6. “If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody.” – Anthony Bourdain
Quotes
41 Essential Quotes That Shows The Beauty Of Simplicity
Success is dependent upon simplicity, the simpler we can make things the more successful we will be. It’s as simple as that! Simplicity aids understanding, it allows us to focus better, it increases belief and builds confidence.
The value of simplicity has been known for centuries, its importance has been understood by the best and the brightest throughout history. Yet we somehow still have a natural tendency to over complicate things.
That’s why we love inspirational quotes. They are simple and straight to the point and can help you to shift your perspective in life.
Here are 41 quotes on simplicity to remind you of the importance and beauty of being simple:
1. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius
2. “In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
3. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci
4. “The most complicated skill is to be simple.” – Dejan Stojanovic
5. “That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” – Steve Jobs
6. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton
7. “It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” – Amelia Barr
8. “Simplicity is a prerequisite for reliability.” – Edsger Dijkstra
9. “I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.” – Lao Tzu
10. “Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius.” – George Sand
11. “Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.” – Sir Joshua Reynolds
12. “Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject.” – Thomas Mann
13. “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” – Lin Yutang
14. “The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.” – Douglas Horton
15. “Simplicity is the outcome of technical subtlety. It is the goal, not the starting point.” – Maurice Saatchi
16. “Simplicity is a state of mind.” – Charles Wagner
17. “Understanding reduces the greatest to simplicity, and lack of it causes the least to take on the magnitude.” – Raymond Holliwell
19. “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” – Albert Einstein
20. “The greatest ideas are the simplest.” – William Golding
21. “Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
22. “Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures.” – Tom Peters
23. “Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most.” – Clement Mok
24. “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” – Martin H. Fischer
25. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler “ – Albert Einstein
26. “People often associate complexity with deeper meaning, when often after precious time has been lost, it is realized that simplicity is the key to everything.” – Gary Hopkins
27. Growth creates complexity, which requires simplicity.” – Andy Stanley
29. “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau
30. “It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.” – Bruce Lee
31. “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.” – John Maeda
32. “Things are never as complicated as they seem. It is only our arrogance that prompts us to find unnecessarily complicated answers to simple problems.” – Muhammad Yunus
33. “The role of genius is not to complicate the simple, but to simplify the complicated.” – Criss Jami
34. “Complexity is impressive, but simplicity is genius.” – Lance Wallnau
35. “Complexity is enemy of execution”. – Anthony Robbins
36. “Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Come can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.” – Alan Perlis
37. “Simplicity will stand out, while complexity will get lost in the crowd.” – Kevin Barnett
38. “Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.” – Winston Churchill
39. “The evolution of knowledge is toward simplicity, not complexity.” – L. Ron Hubbard
40. “The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace.” – Mildred Norman
41. “As you simplify your life, the laws of the Universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” – Henry David Thoreau
To achieve simplicity we need to have a simplicity first attitude. Simplicity is not easy, but it is achievable, and it makes everything easier.
Which one of these simplicity quotes is your favorite? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
Confucius was an exceptional teacher and philosopher that founded Confucianism which can be described as a way to govern your life. Confucianism is founded on the notion that human beings can improve their life through personal development and create the life they truly desire.
Below are some bits of wisdom Confucius spoke to life:
1. “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.” – Confucius
2. “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius
3. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius
4. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius
5. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
6. “The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”- Confucius
7. “The journey with a 1000 miles begins with one step.”- Confucius
8. “All people are the same; only their habits differ.”- Confucius
9. “If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.”- Confucius
10. “Worry not that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.”- Confucius
11. “One joy dispels a hundred cares.”- Confucius
12. “Roads were made for journeys not destinations.”- Confucius
13. “No matter how busy you make think you are you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”- Confucius
14. “The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.”- Confucius
15. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”- Confucius
16. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”- Confucius
17. “When anger rises, think of the consequences.”- Confucius
18. “Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.”- Confucius
19. “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”- Confucius
20. “When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.”- Confucius
21. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”- Confucius
22. “A gentleman would be ashamed should his deeds not match his words.”- Confucius
23. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”- Confucius
24. “When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.”- Confucius
25. “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”- Confucius
Which quote resonated with you the most? Comment below!
Highly regarded as one of Viktor Frankl’s greatest works, “A Man’s Search For Meaning” highlights Dr. Frankl’s perseverance and survival through the Auschwitz concentration camp. His insights, both harrowing and enchanting, can be readily applied as a sort of spiritual compass for the modern-day man or woman.
With more distracting information than ever available today, most people quietly yearn for wisdom. Rather than fabricate a guidance system that may but probably won’t be applicable to your unique situation, I’ve leveraged one of the finest minds in recent historical memory to forge a more universal guidance system.
Here are 5 of my favorite and most applicable excerpts from one of Dr. Frankl’s most classic writings:
1. “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”
This is where emotional agility resides. Always, even if only for a split-second, we’re given a choice in our response after an event unfolds. Things become increasingly complicated when we either forget we have a choice or don’t believe we have one (even though, in essence, you’re choosing not to believe it).
