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Mark Manson Quote on Problems and How A Problem-Free Life Should Never Be The Goal

    “Problems never stop; they merely get exchanged and/or upgraded.”

    Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

    Beyond the Quote (274/365)

    Let’s be clear: the goal shouldn’t be to live a problem-free life. There is no such thing as a problem free life. How could it be? The very act of staying alive and healthy is a forever shape-shifting landscape of compiling problems that confront us afresh every minute of every day. So, what is the goal then?

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    Alicia Keys Quote from Authors of Forever on Making Meaning—Not Finding It.

      “We are born on our own /

      And we die on our own /

      And we’re here to make meaning /

      Of what happens in between /

      We could hate, we could love /

      We could doubt, we could trust /

      But we’re here to make meaning /

      For as long as we’re breathing and it’s alright /

      Wherever you are, it’s alright /

      Whoever you are, it’s alright”

      Alicia Keys, Authors of Forever, ALICIA

      Beyond the Quote (271/365)

      Word choice matters. And with the opening concept of meaning in this above quote, I think Alicia nails it: We’re here to make meaning. We’re not here to find meaning. And I don’t think we’re here to mean nothing. Why be given life if we’re not meant to live? Why be given brains if we’re not meant to think? Why be given eyes if we’re not meant to see? Why be given hands if we’re not meant to touch? Why be given feet if we’re not meant to move? We’re certainly not born just to die—what’s the point in believing that? We’re born on our own, yes, but we’re not alone and we’re not born without what we need to make meaning—of that I’m sure.

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        “To make life a little better for people less fortunate than you, that’s what I think a meaningful life is. One lives not just for oneself but for one’s community.”

        Ruth Bader Ginsburg, CNN

          “Information is everywhere but its meaning is created by the observer that interprets it. Meaning is relative and there is no objective, over-arching meaning.”

          Naval Ravikant, Medium

          Don’t Confuse The Pointing Finger With What’s Being Pointed At — On Understanding Words

            Introduction: Fetch Me The Moon—A Short Zen Story

            The Zen teacher’s dog loved his evening romp with his master. The dog would bound ahead to fetch a stick, then run back, wag his tail, and wait for the next game. On this particular evening, the teacher invited one of his brightest students to join him—a boy so intelligent that he became troubled by the contradictions in Buddhist doctrine.

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            Osho Quote on Balance and How Both Happiness and Sadness Are Needed In Life

              “Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That’s its balance.”

              Osho

              Beyond the Quote (191/365)

              We don’t go through life, we grow through life. We don’t move along a timeline from birth to death in a unilateral direction. We move bilaterally through life—both upward and downward—like a tree. A tree doesn’t just grow a trunk and branches and leaves in a singular direction towards the sun. It grows roots, too—it grows downward. And without a proportional amount of roots the tree cannot stand. And neither can we.

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              Mark Manson Quote on Experiences and How To Find The Ideal Balance Between Breadth and Depth

                “Yes, breadth of experience is likely necessary and desirable when you’re young—after all, you have to go out there and discover what seems worth investing yourself in.  But depth is where the gold is buried.  And you have to stay committed to something and go deep to dig it up.  That’s true in relationships, in a career, in building a great lifestyle—in everything.”

                Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                Beyond the Quote (163/365)

                With every major category in life—relationships, career, lifestyle—we must choose how to optimally invest our time. With time being our most precious resource, this is no easy task. How much time should we spend with our family versus our friends? With our current friends versus new friends? On our career versus our vacations? On tasks related to our career versus tasks that might expand our career options? On consuming things produced versus producing things to be consumed? On acquiring more versus minimizing and using less? What Manson points to above, however, is a fundamental insight that can help guide you in this effort.

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                  “Epicurus was right—if God exists, why would they possibly want you to be afraid of them? And why would they care what clothes you wear or how many times you pay obeisance to them per day? What interest would they have in monuments or in fearful pleas for forgiveness? At the purest level, the only thing that matters to any father or mother—or any creator—is that their children find peace, find meaning, find purpose. They certainly did not put us on this planet so we could judge, control, or kill each other.”

                  Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 140)

                    “I think I understand now that the restlessness we feel as we make our plans and chase our ambitions is not the effect of their importance to our happiness and our eagerness to attain them. We are restless because deep in our hearts we know now that our happiness is found elsewhere, and our work, no matter how valuable it is to us or to others, cannot take its place. But we hurry on anyway, and attend to our business because we need to matter, and we don’t always realize we already do.”

                    Marco Rubio, via Stillness is the Key (Page 123)

                      “…having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another. Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them. To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.” ~ Bill Watterson, Speech

                      Osho Quote on Meaning and How It Arises

                        “When a poet writes a poem, meaning arises – because the poet is not alone; he has created something. When a dancer dances, meaning arises. When a mother gives birth to a child, meaning arises. Left alone, cut off from everything else, isolated like an island, you are meaningless. Joined together you are meaningful. The bigger the whole, the bigger is the meaning.”

                        Osho, The Book of Understanding

                        Beyond the Quote (85/365)

                        Isolated might feel like the physical reality, but it doesn’t have to be the emotional state.  Isolated might make the feeling of meaninglessness arise, but meaning extends beyond just physical connection.  Think about the power of creation.  Creation is the act of giving birth to something that otherwise would not have never existed.  Before creation there is just you.  And for as long as you continue to remain in isolation physically, mentally, and emotionally—no meaning will arise.  How could it?

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                        Quote About How You Don’t Find What You Don’t Seek

                          “Take heed: you do not find what you do not seek.”

                          English Proverb

                          Beyond the Quote (56/365)

                          Obviously, right?  Well… Maybe not so obvious.  The concept is easily understood, of course.  If you’re playing hide and seek with your kids, for example, and you send them off to hide, but you choose not to seek them out (that was mean of you), then they won’t be found.  Until of course, they come out seeking you so that they can yell at you for not playing the game with them properly (and for being mean)!  If you don’t seek, you won’t find.  If you don’t go out looking for cars, you won’t find a car.  If you don’t seek advice or help, you won’t find advice or help.  If you don’t look for the good in people, you won’t find the good in people.  Where this concept becomes, “not so obvious” is when you want to find but don’t know how to seek (or aren’t even aware that you’re not seeking).

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                            “Any hierarchy creates winners and losers.  The winners are, of course, more likely to justify the hierarchy and the losers to criticize it.  But (1) the collective pursuit of any valued goal produces a hierarchy (as some will be better and some worse at that pursuit no matter what it is) and (2) it is the pursuit of goals that in large part lends life its sustaining meaning.  We experience almost all the emotions that make life deep and engaging as a consequence of moving successfully towards something deeply desired and valued.  The price we pay for that involvement is the inevitable creation of hierarchies of success, while the inevitable consequence is difference in outcome.  Absolute equality would therefore require the sacrifice of value itself—and then there would be nothing worth living for.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 303)