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
It takes courage and commitment to live our deepest values and cultivate our best selves. But, as T. S. Eliot put it, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.”
Tony Schwartz, Jean Gomes, Catherine McCarthy • The Way We're Working Isn't Working
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
Which is why it’s useful to begin this last stage of our journey with a blunt but unexpectedly liberating truth: that what you do with your life doesn’t matter all that much—and when it comes to how you’re using your finite time, the universe absolutely could not care less.
Oliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control.
Stephen Hanselman • The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
What is worthy of your one life?
This question is a call to wake up, to turn off the autopilot that so easily steers us day in and day out. It’s an invitation to break free from routine, to step back and see your life with fresh eyes. To shake the dust off dreams you’ve left on the shelf. To ask yourself if you’re truly living, or just going through... See more
This question is a call to wake up, to turn off the autopilot that so easily steers us day in and day out. It’s an invitation to break free from routine, to step back and see your life with fresh eyes. To shake the dust off dreams you’ve left on the shelf. To ask yourself if you’re truly living, or just going through... See more
To harness the courage we need to get on the right path, it pays to reflect on how short life really is and what we want to accomplish in the little time we have left. As poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”12