Taking five full seconds to process events prior to responding — especially the ones we’re taken aback by — shifts the balance of power back in our favor. This space between is our mental fortress — the command center for life-altering actions to be triggered. Make sure you treat it as such.
2. “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.”
Some of the hardest, yet most freeing advice I’ve ever received is the statement “It’s not about you.” There are moments in life when we “do the right thing” and fill with spiritual joy. We don’t think about who may have been watching, if we’ll get credit, or how it may come back around. We just do it.
Those moments when we get outside of ourselves and stand for a greater purpose deliver the onset of lasting fulfillment. The times where you light up not because of the recognition you’ve received, but because you committed an act of true nobility are the one’s when you leave your mark on the world in a positive manner. The more you look to be a moon instead of the sun, the happier you will be along the way.
3. “In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.”
You’ve heard it before: “Life has no meaning except for the meaning we give it.” While this understanding does give off a grim outlook, it’s actually quite the contrary. This grants us the freedom to assign whatever we see fit. When we realized a meaning isn’t necessarily fixed, we can sift through our options until we land on what’s most empowering.
In the book, Frankl recounts a story of a boy dying an early death. He shares how the boy once saw a situation unfold where he revered a terminally ill person’s courage and dignity in handling ultimate demise. Instead of cursing the heavens upon his own diagnosis, the boy stated fate was granting him a similar opportunity.
Luckily for most of us, our everyday experiences aren’t life or death. This is the case, however, until it’s not. The fragility and beauty of life are collapsed. It’s essential we maximize our time and minimize our suffering to make the most of it. Don’t cling to the first thing that shows up when a tough situation presents itself. Scan your optional meanings and make a wise, empowering decision.
4. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
The majority of suffering occurs today when the blueprint of someone’s life doesn’t match reality. This gap between expectation and actuality is where pain resides. We can usually do a few things to shift the occurrence of reality, but much of it is outside our locus of control. To continue closing the gap, we must change the hard expectations we have for our lives.
Immediately after, feelings of resignation may show up, like we’re compromising what we deserve. However, the lasting change can be found in our values and what we place at highest importance. For example, many people want things like love and passion in their lives, but only if it’s packaged a certain way. Perhaps other desire success, but it must be distinct type of success. Reevaluating what we want the most versus what we want right now can be a prudent “saving grace” for making the most out of difficult situations.
5. “For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.”
As Don Miguel Ruiz asserts in “The Four Agreements,” always doing your best is critical to life working for you. Who gets the pick of the litter in terms of fame and fortune is damn-near a crapshoot, but there will be far less spoils for any of us to garner unless each of us does our best. This is where a certain degree of faith is required to continue making sacrifices for the sake of your contribution to the world, even if no one is watching.
The silver lining for those of us reading this article that we get to choose. Engaging in activities we legitimately enjoy puts us in a better state, which increases the likelihood we will be kind and supportive of others as we come in contact with them.
Life is hard enough for each individual. When left to our own devices, our minds often wander into darkness – sometimes unlikely to return. It is with this in mind, we do our best. We continue getting up, helping others, and doing as much of what we love as time permits. We may not shake the world this way, but we can certainly move it.
Which one of Viktor Frankl’s quotes is your favorite and why? Let us know in the comments below!
Anthony Bourdain was a legend. From his extensive knowledge & experience to the culinary world, to the adventures he brought us on the show Parts Unknown where the shared the stage with everyone from villages in Cambodia to former president Barack Obama. However Bourdain continued to drop knowledge bombs through his entire career that resonate with us today.
Here are 23 of Anthony Bourdain’s best quotes:
1. “You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.” – Anthony Bourdain
2. “To be treated well in places where you don’t expect to be treated well, to find things in common with people you had thought previously you had very, very little in common with, can’t be a bad thing.” – Anthony Bourdain
3. “I’m not afraid to look like an idiot.” – Anthony Bourdain
4. “I always entertain the notion that I’m wrong, or that I’ll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it hurts and is really embarrassing.” – Anthony Bourdain
5. “Your body is not a temple: It’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” – Anthony Bourdain
8. Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetring in the unknown.” – Anthony Bourdain
9. “I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.”- Anthony Bourdain
11. “It’s very rarely a good career move to have a conscience.” – Anthony Bourdain
12. “The way you make an omelet reveals your character.” – Anthony Bourdain
13. “Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund.” – Anthony Bourdain
14. “Luck is not a business model” – Anthony Bourdain
15. “Without new ideas success can become stale.” – Anthony Bourdain
16. “Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom… is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.” – Anthony Bourdain
17. “I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.” – Anthony Bourdain
18. “Don’t lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don’t do it again. Ever.” – Anthony Bourdain
19. “Cream rises. Excellence does have its rewards.” – Anthony Bourdain
20. “What are our expectations? Which of the things we desire are within reach? If not now, when? And will there be some left for me?” – Anthony Bourdain
21. “I learned a long time ago that trying to micromanage the perfect vacation is always a disaster. That leads to terrible times.” – Anthony Bourdain
22. “Life is complicated. It’s filled with nuance. It’s unsatisfying… If I believe in anything, it is doubt. The root cause of all life’s problems is looking for a simple fucking answer.” – Anthony Bourdain
23. “Life is complicated. It’s filled with nuance. It’s unsatisfying. If I believe in anything, it is doubt.” – Anthony Bourdain
Which Anthony Bourdain quote resonates with you the most? Comment below!
