“We all do this. Instead of using our minds to solve problems, we set it to work on problems that don’t exist. Instead of using it to move forward, we use it to look backward, pouring over what already happened. Instead of using it to feel good, we use it to torture ourselves. How crazy is that? And how counterproductive? You have been given an incredibly powerful too—this brain and imagination of yours. But like a gun or a knife, it can just as easily harm the user as it can protect or serve them. We have to train and discipline ourselves, we have to direct these resources properly. We have to channel our creativity not into fear and anxiety, but into purpose and progress.”
Ryan Holiday
Master Mindset Quotes
“Happiness and suffering, however extreme, are mental events. The mind depends upon the body, and the body upon the world, but everything good or bad that happens in your life must appear in consciousness to matter. This fact offers ample opportunity to make the best of bad situations—changing your perception of the world is often as good as changing the world—but it also allows a person to be miserable even when all the material and social conditions for happiness have been met. During the normal course of events, your midn will determine the quality of your life.”
Sam Harris, Waking Up (Page 204)
“My suffering was entirely the product of my thoughts. Whatever the needs of the moment, I had a choice: I could do what was required calmly, patiently, and attentively, or do it in a state of panic. Every moment of the day—indeed, every moment throughout one’s life—offers an opportunity to be relaxed and responsive or to suffer unnecessarily.”
Sam Harris, Waking Up (Page 95)
“Our minds are all we have. They are all we have ever had. And they are all we can offer others. This might not be obvious, especially when there are aspects of your life that seem in need of improvement—when your goals are unrealized, or you are struggling to find a career, or you have relationships that need repairing. But it’s the truth. Every experience you have ever had has been shaped by your mind. Every relationship is as good or as bad as it is because of the minds involved. If you are perpetually angry, depressed, confused, and unloving, or your attention is elsewhere, it won’t matter how successful you become or who is in your life—you won’t enjoy any of it.”
Sam Harris, Waking Up (Page 2)
“In the same way that a vaccine exposes our body to a manageable amount of the virus or the disease, teaching it how to fight the illness, talking to ourselves (or our children) about what is going to happen in advance of it happening helps us deal with it. It removes the surprise, it removes the suddenness of it. The last thing you want to do is to face anything—a virus or a trip to the grocery store with a tired kid—defenseless. Especially when there are defenses available.”
Ryan Holiday
“Some people get addicted to chain-smoking their problems. They spend all day going from sorrow to sorrow. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can live each day going from joy to joy—like a sunflower that turns to face the sun as it moves across the sky. It’s not about having a problem-free life, but about focusing on the light. Sunflowers still have shadows, but they are always behind them.”
James Clear
“Explore life from a position of power. When you believe, ‘Even if I stay single, I’ll still have a great life‘… then you are in a much better position to enter a relationship. When you believe, ‘Even if I don’t get into this school, I’ll still have a great life‘… then you are in a much better position to apply. When you believe, ‘Even if I don’t succeed with this business, I’ll still have a great life‘… then you are in a much better position to give it a try. Sure, you may want the relationship to work or the business to be a success—and you should give it your best effort—but also realize that if it doesn’t work out, you’ll be fine. There are many ways to live a great life.”
James Clear
“As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.”
Buddha, via Think Like A Monk (Page 147)
