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Gerhard Richter Quote on Ideas and How They Won’t Come to You—You Have To Find Them

    “It is a danger to wait around for an idea to occur to you.  You have to find the idea.”

    Gerhard Richter, via Daily Rituals

    Beyond the Quote (Day 413)

    Ideas are the treasure of your mind. They represent pockets of overlapping information that have the potential to yield a valuable return. And like treasure, they’re revealed only through motion, activity, disruption—never the opposite. Treasure is buried. It’s hidden away. It’s off the beaten path. It doesn’t just lay itself on the front door of your mind. It’s only discovered in the depths of your consciousness. It doesn’t come to you; you go to it.

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    Francois de La Rouchefoucauld Quote on Absence and How It’s The Ultimate Relationship Test

      “Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.”

      Francois de La Rochefoucauld

      Beyond the Quote (Day 411)

      Without absence it’s hard to tell what’s a priority and what’s not. Because if there’s no absence, then there’s immersion and if we’re immersed in something, then that’s all we know—we have nothing to contrast it against. If we were only ever taught math, how might we know if we liked another subject better? If we only ever spent time with certain people, how could we know what it would be like to spend time with others? Contrast is what provides us with the opportunity to compare. Without it, we have only the option we have.

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      Stop Associating Being A Good Person With How Much You’re Willing To Suffer In Silence

        “Can we please stop associating being a good person with how much you’re willing to suffer in silence for other people? You can be a kind person and still say, ‘No, I don’t have the time/energy to help you with that.’ You can be a kind person and still say, ‘This makes me uncomfortable, please stop.’ You can be a kind person and still say, ‘I disagree, and here’s why,’ you can be kind and still say, ‘I’m not okay with this.’ Being kind is about treating people with kindness and respect, not about being the human equivalent of a doormat.”

        Unknown

        Beyond the Quote (Day 409)

        Nobody wants to be a doormat. Doormats have no boundaries. They get walked all over by anyone and everyone. They are used whether it’s morning or night; hot or cold; wet or dry; muddy or icy. Doormats suffer in silence for the convenience of all. They’ll never turn you away, disagree with the conditions of your shoes, say how they feel, or tell you it’s not an okay time. Being a doormat is not being a good person; being a doormat is demeaning to your person. Don’t be a doormat—be a door, instead.

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        John Cowper Powys Quote on The Past and How It’s Not Set In Stone, But Open To Interpretation

          “The mistake we make is to turn upon our past with angry wholesale negation… The way of wisdom is to treat it airily, lightly, wantonly, and in a spirit of poetry; and above all to use its symbols, which are its spiritual essence, giving them a new connotation, a fresh meaning.”

          John Cowper Powys, Sunbeams (Page 26)

          Beyond the Quote (Day 408)

          Not only do we try to deny (often angrily) the events of our past, but we often turn on our past as if it’s without any use at all. Like it just is what it is and any time spent looking back is wasteful. But, that’s not entirely true. While, yes, our past is composed of unalterable events, what it’s not composed of is unalterable interpretations. We are free to interpret the events of our past however we choose. But, when we believe that looking back isn’t worth our time—because we “aren’t going that way”—we miss the chance to update our interpretations and give the events of our past fresh meaning.

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          Russell Brand Quote on Self-Image and How What We Justify Is What We Recommit To

            “In justifying our misery we recommit to it.”

            Russell Brand, Recovery (Page 101)

            Beyond the Quote (Day 407)

            There’s an expression in the performance world that nobody can outperform his/her own self-image. Meaning, how a person thinks they’ll end up performing is how they’ll most likely end up performing. Self-image becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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            Goo Goo Dolls Quote from “Over You” on How Love Is Love and Nothing In Between

              “Love is love and nothing in between.”

              Goo Goo Dolls

              Beyond the Quote (Day 406)

              Light is light and nothing in between. Where there is light, there is no darkness. Where there is darkness, there is no light. A light’s intensity might make it seem like there is something in between darkness and light, but “dim” and “bright” are both still expressions of light. Light can’t be exchanged for some other “in between” particle that might do the lighting instead. Light and the various expressions of its intensity are all that there is to dispel darkness. And so it is in life, too.

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              Marianna Williamson Quote on How All Human Behavior Is Either Love Or A Call For Love

                “The way of the miracle-worker is to see all human behavior as one of two things: either love or a call for love.”

                Marianna Williamson

                Beyond the Quote (Day 405)

                I have been a Martial Arts Instructor for my entire professional life and have had the privilege of working with thousands of students of all ages and from all different backgrounds. Based on all of the human behavior that I have experienced, I see it as the same: either as acts of love or as calls for love. And usually, it’s the students who are acting out the most who are calling for love the loudest.

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