“Kobe [Bryant] was a serial winner who could fire up his teammates and steel himself like a warrior monk. But few people have seen another side to Kobe: the man who performed Make-A-Wish requests after almost every home game—and many road games—throughout his career. I got to document a few of those nights when Kobe was there for kids and their families as a different kind of hero—one who understood the profound impact of basketball beyond simply winning and losing. Behind Kobe’s relentless determination was a gentle and sober compassion.”
Andrew Bernstein, via Mamba Mentality (Page 206)
“Without hoops, I would not understand how to create or write, I would not understand human nature, nor would I know how to lead. The game, in essence, taught me the art of storytelling. Without it, I would not have an Emmy, I would not have an Oscar, I would not have creative dreams and visions still to unfold. Yeah, basketball took me everywhere. Now, I’m taking the game everywhere.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 201)
Kevin Kelly Quote on Death and How The Only Thing You Take With You Is Your Reputation
“When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.”
Kevin Kelly, Blog
Beyond the Quote (209/365)
And what is your reputation made up of? The sum of all of the actions you took when you were alive. All of them. The actions you took when you were excited and joyful—and the actions you took when you were miserable and upset. It’s composed of the things you did for those who you admired, desired, and cared for—as well as the things you did for those who you pitied, hated, and didn’t pay any mind to. Your reputation is nothing more than the summary report of how well you followed the golden rule while you were alive.
Read More »Kevin Kelly Quote on Death and How The Only Thing You Take With You Is Your Reputation“Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving.”
Kevin Kelly, Blog
Paul Hogan Poem on Capturing Moments (and Maybe When Not To)
“Camera loaded, the light
near sundown blushes
the grey, beat wood
of the boathouse, flashes
along arcs of the waves.
Don’t photograph this. Don’t render it
immutable now. Let it
distort, let it unravel,
reconstruct itself.
This image will retell
this here and now for years,
without conclusion —
It will never change,
it will always be different,
we will never agree. For now,
let the light slip down
around you. Don’t
remember this yet.”
Paul Hogan, Point of Departures (Page 37)
Beyond the Quote (167/365)
In a world where the camera on our phone takes better pictures than most DSLR cameras from just a few years ago, where 4K quality can be held in the palm of one hand and activated with the push of one thumb, where so much of what we see and hear in the world can be so vividly captured and contained within the confines of a memory chip that’s smaller than a penny and backed up by an imaginary cloud—the line between knowing when to be present in a moment and when to capture a moment can become incredibly blurred. Hell, if we wanted to, we could record every moment we ever wanted to and store it into a neat and tidy timeline of moments that could quite literally make up the story of our lives. Rather than our life “flashing before our eyes” at the end, we could playback our lives in a flash with just a few clicks on a computer screen.
Read More »Paul Hogan Poem on Capturing Moments (and Maybe When Not To)John C. Maxwell Quote on Leadership and How To Best Influence Other People
“Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. How do you gain influence from people? You invest in them. How do you invest in them? It starts with giving them time.”
John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold
Beyond the Quote (162/365)
Investing time into another person is undoubtedly one of the most powerful ways to influence them. For, time is our most precious resource and when somebody shares their most precious resource with you, it is a clear showing that you are precious to them. If you had a very precious diamond, you wouldn’t just share that with anybody would you? You would only share that with someone precious—someone close.
Read More »John C. Maxwell Quote on Leadership and How To Best Influence Other PeopleDalai Lama Quote on Remembering A Person After They Pass
“The best way to keep a memory of a person [who has passed away], the best remembrance, is to see if you can carry on the wishes of that person.”
Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness
Beyond the Quote (144/365)
I would go one step further and say that the best remembrance is, not just to carry on the wishes of the person who passed, but to embody the best of who that person was. Wishes come from a place of deep and personal desire—they are goals derived from a person’s unique characteristic makeup. Who a person is isn’t a reflection of these wishes—their thoughts—but rather is a reflection of the actions they took throughout their life. Wishes are inside a person’s mind, character is reflected in the actions of their body. We can only interpret and truthfully judge the latter.
