Let us be thankful for today and its abundance… inspiring words from Buddha
A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.
Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.
However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them? An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.
The tongue like a sharp knife… Kills without drawing blood.
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
Siddhārtha Gautama, regarded as the Supreme Buddha ( The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE)
Thanks to Paulo Coelho (& Caatje for bringing it to my attention)
Take a break from striving and make time for what you already have!
“Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you.” -John De Paola
Sometimes life can seem like a giant race in which we’re all chasing happiness through goals and to-do lists. No sooner than you complete one task, three spring up in it’s place. There’s hardly any time to appreciate the present–not when there’s always more to achieve, create or gain.
While most of us find happiness through commitment to a purpose, there is a middle road between discontentment and complacence. It is possible to maintain forward momentum and still notice, appreciate and enjoy what you have with a sense of peace and stillness.
Much of what you’re chasing is already available in the moment, exactly as it is.
You don’t have to spend your hours, like currency that will get you something you want. At any time, you can simply enjoy where you are. Make that time today, whether it’s a minute, an hour, or an afternoon. Take a break from striving and make time to want what you have.
After you read today’s post, Desire What You Have and Feel More Satisfied in Life, you may enjoy reading:
- 10 Ways to Slow Down and Still Get Things Done
- 7 Reasons to Be Happy Even If Things Aren’t Perfect Now
Use your potential, you already have everything you need
“Joy comes from using your potential.” –Will Schultz
Persian poet and philosopher Rumi wrote:
You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust.
You were born with ideals and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.
Remember that you have all that potential and greatness in you right in this moment. You have the capacity to feel passionate, motivated, challenged, inspired and impressed with your abilities. You have the power to feel alive.
It’s easy to forget how powerful you are when you get caught up in your struggles and mistakes. When you start stressing about what’s been or what might be coming and let your thoughts become shackles.
Make the conscious choice not to anchor yourself. Let go of whatever is holding you back and make the choice to fly. The only difference between you and someone who lives out loud is choice.
Where will you soar today?
Taking Responsibility for Your Destiny – Words that Inspired First a Man, later a Nation
This is what helped Mandela through his time in prison:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Who says video games isolate you from your family?
Some lessons from the right on copyleft: brilliant talk by REMIX’ Lawrence Lessig
Want to motivate them? Don’t provide all the steps; just ask the shortest possible question
From a graffiti artist, with love
The last 10% is the part that makes your work stand out. Hardly worth the effort?
In most fields, there’s an awful lot of work put into the last ten percent of quality.
Getting your golf score from 77 to 70 is far more difficult than getting it from 120 to 113 or even from 84 to 77.
Answering the phone on the first ring costs twice as much as letting it go into the queue.
Making pastries the way they do at a fancy restaurant is a lot more work than making brownies at home.
Laying out the design of a page or a flyer so it looks like a pro did it takes about ten times as much work as merely using the template Microsoft builds in for free, and the message is almost the same…
Except it’s not. Of course not. The message is not the same.
The last ten percent is the signal we look for, the way we communicate care and expertise and professionalism. If all you’re doing is the standard amount, all you’re going to get is the standard compensation. The hard part is the last ten percent, sure, or even the last one percent, but it’s the hard part because everyone is busy doing the easy part already.
The secret is to seek out the work that most people believe isn’t worth the effort. That’s what you get paid for.
