“Literally from the first doctor’s visit with your newborn, they are telling you how your kid stacks up against other kids—their height and weight percentile, etc etc. It never stops…unless you stop it. You are not raising the average child, you are raising YOUR child. How many of the things you’re worried about as a parent would worry you if you didn’t know or didn’t look at what other families were doing?”
Ryan Holiday
“People often mistake highs for happiness. Highs are short-lived and intense. They leave you feeling empty afterward. Therefore highs often become addictive. Happiness is long-lived and calming. It’s like pleasant background music to everything else you do in life. Happiness is the side effect of wanting to chase nothing, change nothing.”
Mark Manson
“You are young in proportion to your flexibility. Watch a small child—so soft, tender, and flexible. As you grow old everything becomes tight, hard, inflexible. But you can remain absolutely young to the very moment of your death if you remain flexible.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 13)
“What do we say when a customer or colleague says, ‘thank you’? For a long time, it was ‘you’re welcome.’ This indicates that you put in some effort and you’re willing to do it again on request. Recently ‘no problem’ has become more common. This implies that the effort could have been a huge hassle, but this time, it was okay. For people who are choosing to do the work of hospitality and connection, though, the most accurate answer might be, ‘my pleasure.’ After all, you had a choice, and you chose to do this work precisely so that it could have an impact on someone else. The story we tell ourselves about the work can be fuel for finding ways to do it better. If it’s not a pleasure, and you’re doing things like this all day, it might be a good time to find something else to do.”
Seth Godin
“Feel as grateful to existence as possible—for small things, not only for great things… just for sheer breathing. We don’t have any claim on existence, so whatever is given is a gift.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 6)
“When you realize that you have mere moments to make the world a better place before you leave it, everything changes.”
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 191)
“Would you still love her if you couldn’t post pictures of her? Would that love still exist if you and she were the only two people in the entire world that got to experience what the two of you share? I don’t think so. No, I don’t think you would love her like you say you do. I think the two of you are in love with the show, not the real people playing the actors in it.”
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 181)
“When it comes to love, the past can sometimes be our biggest obstacle in developing a healthy and vibrant connection. If you want to love another person well, you have no other choice but to journey inward and make sure that the love within you is open, inviting, and that it is ready to receive and give nourishment.”
Yung Pueblo
“Love should not be conditional, one should not expect anything out of it. It should be for its own sake—not for any reward, not for any result. If there is some motive in it, your love cannot become the sky. It is confined to the motive; the motive becomes its definition, it’s boundary. Unmotivated love has no boundary: It is pure elation, exuberance, it is the fragrance of the heart.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 4)
“At times, I wish I were better at moderation. But, to be honest, it’s just not the way I’m wired. I came into this world hungry and I’m going to die hungry and my hunger is going to make me wildly successful and ultimately lead to my demise and I’m okay with that. I don’t want to be full.”
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 168)
“I’m not here to create a legacy. I’m here to set the sky on fire like a shooting star, just for a moment. I’m here to light this world ablaze and then I want to be gone. Any extra time the reaper lets me stick around after that, well that’s just cherries, love. That’s just cherries on top.”
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 160)
“If you’re privileged, all that I ask is this. Once, don’t take it for granted and certainly don’t waste it. Two, when you can, always, help someone who is less privileged. Three, remind underprivileged kids in your community that they don’t have to become a professional athlete or a rap artist or Instagram influencer to make it big, remind them they can become writers, scientists, teachers, hair-stylists, designers, doctors and lawyers. You don’t have to go out and start a non-profit, you don’t have to go on marches, you don’t have to change the world, you just have to change one person in it. Just once in your lifetime, look for some small way you can help someone who is less fortunate than you are. Because, to be completely candid, if you’re reading this right now you’re privileged too.”
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 154)
“The love you’ll one day show your person isn’t just your love. It’s a collection or a cultivation, rather, of the love you were shown (be it good or bad) by those who came before him or her.”
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 138)
“Whenever you find that society is in conflict with nature, choose nature—whatever the cost. You will never be a loser.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 3)
“When you find yourself judging someone, take a step back. Ask yourself, what deep underlying insecurity or fear is this person triggering in me? During the most judgmental phases of my life, I was also extremely insecure and unhappy. I couldn’t face my own insecurities and unhappiness so instead, I chose to reflect these feelings onto others in the form of judgment. Today, when I feel myself becoming judgmental towards anyone, it serves as a nice reminder that I have some internal work to do and I do it.”
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 136)
“She and I didn’t end in a horrible derailing crushing wreck that left both of us bloody and grabbing for our throats to check if we were still breathing—it was more like a slow dance. We were holding each other closely, swaying to Cigarettes After Sex and I decided to gently let go of her hand and she didn’t make the slightest attempt to grab it back. And, in a cynical yet poetic way, this is what loving in a broken generation haunted by dreams feels like—a slow dance that gets slower and slower until the music stops and someone lets go.“
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 134)
“Meditation simply means transforming your unconsciousness into consciousness. Normally only one-tenth of our mind is conscious, and nine-tenths is unconscious. Just a small part of our mind, a thin layer, has light; otherwise the whole house is in darkness. And the challenge is to grow that small light so much that the whole house is flooded with light, so that not even a nook or corner is left in darkness.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 1)