Top Quotes about Work

Work, Hard absorbing work, joyous rewarding work – how long have men realized its place in life! And when challenged by a job that seems too big – perseverance is half the battle.

 

Work Keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice and need. – Voltaire

 

I never did a day’s work in my life. it was all fun. – Thomas A. Edison

 

Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do… For me conception of Hell lies in two words: Too late. – Gian-Carlo Menotti

 

Life is certainly only worth while as it represents struggle for worthy causes. There is no struggle in perfect security. I am quite certain that the human being could not continue to exist if he had the perfect security. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

When God wanted  sponges and oysters, He made them, and put one on a rock, and the other in the mud. When He made man, He did not make him to be a sponge or an oyster; He made him with feet and hands, and head and heart, and vital blood, and a place to use them and said to him, “Go work!” – Henry Ward Beecher

There is no boredom like that which can afflict people who are free, and nothing else. – Ralph Barton Perry

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work. Work is not a curse; it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood and the measure of civilization. – Calvin Coolidge

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. – Kahlil Gibran

I know hardly anyone who works too hard. I believe in hard work and long hours of work. Men do not break down from over-work, but from worry and from plunging into dissipation and efforts not aligned with their work. – Charles Evans Hughes

Get busy, keep busy. It’s the cheapest kind of medicine there is on earth – and one of the best. Dale Carnegie

Want to Stop Being Angry? Stop Doing These 5 Things

It was tough. Dealing with anger can be a harrowing experience for sure.

But I made a commitment to change of late.

I did a lot of research and even interviewed experts and influencers across the personal development industry.

You’ll be surprised how we’re constantly misleading ourselves back to anger without knowing it.

To deal with anger, we need to make a shift in perspective. It may sound unconventional at first, but it works.

 

1. Stop thinking the world should work the way you think it should

We get angry when we feel people should be nice or act a certain, logical manner.

We also get angry when we think we should have gotten over it by now.

But that’s the problem.

We need to get rid of our SHOULD rules.

Our mind says one thing, but reality always says otherwise.

Things will go wrong. Life will continue to be unfair and disobey you. As daunting as that sounds, you need to eliminate your SHOULD rules so you can loosen the grip you have on life.

 

2. Stop thinking that anger is a bad thing

Surprise! Anger isn’t a bad thing.

Anger is a good source of energy as a force for positive change. Rosa Parks, Ghandi and Martin Luther King used it.

But yes, anger cannot sustain you. That is why you need to live life and harness other emotions.

This is a foundation you need to set for yourself to alleviate the undesirable feelings anger brings.

To know that anger isn’t a bad thing is to know that there’s nothing wrong with you, that you’re not a monster, that you’ve a disease or that you’re “messed up.”

So take solace in this. Anger is good. Let that be with your fuel to push you in a positive direction.

 

3. Stop managing your anger

Look, anger management doesn’t work. Surprised? Google it yourself then.

Anger management only serves to repress the feeling and bottle up your anger. That is effectively sweeping your problems under the rug.

No, you’ve to find the root cause of your anger. Anger is after all, a secondary emotion, not primary.

For me personally, I realized one root cause of my anger was fear, that I’d actually lose in a fight one day if it came to it, thus making me think that I’m not a real man.

I had to get honest with myself. I had to deal with it by asking the right questions and then applying realistic ways to stay calm and positive.

So what is it for you? Guilt? Fear? Sadness? Rejection?

Start being honest with yourself. Start asking the right and bigger questions. It will be scary, but you’ve to go through with it.

 

4. Stop reacting

Check out this powerful quote by Thich Nhat Hanh:

” If you get angry easily, it may be because the seed of anger in you has been watered frequently over many years, and unfortunately you’ve allowed it or even encouraged it to be watered.”

Yes, you may be angry today because you’ve watered the seed too much.

Anger, when used too much, can be a habit, and even an addiction.

That is why you need to stop reacting angrily to some negative thought or person.

No, I don’t even think injecting a positive thought in your head will help. That is a form of reaction that’s still acknowledging the anger and giving it power.

Stop reacting. Let it pass instead. Don’t give it any kind of power.

Why do you think people like to say that ignorance is bliss?

 

5. Stop taking the easy way out

You know what’s easy?

Getting angry and breaking things around the house, screaming at somebody, punching the wall or generally doing anything stupid.

You know what’s not easy?

Staying calm at the heat of the moment, walking away from a fight and ultimately becoming the master of your own emotions.

I get it man. Anger is tough. It’s frustrating, stressful and downright crappy.

But that’s the entire point.

If you want to see real results, you need to take on the challenge and embrace the struggle head on. You can’t cower down and take the easy route.

So go for it. Even if it doesn’t feel great, know that it’s perfectly normal. Work hard, feel the heat and don’t give up.

You can be the master of your emotions one day.

21 Inspirational Mark Twain Quotes To Live By

Mark Twain was a BOSS! He lived life the way that he wanted to live and passed on many amazing lines of knowledge through his books and teachings for generations to come.

Most of the highly amazing quote collections out there nowadays has at least 1 or 2 Mark Twain quotes in it.

Here is our collection of inspirational Mark Twain quotes that any and everybody should strive to live by.

 

Inspirational Mark Twain Quotes

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.” – Mark Twain

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear” – Mark Twain

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” – Mark Twain

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” – Mark Twain

“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” – Mark Twain

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain

“The lack of money is the root of all evil.” – Mark Twain

“A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.” – Mark Twain

“Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.” – Mark Twain

“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well”. – Mark Twain

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” – Mark Twain

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” – Mark Twain

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” – Mark Twain

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” – Mark Twain

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain

Are You Tired of Living with Regret? Here are 5 Fixes That Work

Regret is something everyone experiences at one point or another. It would be impossible to go through life without experiencing any regret at all.

But sometimes, we put ourselves in positions where regret is almost guaranteed. Where we could have avoided the regret, but for whatever reason, we chose not to.

But the good news is that you don’t have to live that way. You can actively work towards removing regret from your life.

The following are a few signs, and accompanying fixes, that you may be setting yourself up for a regretful life.

 

How To Remove Regret From Your Life

 

Fix #1 – Stop Making Yourself a Victim

The Problem: You think that you’re at the mercy of the world, that you have no power over the outcome of your life. Any success you find is simply a coincidence and any failure you meet is beyond your control.

But if you’re not in control, who is?

The Fix: Realize you’re not a victim in life. You’re in the driver’s seat. You’re in control. No one has command over your life more than you do. Use that power you have, to create a life that you’re excited about. A life that you love.

You have the ability to make things happen in your life. Once you make this mindset shift, everything else becomes easier.

 

Fix #2 – Stop Holding Back Your Best Effort

The Problem: Your hesitant, you’re fearful, and you’re not giving 100% of your effort. Maybe you’re afraid of failing. Or maybe you’re afraid of success.

Whatever the reason, you’re just not giving it all you’ve got. And that’s a problem because giving a lackluster effort could be the difference between you living the life you dream of, and living a nightmare.

The Fix: Don’t be afraid to go all in. You have to believe that your effort won’t go unnoticed and that success and happiness are direct byproducts of you giving it all you’ve got.

You’ll never regret giving something the maximum amount of effort.

 

Fix #3 – Start Making Decisions for Yourself, Not for Others

The Problem: Your Father picked your career, your mother picked your spouse, and now your spouse is deciding everything else.

You’re absolutely setting yourself up for a regretful life if you let everyone around you make decisions for you. They can’t get inside your head, so they don’t know what you really want.

And even if they do know, they’re judgment is so clouded by their own wants and desires that your needs end up taking a back seat.

The Fix: Start making your own decisions. Make the decisions that are right for you, not the decisions that other people think are right for you. No one knows you better than you.

You may hurt some feelings, you may even lose some relationships, but neither of those are as important as you living the life you really want to live.

 

 

Fix #4 – Stop Being Full of Excuses

The Problem: You always have a reason why you couldn’t do something, either because the time wasn’t right, or you had something else to do. But here’s the problem, excuses are probably the number one reason people live with regret.

Excuses suck because they stop you doing what you want to, achieving your goals, and creating a life worth living, even though you’re fully capable.

The Fix: Stop with the excuses. Get really clear about what you want and why you want it. Then the next time an excuse tries to creep it’s way in, ask yourself, “If this excuse more important than my goals in life?” Chances are, it’s not.

