🤔 Morning thoughts (January 1 - 7)
Every Sunday I share a quote and a reflection on it for each day of the week.
Themes of the week: calm, calling, feedback, destiny, resistance, rewards, responsibility
Sunday - January 7, 2024
“As body and mind become one, we need only calm our body in order to calm our mind”
Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor
Take care of your body and you’ll get access to the mind. Embracing discomfort is the key to mastering your body/mind connection.
Saturday - January 6, 2024
“We are always learning, always growing. It is right to accept challenges. This is how we progress to the next level of intellectual, physical, or moral development. Still, don’t kid yourself: If you try to be something or someone you are not, you belittle your true self and end up not developing in those areas that you would have excelled at quite naturally. Within the divine order, we each have our own special calling. Listen to yours and follow it faithfully.
Epictetus, The Art of Living
To hear your calling you have to stop bullshitting yourself about who you want to be. To get to the root of who you want to be, you have to be clear on what you’ll commit to do, day in and day out to become the person you’re meant to be.
Friday - January 5, 2024
"Giving feedback is way easier. Asking for honest and critical feedback regardless of the reason takes guts."
Dan Martell, Buy Back Your Time
If you want to understand how your mind reacts, seek feedback in every area of life.
Thursday - January 4, 2024
"If you do it right, it’s also torture not to do it. The sled dog gets anxious if it doesn’t get to wear its harness. The horse wants to go out and trot. The bee dies if cut off from the hive. When you find what you’re meant to do, you do it"
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny
A habit is the compound effect of doing what you’re called to be doing, even when you don’t feel like doing it, and without a guaranteed reward. Habits are signposts along the process.
Wednesday - January 3, 2024
“Let’s make this, then, our hardball, hardcore assumption from Day One: We will have to fight Resistance every day, all year long, from the moment we open our eyes.”
Steven Pressfield, The Daily Pressfield
Learn to see doing the hard thing as simply doing the thing. Nothing excellent ever comes out of what’s effortless.
Tuesday - January 2, 2024
“It makes a difference in the quality of our life and the kind of person we become when we learn how to distinguish between cheap thrills and meaningful, lasting rewards.”
Epictetus, The Art of Living
With every temptation you are at a fork in the road. You know which way will take you where you want to go and which way won’t. Making the right choice is just a matter of character.
Monday - January 1, 2024
“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”
Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Living is work. You decide what you put in and what you get out of it with each and every thought, action and reaction. You don’t just get a life, you earn it.