Last year, I asked readers to tell me their lessons from 2019. One was: “Like on an airplane, you have to put on your oxygen mask before you can help someone else put on theirs. I learned that I have to take care of myself before I’m even qualified to take care of someone else.”
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor Frankl
If you haven't read Frankl's classic, "Man's Search for Meaning" you are missing the fuck out.
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Confession: I had a small man-crush on Emerson in college. I love this passage.
FUCKS POORLY GIVEN:
Gimme that!
Why doesn't he/she like me?
I deserve that!
It's my fault...
FUCKS PROPERLY GIVEN:
What can I give?
How can I help?
What can I control?
Do I like myself?
How are your fucks being allotted today?
Finding purpose is not a 5-day spa retreat. It's a fucking hike through mud and shit with golf-ball-sized hail pelting you in the face. And you have to love it. You have to laugh about it. To show the world your scars and say, "I stood for THIS".
Or am I being dramatic?
Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of believing your passion isn’t valid unless it’s paying your bills. It’s not true. Your passion can be just for YOU without ever making you a dollar.
You will feel more alone in the wrong relationship than you ever will when you're single-- and you're robbing yourself of the opportunity to find the right person for YOU. And maybe, right now, the right person for you... is you ❤️ Spend time tuning into YOU.
Choosing your values is simply choosing what to give a fuck about. Choose wisely or you'll wind up in a heaping pile of shit for most of your life. https://t.co/VsPbCHLBUq
"Today's goal: Remind yourself that you can't go back. You have no choice but to go forward, but you can choose how you get there. Walk, don't crawl, toward your new life- your next life. Carry yourself with as much courage as you can muster. Keep moving." @maggiesmithpoet
When you think about how overwhelming it is to run a marathon, or write a book, or start your own business-- there’s a MILLION things to do. Here’s what to do instead: focus on the little steps that you can take every day. Write one sentence. Walk one block.
If you have big dreams you have to do BIG things to make them happen, right? Wrong. It’s easy to get so caught up in the hugeness of your goals that you become paralyzed in taking action.