 

Fix #5 – Start Listening to Your Heart

The Problem: You know exactly what your heart is guiding you towards, but you’re afraid to follow it. You’re afraid that people may criticize you. You’re afraid that you may fail. You’re afraid that you may be judged.

But looking at the bigger picture, what’s more important? Are you willing to ignore your heart, your passions, and your biggest dreams because of what other people might say?

The Fix: Realize that everyone is going to judge you, so you might as well let them judge while you do something you love. Listen to your heart, follow your passions, and let the naysayers talk all they want.

The 10 Essential Habits of Highly Productive People

People living in the 21st century are lucky. We have all the conveniences brought to us by technology. We can communicate with anyone in the world in a matter of microseconds, we can look up any sort of information that we want with just a click of a button, and we can even work without going to a physical office!

Despite these modern advantages, most of us still suffer from a lack of productivity. The irony here is that we have all these high tech work tools at our fingertips yet we still manage to find ways on how to avoid doing work.

So, do productive people (who get a lot of work done in a day and still have time for hobbies and other enjoyable activities) have a secret that they won’t share with the productivity-challenged?

Well, these people do not really have productivity “secrets,” per se:

They have habits!

Here are some of the common established habits that productive people have:

 

The 10 Productivity Habits

 

1. Productive people can differentiate “fake” productivity from “real” productivity

Sometimes, we put off doing real work in favor of other non-essential tasks. These tasks might somehow resemble “real” work, and thus give us a false sense of productivity. For example, in lieu of doing important tasks, people might attend useless meetings, sort out emails, and chat with coworkers.

Productive people know that these things do not really constitute work and know how to avoid them.

 

2. Productive people know when to let go of the non-essentials

Should sorting out emails take up an hour of your valuable work time?

Do you really need to edit this document five times before you send it to your client?

Sometimes, we do non-essential tasks by dint of habit. We need to learn how to let them go. It’s either we get rid of them or allocate them to others.

 

3. Productive people do not multitask

…or avoid it, especially if they don’t need to. Multitasking is the bane of our generation.

The brain is just not wired to juggle multiple things all at the same. Tasks are meant to be completed one at a time for maximum efficiency.

4. Productive people know how to schedule their work “blocks.”

Most of us are early-risers, with most of our productive time scheduled during the daytime, while some are night owls.

Productive people know how to sync their work blocks around these times of productivity.

 

5. Productive people power through boredom

Persistence pays off in the long run. This is what separates productive people from the unproductive ones.

Suffering from writer’s block? Well, it doesn’t exist. You need to write something down on paper NOW even if you’re bored and don’t feel like it.

Persistence, not procrastination, is the reason why things get done.

 

 

 

6. Productive people know when to unplug

Yes, too much technology is bad for you. Being connected 24/7 has its perks, but its really not good for a person’s overall mental health and well-being.

Meditate, commune with nature, or just take a little bit of time off from your computer- all of these can really help you increase productivity and jump start your way to success.

 

7. Productive people have regular sleeping habits

Lack of sleep does not equate to productivity. Your eye-bags is not a sign that you’re a hardworking person, it just means that you have poor sleeping habits.

Regular sleep (six to eight hours per day, on a constant schedule) has long been scientifically proven to increase productivity.

 

8. Productive people workout

Going to the gym or exercising is always a win-win situation for all.

Not only does physical activity release endorphins (“feel good” hormones that can alleviate stress and keeps us happy throughout the day) it also helps us stay in tiptop shape, and contributes to good sleeping habits. And you don’t even have to do backbreaking high intensity either. Even thirty minutes of cardio (walking, running, biking) will go a long way.

 

9. Productive people reward themselves

“All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy” as the famous saying goes.
Reward serves as incentives for productive work. It pushes us, and drives us to finish tasks.

 

10. Productive people know how to allocate breaks

Breaks are essential for a productive lifestyle. Our bodies and brains are just not meant to work non-stop, so breaks are there to keep us refreshed.

Some people need longish breaks after long work blocks, while some can make do with short breaks interspersed throughout the day.

