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    “The uncomfortable truth is that the humps don’t end, even if we win the lottery, shed twenty pounds, or get hired as a Nutella taste tester.  Our lives, and all the things worth enjoying in them, don’t come after the humps—they are the humps.  The ups and downs, problems and solutions, challenges and triumphs are what pave this journey.  They don’t always make it look pretty, but no one ever promised they would.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 133)

      We’re all on journeys, and sometimes we spend so much time on and invest so much energy in heading in one direction that the idea of any other direction is both foreign and frightening.  Our journeys themselves become comfort zones, and sometimes hopping off one rainbow and onto the next is exactly what we need.  Other times we may realize that the path we were on helped reveal the path we should be on, and that adventure of twists and turns will last our lifetime, and that’s okay.  No one needs to have everything figured out, and honestly, nobody really does, even if their social media posts present a different picture.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 115)

        “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)

        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

            “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)

              “Mastery is not a function of genius or talent.  It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge.  But there is another element, an X factor that Masters inevitably possess, that seems mystical but that is accessible to us all.  Whatever field of activity we are involved in, there is generally an accepted path to the top.  It is a path that others have followed, and because we are conformist creatures, most of us opt for this conventional route.  But Masters have a strong inner guiding system and a high level of self-awareness.  What has suited others in the past does not suit them, and they know that trying to fit into a conventional mold would only lead to a dampening of spirit, the reality they seek eluding them.  And so inevitably, these Masters, as they progress on their career paths, make a choice at a key moment in their lives: they decide to forge their own route, one that others will see as unconventional, but that suits their own spirit and rhythms and leads them closer to discovering the hidden truths of their objects of study.  This key choice takes self-confidence and self-awareness—the X factor that is necessary for attaining mastery.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery