what "living life to the fullest" looks like

Kurt Vonnegut, talking about when he tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope:

“Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of b

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the value of daily surprises:

"Try to be surprised by something every day. How is this different? What is its essence? Don't assume that you already know what these things are all about, or that even if you knew them, they wouldn't matter anyway. Experience this one thing for what it is, not what you think it

Philosopher John Macmurray explains one of the dilemmas of life:

"In imagination we feel sure that it would be lovely to live with a full and rich awareness of the world. But in practice sensitiveness hurts. It is not possible to develop the capacity to see beauty without developing also the capacity to see ugliness, for they are the same capacity.

A life full of distractions is, at an individual level, diminished. When you are unable to pay sustained attention, you can't achieve the things you want to achieve

— Stolen Focus, Johann Hari

One of the great balancing acts in life is to be cautious and daring at the same time. Cautious enough to avoid stupid mistakes, prevent burnout, and maintain a margin of safety. Daring enough to bet on yourself, to do the things you would regret leaving undone, and to be willing to be uncomfortable in the short term so you can learn and grow in th

Big ambitions, low expectations, and high standards are a powerful combination for living your best life.

Let go of the 'shoulds.' Life is full of 'shoulds' - you should go to that event, you should answer that text, you should do the laundry, etc., but at the end of the day, they are 'cans' and you determine if and when you act.

When any positive feeling or thought strikes you, emote it. Tell your friends you hope you’ll be friends for life; tell people you are attracted to them; laugh out loud and touch people. We are emotional, physical beings — to not express our emotions in person, through shared experiences, is to be less human. Less alive.

The disease of our times is that we live on the surface. We're like the Platte River, a mile wide and an inch deep. Real work and real satisfaction come from the opposite of what the web provides. They come from going deep into something - the book you're writing, the album, the movie -and staying there for a long, long time

— STRATSCRAPS v101

Limit everything to the essential but do not remove the poetry.