 

30 Famous Quotes That Will Inspire Success In You

The definition of success is different for everyone, whether it’s personal or professional we are always looking at improving in some area of our life. We all need some inspiration from time to time and that is why we have compiled a list of famous inspirational quotes that will help contribute to your success.

 30 Famous Success Quotes

 

1. “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.”

Dhirubhai Ambani

 

2. “The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.”

Mark Caine

 

3. “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Tony Robbins

 

4. “When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

Audre Lorde

 

5. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

Mark Twain

 

6. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

7. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas A. Edison

 

8. “If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know & start charging for it.”

Kim Garst

 

9.  “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”

David Brinkley

 

10. “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Steve Jobs

 

11. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

12. “Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.”

Roger Babson

 

13. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Mahatma Gandhi

 

14. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”

Mark Twain

 

15. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”

Vince Lombardi

 

16. “Success is about creating benefit for all and enjoying the process. If you focus on this & adopt this definition, success is yours.”

Kelly Kim

 

17. “I used to want the words ‘She tried’ on my tombstone. Now I want ‘She did it.’”

Katherine Dunham

 

18. “Really it comes down to your philosophy. Do you want to play it safe and be good or do you want to take a chance and be great?”

Jimmy J

 

19. “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

J. K Rowling

 

20. “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

Albert Einstein

 

21. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

Harriet Tubman

 

22. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”

Bruce Lee

 

23. “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

Swami Vivekananda

 

24. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”

Dale Carnegie

 

25. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”

Jim Rohn

 

26. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”

Ayn Rand

 

27. “If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it – teach yourself to be impatient.”

Gurbaksh Chahal

 

28. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.”

Robert Kiyosaki

 

29. “If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!”

T. Harv Eker

 

30. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Steve Jobs

 

We hope you enjoyed this collection of Famous Success Quotes. Do you have any Famous Quotes that we missed out on this list? please leave it in the comment of this post.

Thanks!

Lesson from a Farmer

Opportunities they lie everywhere if you too blind to see it you will miss your opportunity. Here is a quick story by a college graduate and a farmer.

Lesson from a farmer

A young man from the city graduated from college with a degree in journalism and got a job at a small-town newspaper. One of his first assignments was to interview an old farmer who lived twenty miles outside of town. As he sat with grizzled man on his front porch, the young journalist looked at his notepad and started asking his questions. One of the first he asked was, “Sir, what time do you go to work in the morning?” the old farmer chuckled and replied, “Son, I don’t go to work. I’m surrounded by it.”

We can learn a lesson from the old farmer. Opportunities are a lot like his work. They are everywhere. But the problem is that we often don’t have the eyes to see them. As you approach each day, look around. Be aware. If you don’t see opportunities, remember that it’s not because they aren’t there. You’re always surrounded by them. You simply need to open your eyes and see them. Then act on them.

Did you learn from the story?

Seize every opportunity and keep your eyes open.

The 5 Steps You Must Take Now To Succeed

1) START This may sound really simple, but you’ll never achieve anything until you start chasing after your passions in life. Whether you aspire to be an Olympian, start a business, or record your first studio album, you need to just go ahead and begin working on your goals. Too many people, young or old, look to tomorrow to begin work on their dreams. Or, they’ll make excuses as to why they cannot start working on their business ideas on the side, begin working out today, or why their idea will never work instead of just trying to start. Starting to work on a dream is a 100% commonality shared by all successful people (because they would have never achieved anything if they left their plans “for another day”), and if you are aspiring to do something right now, just go ahead and start! Figure the rest out later.

2) RISK At one point or another, as you are chasing after your goals, a risk must be taken. There will be obstacles to overcome that require unconventional thinking or a detour from the “safe” path. Taking risk should be seen as another step in chasing success, and almost every achievement known to mankind came with a risk, big or small. When teenage actor Noah Centineo wanted to boost his acting career, he had to risk leaving his family and friends behind in South Florida in order to move to Los Angeles to pursue his career full-time. Although it may have seemed scary at first, he is now landing roles in Disney channel TV shows and movies as well as nationally-broadcasted commercials for companies like Old Navy and Monopoly. Similarly, computer programmer Jasmine Gao took the risk of dropping out of college to enter the Enstitute apprenticeship program in NYC, where she got the opportunity to work at Bit.ly under Hilary Mason and now works for Mealku. In your pursuit of success, view risk-taking as an opportunity and not as a fear-rattling inevitability. Bill Cosby Picture Quote