Read More »Dalai Lama Quote on Remembering A Person After They Pass“Sometimes when things feel too heavy, I ask myself, ‘Will this matter in three hundred years?’ and I think about the fact that no one I know will be around then—none of their judgments, opinions, debts, or drudges—and that I should enjoy this journey while I’m still healthy enough to do so. In three hundred years it won’t matter that I wasn’t invited to this or that event or included on this or that list or was able to connect with this or that person. It won’t matter that I showed up wearing a mustard stain on my outfit or that I didn’t proofread my text message before I hit ‘send.’ Figuring out what will matter in three hundred years will result in a much shorter list—almost next to nothing.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 37)
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“From the time you take your first breath, you become eligible to die. You also become eligible to find your greatness and become the One Warrior. But it is up to you to equip yourself for the battle ahead. Only you can master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments most people consider beyond their capability.” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me
“Beyond a certain point in a man’s life, if he is to remain truly vital, he needs to be actively engaged in devotion to something other than his own success and happiness. The word discipline derives from the same root as the word disciple. Discipline means ‘to place oneself in the service of.’ Discipline is a form of devotion. A grown man with nothing to devote himself to is a man who is sick at heart. What a great many men in this culture choose to serve is their own reflected value, which they often believe serves the needs of their family, even while their families may be crying out for something different from them.” ~ Terrence Real, I Don’t Want To Talk About It
28 Beautiful Claire Wineland Quotes on Life, Death, and Living with Challenges
Excerpt: While Cystic Fibrosis ultimately took her life, Claire never let CF stop her from living her best life. Read our 28 Claire Wineland Quotes on life, death, and living with challenges.
Read More »28 Beautiful Claire Wineland Quotes on Life, Death, and Living with Challenges
No Death, No Fear [Book]
Book Overview: Nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for a Nobel Peace Prize, Thich Nhat Hanh is one of today’s leading sources of wisdom, peace, compassion and comfort. With hard-won wisdom and refreshing insight, Thich Nhat Hanh confronts a subject that has been contemplated by Buddhist monks and nuns for twenty-five-hundred years— and a question that has been pondered by almost anyone who has ever lived: What is death? In No Death, No Fear, the acclaimed teacher and poet examines our concepts of death, fear, and the very nature of existence. Through Zen parables, guided meditations, and personal stories, he explodes traditional myths of how we live and die. Thich Nhat Hanh shows us a way to live a life unfettered by fear.
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Great on Kindle. Great Experience. Great Value. The Kindle edition of this book comes highly recommended on Amazon.
Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
“We try to direct the mind toward recognizing reality. This is a chant that is recited daily in Buddhist monasteries: ‘Breathing in and out, I am aware of the fact that I am of the nature to die; I cannot escape dying. I am of the nature to grow old; I cannot escape old age. I am of the nature to get sick. Because I have a body, I cannot avoid sickness. Everything I cherish, treasure and cling to today, I will have to abandon one day. The only thing I can carry with me is the fruit of my own action. I cannot bring along with me anything else except the fruit of my actions in terms of thought, speech and bodily acts.'” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
“Look into a plum tree. In each plum on the tree there is a pit. That pit contains the plum tree and all previous generations of plum tree. The plum pit contains an eternity of plum trees. Inside the pit is an intelligence and wisdom that knows how to become a plum tree, how to produce branches, leaves, flowers and plums. It cannot do this on its own. It can only do this because it has received the experience and heritage of so many generations of ancestors. You are the same. You possess the wisdom and intelligence of how to become a full human being because you inherited an eternity of wisdom not only from your blood ancestors but from your spiritual ancestors, too.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
“You do not have to wait until the flame has gone out to be reborn. I am reborn many times every day. Every moment is a moment of rebirth. My practice is to be reborn in such a way that my new forms of manifestation will bring light, freedom and happiness into the world. My practice is not to allow wrong actions to be reborn. If I have a cruel thought or if my words carry hatred in them, then those thoughts and words will be reborn. It will be difficult to catch them and pull them back. They are like a runaway horse. We should try not to allow our actions of body, speech and mind to take us in the direction of wrong action, wrong speech and wrong thinking.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
“Our children are our continuation. We are our children and our children are us. If you have one or more children, you have already been reborn in them. You can see your continuation body in your son or your daughter, but you have many more continuation bodies as well. They are in everyone you have touched. And you cannot know how many people your words, actions and thoughts have touched.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
“When we lose someone we love, we should remember that the person has not become nothing. ‘Something’ cannot become ‘nothing,’ and ‘nothing’ cannot become, ‘something.’ Science can help us understand this, because matter cannot be destroyed—it can become energy. And energy can become matter, but it cannot be destroyed. In the same way, our beloved was not destroyed; she has just taken on another form. That form may be a cloud, a child or the breeze. We can see our loved one in everything.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
“Life is really about creating meaning. And meaning does not come from what you get, it comes from what you give. Ultimately, what you get will never make you happy long term. But who you become and what you contribute will.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game


