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Fulfillment Quotes

Osho Quote on Meaning and How It Arises

    “When a poet writes a poem, meaning arises – because the poet is not alone; he has created something. When a dancer dances, meaning arises. When a mother gives birth to a child, meaning arises. Left alone, cut off from everything else, isolated like an island, you are meaningless. Joined together you are meaningful. The bigger the whole, the bigger is the meaning.”

    Osho, The Book of Understanding

    Beyond the Quote (85/365)

    Isolated might feel like the physical reality, but it doesn’t have to be the emotional state.  Isolated might make the feeling of meaninglessness arise, but meaning extends beyond just physical connection.  Think about the power of creation.  Creation is the act of giving birth to something that otherwise would not have never existed.  Before creation there is just you.  And for as long as you continue to remain in isolation physically, mentally, and emotionally—no meaning will arise.  How could it?

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    Don Miguel Ruiz Quote on Creating the Perfect Relationships—Starting With The One You Have With Yourself

      “When you make it your goal to create the perfect relationship between you and your body, you are learning to have a perfect relationship with anyone you are with, including your mother, your friends, your lover, your children, your dog.  When you have the perfect relationship between you and your body, in that moment your half of any relationship outside you is completely fulfilled.  You no longer depend upon the success of a relationship from the outside.”

      Don Miguel Ruiz, The Mastery of Love

      Beyond the Quote (66/365)

      The most you can ever contribute to the success of a relationship is 50%.  The fact that it’s a relationship implies that there are two and 100% of one out of two is 50%.  This isn’t to say that the most effort you can ever put forth is 50%.  You can undoubtedly give your 100%, but it’s only ever going to add up to 50% as a part of the whole relationship.  This is one of the key mindsets to understand in order to maintain a healthy relationship.  Let’s take a look at an example.

      Read More »Don Miguel Ruiz Quote on Creating the Perfect Relationships—Starting With The One You Have With Yourself

      Stephen Cope Quote on Engaging With Life Rather Than Retreating—On Doing What’s Meaningful Rather Than Fun

        “At the end of life, most of us will find that we have felt most filled up by the challenges and successful struggles for mastery, creativity, and full expression of our dharma in the world.  Fulfillment happens not in retreat from the world, but in advance – and profound engagement.”

        Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life

        Beyond the Quote (64/365)

        After receiving a thunderous round of applause for a speech he gave, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson was asked if he was having fun giving speeches and talking about important intellectual topics.  When he replied, “No,” I was caught off guard.  I couldn’t understand how he could so eloquently CRUSH an hour and a half long speech, do it in a way that was so well received by the audience, laugh and joke throughout, and admit that he didn’t have fun while doing it?

        Read More »Stephen Cope Quote on Engaging With Life Rather Than Retreating—On Doing What’s Meaningful Rather Than Fun

        Viktor Frankl Quote on Success and Looking At It As A Side-Effect Rather Than A Target

          “Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”

          Viktor Frankl

          Beyond the Quote (35/365)

          Having an aim in life is important.  Aim gives direction and direction gives energy, effort, and resources a focused purpose.  Without an aim you would presumably wander around aimlessly which, of course, would waste time, energy, effort, and resources.  It’s like if I gave you a bow-and-arrow and told you to shoot the target.  The first question you would necessarily ask is, “Where is the target?” 

          Read More »Viktor Frankl Quote on Success and Looking At It As A Side-Effect Rather Than A Target

          Bronnie Ware Quote on How Regret Is Always More Painful Than Courage

            “Regardless of how much courage it can take to live true to your own path, it will never be as painful as lying on your deathbed with the regret of not having tried.”

            Bronnie Ware

            Beyond the Quote (21/365)

            Bronnie Ware is a palliative nurse who writes about her experiences in sharing people’s last moments alive with them.  You can imagine the power and potency of such moments.  In many cases, this experience of being with a person who is passing is outsourced to palliative nurses, like Ware, and isn’t something that many people experience first-hand in their lifetimes.  Being with somebody who is about to die, however, might teach us more about living than anything we might ever read in a book or hear in a conversation.  Until then, hearing what Ware has learned might be one of our next best (and most important) options.