3) JOURNEY If you are pursuing anything worthwhile, the chances of you experiencing a super smooth path is slim to none. So, rather than worry about the ups-and-downs, just journey and embrace the rollercoaster ride as part of the collective experience of finding your passions and working to realize your dreams. In 5 years, you’ll look back at the times you thought the walls were deteriorating around you and just laugh, so the third step in achieving success is just to journey and go along with the obstacles (and opportunities) thrown your way. This step includes taking care of your health, relationships, and sanity as you go after your dreams, and it also encompasses the persistence it takes to grind out work on difficult days.

4) LEARN Always be learning. It’s as simple as that. When Conrad Farnsworth developed a nuclear fusion reactor in his garage at just 17 years old (becoming the first person in Wyoming to ever pull off such a feat), he attributed his success mostly to the amount of learning he underwent over years of studying nuclear sciences and attempting to build the machine he ultimately used to split an atom. Similarly, Mohnish Soundararajan, a young hustler who’s helped bestselling authors like Ryan Holiday, Robert Greene, and Charlie Hoehn in their book marketing efforts, has achieved most of his success to date through rapid learning experiences by working alongside start-ups and authors who could show him the ropes as he offered his services in return. Also, a near-death experience for Mohnish helped him realize exactly what he wanted to pursue, and since that experience, he has shaped what he studies to match his goals in life. As you pursue your own goals, don’t forget the role of continuous, life-long education in your chase for success.

5) SUCCEED You can do it! When you make it, celebrate! Even before you reach your goals, embrace a winning attitude and fill your mind with positive thoughts. You have to believe you can succeed, and then make it an action to take instead of an idea to ponder (as the use of a verb and not a noun indicates above) before you can capture your aspirations and dreams. This doesn’t mean become a snob the second you accumulate a credential or accolade, but it does mean surrounding yourself with people who will stimulate your growth and help you succeed at even higher goals than the ones you’ve currently accomplished, at which point you can begin at Step 1 all over again! success quotes Don’t wait to become successful. Whether you and young or old, start taking the necessary actions now to accomplish what you really want out of life pursue what you are most passionate about.

The Meaning of Life

There’s a true story about the student who showed up late to math class. He copied the problem that was already written on the board, assuming it was homework, and solved it that week. Only afterwards did he find out the teacher put it on the board as an example of an unsolvable problem.

This question – “What is the meaning of life?” – is the classic unsolvable problem. For thousands of years, people have been trying to figure it out. It’s the punchline cliché of unanswerable questions.

But right now, let’s be the naive ones that don’t know it’s considered unsolvable, and just figure out the meaning of life in under 20 minutes. OK?

LIFE IS __________

What word do you think goes in that blank? Life is what? Any ideas?

Let’s look at some of the different options that philosophers and smarties have said.

LIFE IS TIME

Some say life is time. Life is all about time. The definition of life is the time between when you’re born and when you die. So the literal meaning of life is time.

So if life is time, the way to have a good life is to use time wisely.

How can you use time wisely? Five ways.

1. Remember it’s limited

   If you find out tonight that you’ve only got one year left to live, you’ll make the most of this next year. If you act like life is infinite, you won’t.

   To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.

   Give yourself tight deadlines. Remember you could die at any time. Don’t delay.

   How can you use time wisely?

2. Be mostly future-focused

   Make most of your current actions serve your future self. Learn, practice, exercise, delay gratification, save and invest your money, and build towards your ideal future. People who do this are more successful and even happier.

   But too much future focus leads to being a successful person on your 4th marriage, with no true friends. Too much future focus can take time away from important things that need you to be in the moment.

   How can you use time wisely?

3. Be somewhat present-focused

   Sometimes, pull your head out of the future, and give your full attention to the present. Relationships, communication, and sex require this.

   But too much present focus is hedonism: living only for immediate gratification with as much excitement and novelty as possible.

   Too much present focus leads to an empty bank account and no impulse control.

   Too much present focus robs you of the deeper happiness of delayed gratification, achieving long-term goals, and developing valuable expertise.

   How can you use time wisely?