Michael B. Jordan is quickly becoming an all-star actor. After appearing in major motion pictures such as Creed and most recently as the villain Killmonger in the blockbuster Black Panther. Hailing from Newark New Jersey, he grew up in one of the roughest places in the U.S. However, he overcame struggles, worked hard, and found success through being obsessed with his passion: acting.
Here are some of Michael B. Jordans best & most powerful quotes:
1. “I’ve never been the guy to hype myself up. It’s just not my thing.” – Michael B. Jordan
2. “I think everyone starts in the mailroom at some point! It’s a rite of passage. Your boss has to throw something at you and order you around for at least two years.” – Michael B. Jordan
3. “So you tell yourself to just do the work and disconnect, because you have no control over the outcome.” – Michael B. Jordan
4. “Sometimes you’re overthinking, you convince yourself to get out of it and you’re like, ‘ah I shoulda did that!’ You can’t live life with regrets. Sometimes you just gotta indulge. But in the same breath, you gotta have restraint and self-control too.” – Michael B. Jordan
5. “Be collaborative. I’ve had some of my best experiences with directors who were able to sit down and have a conversation and ask me what I thought.” – Michael B. Jordan
6. “I want people to leave the theatre and think, ‘How can I be a better person?’ That’s the only way things are going to improve.” – Michael B. Jordan
7. “I think it’s just easier for people to put you in a box or a lane because you look similar. I think that’s unfair for anybody in any situation.” – Michael B. Jordan
8. “Taking a break, taking a moment, is super important.” – Michael B. Jordan
9. “You can only fool reality until the truth comes knocking on your door.” – Michael B. Jordan
10. “As human beings, why does it take somebody to feel like they’re close to us for us to see their humanity? Why can’t we see the humanity in people that are distant from us?” – Michael B. Jordan
11. “Sometimes family doesn’t always consist of your relatives or by blood. Sometimes your best friends can feel more like family than your cousins. I think everybody kind of has that same feeling. When you go through an accident together, when you go through a traumatic event, sometimes that brings you closer together.” – Michael B. Jordan
Like these quotes? Check out more quotes from his namesake Michael Jordan
12. “I think everybody wants to be their own person and be an individual.” – Michael B. Jordan
13. “Sometimes you gotta go with your first instinct. You gotta go with your gut. That’s kind of how I live my life you gotta go with your gut.” – Michael B. Jordan
14. “Equality means having the same rights and liberties and opportunities regardless of our differences.” – Michael B. Jordan
15. “Do as much homework as you can. Learn everybody’s job and don’t just settle.” – Michael B. Jordan
16. “That’s one of the fun parts of becoming an actor: you can become whoever you want to be.” – Michael B. Jordan
17. “I’m not good at everything, I just do my best at everything.” – Michael B. Jordan
18. “Certain things I can’t even explain. There’s a thing about being lucky and…I feel like certain things are just, like, in your cards. I’m just walking the path that’s already set.” – Michael B. Jordan
19. “I’ve been living with that all my life. My name is Michael Jordan, so I’m always being compared to a person of greatness.” – Michael B. Jordan
20. “I think redemption is just about righting a wrong, and in that pursuit it’s about trying. You can stumble, you can make mistakes, but it’s about trying to do the right thing.” – Michael B. Jordan
21. “Just as people, we’re different around different people and in different environments.” – Michael B. Jordan
22. “Don’t pretend to know everything. I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of veteran actors, and I soak up lessons from them like a sponge.” – Michael B. Jordan
23. “Sometimes you’ve gotta hide the medicine in the food. You can’t slap somebody in the face with facts all the time. It’s too harsh.” – Michael B. Jordan
Which quote resonated with you the most? Comment below!
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15 Typical Life Problems And How To Solve Them.
All of our problems are the same. This is the 156th time I’ve written this fact (for those of you counting).
Problems are forever and we can’t avoid them. You’ll wake up tomorrow and have problems for breakfast. You’ll jump on the train and read a problem in your email inbox.
You’ll get to the office and get a problem smack bang in your pretty face!
The typical problems we face can be solved.
Here are 15 typical life problems and how to solve them:
You didn’t reach your goal.
