Relationship with self

As I said, to put our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. So we do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors. WE STRIVE TO BE OURSELVES.

But don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean that we can’t BE firemen, bankers, or doctors— but that we must make the goal conform to the individual,

Writer James Baldwin on hate as a defense mechanism: "I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."

One of the great benefits of writing down the events in your life is that you will begin to see your existence as a grand story.

I started to talk about my fears and my hurt. I started questioning what was important to me and why

“There is always a philosophy for lack of courage.” — Albert Camus, “Notebooks (1942–1951)”

the self is no longer a subject but a project . The self is something to be optimised, to be maximised, to be made efficient, cultivated for its capacity for productive output. The worry is that all life activities become viewed as lines on a résumé. Knowingly or otherwise, we risk being constantly governed by the question How is what I’m doing