We are prepared for failure and ready for success.
The power of being a student is not just that it is an extended period of instruction, it also places the ego and ambition in someone else’s hands. There is a sort of ego ceiling imposed – one knows that he is not better than the “master” he apprentices under.
We often assume that the world moves at our leisure. We delay when we should initiate. We jog when we should be running or, better yet, sprinting. And then we’re shocked – shocked! – when nothing big ever happens, when opportunities never show up, when new obstacles begin to pile up, or the enemies finally get their act together.
The greatest work and art comes from wrestling with the void.
Remember: We choose how we’ll look at things. We retain the ability to inject perspective into a situation. We can’t change the obstacles themselves – that part of the equation is set – but the power of perspective can change how the obstacles appear. How we approach, view, and contextualize an obstacle, and what we tell ourselves it means, determines how daunting and trying it will be to overcome.
At the beginning of any path, we’re excited and nervous. So we seek to comfort ourselves externally instead of inwardly. There’s a weak side to each of us, that – like a trade union – isn’t exactly malicious but at the end of the day still wants get as much public credit and attention as it can for doing the least. That side we call ego.
Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of – that’s the metric to measure yourself against.
The advantages of nonaction. Few in the world attain these. – THE DAODEJING.
At various points in our lives, we seem to have different capacities for forgiveness and understanding.
This obsession with the past, with something that someone did or how things should have been, as much as it hurts, is ego embodied. Everyone else has moved on, but you can’t, because you can’t see anything but your own way.
If you mean it when you say you’re at the end of your rope and would rather quit, you actually have a unique chance to grow and improve yourself. A unique opportunity to experiment with different solutions, to try different tactics, or to take on new projects to add to your skill set.
Meanwhile, love is right there. Egoless, open, positive, vulnerable, peaceful, and productive.
Samuel Zemurray.
As Deng Xiaoping once said, “I don’t care if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.” The Stoics had their own reminder: “Don’t go expecting Plato’s Republic.
Reversals and regressions are as much a part of the cycle of life as anything else.
Perseverance. Force of purpose. Indomitable will. Those traits were once uniquely part of the American DNA. But they’ve been weakening for some time.
Which is why we must choose to drive out anger and replace it with love and gratitude – and purpose. Our stillness depends on our ability to slow down and choose not to be angry, to run on different fuel. Fuel that helps us win and build, and doesn’t hurt other people, our cause, or our chance at peace.
Only when they stopped with the stories and focused on the task at hand did they begin to win like they had before.
Success is intoxicating, yet to sustain it requires sobriety.
Practice self control. Abhor flatterers as you would deceivers; for both, if trusted, injure those who trust them.