Just because you set a goal, doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. Many of life’s toughest goals take lots of attempts. Some of the goals I missed are:
• Dream careers
• Girls I wanted to date
• Saving enough money to build a school in Laos
• Reaching 100k followers on LinkedIn
People who talk about success and personal development (and even write for a site called Addicted2Success like me) also don’t reach their goals.
The best feeling about reaching a goal is the journey it took to get there. If all your goals were easy, then you’d feel nothing at the end of the process.
Solution:
Take the goal you didn’t achieve and try a different approach. Doing the same thing over and over to achieve your goal is the definition of insanity.
Your heroes miss their goals too. What makes them stand out is that they don’t give up. The fun of goal-setting is knowing that you’ll fail.
Someone criticized you.
If you want to make a dent in this world, then the critics will come out of the closet. The bigger your aspirations are, the more you’ll be criticized.
The number of critics you have is in direct proportion to your success.
“I had an entire blog post written about me saying how stupid I was. It felt like crap on day one. By day seven I’d made peace with the criticism and kept writing”
Solution:
You can’t please everybody that you meet in life.
When you speak on a stage, for example, 25% of people will like you, 25% won’t know who you are and 50% of people will think you’re an asshole even though you’ve probably done nothing wrong.
Critics are not all bad. You can learn things about yourself from them too. The solution is to learn from criticism, not be afraid of it.
Your career got messed up.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a happy-go-lucky office worker, your career is going to get messed up at some point.
The definition of business is this: Moving from one problem to another and making money in the meantime to fuel your mission. Business is really just problem-solving.
- Redundancy could right hook you in the face.
- The business you founded could go backwards and even bankrupt.
- Your career skills could become outdated.
- You could get fired for making a mistake.
Your career is going to get messed up. Things you can never predict in your career are going to happen.
Solution:
See career challenges for what they are: an opportunity to try something different. If your career never got messed up, then you’d probably stay in your comfort-zone for your entire life and never try something different.
The solution is to see your career getting messed up as a chance to grow.Getting made redundant could be the one reality that makes you want to create your own startup.
Having a customer leave could decrease your workload and create space for clients who won’t drain your time and make you no money.
You have financial troubles.
That crazy little thing called money will let you down at some point.
“I’ve personally been rich and poor multiple times”
Upon reflection, the time I’ve been the happiest has been when I’ve had the least amount of money.
Countless studies have shown that money isn’t what your life’s about. As humans, we seek meaning, love and our own version of happiness.
Money won’t give you any of those human needs.
That doesn’t mean money doesn’t matter; it just means that it shouldn’t be your main focus or something you obsess over.
Solution:
Lack of money is a gift. When you don’t have money, you become resourceful and creative at the same time.
Lack of money helps you decide on what matters and what doesn’t.
If things get really bad, then you’ll likely prioritize feeding your family over buying another useless car that will never make you happy. You’ll take joy in the simple things in life.
The solution to financial problems is to see them as a gift and choose a meaning for your life instead.
You’re unhealthy.
Our health has become a real problem. We wonder why we feel tired, sick and get headaches. We’ll all experience health challenges at some point in our life.
How many health challenges we experience in our younger years will come down to food and exercise. The strategies for being healthy haven’t changed.
There’s no mystery around being healthy it’s just that we’ve become lazy.
Convenience powered by apps has overtaken our ability to do basic tasks and not binge watch Netflix every night.
Solution:
Take ownership. Quit feeling sick and do something about it. Have some blood tests. Change your diet to be more plant-based.
Drink more water. Get your lazy ass to the gym 3 times a week for 30 minutes. Stand up from your desk every now and then so you’re not sitting for the whole day and messing your spine/neck up.
Whatever you do, take ownership of your health and quit being ignorant.
A relationship ended.
There’s less than 1% of people who met ‘The One,’ lived happily ever after, and never experience a breakup.
Even that 1% will have that relationship end at some point when either side passes away.
For the majority of us who don’t strike gold the first time around, we’re going to have to deal with breakups and the trials and tribulations of romance.
We’ll probably find ourselves in a toxic relationship for too long.
We’ll probably get cheated on at least once.
We’ll probably have our hearts smashed into a million pieces when we discover that someone ‘No longer loves us anymore.’
These are the realities of the human condition and our need to reproduce and keep our species alive.
Solution:
Finding love is about understanding what love is not. You need relationships to end to find out what love really is. All breakups suck in the beginning until you grow and move on. Then, the solution to this problem is to find yourself.
Once you find yourself, the heart will be ready for love again. How you move forward from there is up to you.
You can try the good old fashion nightclub scene. You could go to Meetups. Or, you could start swiping left and right on a few dating apps.
“Have your heart broken just don’t let it stay that way”
You made a dick of yourself.
Geez, this one is an ugly truth for me.
I’ve made an ass of myself more times than I’ve had protein and veggies for dinner. Here’s a few just for laughs (and your entertainment).
