The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is — it must be something you cannot possibly do!”

A person at leisure is the opposite of a person who wants to be an influencer. She is driven by internal propulsion, not for outward display.

The psychologist Carol Dweck once wrote: “Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means that you care about something.”

But at the deeper level, we live on the axis between intensity and drift. Evolution or God or both have instilled in us a primal urge to explore, build and improve. But life is at its highest when passion takes us far beyond what evolution requires, when we’re committed to something beyond any utilitarian logic.

What are the kinds of experiences that can kindle a life-altering enchantment?

Murakami argues that the three most important traits in any writer are talent, focus and endurance. Maybe that’s the right order in inspiration-laden fields like novel writing or composing symphonies, but in most of our vocations, endurance, or stamina, matters most.