricular activities aren’t the same. Food isn’t the same. Friends aren’t the same. Shopping isn’t the same. Exercise isn’t the same. Entertainment isn’t the same. Everything has been affected. And when the landscape all around us is shifting as rapidly as it is under these circumstances, what we need now more than ever is stability and stillness within.

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                  Kahlil Gibran Quote on Giving To Others That Which You Most Hope To Receive (and Knowing What to Give)

                    “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

                    Kahlil Gibran

                    Beyond the Quote (118/365)

                    Once a group of 500 people were attending a seminar. Suddenly the speaker stopped and decided to do a group activity. He started giving each person a balloon. Each person was then asked to write their name on it using a marker. Then all of the balloons were collected and put in another room.

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                    A Heart Warming Quote About Eeyore and The Amazing Efforts of His Friends

                      A Heart Warming Quote About Eeyore and The Amazing Efforts of His Friends

                      “One awesome thing about Eeyore is that even though he is basically clinically depressed, he still gets invited to participate in adventures and shenanigans with all of his friends. What is amazing is that they never expect him to pretend to feel happy, they never leave him behind or ask him to change, they just show him love.”

                      Unknown

                      Beyond the Quote (116/365)

                      One of the more common thoughts being passed around in the self-improvement world is the idea that you are who you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with people who gossip—you’ll become a person who gossips. If you surround yourself with people who workout all of the time—you’ll start to workout all of the time. If you surround yourself with “losers”—you’ll become a “loser.” You get the idea—birds of a feather flock together.

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                      Ashleigh Brilliant Quote on the Vital Importance of Rest

                        “Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.”

                        Ashleigh Brilliant

                        Beyond the Quote (115/365)

                        If you’re at the point of burnout, that doesn’t mean that you’re just physically tired or that you’re mentally fatigued… being burned out means that your body has shut down because all of your domains of energy have been depleted—physical, mental, and emotional. And when your body shuts down, you have no choice but to listen.

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                        Anne Lamott Quote on Unplugging and the Reality of Burnout

                          “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… Including you.”

                          Anne Lamott

                          Beyond the Quote (114/365)

                          Following through on a commitment is something that you can choose to do or choose not to do. Burning out is something that happens—it’s not something that you can choose against. When there’s no more gas in the car, you can’t choose to magically have more gas with the snap of your fingers—you need a gas station for that. When there’s no more battery juice left in your phone, you can’t choose to boost your battery life with positive thinking—you need a charging cable for that. When there’s no more energy left inside you—mental, physical, or emotional—you can’t demand more energy to appear through even the most disciplined thinking—you need rest, recover, and self-care for that.

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                          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.

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