• There was the time I tried to pretend I could be the Wolf of Wall Street and got laughed out of the interview due to not being able to explain derivatives
• There was the time I thought this girl liked me and tried to hug her while we were walking only to have her hate my guts
• There was the time I went out with friends and threw up on my friend’s couch after having a single shot of Tequila
• There was the time I did my first public speaking gig and messed up a speech about my own life which I’d rehearsed over 100 times
We could talk for days about how I’ve embarrassed myself over the years. We could even compare epic fails to see who’s are worse. This is not a game though.
We’re all going to go into situations with the best of intentions or all the experience in the world and still screw up.
Solution:
Making a dick of yourself is a sign of courage. Courage is what is found in leaders and those who are doers.
Making a dick of yourself is an acceptance that you might fail in the short-term.
Those who fail in the short-term will eventually win in the long-term with practice.
“The opposite of making a dick of yourself is perfection.That’s a life where you think your shit doesn’t stink and you spend your entire day trying to impress everybody to eventually impress nobody”
Making an idiot of yourself is perfectly fine. What’s not fine is being perfect
Someone messed your *shit* up.
Car, home or insert other material possession that doesn’t matter. None of these material things that got messed up are joining you in the afterlife.
You can’t bury the Bentley with you (although someone tried) so you can drive around with your great, great, great grandpa and do burnouts in the afterlife.
The stuff that is going to get messed up doesn’t matter.
Solution:
What matters is that you don’t get messed up. What matters is that you take care of yourself so you can take care of others. Maybe when your junk gets messed up, you’ll realize that you didn’t need it in the first place.
You feel like your life has no meaning.
These moments where nothing makes sense is where you get to explore. We’re not born with a meaning for our life. Meaning comes from learning who we are and growing as a person.
The meaning for your life when you’re 19 will probably change from when you’re 51 and got three grown-up kids.
The quickest way to destroy your life is to believe that life has no meaning. A lack of meaning leads to depression, carelessness, drug taking and even crime at an extreme level.
Solution:
If you feel like your life has no meaning, then it’s time to experiment.Standing still is not how you find the answer.
“Being intensely focused on one’s self only leads to more suffering”
A short-term solution to this problem is to experiment with helping those who have nothing. Spend time with people who’d kill to be in your position and get some perspective.
I’ve found in my life that the greatest meaning for your life is normally tied to finding something you’d be happy to do for free that helps others.
You feel like you can’t go on.
We’ve all had those days. Those deep and sometimes dark thoughts can lead to a place you’ve never visited.
Some failures in life hurt more than others. Some failures can’t be solved through a listicle post such as this one with a dose of inspiration.
If you truly feel like you can’t go on, then there’s another way.
Solution:
Seek real help. These dark thoughts must be treated and sometimes the best medicine is to seek professional help through counseling, or for an extreme case, by calling Lifeline.
While I’ve never had suicidal thoughts personally, I have dealt with mental illness.
“There is a way to come out the other side, but you have to put aside your pride and seek help”
Please don’t become another victim of suicide by doing nothing.
Every day feels the same.
You wake up. You eat. You go to work. You eat. You come home. You eat. You go to bed.
Life can feel the same if you do nothing. It’s up to you to create variety and shape your habits into something more than a fixed schedule which makes you feel bored.
Days feel the same when there’s no purpose behind anything you’re doing.
Solution:
You must find joy in the repetition. You do that by taking those reps and making them mean something. Add some variety in by breaking your comfort zone. Set a goal to do something wild during your day every so often.
• Travel to another country
• Talk to someone new
• Try learning a new skill
Even after trying something new, you have to get used to some level of repetition. Let that repetition become habits that serve something which can help others.
Your friends are screwing your life up.
Dump them. Divorce them. Delete their number.
Every relationship you have in your life is a choice. The people around us often hold us back. They fill our minds with limiting beliefs, stories and goals that give us no sense of meaning.
Friends can kill our dreams or make us believe something we never thought was possible.
Solution:
Everyone deserves a second chance. Start by telling your toxic friends how you feel. Give them a chance to change with the new you.
If they refuse, take a break from them for a while. Ask yourself whether you want them in your life long-term.
‘Fitting in’ is what we’re taught to do. What I’d advise you to do is be you instead and that will attract the right people into your life.
You feel stressed.
77% of people in the US alone experience regular stress.
This young, previously blonde blogger has also recently learned about the effects of stress. I had a cortisol test and the doctor found the levels to be twice the normal range.
This stress led to brain fog, tiredness and a lack of mental clarity. Stress is also caused by what you let into your life. Having options can be a bad thing.
Solution:
“We don’t need more; we need less to destress”
• Declutter your home and office
• Say no to more meetings
• Say yes to invites from people that make you feel like saying “Hell Yes!”
• Buy less material things
• Have fewer people in your life
• Listen to one podcast instead of many
• Read fewer books instead of every one that’s recommended on a podcast
• Have less recurring subscriptions
• Invest and save more money so you can stress less about unexpected bills
• Take regular breaks (quarterly has worked for me)
A fear is standing in your way.
