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Quotes about Meaning of Life

    “[Ludwig van] Beethoven came to see that complete surrender to his situation in life – to his deafness, to his various neuroses – was absolutely essential for his own spiritual development and for the development of his art.  He accepted the apparent mystery that his art and his suffering were inextricably linked.”

    Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life

      “The whole world is inside each person, each being, each object.  To know any part of the world deeply, intimately, is to know the whole world.  Each of us, then, must find our own particular domain – that little corner of the world in which we can drill for gold.  For the acupuncturist it is knowing the body through the language of Chinese medicine.  For the painter, it is knowing the world through through paint and the canvas.  For the writer, it is knowing the world through words.”

      Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life

        “To organize life’s energies around anything less sublime than our true nature is to still be split – separated from Self.  No matter how much focus we may bring to any task, if the task is not our real vocation we will still be haunted by the suffering of doubt, and the internal agony of division.”

        Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life

          “Squandering our gifts brings distress to our lives.  As it turns out, it’s not merely benign or ‘too bad’ if we don’t use the gifts that we’ve been given; we pay for it with our emotional and physical well-being.  When we don’t use our talents to cultivate meaningful work, we struggle.  We feel disconnected and weighted down by feelings of emptiness, frustration, resentment, shame, disappointment, fear, and even grief.” ~ Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

            “If we want to make meaning, we need to make art.  Cook, write, draw, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild an engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing – it doesn’t matter.  As long as we’re creating, we’re cultivating meaning.” ~ Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

              “Most of the time we pretend we aren’t clear on what our calling is when what’s really going on is that we’re horrified to face it because it seems too big or too impossible to make a living at or completely out of the question for us.  But what if you had the audacity to leave your excuses and your shame about wanting to be huge and fabulous behind and really went for it full-on anyway?  What if you decided to do the most outrageous, most exciting thing you ever dared fantasize about, regardless of what anyone, including your terrified self, thought?  THAT would be living.” ~ Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

                “Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.” ~ Chris McCandless, Into the Wild

                  “I remember reading about the astounding number of people in this country who die within three years of retiring, which proves to me that if you lose the sense that you are producing or contributing in some way, you literally lose the will to live, and that if you do have a reason to hang on, you will.” ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within

                  If I Can Stop

                    If I can stop one heart from breaking,

                    I shall not live in vain;

                    If I can ease one life the aching,

                    Or cool one pain,

                    Or help one fainting robin

                    Unto his nest again,

                    I shall not live in vain.

                    ~ Emily Dickinson

                      “Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it’s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.” ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within

                        “To paraphrase the philosopher Nietzsche, he who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how. I’ve found that 20 percent of any change is knowing how; but 80 percent is knowing why. If we gather a set of strong enough reasons to change, we can change in a minute something we’ve failed to change for years.” ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within

                        The War of Art [Book]

                          The War of Art - Steven Pressfield

                          By: Steven Pressfield

                          From this Book: 6 Quotes

                          Book Overview:  What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid the roadblocks of any creative endeavor—be it starting up a dream business venture, writing a novel, or painting a masterpiece?  Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success.

                          Buy from Amazon!  Not on Audible…

                          Great on Kindle. Great Experience. Great Value. The Kindle edition of this book comes highly recommended on Amazon.

                          Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

                          1. The Five Areas of My Life That I Block Out Time For So That I May Perform At My Best.
                          2. How Being Faced with Death Changes our Priorities in Life [Excerpt]
                          3. Steven Pressfield Quote on Creative Work and How To Overcome The Resistance To Express It (Beyond the Quote 189/365)