Tag: Quotations

Get away from it all

Eric Johnson

Nice Sunday morning thought from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations:

People try to get away from it all—to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like.
By going within.
Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions—than your own soul. Especially if you have other things to rely on. An instant’s recollection and there it is: complete tranquillity. And by tranquillity I mean a kind of harmony.
…

So keep this refuge in mind: the back roads of your self. Above all, no strain and no stress. Be straightforward. Look at things like a man, like a human being, like a citizen, like a mortal. And among the things you turn to, these two:
i. That things have no hold on the soul. They stand there unmoving, outside it. Disturbance comes only from within—from our own perceptions.
ii. That everything you see will soon alter and cease to exist. Think of how many changes you’ve already seen.
“The world is nothing but change. Our life is only perception.”

Head out on “the back roads of your self” when the world seems too distracting, too full. Unplug for a while and be intentional about finding a moment of tranquility. No vacation necessary.

No place like home

Eric Johnson

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Photo by lwpkommunikacio on Flickr

I delight in being in and around water. It’s a soul-satisfying joy to have my feet in the sand while gazing toward the horizon across the ocean. That first plunge into a swimming pool, wet and weightless, is bliss. Jumping waves with my kids or dangling my feet off a dock by the lake – so good. The feel of the sun on my skin with the sound of water rippling nearby uncoils pent up tension. I even welcome rain – mist or torrent, daylong downpour or quick storm. It somehow pitches me back into the real world.

The genuine comforts of touching the real world can get submerged in the artificial world most of us live in day to day.

Our time here is short. Heartbreak could be around the corner. Or joy. But this place is home and we should accept what is and immerse ourselves fully in the human experience. Too often we yearn to be somewhere other than here and now, or we live for what we hope will be some eternal reward. But life before death, that’s the challenge, that’s what is before us every day, every moment.

We are not strangers in a strange land, set apart from nature. We are of this world no matter how much we attempt to disconnect from it. Put your bare feet on the grass and know that you are in your element. Wade in the water; walk in the rain. Breathe in and breathe out in full awareness of the life force of this incredible planet. There’s no place like home.

Courtesy and kindness

Eric Johnson

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Kindness is the king of virtues.

Rage can win headlines and whip a crowd into a frenzy. A stadium roars in approval when a coach goes on a rampage against an official. A politician’s poll numbers will rise if she goes off on a sanctimonious rant against an opponent in a debate. “Look how tough I am” is often the message. Ego is at stake.

Anger is loud. Kindness is quiet.

It’s easy to give in to anger. It’s a powerful emotion. That’s why defaulting to kindness and courtesy, especially when righteous anger seems justified, when someone has done you wrong, requires great strength and genuine courage. Whenever I have snapped at someone (which, truly, does not happen often), the regret is immediate and painful.

Next time I feel I’m losing my temper or itching to rant, I need to catch myself in the act and find the strength to observe the emotion rather than venting it.

 

Rob Lowe and Marcus Aurelius

Eric Johnson

Never compare your insides to someone else’s outsides – it’s another way of saying that there’s no upside to envy.

–Rob Lowe

My wife, Shanna, shared this Rob Lowe quote with me recently. (Yes, that Rob Lowe, the “brat pack” actor you remember from the 80s and more recently of The West Wing TV series.)

That quote is a nice bit of wisdom. When she read it to me I responded that it reminded me of a line I had just read in Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations.

And Shanna laughed.

She’s got a great laugh. She thought it was funny that she was quoting a Hollywood celebrity, and I was quoting a second century philosopher-king. She’s amused by my eggheaded eccentricities.

We’re a good match, she and I.

It’s a nice reminder that wisdom doesn’t have to be ancient to be meaningful. Nor does it have to come from a sage. And really, everyone, regardless of education or station in life, has a bit of Yoda or Mr. Miyagi or Marcus Aurelius (or Rob Lowe) in them, a unique insight on life that could only come from living their life, from seeing the world through their eyes.

Be open to insight and wisdom from anyone. And don’t judge yourself or be discouraged in comparison to the person you perceive someone else to be. Trust Rob Lowe on this.

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.

—

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

–Marcus Aurelius

Striving

Eric Johnson1 Comment

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If the most satisfying rewards are the intrinsic ones, striving for mastery, for artistry in your work, becomes a joyful end in itself. “Making it” is an illusion. You never get there. There is no there there. Imagine how dull life would be if you did “arrive” and just sat by the pool all day. I could take a week by the pool, mind you, maybe even two, but a life of leisure with nothing to strive for, nothing to keep you sharp, sounds miserable.

John Mayer expressed practically the same sentiment as Coltrane’s:

It’s only fun when you’re trying to get it in your grasp. It’s like, you know, once you catch it, throw it back in the water then catch it again. That’s really what I want to do my whole career. -John Mayer

Comfortable? Got it figured out? Time to get busy upping your game, mastering something new, starting from scratch, striving.

Learn from everyone

Eric Johnson

I saw this Emerson quotation referenced in an Austin Kleon tweet yesterday:

I will learn from everyone and be no one’s disciple.