There are so many common fears — fear of spiders, flying, public speaking, dying, career change, heights and maybe even a fear of expressing yourself.
Fear is a concept of the mind. Nothing is scary or not scary. Our mind makes that choice for us and provides meaning to everything.
Fear can be overcome and that’s why we love stories of battling with fear. I’ve famously spoken about creating fear lists and then knocking them off one at a time.
Solution:
Smash the fear into tiny little pieces. Don’t avoid it. Don’t let it stand in your way any longer. Make a decision to overcome each fear you have and you’ll be unstoppable by the end.
Don’t let nerves trick you into thinking you’re fearful. We all get nerves, but we can still keep moving forward with nerves — I’ve even learned to use nerves to my advantage by using them as an extra energy source.
Nerves tell me I’m on the right track.
I’ve overcome my fear of public speaking and my fear of flying — my fear of spiders remains, but I’m working on that one 🙂
Real fear can be overcome through deliberate practice.
Dealing with the concept of death.
Last but not least, the old chestnut of death. Death is the one life problem we all have in common and can’t solve. Sorry for the bad news.
Death is going to take us eventually and it will take people you love through your life too.
“The solution to dealing with death is not to overcome it but to accept it”
Death can be our greatest motivator if we let it. Once you understand what death means in all of its darkness, you’ll understand life.
You’ll see death, not as a problem but a fact. That fact will change the way you see everything going forward. For me, it took several near-death experiences (almost being murdered and a cancer scare) to see death for what it is.
Death is not an easy pill to swallow. No short blog post like this is going to give you all the answers you’re probably wanting to know.
The only way I see of dealing with the reality of death is to go out there and live the best damn life you can, while you can!
Use your life to do something that gives you meaning and then you’ll no longer see death as a problem when it comes upon you.
Peace, love and respect — thanks for reading.
<<<>>>
If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net
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The more the simplicity of man increases … the more his humanity increases … The more his humanity increases … the more he becomes satisfied with himself … and the more people love him.
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The beauty of simplicity is so undermined. Thanks Gordon for bringing up how important simplicity is.
You sum it up so well here: “Simplicity aids understanding, it allows us to focus better, it increases belief and builds confidence.”My favorite simplicity quotes in the list are those:
6. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton
23. “Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most.” – Clement Mok
25. “Everything should be made as simpl as possible, but not simpler “ – Albert Einstein -
Gordon thanks for taking the time to put these quotes together for all of us. Number 19 is my favorite as I find that too often these days, people want to complicate things that they don’t understand themselves. The reasons around this are quite broad bur none the less, simplicity is key.
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Confucius was an exceptional teacher and philosopher that founded Confucianism which can be described as a way to govern your life. Confucianism is founded on the notion that human beings can improve their life through personal development and create the life they truly desire.
Below are some bits of wisdom Confucius spoke to life:
1. “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.” – Confucius
2. “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius
3. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius
4. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius
5. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
6. “The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”- Confucius
7. “The journey with a 1000 miles begins with one step.”- Confucius
8. “All people are the same; only their habits differ.”- Confucius
9. “If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.”- Confucius
10. “Worry not that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.”- Confucius
11. “One joy dispels a hundred cares.”- Confucius
12. “Roads were made for journeys not destinations.”- Confucius
13. “No matter how busy you make think you are you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”- Confucius
14. “The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.”- Confucius
15. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”- Confucius
16. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”- Confucius
17. “When anger rises, think of the consequences.”- Confucius
18. “Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.”- Confucius
19. “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”- Confucius
20. “When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.”- Confucius
21. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”- Confucius
22. “A gentleman would be ashamed should his deeds not match his words.”- Confucius
23. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”- Confucius
24. “When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.”- Confucius
25. “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”- Confucius
Which quote resonated with you the most? Comment below!
Highly regarded as one of Viktor Frankl’s greatest works, “A Man’s Search For Meaning” highlights Dr. Frankl’s perseverance and survival through the Auschwitz concentration camp. His insights, both harrowing and enchanting, can be readily applied as a sort of spiritual compass for the modern-day man or woman.
With more distracting information than ever available today, most people quietly yearn for wisdom. Rather than fabricate a guidance system that may but probably won’t be applicable to your unique situation, I’ve leveraged one of the finest minds in recent historical memory to forge a more universal guidance system.
Here are 5 of my favorite and most applicable excerpts from one of Dr. Frankl’s most classic writings:
1. “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”
This is where emotional agility resides. Always, even if only for a split-second, we’re given a choice in our response after an event unfolds. Things become increasingly complicated when we either forget we have a choice or don’t believe we have one (even though, in essence, you’re choosing not to believe it).
Taking five full seconds to process events prior to responding — especially the ones we’re taken aback by — shifts the balance of power back in our favor. This space between is our mental fortress — the command center for life-altering actions to be triggered. Make sure you treat it as such.
2. “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.”
