A sign of emotional intelligence is moving from “You made me feel” to “This is how I reacted.” Our emotions aren’t caused by other people’s actions. They’re shaped by our interpretations. Blaming others gives them power over our feelings. Taking responsibility empowers us.

"You won't always get what you strive for, but you will definitely get what you settle for. You won't magically outperform your standards."

Back when I was feeling a imless and lost I used to read and reread something Cheryl Strayed wrote about writing: The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering abou... See more

Morrison’s novels are all motivated by an idea: some complex knotty inquiry that she could work through in the space of a novel. As Morrison described it, the idea for Beloved began when she read a newspaper article about Margaret Garner—a 19th-century woman who fled slavery with her children. Facing capture, Garner killed one of her children and t... See more

“Other people might not understand who you’re becoming, or why you’re choosing what you choose, or what you’re doing during your seasons of emergence. The good news is that you don’t need anyone’s understanding to live into your truest next chapter. You don’t need anyone’s permission or validation. You don’t need anyone’s green light. You get to go... See more

One of the best ways you can show productivity trust = modeling and embracing “blank time.”

I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched. I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: T

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After all, not to be corny, haven’t we all become selective autobiographers in the digital age as we curate our lives for our own audiences of any size—cutting away from the raw fabric of our lived experience to reveal the shape of the story we most want to tell, whether it’s on our own feeds or the world’s stage?

This is, for many of us, the dream: unfettered commitment to externalizing our innards without concern for any gaze but our own. Reclaiming one’s time, you could say. But it requires nothing short of a battle.