“Time is always worth more than money. You can make your money back. But once time is spent, it’s gone for good.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 107)
“All the inspirational quotes about hustling hard and pushing oneself beyond one’s limits have disappeared from my walls and from my life. When speaking to friends and hearing about all the amazingly massive things they’re doing, I always reply by asking, ‘But are you having fun?’ The responses are a mix of yes and no, but the question stops everyone in their tracks and gets them thinking. There’s no fun waiting for us after the work; there’s just more work. More year-ends, more midterms, more tests, more projects, more patients, more students, more clients, more customers; it never ends, so the least we can do is enjoy it while we’re doing it. That can come from either finding something we already enjoy or reprogramming what we’re already doing to add more fun to it.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 103)
“Focusing on the rainbow instead of the pot of gold isn’t just one of many philosophies we can adapt—it’s the most sustainable way for us to keep going. The present is all we have, and we can promise ourselves only so much contentment before we realize that the story doesn’t end until we take our last breath. Once we accept that, we can enjoy the journey, celebrating every baby step we take, not toward a treasure on a map, but in a direction that steadily improves the way we feel about ourselves, our lives, and the world around us.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 95)
“Loneliness can be quelled quickly as we develop the most important relationship we have in our lives: the one with ourselves. Leaving the pack and going off script may reduce the number of people we have around us and limit the number of activities we participate in with others, but it’ll save us years of spinning our wheels finding no fulfillment in a cookie-cutter life. People every day choose the red pill and embrace the discomforts that come with straying from the norm. Spending time with other people who devote their lives to self-discovery will only enhance how far you can take your journey. We are a vast and endless universe.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 87)
“To live is to deal with challenges and setbacks. No one is immune to the bullshit life flings our way; but our actions can make that bullshit better or worse. If you look back at your life, the biggest lessons you learned didn’t come from a Tumblr quote or celebrity PSA; they came from harsh reality checks when the shit hit the fan. That process isn’t going to get any more enjoyable as you grow, but if you anticipate the learning, then the moments you have in life end up being that much more enriched.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 84)
“None of us knows how strong we are until being strong is the only option we have left. We spend so much of our lives avoiding discomfort that we don’t realize that in those uncomfortable situations, our best selves emerge.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 63)
“The world doesn’t stop for our tragedies; it keeps moving, and we have to keep moving with it. Stop handling your tragedies like a child, and deal with them like an adult. Adults show up for work, children stay in bed.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 62)
“You can’t be yourself if you don’t know who you are. So how do you know who you are? Everyone is a gooey batter of both nature and nurture, and every time shit hits the fan in our lives, we have an opportunity to get to know ourselves a bit better. It’s an exhausting experience, but it’s enriching. We learn about ourselves through all of our interactions with the world, both good and bad. So with everything you do, think about how it shapes who you are, and think about how who you are shapes your experience of everything you do.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 57)
“The decisions we can’t make with confidence end up being made for us.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 56)
“All of our emotions have value, and as unpleasant as some are, they’re reminders that we’re alive and have a whole lot going on inside. Why not approach life with curiosity and wonder, instead of dread and fear. We don’t avoid movies because we know they’ll end. We enjoy the journey they take us on. Our journey is life, and no one makes it out alive; the finish is death, so let’s enjoy life while we can, with those we love, while they’re still here.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 46)
“Sometimes when things feel too heavy, I ask myself, ‘Will this matter in three hundred years?’ and I think about the fact that no one I know will be around then—none of their judgments, opinions, debts, or drudges—and that I should enjoy this journey while I’m still healthy enough to do so. In three hundred years it won’t matter that I wasn’t invited to this or that event or included on this or that list or was able to connect with this or that person. It won’t matter that I showed up wearing a mustard stain on my outfit or that I didn’t proofread my text message before I hit ‘send.’ Figuring out what will matter in three hundred years will result in a much shorter list—almost next to nothing.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 37)
“The way to attract good luck is to be reliable in a valuable area. The more you repeatedly deliver value, the more people seek you out for that value. Your reputation is a magnet. Once you become known for something, relevant opportunities come to you with no extra work.” ~ James Clear, Blog
“We never really get over our traumas, and as much as we heal, scars will remain. That doesn’t mean we need to view those scars as reminders of our injuries; instead, we can see them as proof of our resilience.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 30)
“The people we have won’t always be here, so let’s not deprive ourselves of their presence simply because we’re too caught up in wanting more of some other stuff. That other stuff won’t last either—nothing does. So let’s appreciate who and what we have while we still have it. If we’re not happy with what we have, we won’t be very happy with all that we get.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 22)
“Remembering that the people in our lives won’t be here forever is the best way to motivate us to be as wonderful to them as possible, while they’re still here. It’s tricky, since we’re not really wired to remember this fact, but when we make the active effort to keep it in mind, beautiful choices come from that effort.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 22)
“I decided that if someone wasn’t helping me get to where I needed to be, then that person most likely was getting in my way. I didn’t make any proclamations or write anybody a Dear John letter, thus liberating myself from their harmful clutches. I didn’t say a thing to anybody; I just stopped engaging with people who I felt were standing in my way rather than helping me and I began to focus more on myself.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 16)
“Nothing lasts forever, and that’s both tragic and comic, depending on how we look at it—so how we look at it, our perspective, is the thing we can, and should, control. We can give ourselves a facepalm when we look at that old outfit, or we can try it on and dance around the room summoning up the spirits and smiles of yesterday—a beautiful reminder of how far we’ve come.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 15)
“The fact that life is temporary—the happiness, the joy, the hope, the fear, the pain, the sorrow, the victories, the defeats—is the most comforting and terrifying fact of existence.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 13)
“All the experiences we go through in life are our lessons, all the people we meet are our teachers. What we learn is what we earn from those experiences. See, discover, and create the silver lining that’s always been there so you don’t discard the unpleasant moments as things you want to forget.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 7)
“The more deeply we dive into our own stories, the more we feel like we’re going through it alone. But I’m here to remind you that you’re not alone, even though we each have to do the work ourselves. The deeper we dive, the more beauty we can discover as well. No on else shares our unique experiences, and therefore no one else can show us the light at the end of the tunnels we dig; we can only share our stories and remind ourselves that we already have everything we need to find that light. These are the things no one else can teach us.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 6)