Some of the hardest, yet most freeing advice I’ve ever received is the statement “It’s not about you.” There are moments in life when we “do the right thing” and fill with spiritual joy. We don’t think about who may have been watching, if we’ll get credit, or how it may come back around. We just do it.
Those moments when we get outside of ourselves and stand for a greater purpose deliver the onset of lasting fulfillment. The times where you light up not because of the recognition you’ve received, but because you committed an act of true nobility are the one’s when you leave your mark on the world in a positive manner. The more you look to be a moon instead of the sun, the happier you will be along the way.
3. “In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.”
You’ve heard it before: “Life has no meaning except for the meaning we give it.” While this understanding does give off a grim outlook, it’s actually quite the contrary. This grants us the freedom to assign whatever we see fit. When we realized a meaning isn’t necessarily fixed, we can sift through our options until we land on what’s most empowering.
In the book, Frankl recounts a story of a boy dying an early death. He shares how the boy once saw a situation unfold where he revered a terminally ill person’s courage and dignity in handling ultimate demise. Instead of cursing the heavens upon his own diagnosis, the boy stated fate was granting him a similar opportunity.
Luckily for most of us, our everyday experiences aren’t life or death. This is the case, however, until it’s not. The fragility and beauty of life are collapsed. It’s essential we maximize our time and minimize our suffering to make the most of it. Don’t cling to the first thing that shows up when a tough situation presents itself. Scan your optional meanings and make a wise, empowering decision.
4. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
The majority of suffering occurs today when the blueprint of someone’s life doesn’t match reality. This gap between expectation and actuality is where pain resides. We can usually do a few things to shift the occurrence of reality, but much of it is outside our locus of control. To continue closing the gap, we must change the hard expectations we have for our lives.
Immediately after, feelings of resignation may show up, like we’re compromising what we deserve. However, the lasting change can be found in our values and what we place at highest importance. For example, many people want things like love and passion in their lives, but only if it’s packaged a certain way. Perhaps other desire success, but it must be distinct type of success. Reevaluating what we want the most versus what we want right now can be a prudent “saving grace” for making the most out of difficult situations.
5. “For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.”
As Don Miguel Ruiz asserts in “The Four Agreements,” always doing your best is critical to life working for you. Who gets the pick of the litter in terms of fame and fortune is damn-near a crapshoot, but there will be far less spoils for any of us to garner unless each of us does our best. This is where a certain degree of faith is required to continue making sacrifices for the sake of your contribution to the world, even if no one is watching.
The silver lining for those of us reading this article that we get to choose. Engaging in activities we legitimately enjoy puts us in a better state, which increases the likelihood we will be kind and supportive of others as we come in contact with them.
Life is hard enough for each individual. When left to our own devices, our minds often wander into darkness – sometimes unlikely to return. It is with this in mind, we do our best. We continue getting up, helping others, and doing as much of what we love as time permits. We may not shake the world this way, but we can certainly move it.
Which one of Viktor Frankl’s quotes is your favorite and why? Let us know in the comments below!
Anthony Bourdain was a legend. From his extensive knowledge & experience to the culinary world, to the adventures he brought us on the show Parts Unknown where the shared the stage with everyone from villages in Cambodia to former president Barack Obama. However Bourdain continued to drop knowledge bombs through his entire career that resonate with us today.
Here are 23 of Anthony Bourdain’s best quotes:
1. “You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.” – Anthony Bourdain
2. “To be treated well in places where you don’t expect to be treated well, to find things in common with people you had thought previously you had very, very little in common with, can’t be a bad thing.” – Anthony Bourdain
3. “I’m not afraid to look like an idiot.” – Anthony Bourdain
4. “I always entertain the notion that I’m wrong, or that I’ll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it hurts and is really embarrassing.” – Anthony Bourdain
5. “Your body is not a temple: It’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” – Anthony Bourdain
6. “If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody.” – Anthony Bourdain
8. Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetring in the unknown.” – Anthony Bourdain
9. “I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.”- Anthony Bourdain
11. “It’s very rarely a good career move to have a conscience.” – Anthony Bourdain
12. “The way you make an omelet reveals your character.” – Anthony Bourdain
13. “Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund.” – Anthony Bourdain
14. “Luck is not a business model” – Anthony Bourdain
15. “Without new ideas success can become stale.” – Anthony Bourdain
16. “Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom… is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.” – Anthony Bourdain
17. “I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.” – Anthony Bourdain
18. “Don’t lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don’t do it again. Ever.” – Anthony Bourdain
19. “Cream rises. Excellence does have its rewards.” – Anthony Bourdain
20. “What are our expectations? Which of the things we desire are within reach? If not now, when? And will there be some left for me?” – Anthony Bourdain
21. “I learned a long time ago that trying to micromanage the perfect vacation is always a disaster. That leads to terrible times.” – Anthony Bourdain
22. “Life is complicated. It’s filled with nuance. It’s unsatisfying… If I believe in anything, it is doubt. The root cause of all life’s problems is looking for a simple fucking answer.” – Anthony Bourdain
23. “Life is complicated. It’s filled with nuance. It’s unsatisfying. If I believe in anything, it is doubt.” – Anthony Bourdain
Which Anthony Bourdain quote resonates with you the most? Comment below!
