Just because you’ve begun down one path doesn’t mean you’re committed to it forever, especially if that path turns out to be flawed or impeded. At that same time, this is not an excuse to be flighty or incessantly noncommittal.
Getting upset is like continuing the dream while you’re awake. The thing that provoked you wasn’t real – but your reaction was. And so from the fake comes real consequences. Which is why you need to wake up right now instead of creating a nightmare.
Do I need this? Or is it really about ego?
We have to get better at thinking, deliberately and intentionally, about the big questions. On the complicated things. On understanding what’s really going on with a person, or a situation, or with life itself.
In failure or adversity, it’s so easy to hate. Hate defers blame. It makes someone else responsible. It’s a distraction too; we don’t do much else when we’re busy getting revenge or investigating the wrongs that have supposedly been done to us.
As we first succeed, we will find ourselves in new situations, facing new problems.
If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.” Just.
In Workaholics Anonymous, one the exercises involves a simple reminder. We must, they say, “catch ourselves before we relapse into ego and self-will.” That is: Rest before you get tired. Check your impulses before they take over. Avoid the idiot lights – stop before there is a problem.
Living clearly and presently takes courage. Don’t live in the haze of the abstract, live with the tangible and real, even if – especially if – it’s uncomfortable. Be part of what’s going on around you. Feast on it, adjust for it. There’s.
If ego is the voice that tells us we’re better than we really are, we can say ego inhibits true success by preventing a direct and honest connection to the world around us. One.
Our perceptions are the thing that we’re in complete control of.
We’re a country governed by public opinion, and public opinion is largely governed by the press, so isn’t it critical to understand what governs the press?
A degree on a wall means you’re educated as much as shoes on your feet mean you’re walking. It’s a start, but hardly sufficient.
It takes real work to grasp what is invisible to just about everyone else.
Research shows that while goal visualization is important, after a certain point our mind begins to confuse it with actual progress. The same goes for verbalization. Even.
How different would the world look if people spent as much time listening to their conscience as they did to chattering broadcasts? If they could respond to the calls of their convictions as quickly as we answer the dings and rings of technology in our pockets?
If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters – don’t wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important, distrust yourself.” – EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 13a.
Take action. Get out from under all your stuff. Get rid of it. Give away what you don’t need. You were born free – free of stuff, free of burden. But since the first time they measured your tiny body for clothes, people have been foisting stuff upon you. And you’ve been adding links to the pile of chains yourself ever since.
Humiliation should not be suppressed. It should be monetized.
Seize this moment to deploy the plan that has long sat dormant in your head.