4. Be somewhat past-focused

   To remember your past is to live twice.

   Keep your life in the context of the past, to see how far you’ve come.

   Put aside time to re-interpret your past events, as a powerful reminder that you can re-interpret your present and future, too.

   How can you use time wisely?

5. Get in the zone

   You know the feeling of flow – where you’re focused on work that’s not too easy and not too hard – where the work itself has clear goals and is its own reward.

   People at the end of their life who claimed to be the happiest with their life were the ones who had spent the most time in this state of flow.

   For a good life, pursue the work that puts you in this state, and avoid the things that pull you from this state.

Let’s say life is time. What do you think? Pretty good argument?

Let’s look at another perspective.

LIFE IS CHOICE

Some say life is choice. Life is all about choice. You make a hundred little choices a day, and a hundred big choices in your life. These choices change your entire life. Your life is created by your choices. Therefore life IS choice.

So if life is choice, the way to have a good life is to make good choices.

How can you make good choices? Four ways.

1. Let instinct trump logic

   The different parts of your brain started developing at different periods in evolution. The oldest part of your brain, the one that’s been evolving since we were fish, deals with instincts, fears, and gut feelings. The newest part of your brain, the one that’s pretty uniquely human, deals with logic, language, and predictions.

   This newest part is still in beta. A $5 calculator can beat it at math. But this oldest part was launched a billion years ago, and has been in production and development ever since.

   Everything you observe and learn is first processed by your logical brain, but then the results are permanently stored as instincts, fears, and gut feelings. Your instincts and emotions hold the culmination of everything you’ve ever observed and learned. So you’ll make better choices if you listen your instincts, instead of relying too much on your $5 calculator beta brain.

   How can you make good choices?

2. Stop at good enough

   You now have more options than ever. You try to choose the best option, the best career, the best school, and the best boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/spouse.

   But thinking this way makes you feel worse about the choices you’ve made. You’re more aware than ever of all the options you didn’t choose, and the benefits of each.

   So don’t seek the absolute best. Stop when you find an option that is good enough. You’ll make an equally good choice, but more importantly, you’ll feel much better about it. Happiness counts.

   How can you make good choices?

3. Set limits

   Every choice you have to make causes a little bit of pain. Having choice in life is good, but having more choice is not always better.

   You’re happier when you let other people make some choices for you. If you’re very sick, you want your doctor to choose what’s best, not say, “There are dozens of good options. What do you want to do?” This is the appeal of religion. It gives you rules. It makes many of the choices for you.

   So set limits to your choices in life. Cut off some options. Give yourself rules.

   How can you make good choices?

4. Choose important not urgent

   You know the difference between what’s long-term important versus short-term urgent.

   What’s urgent are emails, texts, tweets, calls, and news.

   What’s important is spending a thousand hours to learn a new skill that will really help you in your life or work. What’s important is giving your full undistracted attention to the important people in your life. What’s important is taking time to get exercise, or to collect and share what you’ve learned.

   But none of these things will ever be urgent.

   So you have to ignore the tempting cries of the urgent, and deliberately choose what you know is important.

So life is choice? What do you think? Pretty good argument? Let’s try another.

LIFE IS MEMORY

Some say life is memory. The future doesn’t exist. It’s something we imagine. The present is gone in a millisecond, so everything we experience in life is a memory. You could live a long life, but without a lot of memories, you only experienced a short life. If you don’t remember your life, it’s like it never happened. So life is memory.

So if life is memory, the way to have a good life is to make more memories.

How can you make memories?

Change routines. Break monotony. Move. Make a major change whenever you can. These are your chronological landmarks. These are the hooks where you’ll hang your memories.

Document it. Blog it. Not in a company’s walled garden, but in a format you can archive and look through in 50 years, or your grand kids can look through in 100 years. Keep a private blog for your future self, and tell the tales of where you’ve been, what you did, and the quirky people you’ve met along the way. You’ll be surprised how much you forget if you don’t record it.

Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. What about the forgotten life?

So life is memory? What do you think? Want to do another?

LIFE IS LEARNING

Both my smart friends and my spiritual friends insist that the meaning life is learning – that the reason you’re here is to learn. Not just for your own sake, but for everyone alive, and future generations, the meaning of your life is to learn.

So if life is learning, the way to have a good life is to learn a lot.

How can you learn a lot?

Instead of talking about learning techniques, let’s talk about getting the right mindset, so you can learn more than you realize.

You’ve probably heard about the Fixed mindset and the Growth mindset.

The Fixed mindset says, “I am good at this” or “I am bad at this”. This starts in childhood when your parents say, “You’re so good at math!” You think, “I’m good at math!” But then when you do poorly on one test, you think, “They were wrong. I’m not good at math.” Most people think this way. You can hear it when they say, “She’s a great singer” or “I’m just no good at dancing.”

The Growth mindset says, “Anyone can be good at anything. Skill comes only from practice.”

Two impossibly hard tests were given to hundreds of children. After the first test, all of the students were praised, but half of the students were privately told these 6 words: “You must be good at this.” The other half were privately told these 6 words: “You must have worked really hard.”

When they were given the second test, the students who were told, “You must be good at this”, did 20% worse on the 2nd test. Those 6 words encouraged a fixed mindset that made them feel there was no point in trying. You either are or you aren’t.

The students who were told “You must have worked really hard”, did 30% better on the 2nd test. Those 6 words encouraged a growth mindset that made them feel that working harder made all the difference.

So that’s a +-50% difference in performance because of 6 quick words by one teacher.

Multiply that by all the people in your life, all the days you hear feedback, and all the things you tell yourself, and you can see how this simple difference in mindset can make or break a life of learning.

Parents, pay attention to this. You may be harming your kids when you tell them they’re good at things.

Successful people, pay attention to this. You may be harming yourself if you believe the praise that people give you. People tell you you’re great at what you do, never just that you must have worked hard.

So… life is learning? What do you think?

Something else?

• Should we look at the Buddhist idea that life is SUFFERING? Nah, that’s no fun.
• Life is LOVE? Too ambiguous.
• Life is NOTHING BUT REPLICATING DNA? Too accurate.

Let’s change the subject.

Chinese

A few years ago, I started learning Chinese. I’m fascinated with the writing. I’m trying to memorize how to write these characters.

Chinese characters look complicated, but they’re mostly made up of smaller simpler characters, the way that English words are made up of Latin roots and such. So you can remember the meaning of each character by knowing the meaning of its ingredients. For example:

语 language = words 讠+ five 五+ mouth 口

So… Language is words that at least five mouths speak? Brilliant!

谢 thank you = words 讠+ body 身+ inch 寸

Hmmm… This one is not so obvious. Maybe the idea is that when you say thanks, you speak words that give a body an inch of respectful space? That’s interesting.

名 name = evening 夕 + mouth 口

So your real name is what’s spoken by a mouth in the evening? That’s kind of romantic.

I get so curious about the historical or cultural meaning behind each one.

Let’s change the subject.

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were a great band from the late-70s to mid-80s. Their lyrics were really evocative and mysterious. They made you wonder what they were really about.

Then I read an interview with the Talking Heads where they said that many of their lyrics were just random. They would write evocative phrases onto little pieces of paper, then throw them into a bowl, and shuffle them up. Then they’d pull them out, and put them into the song in that order. They did this because they liked how the listener creates meaning that wasn’t intended.

We assume that if someone writes a song, then sings it on stage into a microphone, that it must have meaning to them.

But nope. It was just random. Any meaning you think it contains was put there by you, the listener, not the writer. Like a Rorschach test.

Back to Chinese.

I got so curious about the historical meaning of these Chinese characters that I got a Chinese etymological dictionary that tells the full history behind every one.

I looked up the examples I gave here, and found out those characters were just phonetic! Those composite character bits were NOT chosen for their meaning at all, just their sound!

So it seems I’ve just been putting the meanings into them, myself. They actually had no meaning at all!

It blew my mind. I had been memorizing hundreds of characters for months, reading all kinds of meaning into the ingredients of each one.

After recovering from that, I thought: How many other things in life really have no meaning? What else have I been putting my own meaning into, thinking it was true?

Wired

I know that we’re wired to do it. I know we survived on the savannah for eons because we evolved to look for patterns. Our ancestors are the ones who noticed the patterns of the tiger stripes or the lion face in the grass.

