“Enlightenment is the space between your thoughts.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“Love is given, not received.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“Don’t do things that you know are morally wrong. Not because someone is watching, but because you are. Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a choice that you make and a skill that you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“To be honest, speak without identity.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“If the primary purpose of school was education, the Internet should obsolete it. But school is mainly about credentialing.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“If it entertains you now but will bore you someday, it’s a distraction. Keep looking.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“The problem happens when we have multiple desires. When we have fuzzy desires. When we want to do ten different things and we’re not clear about which is the one we care about.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“Time ripens desires. It validates desires. Maybe you sort of feel like eating a cookie right now. If you get distracted, you’ll most likely lose your desire for that cookie. It didn’t stand the test of time. But when there’s something you want that you’ve kept on wanting for a long time, even if you’ve forgotten how much you want it, then that’s something you really want. And that will be something that will really satisfy you when you get it.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 67)
“There was so much in my life I cared about—and of course I really loved being a therapist. But on another level there wasn’t anything in it I wanted just for me. It was as if my life had turned into a motel room and the truth was I could walk out of it without any sense that I was leaving anything of my own behind. A stranger could easily move into my life, and nothing would be different. I was happy as long as I didn’t think about who I was and what I really wanted for myself.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 44)
“The people in your life are truly interested in your being happy. The confusing thing is that they don’t go around advertising this. Your boss, your kids, your husband mostly talk about how they need this and they need that from you. But when you’re unhappy, a part of their world collapses. So if you have to shuffle your priorities around and put someone last who’s been coming first, and some of the people in your life start giving you grief, just remember how happy they’ll be when you’re happy.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 37)
“I remember a long period when it seemed like all I did was bounce back and forth between my patients and my children. They all needed every ounce of what I had to give. I didn’t even feel I had time for my husband. It was as if I were surrounded by a wall of people who saw me as nothing more than the person who took care of them. Emotionally I didn’t feel I had room to breathe.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 34)
“It’s easy to get started giving yourself the gift of a year. You start by giving yourself the gift of empty bits of time. Can you give yourself one whole Saturday or Sunday every week free from commitments? Can you give yourself half an hour just for you every morning or evening? Can you steal half an hour from work every day? Can you get your boss/husband/boyfriend/mother/kids/friends to cut you some slack?”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 34)
“When the soil of the self is exhausted, no beautiful flowers can grow from it.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 30)
“There should be no sense of struggle or any risk of failure with the gift of a year. You’re doing something you’ve been wanting to do for a long time. It’s about pleasure, indulgence, self-care, nurturing yourself, giving to yourself. It’s about seizing the day for yourself so you can do something you’ve long wanted to do. It’s not about making something happen. It’s about letting something happen. It’s not about pushing. It’s about stopping pushing.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 25)
“The first rule of handling conflict is don’t hang around people who are constantly engaging in conflict.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“A rational person can find peace by cultivating indifference to things outside of their control.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
“Success is the enemy of learning. It can deprive you of the time and the incentive to start over. Beginner’s mind also needs beginner’s time.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium