“Most of the embarrassing moments of my life happened when I wanted to say no, but ended up saying yes (or saying nothing at all). Most of the missed opportunities in my life happened when I wanted to say yes, but ended up saying no (or saying nothing at all).”
James Clear, Blog
“I want you to be horrified—terrified—of sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing. That is what I want you to be afraid of: waking up in six days or six weeks or six year or sixty years and being no closer to your goal… you have made no progress. That is the horror. That is the nightmare. That is what you really need to be afraid of: being stagnant.”
Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom (Page 41)
“When it just doesn’t make any logical sense to go on, that’s when you use your emotion, your anger, your frustration, your fear, to push further, to push you to say one thing: I don’t stop. When your feelings are screaming that you have had enough, when you think you are going to break emotionally, override that emotion with concrete logic and willpower that says one thing: I don’t stop. Fight weak emotions with the power of logic; fight the weakness of logic with the power of emotion.”
Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom (Page 23)
“I don’t accept that I am what I am and that ‘that’ is what I am doomed to be. NO. I do not accept that. I’m fighting. I’m always fighting. I’m struggling and I’m scraping and kicking and clawing at those weaknesses—to change them. To stop them. Some days I win. But some days I don’t. But each and every day: I get back up and I move forward. With my fists clenched. Toward the battle. Toward the struggle. And I fight with everything I’ve got: To overcome those weaknesses and those shortfalls and those flaws as I strive to be just a little bit better today than I was yesterday.”
Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom (Page 17)
“Often the hurt that weighs you down functions as a wall that stops you from fully engaging with the present moment. Unprocessed hurt also limits the flow of compassion because too much of our energy is focused on surviving one day at a time – this directly hinders the ability to deepen interpersonal connections.”
Yung Pueblo
“All that brings unification to people is goodness and beauty; all that brings separation among them is evil. All people know this: it is firmly inscribed on our hearts.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 206)
“If your plan, your idea or your art doesn’t involve any significant hurdles in moving forward, it’s probably not worth that much. If it were easy, everyone would do it. The tactic is to seek a path where you see and understand the significant hurdles that kept others away. And then dance with them. They’re not a problem, they’re a feature.”
Seth Godin, Blog
“Commitment makes good things better and bad things worse. The more ‘all-in’ you are on a good relationship, the better it becomes. The more you commit to a toxic relationship, the deeper you get trapped. The more you invest yourself in fulfilling work, the more your effort fuels you. The harder you work on a bad project or in an unsatisfying role, the more of a grind it becomes.”
James Clear, Blog
“If you’re always right, you’re not learning. If you’re never failing, you’re not reaching. The objective is to be right. The objective is to succeed. But if you’re always winning, you’re undershooting your potential.”
James Clear, Blog
“Socrates thought that stupidity was incompatible with wisdom, but he never said that ignorance was stupidity.”
Xenophon, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 203)
“People are drawn to those who expect a lot out of life, whereas they tend to disrespect those who are fearful and undemanding.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 242)
“If you are in a difficult situation, a low mood, if you are afraid of other people and of yourself, if you are tormented, then tell yourself: ‘I will love everyone whom I meet in this life.’ Try to follow this rule; and you will see that everything will find its way, and everything will seem simple, and you will no longer have doubts or fears.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 202)
“Pay bad people with your goodness; fight their hatred with your kindness. Even if you do not achieve victory over other people, you will conquer yourself.”
Henri Amiel, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 202)
“To understand and live now, there must be dying to everything of yesterday. Die continually to every newly gained experience—be in a state of choiceless awareness of WHAT IS.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 14)
“You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 13)
“We are always in a process of becoming and NOTHING is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you’ll be flexible to change with the ever changing. OPEN yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the TOTAL OPENNESS OF THE LIVING MOMENT. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 13)
“The root is the fulcrum on which will rest the expression of your soul; the root is the ‘starting point’ of all natural manifestation. If the root is right so will be all its manifestation. It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well-ordered.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 12)
“What we are after is the root and not the branches. The root is the real knowledge; the branches are surface knowledge. Real knowledge breeds ‘body feel’ and personal expression; surface knowledge breeds mechanical conditioning and imposing limitation and squelches creativity.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 11)