Life Path Advice

Stop asking yourself what you want, what you desire, what interests you. Ask yourself instead, “what has been given to me?” Ask, “What do I have to give back?” Then act.

-Cheryl Strayed

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is

How do you know you’re on your path? Because it disappears. You can’t see where you’re going. That’s how you know.

-David Whyte

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Frodo and Gandalf

"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

"We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal."

-Robert Brault

From the movie City Slickers:

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?

Mitch: No. What?

Curly: This. [He holds up one finger.]

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean shit.

Mitch: That's great, but what's the "one thing"?

Curly: That's what you've got to figure out.

There's nothing I revile quite as much as a dilettante. I don't like doing something to a mediocre level. It's great to be 70, because you really get to preach with some authority:

Get good at something. That's it. Everything else is bullshit.

— Jerry Seinfeld