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            Ryan Holiday Quote on Success Being About Beating Yourself—Not The Other Guy

              “[Success] is not about beating the other guy.  It’s not about having more than the others.  It’s about being what you are, and being as good as possible at it, without succumbing to all the things that draw you away from it.  It’s about going where you set out to go.  About accomplishing the most that you’re capable of in what you choose.  That’s it.  No more and no less.”

              Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

              Beyond the Quote (19/365)

              Be what you are—and be as good as possible at it.  Identifying your unique strengths, aptitudes, and abilities as a person is the most important first step in discovering your success.  Once those characteristics are discovered (or at least a relatively firm idea has been developed), then step two is tripling down on those strengths with as much of your energy and effort as you can afford so that you can accomplish all that you’re capable of accomplishing.

              Read More »Ryan Holiday Quote on Success Being About Beating Yourself—Not The Other Guy

              Pico Iyer Quote on Leading A Balanced Life

                “In the end, we need two things to lead a balanced life – a sense of the world and a sense of ourselves; it’s like breathing in and breathing out.  And if you can only get to know the world by stepping out, and losing yourself in experience, you can only get to know the self by stepping back, and finding yourself in contemplation.  One without the other leads to a kind of madness.”

                Pico Iyer

                Beyond the Quote (17/365)

                I think at some point in our lives we all fantasize about traveling the world and living the life of a nomad.  We could wander from one place to the next and fill our days with spontaneous adventures while meeting new and interesting people.  We could explore new cities, take beautiful hikes, have campfires in the woods, listen to new music, and read stories from people who have come before.  We can hitchhike in cars, catch cross country trains, sleep in the back of busses, and take red-eye flights.  Every day would be different and every day would be filled with a wealth of experience that we could easily get lost in.  Sounds pretty great right?

                Read More »Pico Iyer Quote on Leading A Balanced Life

                Stephen Covey Quote on Keeping Success Balanced Across All Areas Of Life

                  “Many people seem to think that success in one area can compensate for failure in other areas. But can it really?… True effectiveness requires balance.”

                  Stephen Covey

                  Beyond the Quote (13/365)

                  The example that comes up immediately is the widely popular cultural pursuit of work success at the expense of just about any other area of life.  But can workplace success compensate for failed friendships?  Failed marriages?  Failed family life?  Failed integrity?  Failed health?  …I would say confidently, that it cannot.  Real success in life requires balance.  And if we are to become effective at living a life of balance we have to be mindful of, take action on, and make constant adjustments to our priorities.

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                  Leonardo Da Vinci Quote on Happy Death

                    “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.”

                    Leonardo da Vinci

                    Beyond the Quote (12/365)

                    At the end of every day, when you lay your head down on your pillow, there are usually a few moments of reflection.  Sometimes the movie of your mind plays memories from the day, or replays situations that you might have acted on differently, or even anticipates the things that are to come.  Sometimes these thoughts and reflections leave you feeling dissatisfied and sometimes they leave you feeling accomplished.  When you pay attention to, and are mindful of, the average feeling of how you spent the time of your days, then you can start to navigate, and get in tune with, the direction and path of your life.

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                    Stephen Cope Quote on Being Yourself and How You Can’t Be Anyone You Want To Be

                      “You cannot be anyone you want to be.  Your one and only shot at a fulfilled life is being yourself—whoever that is.  Furthermore, at a certain age it finally dawns on us that, shockingly, no one really cares what we’re doing with our life.  This is a most unsettling discovery to those of us who have lived someone else’s dream and eschewed our own: No one really cares except us.  When you scratch the surface, you finally discover that it doesn’t really matter a whit who else you disappoint if you’re disappointing yourself.  The only question that makes sense to ask is: Is your life working for you?”

                      Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life

                      Beyond the Quote (Day 4)

                      If your life isn’t working for you, then who is it working for?  Are you working to please yourself or someone else? Are you fulfilling dreams that are uniquely your own or dreams that were bestowed upon you by your parents? Do you feel a sense of growth and contribution when you work or do you feel a sense of dread and purposelessness?

                      Read More »Stephen Cope Quote on Being Yourself and How You Can’t Be Anyone You Want To Be

                        “‘One day I’ll make it.’  Is your goal taking up so much of your attention that you reduce the present moment to a means to an end?  Is it taking the joy out of your doing?  Are you waiting to start living?  If you develop such a mind pattern, no matter what you achieve or get, the present will never be good enough; the future will always seem better.  A perfect recipe for permanent dissatisfaction and nonfulfillment, don’t you agree?”

                        Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 85) (Read Matt’s Blog on this quote)

                          “Generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and wisdom keep turning our mind to enlightenment like a flower seeking sunlight.  This brings genuine delight.  The more awake we are, the more connected we feel with other sentient beings.  The more awake we are, the more we want to help others achieve the same freedom.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 210)

                            “We often conduct our life as though it’s going to last forever.  With this attitude, we want everything.  The fact of death puts a limit on what we can have, what we can do.  We don’t need to think about death all the time, but to ponder it, to contemplate it, gives us perspective and inspiration about living our life.  It also makes us less spoiled.  It makes us look at the balance of our life and determine what needs to come first.  What is important to me?  How shall I use my life?  We’re able to enter situations more openly once we’ve related with death.  It makes our love more powerful.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 156)

                              “Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.” ~ John Gardner, James Clear Blog

                              Turning The Mind Into An Ally [Book]

                                Turning the Mind Into an Ally by Sakyong Mipham

                                By: Sakyong Mipham

                                From this Book: 25 Quotes

                                Book Overview:  Strengthening, calming, and stabilizing the mind is the essential first step in accomplishing nearly any goal. Growing up American with a Tibetan twist, Sakyong Mipham talks to Westerners as no one can: in idiomatic English with stories and wisdom from American culture and the great Buddhist teachers. Turning the Mind Into an Ally makes it possible for anyone to achieve peace and clarity in their lives.  “Our own mind is our worst enemy.  We try to focus, and our mind wanders off.  We try to keep stress at bay, but anxiety keeps us awake at night… We can create an alliance that allows us to actually use our mind, rather than be used by it.  This is a practice anyone can do.” ~ Sakyong Mipham

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                                Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

                                1. 20 Sakyong Mipham Quotes on How To Turn the Mind Into An Ally
                                2. Penor Rinpoche Quote on Dealing With Life Now Rather Than Waiting (and Worrying) About It Later (Beyond the Quote 134/365)
                                3. Sakyong Mipham Quote on Living Our Days At The Mercy Of Our Moods (Beyond the Quotes 29/365)

                                  “True salvation is fulfillment, peace, life in all its fullness.  It is to be who you are, to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of Being that depends on nothing outside itself.  It is felt not as a passing experience but as an abiding presence.  In theistic language, it is to ‘know God’ — not as something outside you but as your own innermost essence.  True salvation is to know yourself as an inseparable part of the timeless and formless One Life from which all that exists derives its being.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 146)

                                    “Your life’s journey has an outer purpose and an inner purpose.  The outer purpose is to arrive at your goal or destination, to accomplish what you set out to do, to achieve this or that, which, of course, implies future.  But if your destination, or the steps you are going to take in the future, take up so much of your attention that they become more important to you than the step you are taking now, then you completely miss the journey’s inner purpose, which has nothing to do with where you are going or what you are doing, but everything to do with how.  It has nothing to do with future but everything to do with the quality of your consciousness at this moment.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 88)

                                      “There is nothing wrong with striving to improve your life situation.  You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life.  Life is primary.  Life is your deepest inner Being.  It is already whole, complete, perfect.  Your life situation consists of your circumstances and your experiences.  There is nothing wrong with setting goals and striving to achieve things.  The mistake lies in using it as a substitute for the feeling of life, for Being.  The only point of access for that is the Now.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 86)