mantras
Almost everything that is meaningful, beautiful, life-affirming, empowering, transformational, true—it can’t be reached by shortcuts. But what we can do is make the longcuts walkable, put out footbridges and stairs, and a table where the ocean comes into view.
Henrik Karlsson • On Shortcuts and Longcuts
She ran her hand over her shorn head again, felt a stirring of pride mixed up with the pressure that was tightening in her like a bolt being turned into place. Her hair was a declaration, not an admission. All things should be declarations, not admissions.
Maggie Shipstead • Great Circle: the dazzling, instant New York Times bestseller
I understand now that no one else in the world knows what I should do. The experts don’t know, the ministers, the therapists, the magazines, the authors, my parents, my friends, they don’t know. Not even the folks who love me the most. Because no one has ever lived or will ever live this life I am attempting to live, with my gifts and challenges
... See moreGlennon Doyle • Untamed
Poet Marianne Moore offers a simple life strategy: "I've made it a principle not to be over-influenced by minor disappointments."
similarly - don’t be over-influenced by awkwardness
"If we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known"
When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness. I’m indebted to the Jungian therapist James Hollis for the insight that major personal decisions should be made not by asking, “Will this make me happy?”, but “Will this choice enlarge me or diminish me?” We’re terrible at predicting what will make us happy: the question swiftly... See more
oliverburkeman.com • Oliver Burkeman's Last Column: The Eight Secrets to a (Fairly) Fulfilled Life
Talking or writing about the things you're interested in is a good way to generate new ideas. When you try to put ideas into words, a missing idea creates a sort of vacuum that draws it out of you. Indeed, there's a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing.