Life Task Quotes

“Sometimes people miss the missing link about the meaning of life: it’s you. It’s always been about you and what you’re about. If you’re about nothing, then life is about nothing. If you’re about love and truth, then life is about love and truth. If you’re about creating something great, then life is about that, and so on. Life is waiting for you to take the lead, but you’re staring into the sky waiting to be lead. So it’s a standoff, and the clock keeps on ticking.”
Les Matheson, Quora

Sadhguru Quote on Priorities and How Discovering Your “Everest” Will Change Your Life

“You cannot be partying till early morning and attempt to scale Mount Everest tomorrow!”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 223)

Beyond the Quote (298/365)

We all have an “Everest” in our lives. A challenge that surpasses all of the other challenges we could face and yet, excites us to our core. A challenge that we know is going to take every ounce of strength and vigor and focus that we have and yet, still entices us to step forward. A challenge that feels right. One which our whole lives have prepared us for and one that matches our drive to our potential; our talents to our interests; our aptitude to our attitude. The type of challenge that you would skip a full night of partying for because your mission is more important to you.

“We like what we choose. Not the other way around. It feels safer to say that we’re born with talents and gifts, that we have a true calling, that we’re looking for what connects with our passion. That’s not useful (because it means you spend a lot of time shopping around) but it’s also not true. New research confirms that random choices lead to preferences, and then it follows that preferences lead to habits and habits lead us to become the person we somehow decide we were born to be. If you had grown up somewhere else or some time else, there’s little doubt that you’d prefer something else. The things we think we need are simply the things we’re used to. And if you like what you like simply because you have a pattern, that means that you might be able to like something else if you could develop new patterns. In short: If we commit to loving what we do, we’re more likely to find engagement and satisfaction. And if what we do changes, we can choose to love that too.”
Seth Godin, Blog

“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)

12 Illuminating Stephen Cope Quotes from The Great Work Of Your Life on Mastery and Fulfillment

Excerpt: These 12 deep quotes from The Great Work Of Your Life will help you live more deliberately, more aligned, and in a more meaningful way.

“There’s a fine balance between obsessing about your craft and being there for your family. It’s akin to walking a tightrope. Your legs are shaky and you’re trying to find your center. Whenever you lean too far in one direction, you correct your course and end up overleaning in the other direction. So, you correct by leaning the other way again. That’s the dance. You can’t achieve greatness by walking a straight line.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 33)

“We were not put on this planet to be worker bees, compelled to perform some function over and over again for the cause of the hive until we die. Nor do we ‘owe it’ to anyone to keep doing, doing, doing—not our fans, not our followers, not our parents who have provided so much for us, not even our families. Killing ourselves does nothing for anybody. It’s perfectly possible to do and make good work from a good place. You can be healthy and still and successful.”
Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 125)

One day at a time.

“…having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another. Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them. To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.” ~ Bill Watterson, Speech

Ryan Holiday Quote on Producing Good Work—Despite The Challenges

“Work is finding yourself alone at the track when the weather kept everyone else indoors. Work is pushing through the pain and crappy first drafts and prototypes. It is ignoring whatever plaudits others are getting, and more importantly, ignoring whatever plaudits you may be getting. Because there is work to be done. Work doesn’t want to be good. It is made so, despite the headwind.”
Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

Beyond the Quote (69/365)

Why do all of this work at all? Why show up when it’s raining and cold? Why push through writing tasks when Netflix is one click away? Why keep working when you’re getting praised and approved of for what you’ve already done? Why not stay indoors, become complacent, relax, and soak in the compliments you’ve already received? …Well, because that’s not how your best work comes to life—that’s why. And that task of bringing to life your best work, may be your most important calling on this earth.

Focus less on goals and more on mastery.

Remember that one time when you said you’d do that one thing?

“You should never do anything because of duty. Either you do something because of love or you do not do it. Make it a point that your life has to be a life of love, and if out of love, you respond, that I call responsibility. Break the word into two—response-ability—don’t make it one. Joining these two words has created so much confusion in the world. It is not responsibility; it is response-ability. And love is able to respond. There is no other force in the world that is so able to respond. If you love, you are bound to respond; there is no burden. Duty is a burden.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition