To ask, every day, "What matters, in the end?" is to create the possibility of differentiated choice, the potential to overthrow the tyranny of our history, so as to honour something in us that has always been there, waiting for our courage.
— James Hollis
To ask, every day, "What matters, in the end?" is to create the possibility of differentiated choice, the potential to overthrow the tyranny of our history, so as to honour something in us that has always been there, waiting for our courage. — James Hollis
In this course, it is not “Who do I want to be in life?” but “What is it that I want to accomplish in life?”
Ryan Holiday • Ego Is the Enemy
“What is it that I want to accomplish in life?” Setting aside selfish interest, it asks: What calling does it serve? What principles govern my choices? Do I want to be like everyone else or do I want to do something different?
Ryan Holiday • Ego Is the Enemy
At the end of your life, your purpose will be defined not by how you struggled, what circumstances you were in, or what you were supposed to do, but how you responded in the face of adversity, who you were to the people in your life, and what you did each day that slowly, in its own unique way, changed the course of humanity.
Brianna Wiest • The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery
To be or to do—life is a constant roll call.
Ryan Holiday • Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent
it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.
Viktor E. Frankl • Man's Search for Meaning
In the end all that matters is:
How much joy did you have during your time here on earth?
Optimize towards that.
Who do I want to be? And: What path will I take? (Quod vitae sectabor iter.)
Ryan Holiday • Ego Is the Enemy
The things we spend most of our time pursuing turn out to be curiously irrelevant when it comes to seeing the value of a life as a whole. They are urgent but not important, and in the crush and press of daily life, the urgent tends to win out over the important.