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    “Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.” ~ John Gardner, James Clear Blog

      “It takes seventy or eighty or ninety years to learn the value of another sunrise or a visit from a surly grandchild—to appreciate how amazing, really amazing, life is.  They only seem paltry because we haven’t lived long enough to see their value, or survived enough losses to know how surmountable most losses are.  Simple gifts can be as rewarding as more elaborate ones, and there’s no rule that a life of daily mah-jongg in a fluorescent-lit community room is less fulfilling than one of high-stakes baccarat in Monte Carlo.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 215)

        “If you believe you are in control of your life, steering it in a course of your choosing, then old age is an affront, because it is a destination you didn’t choose.  But if you think of life instead as an improvisation in response to the stream of events coming at you—that is, a response to the world as it is—then old age is more another chapter in a long-running story.  The events are different, but they’re always different, and always some seem too much to bear.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 114)

          “Meaning is when everything there is comes together in an ecstatic dance of single purpose—the glorification of a reality so that no matter how good it has suddenly become, it can get better and better and better more and more deeply forever into the future.  Meaning happens when that dance has become so intense that all the horrors of the past, all the terrible struggle engaged in by all of life and all of humanity to that moment becomes a necessary and worthwhile part of the increasingly successful attempt to build something truly Mighty and Good.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 201)

            “Order is not enough.  You can’t just be stable, and secure, and unchanging, because there are still vital and important new things to be learned.  Nonetheless, chaos can be too much.  You can’t long tolerate being swamped and overwhelmed beyond your capacity to cope while you are learning what you still need to know.  Thus, you need to place one foot in what you have mastered and understood and the other in what you are currently exploring and mastering.  Then you have positioned yourself where the terror of existence is under control and you are secure, but where you are also alert and engaged.  That is where there is something new to master and some way that you can be improved.  That is where meaning is to be found.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 44)

            12 Rules for Life [Book]

              12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson

              By: Jordan B. Peterson

              From this Book: 72 Quotes

              Book Overview:  What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson’s answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.  Humorous, surprising and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street. Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure and responsibility, distilling the world’s wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith and human nature, while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its readers.

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              Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

                “Life is one long motherf*cking imaginary game that has no scoreboard, no referee, and isn’t over until we’re dead and buried.  And all I’d ever wanted from it was to become successful in my own eyes.  That didn’t mean wealth or celebrity, a garage full of hot cars, or a harem of beautiful women trailing after me.  It meant becoming the hardest motherf*cker who ever lived.  Sure, I stacked up some failures along the way, but in my mind the record proved that I was close.  Only the game wasn’t over, and being hard came with the requirement to drain every drop of ability from my mind, body, and soul before the whistle blew.  I would remain in constant pursuit.  I wouldn’t leave anything on the table.  I wanted to earn my final resting place.” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

                  “Death is actually not a scary thing.  The scary thing is living life without a passion and then realizing at the very last moment that it’s over and you haven’t done what you wanted to do—and that you’re not proud of your life.  That is much more terrifying.” ~ Claire Wineland (15), TEDxMalibu

                    “When you spend a lot of time in a hospital and you know a lot of other people with your condition you start to see patterns emerge in the way that they take care of themselves.  I saw these two different extremes: There were these patients who did not give any sh*ts and just never did their treatments, were completely un-compliant, would hide under their covers and not talk to any of the doctors, and were pretty much just giving a giant, “F U” to life — and then there were the patients who were overly compliant, that were perfect with their treatments, that were perfect with their health care, and wanted so desperately to be a good patient.  And I saw both of these extremes fail.  I saw people who spent every single waking hour of the day focusing on their health and trying to get better and I saw them pass away before I did.  I saw them pass away without having become anything more than just a patient.  I saw them pass away without having made anything in the world that they were proud of.  And of course the other end didn’t work either because they happened to die as well.  So I was trying to find some kind of balance.  If I only lived to get better, if I only lived for fixing myself, for getting healthy—then what was I actually contributing to the world?” ~ Claire Wineland (20), EEM LA 2018

                      “If I have learned anything from living and dying, and from being sick, it’s that we all have something really incredible to share.  And that maybe for once we should stop trying to get over our problems, trying to get rid of our problems, trying to jump through hoops to evade our problems, and maybe we should start using them because they are one of the biggest gifts you will ever be given.” ~ Claire Wineland, Worldz 2017

                        “A lot of motivational speakers will tell you that the point of life is to be happy… I think that’s bullsh*t.  I think that happiness is an emotion—it’s some dopamine firing in your brain and it’s great and it’s awesome when it happens.  But we can’t chase happiness—we have to chase deep satisfaction and pride—and there’s a difference.  And the way that we do that is not by running away from our pain or sickness, it’s by being sick and saying, ‘So what?'” ~ Claire Wineland (19), Zappos All Hands Meeting

                          “I think the biggest thing that we’re not taught in our world is that capability and being able to give something of value to the world is really what the human journey is all about.” ~ Claire Wineland (20), EEM LA 2018

                            “Some of the happiest moments in my life have been when I am sick in the hospital—honestly.  And think about the implications of that because I have lived the kind of life that all of you spend your entire lives running from.  I’ve been sick and dying my entire life.  And yet, I am so proud of my life.  What does that say?  We’re waiting to be healthy; we’re waiting to be wealthy; we’re waiting to find our passion; we’re waiting to find our true love before we actually start living!  Instead of looking at everything that we have—looking at all of the pain, looking at all of the sadness, looking at all of the beauty, and making something with that.  That’s how innovation happens.” ~ Claire Wineland, Klick MUSE New York

                              “Life is really about creating meaning.  And meaning does not come from what you get, it comes from what you give.  Ultimately, what you get will never make you happy long term.  But who you become and what you contribute will.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game

                                “I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.” ~ Joseph Campbell, via Money: Master the Game