Quotes about Priorities

“We never lose the good parts of ourselves we really care about. All the parts of yourself you’re wanting to put back in your life are there waiting for you. The pain you feel comes from the way these missing parts of yourself slowly choke from lack of oxygen when they’re buried. All you have to do is identify what’s really missing. Then make sure you find room for it in your life.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 111)

“We all need balance in our lives. That’s a given. Work and play, friends and family, romance and finance all must be given their due. So far, so good. The problem comes when we put too much on our plate and then insist that everything still has to balance out. It’s simple arithmetic. When you’re overcommitted and insist on balance, everything gets short shrift. When one thing needs special attention, you can’t pay attention to it if you’re insisting on balance.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 96)

“Success is largely the failures you avoid. Health is the injuries you don’t sustain. Wealth is the purchases you don’t make. Happiness is the objects you don’t desire. Peace of mind is the arguments you don’t engage. Avoid the bad to protect the good.”
James Clear, Blog

Ryan Holiday Quote on Rules and How They Are The Best and Most Polite Excuse To Living Your Best Life

“Steve Kamb, the founder of Nerd Fitness, told me that the best and most polite excuse is just to say you have a rule. ‘I have a rule that I don’t decide on the phone.’ ‘I have a rule that I don’t accept gifts.’ ‘I have a rule that I don’t speak for free anymore.’ ‘I have a rule that I am home for bath time with the kids every night.’ People respect rules, and they accept that it’s not you rejecting the offer, request, demand, or opportunity, but the rule allows you no choice.”
Ryan Holiday, Medium

Beyond the Quote (266/365)

I have a rule that I don’t eat meat or dairy. I have a rule that I don’t drink alcohol. I have a rule that I don’t do drugs. I have a rule that I only borrow on credit cards what I can pay back at the end of each month. I have a rule that every day I do something for personal growth and something selfless for others. These rules define how I live my life and are undoubtedly some of the best and most polite tools I have to continue living my life this way.

“Go to what will teach you the most, not what will pay the most. It’s about choosing opportunities that you’ll learn the most from. That’s the rubric. That’s how you get better. People sometimes try to sweeten speaking offers by mentioning how glamorous the location is or how much fun it will be. I’d be more impressed if they told me I was going to have a conversation that was going to blow my mind.”
Ryan Holiday, Medium

10 Dream Discovering Questions For Women [Excerpt]

The Ten Dream Discovering Questions For Women [Excerpt]

Excerpt: The following is an excerpt from The Gift of a Year by Mira Kirshenbaum. In it she lays out ten dream discovering questions for women that might help reshape the focus of their lives. Enjoy!

“When you say ROI, do you mean return on investment or risk of inaction?”
Paul Gillin

Beyond the Quote (246/365)

Why do we push ourselves physically? Maybe so that we might better appreciate our physical normal. Why do we travel far from home? Maybe so that we can return home with fresh eyes. Why are we encouraged constantly to grow and expand our minds? Maybe so that we might have a better understanding of the world. Why do we ever do anything outside of our comfort zone? Maybe it’s so that we can expand our zone of comfort for the rest of the time we’re not outside of it?

“If it entertains you now but will bore you someday, it’s a distraction. Keep looking.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium

“The problem happens when we have multiple desires. When we have fuzzy desires. When we want to do ten different things and we’re not clear about which is the one we care about.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium

Think about what you were worrying about 5 years ago…

Your daily reminder:

“There was so much in my life I cared about—and of course I really loved being a therapist. But on another level there wasn’t anything in it I wanted just for me. It was as if my life had turned into a motel room and the truth was I could walk out of it without any sense that I was leaving anything of my own behind. A stranger could easily move into my life, and nothing would be different. I was happy as long as I didn’t think about who I was and what I really wanted for myself.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 44)

“The people in your life are truly interested in your being happy. The confusing thing is that they don’t go around advertising this. Your boss, your kids, your husband mostly talk about how they need this and they need that from you. But when you’re unhappy, a part of their world collapses. So if you have to shuffle your priorities around and put someone last who’s been coming first, and some of the people in your life start giving you grief, just remember how happy they’ll be when you’re happy.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 37)

“I remember a long period when it seemed like all I did was bounce back and forth between my patients and my children. They all needed every ounce of what I had to give. I didn’t even feel I had time for my husband. It was as if I were surrounded by a wall of people who saw me as nothing more than the person who took care of them. Emotionally I didn’t feel I had room to breathe.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 34)

Pay attention to other people’s priorities.

“When you make yourself a top priority in your life for one year, you prove to yourself forever that you’re free, not trapped. You prove that you own your life, instead of feeling that everyone else’s claims on you come first. You prove that you can take care of yourself. You change the way you feel about your life forever. So do it now: cut one big slice from the pie of life and give it to yourself.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 17)

“There’s a fine balance between obsessing about your craft and being there for your family. It’s akin to walking a tightrope. Your legs are shaky and you’re trying to find your center. Whenever you lean too far in one direction, you correct your course and end up overleaning in the other direction. So, you correct by leaning the other way again. That’s the dance. You can’t achieve greatness by walking a straight line.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 33)

“If you really want to be great at something, you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it. A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness. They have other concerns, whether important or not, and they spread themselves out. That’s totally fine. After all, greatness is not for everybody.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 33)

Jordan Peterson Quote on Life Priorities and How “Triviality” Can Be Deceptive

“[The] appearance of triviality is deceptive: it is the things that occur every single day that truly make up our lives, and time spent the same way over and again adds up at an alarming rate.”
Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 117)

Beyond the Quote (207/365)

It’s the healthy-or-not lifestyle that shapes the person, not the random workouts. It’s the career that defines the person, not the few-and-far-between vacations. It’s the everyday interactions with your friends and family that makes up the quality of the relationships, not the random and spontaneous adventures that you might take. Sure, the exotic and extraordinary moments of life might leave an impact, but it’s the mundane and ordinary moments that occur every single day that make up the life.