While I was out…

The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership. by Steven B. Sample

“Dig for gold in the supertexts…”

The Power of Now. by Eckhart Tolle

“Be totally present.” (It is impossible to overstate the power and importance of this book.)

We Are All Weird. by Seth Godin.

“Mass is dead. Here comes weird.”

Seth Godin on Blogging and Productivity

“I have never met anyone who has seriously written down their goals, and done it properly, who is stuck or is considered a failure. Not one person.”

Seth Godin. Talker’s Block.

“I believe that everyone should write in public… Do it every day. Every single day.”

A question you asked me a long time ago.

“Twelfth grade, and I am so done with this place.”

Chase Jarvis Live. With Chris Jordan.

“The joy that it brings to make things for a living… I just got scared for about a decade.”

Chase Jarvis Live. With Tim Ferris.

“I had to focus on process over outcome… I wrote for my friends. It was the only way I could find my voice.”

John Muir Quotes

“The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”

Stocism 101. @ Time Ferris by Ryan Holiday

“There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living; there is nothing harder to learn.” -Seneca

Wake up…

The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I’m sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live trapped in loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out ahead of us. We see the same things each day, we respond in the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following the gentle curves of social norms. We act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us.

And no, I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know how to jolt myself into seeing what each moment could become. But I do know one thing: the solution doesn’t involve tempering my life to better fit someone’s expectations. It doesn’t involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up.

This is very important, so I want to say it as clearly as I can:

F—. That. S—.

xkcd

… and live.

“Tell me… do you not feel a spirit stirring within you that longs to know, to do, and to dare, to hold converse with the great world of thought, and hold before you some high and noble object to which the vigor of your mind and the strength of your arm may be given? Do you not have longings like these, which you breathe to no one, and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass through life unsatisfied and regretful? I am sure you have them, and they will forever cling round your heart till you obey their mandate. They are the voices of that nature which God has given you, and which, when obeyed, will bless you and your fellow men.” ~ James A. Garfield, in a letter to a friend