Excerpts

There are 35 posts filed in Excerpts (this is page 3 of 4).

The Only Things We Need

We use the word “need” much too casually. The only things we truly need are the basics of physical survival—air, water, food, clothing, shelter—and everyone reading this book already has these. We also need the basics of intellectual and emotional well-being—love, family, friendship, satisfying work, hobbies, faith—each reader has his or her own list here. But it’s a short list, and it does not—or should not—include the $500 jacket or the $100,000 car, because there are other jackets and cars. It should not include this particular job or sale or deal, because there are other jobs and sales and deals.

Excerpt from Start With No by Jim Camp.

Failure Humbles

Every creative person has to learn to deal with failure, because failure, like death and taxes, is inescapable. If Leonardo and Beethoven and Goethe failed on occasion, what makes you think you’ll be the exception?

I don’t mean to romanticize failure, to parrot the cliche, “If you’re not failing, you’re not taking enough risks,” especially if that view “liberates” you to fail too often. Believe me, success is preferable to failure. But there is a therapeutic power to failure. It cleanses. It helps you put aside who you aren’t and reminds you who you are. Failure humbles.

Excerpt from The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp.

On the Shortness of Life

Life is sufficiently long, and has been granted with enough generosity for us to accomplish the greatest things, provided that in its entirety it is well invested; but when it is dissipated in extravagance and carelessness, when it is spent on no good purpose, then, compelled at last by the final necessity, we realize it has passed away without our noticing it passing. So it stands: we do not receive a life that is short, but rather we make it so; we are not beggars in it, but spendthrifts. Just as great and princely wealth, when it falls into the hands of a bad owner, is squandered in a moment, while wealth that is by no means great, if it becomes the property of a good guardian, grows by use, so our span of life has ample measure for one who manages it properly.

Excerpt from a letter to Paulinus titled: “On the Shortness of Life” as translated in Seneca: Dialogues and Essays by John Davie.

The Obligation of Artists and Professionals

As artists and professionals it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skills. In this uprising, we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture. We overthrow the programming of advertising, movies, video games, magazines, TV, and MTV by which we have been hypnotized from the cradle. We unplug ourselves from the grid by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, Inc., but only by doing our work.

Excerpt from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

Happy People Make More Money

Some people think that money is not important for happiness, or even that rich people are not happy. On the contrary, research has shown that people who are well-off financially are happier than poor people (Diener & Biwas-Diener, 2002; Diener & Seligman, 2004). It has usually been assumed that financial success brings happiness. But it is also true that happy people make more money. Indeed, happy people are successful in many areas of life that require motivation and persistence, including domains such as work and income (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005).

Excerpt from Life Goals and Well-Being: Are Extrinsic Aspirations Always Detrimental to Well-Being? by Ingrid Brdar, Majda Rijavec & Dubravka Miljkovic

Aristotle on Material Wealth

(Happiness) belongs more to those who have cultivated their character and mind to the uttermost, and kept acquisition of external goods within moderate limits, than it does to those who have managed to acquire more external goods than they can possibly use, and are lacking goods of the soul . . . Any excessive amount of such things must either cause its possessor some injury, or, at any rate, bring him no benefit.

Excerpt from The Politics of Aristotle (1958 translation) by Aristotle

It’s Not About You

The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side effect of self-transcendence.

Excerpt from Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

The Lost Art of Amateurism

Originally, “amateur,” from the Latin verb amare, “to love,” referred to a person who loved what he was doing. Similarly a “dilenttante,” from the Latin delectare, “to find delight in,” was someone who enjoyed a given activity . . . There was a time when it was admirable to be an amateur poet or a dilettante scientist, because it meant that the quality of life could be improved by engaging in such activities. But increasingly the emphasis has been to value behaviour over subjective states; what is admired is success, achievement, the quality of performance rather than the quality of experience. Consequently it has become embarrassing to be called a dilettante, even though to be a dilettante is to achieve what counts most—the enjoyment of one’s actions provide.

Excerpt from Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Chasing Success

Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue . . . as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.

Excerpt from Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.