A moth is so deeply wired to fly towards the light that it may never accept that your light bulb is not the moon.

We are so deeply wired to find patterns that we may never accept that many things are just random.

We should have the same sympathy for our faulty wiring as we do for the moth. Evolution taught us to do this thing, but didn’t teach us to stop.

Give us some dots and a line, and we’ll see a face. Burn some toast and we’ll find Elvis in it.

A carrot from my garden looks like Jesus. What does it mean?
A black cat crossed my path as I walked under a ladder on Friday the 13th. What does it mean?
An old friend calls just a minute after I was thinking about them. What does it mean?
What does it mean that you went to a prestigious well-known school? What does it mean that you didn’t?
What does it mean that your good friend died? What does it mean that you’re tall?
What does it mean that you have a lot of followers online? What does it mean that you don’t?
What does it mean that you’re female? What does it mean that you’re male?
What does it mean that you’re an entrepreneur? What does it mean that you’re not?
What does it mean that all of your previous attempts at something have failed?

Nothing! Nothing at all.

Nothing has inherent meaning. Everything is only what it is and that’s it.

So let’s get back to our original question and wrap this up.

Life Is _____

What is the meaning of life? LIFE IS ______
TIME?
CHOICE?
MEMORY?
LEARNING?
SUFFERING?
LOVE?
REPLICATING DNA?

You can tell by the variety of answers that they are just projected meanings.

You can choose to project one of these meanings onto your life, if it makes you feel good, or improves your current actions.

But you know the real answer is clear and obvious now.

LIFE IS (just) LIFE. IT DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING.

Erase any meaning you put into past events. Erase any meaning that’s holding you back. Erase those times where people said that this means that. None of it is real.

Life has no inherent meaning. Nothing has inherent meaning.

Life is a blank slate.

You’re free to project any meaning that serves you.

You’re free to do with it, anything you want.

Thank you.

21 Of The Best Life Quotes From Disney Films

Almost everyone grew up watching Disney films and that is a fact. Admit it or not, we get ridiculously fell in loved with every Disney character that we watched. Disney movies created a huge impact to mankind. They successfully became a big part of every kid’s childhood memories.

And until now, Disney movies are still making every child’s imagination grow and every young adult’s heart melt. No matter what your age is, you will definitely spend time to watch all those Disney films over and over. Let’s go back from our childhood and reminisce the timeless life lessons Disney movies taught us.

Enjoy this collection of life changing Disney Quotes.

Inspirational Disney Quotes

1. Woody once risked his life to save me. I couldn’t call myself his friend if I weren’t willing to do the same. – Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story

2. All it takes is faith and trust. – Peter Pan, Peter Pan

3. Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten. – Lilo, Lilo and stitch

4. The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up. – Timothy Mouse, Dumbo

5. Venture outside your comfort zone. The rewards are worth it. – Rapunzel,Tangled

6. You control your destiny — you don’t need magic to do it. And there are no magical shortcuts to solving your problems. – Merida, Brave

7. Oh yes the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it” – Rafiki, Lion King

8. When life gets you down do you wanna know what you’ve gotta do? Just keep swimming! – Dory, Finding Nemo

9. You must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul.” – Gusteau, Ratatouille

10. No matter how your heart is grieving, If you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” – Cinderella, Cinderella

11. Fairy tales can come true. You gotta make them happen, it all depends on you. – Tiana, Princess and the Frog

12. Sometimes the curiosity can kill the soul but leave the pain. – Alice, Alice in Wonderland

13. The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” – The Emperor, Mulan

14. You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you. But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew you never knew.” – Pocahontas, Pocahontas

15. You can’t force someone to like you. It takes time for friendship to grow. – Cody, Suite Life of Zack and Cody

16. To laugh yourself is to love yourself. – Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse

17. When there’s too much to do, don’t let it bother you. Forget your troubles. –Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

18. Put your faith in what you most believe in. – Tarzan, Tarzan

19. A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference. – Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh

20. Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it. – Elastigirl, The Incredibles

21. I know every mile will be worth my while. I would go most anywhere to feel like I belong. – Hercules, Hercules

 

Do these quotes bring back your most treasured memories? What are your favorite disney quotes?

Share them below.