My philosophy is very simple: When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to stand up and just say something. You have to do something. I got into good trouble, necessary trouble. Even today, I tell people, ‘We need to get in good trouble.’
John Lewis
Tag: The Human Condition
A broad category to be sure…
On Change
Growth is painful. Change is painful. But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong.
N. R. Narayana Murthy
Better
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
Maya Angelou
On current events
Jason Fried writes:
It’s easy to say what a year, what a week. But that’s a shortsighted, privileged point of view. I’m guilty of holding that occasional perspective. It’s moments like these that jolt me into recognizing the deeper reality.
On current events – Signal v. Noise
Indeed.
Seeds
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
Robert Louis Stevenson
A Way Back
Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Warriors
No person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone. There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors.
Adrienne Rich, Sources
Expectations
I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.
Bruce Lee
What are you afraid of?
Alan Weiss writes in the Million Dollar Consulting Mindset newsletter:
Too often our personal “driving force” isn’t composed of our strengths and passions but rather of our fears. We are afraid to confront an issue; to start a conversation; to pick up the phone; to try something new. We are “driven” in another direction entirely, to procrastinate, make excuses, abandon a plan, endure a poor relationship.
As the same poles in a magnet repel, we are “repelled” in a different direction, antipodal to our intended goals. “Fight (our fears) or flight” results in flight. This makes us not only unsuccessful, but also uninteresting.
As with any problem, to remove it we must find the cause. And in this case the cause is almost always an ego problem, poor self-esteem, “baggage” being borne for no rational reason at all. We fear rejection, we fear a “loss,” we fear ridicule, we fear “defeat,” we fear fear itself. Our fears are, of course, irrational, because they create a far worse future than any pain in confronting the obstacles would actually produce.
Success: what people think it looks like versus what it really looks like
From This is a Book by Demetri Martin
Josh Richards 