Michael B. Jordan is quickly becoming an all-star actor. After appearing in major motion pictures such as Creed and most recently as the villain Killmonger in the blockbuster Black Panther. Hailing from Newark New Jersey, he grew up in one of the roughest places in the U.S. However, he overcame struggles, worked hard, and found success through being obsessed with his passion: acting.
Here are some of Michael B. Jordans best & most powerful quotes:
1. “I’ve never been the guy to hype myself up. It’s just not my thing.” – Michael B. Jordan
2. “I think everyone starts in the mailroom at some point! It’s a rite of passage. Your boss has to throw something at you and order you around for at least two years.” – Michael B. Jordan
3. “So you tell yourself to just do the work and disconnect, because you have no control over the outcome.” – Michael B. Jordan
4. “Sometimes you’re overthinking, you convince yourself to get out of it and you’re like, ‘ah I shoulda did that!’ You can’t live life with regrets. Sometimes you just gotta indulge. But in the same breath, you gotta have restraint and self-control too.” – Michael B. Jordan
5. “Be collaborative. I’ve had some of my best experiences with directors who were able to sit down and have a conversation and ask me what I thought.” – Michael B. Jordan
6. “I want people to leave the theatre and think, ‘How can I be a better person?’ That’s the only way things are going to improve.” – Michael B. Jordan
7. “I think it’s just easier for people to put you in a box or a lane because you look similar. I think that’s unfair for anybody in any situation.” – Michael B. Jordan
8. “Taking a break, taking a moment, is super important.” – Michael B. Jordan
9. “You can only fool reality until the truth comes knocking on your door.” – Michael B. Jordan
10. “As human beings, why does it take somebody to feel like they’re close to us for us to see their humanity? Why can’t we see the humanity in people that are distant from us?” – Michael B. Jordan
11. “Sometimes family doesn’t always consist of your relatives or by blood. Sometimes your best friends can feel more like family than your cousins. I think everybody kind of has that same feeling. When you go through an accident together, when you go through a traumatic event, sometimes that brings you closer together.” – Michael B. Jordan
Like these quotes? Check out more quotes from his namesake Michael Jordan
12. “I think everybody wants to be their own person and be an individual.” – Michael B. Jordan
13. “Sometimes you gotta go with your first instinct. You gotta go with your gut. That’s kind of how I live my life you gotta go with your gut.” – Michael B. Jordan
14. “Equality means having the same rights and liberties and opportunities regardless of our differences.” – Michael B. Jordan
15. “Do as much homework as you can. Learn everybody’s job and don’t just settle.” – Michael B. Jordan
16. “That’s one of the fun parts of becoming an actor: you can become whoever you want to be.” – Michael B. Jordan
17. “I’m not good at everything, I just do my best at everything.” – Michael B. Jordan
18. “Certain things I can’t even explain. There’s a thing about being lucky and…I feel like certain things are just, like, in your cards. I’m just walking the path that’s already set.” – Michael B. Jordan
19. “I’ve been living with that all my life. My name is Michael Jordan, so I’m always being compared to a person of greatness.” – Michael B. Jordan
20. “I think redemption is just about righting a wrong, and in that pursuit it’s about trying. You can stumble, you can make mistakes, but it’s about trying to do the right thing.” – Michael B. Jordan
21. “Just as people, we’re different around different people and in different environments.” – Michael B. Jordan
22. “Don’t pretend to know everything. I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of veteran actors, and I soak up lessons from them like a sponge.” – Michael B. Jordan
23. “Sometimes you’ve gotta hide the medicine in the food. You can’t slap somebody in the face with facts all the time. It’s too harsh.” – Michael B. Jordan
Which quote resonated with you the most? Comment below!
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Ghassan Katbeh
Sep 10, 2017 at 6:26 pm
The more the simplicity of man increases … the more his humanity increases … The more his humanity increases … the more he becomes satisfied with himself … and the more people love him.
Turenne
May 16, 2016 at 9:39 pm
The beauty of simplicity is so undermined. Thanks Gordon for bringing up how important simplicity is.
You sum it up so well here: “Simplicity aids understanding, it allows us to focus better, it increases belief and builds confidence.”
My favorite simplicity quotes in the list are those:
6. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton
23. “Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most.” – Clement Mok
25. “Everything should be made as simpl as possible, but not simpler “ – Albert Einstein
Tim Denning
Dec 29, 2015 at 11:41 pm
Gordon thanks for taking the time to put these quotes together for all of us. Number 19 is my favorite as I find that too often these days, people want to complicate things that they don’t understand themselves. The reasons around this are quite broad bur none the less, simplicity is key.
addicted 2 The Grind
Dec 28, 2015 at 10:36 pm
Great quotes. Thanks for sharing.