“A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and the difficulty of mending his own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are insisting merely that the government and industries mend their ways.”
Wendell Berry, via Sunbeams (Page 51)
Quotes about Taking Responsibility
Choose Your Hard
“Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard.
Unknown
Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard.
Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard.
Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard.
Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Pick wisely.”
Beyond the Quote (336/365)
We’re wired to follow the path of least resistance. But, choosing to do what’s easy now doesn’t last. In fact, in almost every case, it only makes life harder later. It’s the principle of delayed gratification (more on this below).
So, while life can be easier from choosing the easier options, the truth is, it’s only a temporary easier. Experiencing the “hard” in life is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. And take heed, hard now and hard later are not created equal.
Read More »Choose Your Hard
“Successful outcomes are never the result of a single choice. They are built up through good choices over time. A profitable business is never a choice, it is a series of choices. A fit body is never a choice, it is a series of choices. A strong relationship is never a choice, it is a series of choices.”
James Clear, Blog
“My ability to respond is limitless, but my ability to act is limited. I am one hundred percent responsible for everything I am and everything I am not, for my capacities and my incapacities, for my joys and my miseries. I am the one who determines the nature of my experience in this life and beyond. I am the maker of my life.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 66)
“The most horrific things in life can be a source of nourishment if you accept, ‘I am responsible for the way I am now.’ It is possible to transform the greatest adversity into a stepping-stone for personal growth. If you take one hundred percent responsibility for the way you are now, a brighter tomorrow is a possibility. But if you take no responsibility for the present—if you blame your parents, your friend, your husband, your girlfriend, your colleagues for the way you are—you have forsaken your future even before it comes.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 58)
“Only if you realize you are responsible do you have the freedom to create yourself the way you want to be, not as a reaction to the situations in which you exist. Reactivity is enslavement. Responsibility is freedom. When you are able to create yourself the way you want, you can create your life the way you want as well. Your outer life may not be a hundred percent in your control, but your inner life always will.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 53)
“Whenever we have had to do something about our lives, we have taken it into our hands. Whenever it comes to other people’s misfortunes, we have a word to explain it: destiny. And what a convenient word that is. Destiny has become a popular scapegoat, a way to deal with failure, a fatalistic ruse to reconcile ourselves to all kinds of uncomfortable situations. But turning inward is the first step from passivity to agency—from being a victim toward becoming a master of your own destiny.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 40)
Kerry Washington Quote on Heroes and How Hero Worship Should Come To An End
In response to the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “It feels like we’re losing so many of our heroes this year, you know, John Lewis and Chadwick Boseman, and it just is like how is this possible? And I really do think there’s something about the idea that we’re being invited to realize that our heroes are human, which means that we all have the capacity to be the heroes of our communities and our lives and our story. The time for hero worship is maybe coming to an end and it’s time for us to all stand up and serve. These singular people can’t shoulder all the weight.”
Kerry Washington, Ellen
Beyond the Quote (264/365)
Our heroes are human. They always have been. They have the same amount of time in their days as we do. They have the same basic needs for survival, too. And they certainly live lives filled with problems and challenges just like each of us. So, what’s the difference between the average human and our “heroes?” I like to think that the scale of their impact and influence is in proportion to how they choose to be selfish and in how they choose to be selfless.
Read More »Kerry Washington Quote on Heroes and How Hero Worship Should Come To An EndSave Yourself. Because Even The Best Doctors, Teachers, Gurus, Mentors, and Trainers Can’t
Excerpt: Inspired by a quote from Naval Ravikant, this post is about taking responsibility for your own life and depending less on others to do the “saving” for you. Doctors won’t make you healthy. Teachers won’t make you smart. Mentors won’t make you rich. It’s all up to YOU. Save yourself.
