“Simplifying the externals allows us to cultivate a rich inner and outer life. A cluttered existence may keep us busy, but busyness doesn’t mean that we are fully engaged in what we are going. Usually, just the opposite, we feel busy because we are neurotically active at things that don’t matter much in the long run. It does little good to be successful in a business that requires sixty hours of work a week, while the simple pleasures of home life are neglected. A complicated person can simplify life and in that simplicity find a sharp articulation of values. Complicated lives often do the opposite: they show to what extent the person is lost in the busyness of the world.”
Thomas Moore, Original Self | ★ Featured on this book list.
“The passionate worker doesn’t show up because she’s afraid of getting in trouble; she shows up because it’s a hobby that pays. The passionate worker is busy blogging on vacation, because posting that thought and seeing the feedback it generates is actually more fun than sitting on the beach for another hour. The passionate worker tweaks a site design after dinner because, hey, it’s a lot more fun than watching TV.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Just about every great, brave, or beautiful thing in our culture was created by someone who didn’t do it for the money.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“If you want to become the kind of person that any company would kill to have as an employee, you need to be the kind of employee that’s really picky about whom you align with.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Remarkable visions and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths… whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it’s over. If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it’s unlikely that it would be worth the journey. Persist.” ~ Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Do not think of work – any work – as a duty. If it is a duty, it will become a burden. How do you turn a burden into a pleasure? Live respectfully, correctly, positively, and boldly.” ~ Tempu Nakamura, Budo Secrets
“When I left New York City for the backstreets of Japan, I figured I’d be growing poorer in terms of money, amusements, social life, and obvious prospects, but I’d be richer in what I prize most: days and hours.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness
“With machines coming to seem part of our nervous systems, while increasing their speed every season, we’ve lost our Sundays, our weekends, our nights off – our holy days, as some would have it; our bosses, junk mailers, our parents can find us wherever we are, at any time of day or night. More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call, required to heal ourselves but unable to find the prescription for all the clutter on our desk.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness
“Making a living and making a life sometimes point in opposite directions.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness
“The whole world is inside each person, each being, each object. To know any part of the world deeply, intimately, is to know the whole world. Each of us, then, must find our own particular domain – that little corner of the world in which we can drill for gold. For the acupuncturist it is knowing the body through the language of Chinese medicine. For the painter, it is knowing the world through through paint and the canvas. For the writer, it is knowing the world through words.”
Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life
“To organize life’s energies around anything less sublime than our true nature is to still be split – separated from Self. No matter how much focus we may bring to any task, if the task is not our real vocation we will still be haunted by the suffering of doubt, and the internal agony of division.”
Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life
“When we reach sixty-two, we are likely to interpret feelings of exhaustion and boredom as the signal to retire. But couldn’t they just as easily be the call to reinvent ourselves? As we age it seems harder and harder to let our authentic dharma reinvent us. We imagine somehow that the risks are greater. We tend to think that leaping off cliffs is for the young. But no. Actually – when better to leap off cliffs?”
Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life
“Our work can be motivated by obligation, by hunger for the external rewards of accomplishment, or by strongly reinforced ideas about who we should be in this lifetime. But none of these motivations has the authentic energy required for mastery of a profession.”
Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life
“It is better to fail at your own dharma than to succeed at the dharma of someone else.” ~ Krisna, Bhagavad Gita
“People actually feel happiest and most fulfilled when meeting the challenge of their dharma in the world, when bringing highly concentrated effort to some compelling activity for which they have a true calling. For most of us this means our work in the world. And by work, of course, I do not mean only ‘job.'”
Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life
“The opposite of play is not work – the opposite of play is depression. Respecting our biologically programmed need for play can transform work. It can bring back excitement and newness to our job. Play helps us deal with difficulties, provides a sense of expansiveness, promotes mastery of our craft, and is an essential part of the creative process. Most important, true play that comes from our own inner needs and desires is the only path to finding lasting joy and satisfaction in our work. In the long run, work does not work without play.” ~ Dr. Stuart Brown