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    “There’s so much messaging today about how you always have to be yourself and trust your feelings. But I tell people, ‘be un-you.’ Like, what is the opposite of what you feel like doing right now? Or who is someone you really admire—what would they do in this moment? And I actually think that can get us closer to the versions of ourselves that we would like to be…Separating oneself from one’s impulse, taking a healthy step back and gaining some distance between what you feel like doing and what’s actually going to help you—you’ll make a better choice.”

    Dr. Samantha Boardman

      “Imagine you are at the end of your life and you are granted the ability to repeat one day. Which period of your life do you choose to repeat? Which phase of life would you want to go back to? Does that tell you anything about how you should be spending your time today?”

      James Clear

        “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves… Live the questions now. Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

        Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps The Score (Page 89) | ★ Featured on this book list.

          “Our definitions of ‘success’ are maybe the most common way we torture ourselves with arbitrary standards and made-up problems. It’s one reason I advise people to be careful and hold their goals lightly—because while goals may motivate you in the short run, a poorly defined version of success can really make you suffer in the long run.”

          Mark Manson

            “When I think back to my childhood, I visualize my father, my mother, and Gigi arranged as a philosophical triangle. My father was one side of the triangle: discipline. He taught me how to work, how to be relentless. He instilled in me an ethic that ‘It’s better to die than to quit.’ My mother: education. She believed that knowledge was the irrevocable key to a successful life. She wanted me to study, to learn, to grow, to cultivate a deep and broad understanding, to either ‘know what you’re talking about or be quiet.’ Gigi: love (God). Whereas I tried to please my mother and father so I wouldn’t get into trouble, I wanted to please Gigi so that I could bathe in that transcendent ecstasy of divine love. These three ideas—discipline, education, love—would fight for my attention throughout the rest of my life.”

            Will Smith, Will (Page 39)

              “No action should be undertaken without aim, or other than in conformity with a principle affirming the art of life.”

              Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 23)

                “Feelings do not inform you of the right decisions to make. Right decisions create the right feelings. Your feelings are not intended to guide you throughout life; that is what your mind is for. If you were to honestly follow your every impulse, you would be completely stuck, complacent, and possibly dead or at the very least in severe trouble. You aren’t, because your brain is able to intervene and instruct you on how to make choices that reflect what you want to be experiencing long-term.”

                Brianna Wiest, The Mountain Is You (Page 94)

                  “What are the chances that the busiest person you know is actually the most productive? We tend to associate busyness with goodness and believe that spending many hours at work should be rewarded. Instead, evaluate what you are doing, why you are doing it, and where accomplishing it will take you. If you don’t have a good answer, then stop.”

                  Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 164)

                    “I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.”

                    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, via Sunbeams (Page 103)

                      “First tell yourself what kind of person you want to be, then do what you have to do. For in nearly every pursuit we see this to be the case. Those in athletic pursuit first choose the sport they want, and then do that work.”

                      Epictetus, Discourses, The Daily Stoic (Page 136) | Read Matt’s Blog on this quote ➜

                        “You can’t steer a stationary ship.”

                        Nicolas Cole | Read Matt’s Blog on this quote ➜

                        C. S. Lewis Quote on How You Are Never Too Old To Give Direction To Your Life

                          “You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.”

                          C. S. Lewis

                          Beyond the Quote (Day 376)

                          I might even take it one step further and say it is precisely when you stop setting goals and dreaming new dreams that you become old. Goals and dreams give direction. Direction gives reason and purpose for movement; progress; growth. Without direction, you become directionless; stagnant; immobile. Movement is the essence of life. Stagnation is the essence of death.

                          Read More »C. S. Lewis Quote on How You Are Never Too Old To Give Direction To Your Life