Read More »Save Yourself. Because Even The Best Doctors, Teachers, Gurus, Mentors, and Trainers Can’t
John F. Kennedy Quote on Accepting Responsibility For What’s Wrong In The World And Doing Our Part
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
John F. Kennedy
Beyond the Quote (242/365)
With election season coming up it’s going to be easier than usual to get sucked into dividing lines, finger pointing, and blame shaming. And while fighting to ensure people take proper responsibility for their actions is a worthy and righteous fight, it also shouldn’t blind you to your own fight.
Read More »John F. Kennedy Quote on Accepting Responsibility For What’s Wrong In The World And Doing Our Part“To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. It’s astounding how powerful this ownership is.”
Kevin Kelly, Blog
Quote about Curating Every Aspect Of Your Life and Never Settling For Less Than Your Best
“Don’t settle for nice, for pleasant, for familiar. Keep looking until you find something that really moves you, that resonates with your core. And I mean this for people, for interests, for hobbies, for your possessions, clothes, music, books, art. Everything. Curate every aspect of your life, as much as you can. It’s in the things that deeply inspire us that we find ourselves. Surround yourself with truth, and you’ll have build yourself a heaven.”
Unknown
Beyond the Quote (201/365)
Curate every aspect of your life because if you don’t then there will be aspects of your life that aren’t curated. Sounds like a, “duh” kind of statement, I know, but, to curate suggests a very personal process that involves choosing what and who to allow, what and who to avoid, what and who to include, and what and who to block out.
Read More »Quote about Curating Every Aspect Of Your Life and Never Settling For Less Than Your Best“We are an ‘out there’ society, accustomed to thinking in terms of them against us. We want to fix the world so that we can remain the same. And for an ‘out there’ society, coming ‘inside’ is a problem. But now is the time to learn how. Now is the time to change. Because unless we do, the chaos will remain. And we can’t afford this kind of chaos much longer. We’re simply running out of time.”
Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 261)
“We can’t change the world ‘out there.’ And fortunately, we don’t have to; we can begin much slower to home. We can begin ‘in here.’ In fact, if we’re to succeed, we must. Because the chaos isn’t ‘out there’ in everyone else. It’s not ‘out there’ in the world. The chaos is ‘in here’ in you and me. The world’s not the problem; you and I are. The world’s not in chaos; we are. The world’s apparent chaos is only a reflection of our own inner turmoil.”
Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 260)
Naval Ravikant Quote on Freedom and Living Below Your Means
“People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom.”
Naval Ravikant
Beyond the Quote (184/365)
Most people think that freedom is the absence of responsibility. But, when you look closely, the opposite is actually the case: freedom is a byproduct of responsibility. You can’t be free until you’ve taken proper responsibility for yourself and your life. You can’t even free up the mental resources needed to enjoy said freedom until you’ve covered the bases for your survival, right? How free are you really if you’re starving? How free can you possibly be if you’re without water? Is being free of a house freedom? Or is it a constant threat to your survival and a chronic cage of worry that haunts you? Let’s start by looking at the relationship between freedom and responsibility more closely.
Read More »Naval Ravikant Quote on Freedom and Living Below Your MeansGlenn Danzig Quote on Shopping Carts and How They Are The Ultimate Litmus Test
“The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will fine you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct. A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them a law and the force that stands behind it. The Shopping Cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society.”
Glenn Danzig
Beyond the Quote (183/365)
…Maybe not an “animal” or an “absolute savage,” but certainly a person who has given in to their lazy tendencies. I think we all have that moment when we load the last grocery bag into the car and we look back at the cart only to deeply contemplate how to handle the no-longer-needed thing that’s just sitting there staring at us. We look around for the nearest cart return station and try to minimize the amount of effort it will take to get the thing out of our way so that we can quickly make our escape back home. Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can change our minds about something that provided us so much convenience to all-of-a-sudden being something that is such an annoyance and has become such a hassle? Ah, but how quickly we do that for so much in life, eh?
Read More »Glenn Danzig Quote on Shopping Carts and How They Are The Ultimate Litmus Test
