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Purpose Quotes

    “What if you don’t so much have a passion or purpose as much as you pursue something, or a bunch of things, with passion and a sense of purpose?  And what if the deeper you get into that exploration or pursuit and the more competent you become, the more interested you get in doing and learning and discovering on a fiercer, more engaged, dare I say a more ‘passionate’ or ‘purposeful’ way?” ~ Jonathan Fields, How To Live A Good Life

      “I have found that battling despair does not mean closing my eyes to the enormity of the tasks of effecting change, nor ignoring the strength and the barbarity of the forces aligned against us. It means teaching, surviving and fighting with the most important resource I have, myself, and taking joy in that battle. It means, for me, recognizing the enemy outside and the enemy within, and knowing that my work is part of our power, and knowing that this work did not begin with my birth nor will it end with my death. And it means knowing that within this continuum, my life and my love and my work has particular power and meaning relative to others. It means trout fishing on the Missisquoi River at dawn and tasting the green silence, and knowing that this beauty too is mine forever.” ~ Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals

        “We’re here to connect. Love, time, death. Now these three things connect every single human being on earth. We long for love, we wish we had more time and we fear death.” ~ Howard Inlet (Will Smith), Collateral Beauty

          “The more you have and do, the harder maintaining fidelity to your purpose will be, but the more critically you will need to.  Everyone buys into the myth that if only they had that – usually what someone else has – they would be happy.  It may take getting burned a few times to realize the emptiness of this illusion.  We all occasionally find ourselves in the middle of some project or obligation and can’t understand why we’re there.  It will take courage and faith to stop yourself.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

            “Why is success so ephemeral? Ego shortens it.  Whether a collapse is dramatic or a slow erosion, it’s always possible and often unnecessary.  We stop learning, we stop listening, and we lose our grasp on what matters.  We become victims of ourselves and the competition.  Sobriety, open-mindedness, organization, and purpose – these are the great stabilizers.  They balance out the ego and pride that comes with achievement and recognition.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

              “It doesn’t matter how talented you are, how great your connections are, how much money you have.  When you want to do something – something big and important and meaningful – you will be subjected to treatment ranging from indifference to outright sabotage.  Count on it.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

                “The closer one gets to being motivated by altruism, the more fearless one becomes in the face of even extremely anxiety-provoking circumstances.” ~ Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

                  “Where are we trying to get to with our incessant activity?  To the stars?  But we’re already as among the stars as we will ever be.  Better quality of life?  The quality we seek is lost in the seeking.  Truly we have it backward with our continual striving for what we don’t have and avoidance of what we do.  What we crave most deeply we have always had.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude

                    “Everything we say signifies; everything counts, that we put out into the world. It impacts on kids, it impacts on the zeitgeist of the time.” ~ Meryl Streep, via Blog of Jonathan Fields

                      “Each moment of our life, we either invoke or destroy our dreams.” ~ Stuart Wilde, via Blog of Jonathan Fields