Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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“It’s impossible,” said pride.
~ unknown
“It’s risky,” said experience.
“It’s pointless,” said reason.
“Give it a try,” whispered the heart.
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You just can’t beat a person who never gives up.
~ Babe Ruth
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Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops.
~ “Maximus“
Imagine where you will be, and it will be so.
If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields
with the sun on your face, do not be troubled.
For you are in Elysium, and you’re already dead!
Brothers, what we do in life… echoes in eternity.
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The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.
~ unknown
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The size of your problems is nothing compared with your ability to solve them. Don’t overestimate your problems, and underestimate yourself.
~ unknown
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You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.
~ “Benjamin Mee“
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Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it.
~ Jean de La Fontaine
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Sometimes there is no next time, no second chance, no time out. Sometimes it is now or never.
~ unknown
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A lot of times we procrastinate because we have to jump through a lot of hurdles before we can do the thing we actually want to do. For example, let’s say you need to prepare dinner. So you need your dishes, cutlery, pots and pans. But what if they are still in the sink from the time you used them for lunch? That means before you can actually start cooking, you need to wash them first.
~ Thanh Pham from, http://www.asianefficiency.com/habits/clearing-to-neutral/
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ɕ
When everything feels like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top.
~ unknown
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Those of us living in the United States have enshrined in our founding documents the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, a concept that has older roots in European philosophers such as John Locke. These documents, of course, provide not the slightest bit of instruction about how to embark upon this pursuit, wisely leaving this conundrum to the individual and the communities to which he or she belongs.
~ Chris Masterjohn from http://chrismasterjohnphd.com/2011/08/04/pursuit-of-happiness-does-not-require/
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ɕ
The pain I endure became the pleasure I constantly crave.
~ unknown
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If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
~ Booker T. Washington
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Remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day.
~ unknown
Work hard, good results will come.
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If no one thinks you can,
~ unknown
then you have to.
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Hike mountains.
~ unknown
Run through meadows.
Explore forests.
Swim the sea.
Climb trees.
Breath wild air.
Gaze at the stars.
Enjoy the natural world.
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(Part 61 of 72 in series, My Journey)
My level of motivation varies tremendously, and it took me far too long to learn that it was cyclical. I used to think I had these huge swaths of motivated productivity with an occasional, unexplained crash. I used to think I just needed to figure out how to avoid those anomalous crashes, and I spent too much precious time fighting with myself in the down-turns. I now see that I was wrong; My motivation is inherently cyclical.
When I am highly motivated, it’s alluring to believe that I should spend my time working only on focused and directed things. I used to fall into the trap of trying to focus all of my time and energy on moving forward. I felt that if I wasn’t on-task, then I was wasting time, and that feeling fed into my sense of guilt.
Because I now expect the inevitable down-turns, I feel justified spending time on things which support my motivation in the long run. I work intermittently in two directions: I spend some of my time working on-task towards achieving my goals, and some time goofing-off cultivating my motivation and inspiration. In effect, I’m prolonging the motivational peaks by spreading them out wider. At the highest points, I may not be as motivated as I once was, but I maintain a productive level of motivation for a much longer time.
(To be fair, I have a pretty organized way of goofing-off. I read from a wide range of online sources and books, from health, wellness and exercise blogs to physiology text books. I constantly fiddle with new exercises to try, places to go, health tweaks, and habits. I make plans to travel near and far, where I can meet new people, and visit old friends. I even have no-thinking-required things — music playlists, and monotonous chores — which I can draw on when I need to be off-task.)
But eventually, I head into a down-turn. They vary from mild bouts of, “meh,” where I simply feel unmotivated to do any of the things I’ve set out for myself, to dark moods of depression. Regardless of the depth, when I’m heading into a motivational down-turn, my best tactic is to stop doing — to stop trying — and to simply be. It’s as if I’m at the crest of the first hill on a roller-coaster; I see what’s coming, and prepare for the inevitable ride.
At the bottom of that huge, thrill-less, depressing hill it is agonizing to lay in a puddle of “meh” and believe that this is exactly what I need to be doing right now. But that is the truth. After countless cycles of ebb and flow, I’ve learned to think: “Right now, laying in this puddle is exactly what I need.”
…and that is the key to my success.
I remind myself to roll with this down-turn, guilt-free. I try to avoid “should’ing” on myself. (I should stop this. I should do that.) I remind myself this down-turn is only one phase of a healthy cycle.
I rest.
I mope.
Maybe I watch a movie and have some popcorn. Maybe I nap. Maybe I nap in the hammock if it’s warm outside. Maybe I bask before the fire, or lay in the sun. I do whatever it is I feel like doing, which may well be absolutely nothing at all. I throw down the reigns which my executive-level mind normally holds with an iron grip. I set my thoughts and body free. They weren’t listening anyway.
And then I could write a long diatribe where I try to explain how it feels as if there’s this big, gloomy, moping, dog that sits around keeping me stuck in the down-turn. And eventually that dog gets bored and I can convince it to go away. And, honestly, it’s a stupid metaphor. Except for the fact that here I am, stuck writing some lousy metaphor, making me hate writing this, which — it turns out — is exactly the sort of perfect metaphor for feeling lousy when I’m stuck in a down-turn…
I’m going for a walk.
Just the tiniest little stroll.
But…
Walking invariably loosens up my mind. Sometimes it takes days of doing nothing interspersed with some walking before I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Soon, I find I have at least a few things on my mind that need to be unloaded. When I hear that quiet calling, I write whatever-it-is into my journal. Writing things down — moods, worries, plans, ideas — unjumbles my mind. So I record my thoughts as inspiration for future projects, and as reminders to expect future down-turns.
Eventually, I simply find the thought of working on something might actually be fun. At which point I realize I’m headed back towards the next up-turn.
When things go badly, relax; It will not last.
When things go well, relax; It will not last.
ɕ
Always focus on how far you’ve come,
~ unknown
rather than how far you have to go.
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I can accept failure, but I cannot accept not trying.
~ unknown
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