Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort
“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.” Nothing truly meaningful or lasting has ever been created in a short period of time. If you learn the story behind any great success, you realize how many years went by and how many hard choices were made to achieve it. Reaching for more is not only an act of ambition, it also comes from passion
... See moreTimothy Ferriss • Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World
A realization I’ve had lately: practically anything that’s great in the world is that way only through constant attention and care—e.g. great products, yards, marriages, companies, friendships. If left alone, practically everything defaults toward mediocrity at best or ruin at worst. “Constant attention and care” always requires time and this is a... See more
Steve Schoeffel • Tweet
Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.
– Theodore Roosevelt
Design Satisfaction and Its Opposite
I am not thrilled with the new design for a project I’m about to implement.
When I think about it, I always start comparing it to my work, immediately recalling this and that project, which, although somewhat outdated, I am still very satisfied with. It makes me proud that all the effort that went into such
... See moreThere are necessary developmental thresholds someone has to pass through, and there's no real salve or proxy for it. You can give advice from a vantage point of wisdom, but someone has to go through the experience in order to internalize the lesson. Transformation occurs through multiple collisions with reality. Almost everything that holds
... See moreNix 🕊 • Experience Is Incompressible
Almost everything that holds meaning, weight, and gravity, cannot be reached by a shortcut, by sheer force alone. But by acceptance. Acceptance that what you desire for can survive contact with the world, and will yield meaning. You have to devote the time it takes to inhabit the world, chip away at its interior. No one can break the shell for you!... See more
Nix • experience is incompressible
Instead of allowing myself a slow morning after a restless night, I go for a run.
Instead of relaxing on the couch, I'm teaching myself how to code.
Instead of avoiding a difficult conversation, I embrace it.
These things share one important truth: I know that I will feel better once they've happened. These actions are scalable because they optimize
... See moremarcel.io • Life-Affirming Choices
Unfortunately, that flabby life is the default we slide into without a deliberate struggle against it. You are always getting weaker unless you’re making efforts to get stronger. If you aren’t finding new ways to push your physical and mental limits, or at least maintain their capacity, they are shrinking. Your capacity is unlikely to be stretched... See more