🤔 Morning thoughts (June 17 - 23)
Every Sunday I share a quote and a reflection on it for each day of the week.
Themes of the week: Discipline, boldness, preparation, purpose, discernment, stillness, honesty.
Sunday - June 23, 2024
"When Krishna keeps telling Arjuna to train his mind to be alike in pleasure and pain, he is simply being practical: to discover unity, consciousness has to be withdrawn from the hold of the senses, which ties it to duality."
Eknath Easwaran, The Bhagavad Gita
Keep a still mind even when things are going well. Stillness in the ordinary is strength in the moments of need.
Saturday - June 22, 2024
"You cannot be afraid to disappoint people. You have to live the life you want to live. Sometimes, that means being the motherfucker who can put a middle finger up to everyone in the room and be totally comfortable with that."
David Goggins, Never Finished
Honesty is refusing to wearing a mask, even when it’s painful.
Friday - June 21, 2024
"Let the universe handle the details. Your intentions and desires, when released in the gap, have infinite organizing power."
Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
Often the hardest part of progress is setting things in motion and being deliberate. Most people overestimate the importance of the tactics over the simple intentions.
Thursday - June 20, 2024
"Do not be afraid to be bold. In the large sense, you are working out for yourself what Alexander experienced as his destiny and what Friedrich Nietzsche called your “life’s task”—the thing toward which your natural leanings and aptitudes, talents and desires, seem to point you. Assigning yourself a life task will inspire and guide you."
Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War
Part of making your life epic is finding meaning and magic in the ordinary. Passion and a sense of purpose won’t come to you, you have to go to them. Be bold and see things like no one else sees them.
Wednesday - June 19, 2024
"For the player, knowing when to hold that ball or pass it or shoot it required stripping away the crowd noise or the opponent’s hand in his face and making the right call almost instinctively. Behind that instinct were the days and weeks of practice in building up a “muscle memory” of what to do next—and what not to do."
Bob Knight, The Power of Negative Thinking
Preparation is everything. The work is never finished, so you might as well find work your future self will find worth the effort.
Tuesday - June 18, 2024
You must always be prepared to place a bet on yourself, on your future, by heading in a direction that others seem to fear.
Robert Greene, The 50th law
There’s no better bet in life than the one you place on yourself. No matter the outcome, the lessons you learn will be worth it. Play your hand ruthlessly, knowing the only one you lose is the hand you don’t play.
Monday - June 17, 2024
Action is endlessly searching for the right lifehack to finally make you productive; right action is getting to work. Action is eating a Twinkie; right action is eating chicken breasts and broccoli
Eschenroeder, Kyle, The Pocket Guide to Action
Motion and consistency are common among the common. What only the few do is developing the discernment and the discipline to know where and how to move.