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Marcus Aurelius Quote on Remembering Our Natural Born Power To Choose Between Good and Evil

    “Erase the false impressions from your mind by constantly saying to yourself, I have it in my soul to keep out any evil, desire or any kind of disturbance—instead, seeing the true nature of things, I will give them only their due. Always remember this power that nature gave you.”

    Marcus Aurelius, The Daily Stoic (Page 34)

    Beyond the Quote (Day 391)

    Your current ability to utilize the power nature gave you to keep out evil, desire, and disturbance is largely dependent on your track record. Your track record contains within it all of the successes and failures you’ve accumulated throughout your lifetime. And confidence—the confidence you have in your ability to act—is a result of nothing more than your remembered successes (or lack thereof).

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      “All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.”

      Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sunbeams (Page 19)

        “Be like the bird, pausing in his flight

        On limb too slight,

        Feels it give way, yet sings,

        Knowing he has wings.”

        Victor Hugo, Sunbeams (Page 17)

          “A wise person knows what’s inside their circle of control and what is outside of it. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to remember what is inside our control. According to the Stoics, the circle of control contains just one thing: YOUR MIND. That’s right, even your physical body isn’t completely within the circle. After all, you could be struck with a physical illness or impairment at any moment. You could be traveling in a foreign country and be thrown in jail. But this is all good news because it drastically reduces the amount of things that you need to think about. There is clarity in simplicity.”

          Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 21)

            “The proper work of the mind is the exercise of choice, refusal, yearning, repulsion, preparation, purpose, and assent. What then can pollute and clog the mind’s proper functioning? Nothing but its own corrupt decisions.”

            Epictetus, via The Daily Stoic (Page 15)

            Pearl Buck Quote on Getting Work Done and Why You Shouldn’t Follow Your Moods

              “I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”

              Pearl S. Buck

              Beyond the Quote (299/365)

              How to let your mind know that it has to get down to work? The answer isn’t as obvious as it might seem. You might think, it’s your mind and your mind is in your control, right? But, why then can’t you just tell your mind to “get down to work” and be done with it? Why is so much of what we have to get done always such a fight? Why can’t we just do what we need to do automatically? And the answer, as far as I can see it, is that control over your mind is something that has to be earned—it’s never just given.

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              David Goggins Quote on Callousing Your Mind and How I Ran A Marathon Without Running Training

                David Goggins Quote on Callousing Your Mind and How I Ran A Marathon Without Running Training

                “It takes twenty years to gain twenty years of experience, and the only way to move beyond your 40 percent is to callous your mind, day after day.  Which means you’ll have to chase pain like it’s your damn job!”

                David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

                Beyond the Quote (235/365)

                On Sunday, August 23rd, 2020, I ran my second marathon. I didn’t follow any specific running plans and did but only one training run (13.1 miles) leading up to it the week before. The most I had done besides that was a mile or two around my block at any given time in the whole year prior. Why do I tell you this? Because while I didn’t do any official running training for that run, I have been training my body for war for over two decades. And if you start doing the same, your body might be able to perform in ways that surpass your wildest expectations as well.

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                  “Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. Sister, those who expected to rise did not, their beds became their cooling boards, and their blankets became their winding sheets. And those dead folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this… So you watch yourself about complaining, Sister. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.”

                  Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

                    “Initially I thought the phrase ‘Mamba Mentality’ was just a catchy hashtag that I’d start on Twitter. Something witty and memorable. But it took off from there and came to symbolize much more. The mindset isn’t about seeking a result—it’s more about the process of getting to that result. It’s about the journey and the approach. It’s a way of life.”

                    Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 93)

                      “The only way I was able to pick up details on the court, to be aware of the minutiae on the hardwood, was by training my mind to do that off the court and focusing on every detail in my daily life. By reading, by paying attention in class and in practice, by working, I strengthened my focus. By doing all of that, I strengthened my ability to be present and not have a wandering mind.”

                      Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 29)

                      James Allen Quote on The Portals To Heaven and The Kind Of Strength That Will Take You There

                        “To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all – such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.”

                        James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

                        Beyond the Quote (190/365)

                        The people who put you through hell aren’t strong—they’re weak. And this isn’t an attack on their character, per se. They may be weak through no fault of their own—they might be a product of their environment. After all, if you grow up in hell how does one not carry feelings of hell with them? It is no easy feat to make your way from hell to heaven—but, that’s the point. It’s hard. It requires deliberate daily effort. It requires strength. People who are in heaven and treat others in “heavenly ways”—they are the ones who are strong.

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                        Jacob Held Quote on Perspective and How What We See Is A Reflection of Who We Are

                          “We can’t change what life is, but we can change how we react to and interpret it.”

                          Jacob Held

                          Beyond the Quote (148/365)

                          To start, a story of two dogs. Both at separate times walk into the same room. One comes out wagging his tail while the other comes out growling. A woman watching this goes into the room to see what could possibly make one dog so happy and the other so mad. To her surprise she finds a room filled with mirrors. The happy dog found a thousand happy dogs looking back at him while the angry dog saw only angry dogs growling back at him. What you see in the world around you is a reflection of who you are.

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