The real fear

These are serious fears. But they’re not the real fear. Not the Master Fear, the Mother of all Fears that’s so close to us that even when we verbalize it we don’t believe it. Fear That We Will Succeed. That we can access the powers we secretly know we possess. That we can become the person we sense in our hearts we truly are.

~ Steven Pressfield

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Premeditation

The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; He who has learnt to die has forgot to serve.

~ Montaigne

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Boring

Somebody’s boring me—I think it’s me.

~ Dylan Thomas

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The creative mind

The creative mind gets poisoned with the idea that your great work will be the result of getting serious. So many of my good ideas come from what looks like goofing off, wasting time. Art is play. There’s no way to tell what’s deep or shallow until you play with the idea.

~ Austin Kleon

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Who was listening

[…] so the Muse whispered in Beethoven’s ear. Maybe she hummed a few bars into a million other ears. But no one else heard her. Only Beethoven got it.

~ Steven Pressfield

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Sleep

It’s a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.

~ John Steinbeck

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A bore

A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you.

~ Bert Taylor

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Acceptance

My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.

~ Michael J. Fox

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Freedom

I think freedom, ideally, is being able to choose your responsibilities. Not not having any responsibilities, but being able to choose which things you want to be responsible for.

~ Toni Morrison

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Professionalism

The essence of professionalism is the focus upon the work and its demands, while we are doing it, to the exclusion of all else. The ancient Spartans schooled themselves to regard the enemy, any enemy, as nameless and faceless. In other words, they believed that if they did their work, no force on Earth could stand against them.

~ Steven Pressfield

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