🤔 Morning thoughts (December 30 - January 5)
Every Sunday I share a quote and a reflection on it for each day of the week.
Themes of the week: Leadership, Initiative, Self-awareness, Resilience, Risk, Growth
Sunday - January 5, 2025
"In a world of followers, leaders stand out. Take initiative any time people are around to notice."
Scott Adams, Reframe Your Brain
Producing energy gets you attention when most people just consume it. If you want to stand out, do it intentionally and take responsibility for it. People don’t like to see their flaws mirrored to them but they love someone who will take on the work to overcome them.
Saturday - January 4, 2025
"the real foundation of the self is not in self-knowledge, but in the self-forgetfulness that occurs when it meets something other than the self it first wanted to know."
David Whyte, Consolations
Your identity is just a mirror of something deeper that can’t be easily manipulated. To know yourself so you can shape yourself, you have to get over your self. Truth lies in an egoless state.
Friday - January 3, 2025
"The goal of civilization seems to be to eliminate work and risk, but the world has changed more than we have."
Jack Donovan, The Way of Men
What you most fear is often just the pull of something rooted deep inside you. It’s calling you to be truer to yourself.
Thursday - January 2, 2025
"While the others talk, the Warrior trains himself in the use of the sword and keeps his eye on the horizon."
Paulo Coelho, Warrior of the Light
The best way to walk your talk is to learn, plan and execute. Most people fail at least at one of the three. Being uncommon is not that hard.
Wednesday - January 1, 2025
"Failure is a man-made circumstance. It is never real until it has been accepted by man as permanent. Stating it another way, failure is a state of mind; therefore, it is something an individual can control until he neglects to exercise this privilege."
Napoleon Hill, Outwitting the Devil
This year, reframe unconditionally. When you only see success as your default operating mode, opportunity is everywhere.
Tuesday - December 31, 2024
"Nothing wonderful is ever accomplished without the willingness to look foolish or risk failure."
Zan Perrion, The Alabaster Girl
You’ll only find the gold if you keep digging no matter the circumstances. Not getting started because you’re afraid or stopping when you’re not seeing immediate results, are all symptoms of attachment and fear of living on your edge. Build your grit.
Monday - December 30, 2024
"We know ourselves through others."
Derek Sivers, Useful Not True
All our problems stem from our relationships, but so does all our self-knowledge. Life is about having the right problems with the right people for the right reasons. That’s how you truly come to know yourself.