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101 " Find out why you’re after what you’re after. Ignore those who mess with your pace. Let them covet what you have, not the other way around. Because that’s independence. "
― Ryan Holiday , Ego Is the Enemy
102 " Yes, there are legitimate stresses and anguish that come with the responsibilities of your new life. All the things you’re managing, the frustrating mistakes of people who should know better, the endless creep of obligations—no one prepares us for that, which makes the feelings all the harder to deal with. "
103 " It is not enough to have great qualities; we should also have the management of them. —LA ROCHEFOUCAULD "
104 " His job was to set the priorities, to think big picture, and then trust the people beneath him to do the jobs they were hired for. "
105 " As you become successful in your own field, your responsibilities may begin to change. Days become less and less about doing and more and more about making decisions. Such is the nature of leadership. "
106 " Yes, we are small. We are also a piece of this great universe and a process. "
107 " Remind yourself how pointless it is to rage and fight and try to one-up those around you. Go and put yourself in touch with the infinite, and end your conscious separation from the world. Reconcile yourself a bit better with the realities of life. Realize how much came before you, and how only wisps of it remain. "
108 " You thought it would get easier when you arrived; instead, it’s even harder—a different animal entirely. What you found is that you must manage yourself in order to maintain your success. "
109 " Who knows—maybe a downturn is exactly what’s coming next. Worse, maybe you caused it. Just because you did something once, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to do it successfully forever. Reversals and regressions are as much a part of the cycle of life as anything else. But we can manage that too. "
110 " Almost without exception, this is what life does: it takes our plans and dashes them to pieces. Sometimes once, sometimes lots of times. "
111 " Yes, it would feel much better in the moment to be angry, to be aggrieved, to be depressed or heartbroken. When injustice or the capriciousness of fate are inflicted on someone, the normal reaction is to yell, to fight back, to resist. You know the feeling: I don’t want this. I want ______. I want it my way. This is shortsighted. "
112 " Think of what you have been putting off. Issues you declined to deal with. Systemic problems that felt too overwhelming to address. Dead time is revived when we use it as an opportunity to do what we’ve long needed to do. "
113 " Most trouble is temporary . . . unless you make that not so. Recovery is not grand, it’s one step in front of the other. Unless your cure is more of the disease. "
114 " It’s a common attitude that transcends generations and societies. The angry, unappreciated genius is forced to do stuff she doesn’t like, for people she doesn’t respect, as she makes her way in the world. "
115 " There’s one fabulous way to work all that out of your system: attach yourself to people and organizations who are already successful and subsume your identity into theirs and move both forward simultaneously. It’s certainly more glamorous to pursue your own glory—though hardly as effective. Obeisance is the way forward. "
116 " It means you’re the least important person in the room—until you change that with results. "
117 " The only real failure is abandoning your principles. Killing what you love because you can't bear to part from it is selfish and stupid. If your reputation can't absorb a few blows, it wasn't worth anything in the first place. "
118 " Leaders like Belichick and Merkel know that steak is what wins games and moves nations forward. Sizzle, on the other hand, makes it harder to make the right decisions. "
119 " Reversals and regressions are as much a part of the cycle of life as anything else. "
120 " Remember, “zealot” is just a nice way to say “crazy person. "