I couldn’t find the original source for it, but it seems very Emersonian.

Learn from everyone. Don’t assume you are wiser than anyone you encounter. Every person has experienced things you haven’t. Be open to what others can teach you. Be humble. Assume nothing about anyone.

When inclined to judge, try to understand instead.

This is all easy to say. Not so easy, though, to be the kind of person who truly faces the world so open-heartedly, so teachable and humble. Maybe this means asking more questions of others and genuinely listening to the answers. Listening more than you talk.

Then there’s the “be no one’s disciple” half of the phrase. No matter how together someone seems or how authoritative they are said to be, don’t bow down to their opinions and copy them into your worldview. Accept nothing without reasonable inquiry and solid evidence. Don’t give over your freedom to anyone else. Ever.

Dropping keys

Eric Johnson

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Catch yourself locking others up in your expectations, your dogma. And stop it.

Break out of the constraints others place on you. Be authentic. Be real. Be your rowdy, unfiltered self, regardless of what others want you to be and regardless of how imperfect you will be exposed to be.

Your freedom just might liberate someone else. Your vulnerability just might embolden those around you who are only going through the motions, who feel trapped in cages built by someone else.

The wise man accepts the beautiful messiness of life and does not try to fix others. He just wants them to be free.

Stop building cages. Start a jail break.

An audacious pursuit

Eric Johnson

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Take on some project that scares you because of how extraordinary it could be. Even if the project never comes to fruition, just working toward something you imagine to be awesome will amp up your life and spark possibilities that never would have occurred without an audacious pursuit.

A day’s work

Eric Johnson

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Bring on a new week, a new chance to make things and make things better.

A new chance to make a difference and awaken possibility.

A fresh start to connect and share and to be kind to someone who might need only a heartfelt smile or a listening ear to come alive and offer the same to others.

Best week ever, because it is this week. It is now. And it is on.

The elusive now

Eric Johnson

There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely. All the sadness of life lies in that fact. -Milan Kundera

Independence everyday

Eric Johnson1 Comment

It is Independence Day here in the U.S.A. We celebrate our founders’ revolt against tyranny and their fight for freedom to determine their own way, to allow our fellow citizens to live as they choose.

Regardless of our heroically won Constitutional rights, we regularly yield to the tyranny of conformity, of fitting in, of bowing to the imagined opinions of others.

Declare your independence everyday. Fight to follow your own way, to travel the path you choose, to be true to the voice inside you calling you to be the person you imagine you can be. And never stop fighting.

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Memento mori

Eric Johnson1 Comment

How amazing that you, yes you, are in the exact geographic center of the universe.

At least that’s what your brain sort of tells you. All of reality exists for you, spins in orbit around you.

That is what we all feel to some extent. Our perception of reality is self-centered, centered on the world as we experience it.

All humans have experienced life this way. We each are living in a bubble of our own creation and filtering life through this perspective of a me-centered universe. It’s easy to ignore that every human around you is experiencing reality separately, oblivious, somehow, to the fact that you are the actual center of the universe.

It’s worth attempting to regularly shift that perspective and see yourself as the short-lived speck of a being you are. Here for a moment, fleeting. Not here as the reason for all that is. But a part, an astoundingly conscious part, of all that is.

It was Romans who reminded the high and the mighty, “Memento mori.” Remember you are mortal.

Your death may not be the thought you are eager to reflect on regularly. Most of us can relate to this sentiment instead:

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment. ― Woody Allen

But we’re all goners, it’s just a matter of when and how. And reflecting on the brevity of your own life can unburden you from feeling the weight of the me-centric world you create for yourself. It can embolden you to make something of that ripple in the pond that is your existence, your time under the sun.

A hundred years from now, you may have left a legacy worth talking about still, but you won’t be around for the conversation. The universe will go on, spinning into infinity without you. What you’ve got right now, the experience of being alive in the universe, is precious and finite. Live now, and live well, while you can.

Mid-year crisis, anyone?

Eric Johnson

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So, it’s July. The halfway point of 2014 is here. (I say twenty-fourteen. You? I reverted to my twentieth century ways once we reached 2010, and now it seems cumbersome to hear people say two-thousand-whatever.)

My recent birthday reminded me I’m well past midlife (unless I end up a centenarian), and any funk I may happen to find myself in from here on out cannot be explained away as a midlife crisis.

But can you have a mid-year crisis? All those January hopes and dreams? Where do they stand now? Wilting in the summer heat? Evaporated by now?

I don’t look in the mirror on this July 2nd and see a man six months better than the man I was on January 1st. I’m not exactly a goal-setter, but I haven’t had any systems in place (remember, go for systems over goals) throughout the previous six months that have led to making this year my best ever.

I have upped my reading, and I’ve been consistently writing and posting recently. I have had quality time and fun adventures with my family, and my work life is rolling along just fine.

I know the long game should be my focus. Six months is just six months. I have no regrets. I’ve enjoyed a happy half-year.

I just know with a bit more intention and a more consistent commitment to worthwhile systems and habits, even small ones, I could be further along towards a more excellent life.

I am not facing a mid-year crisis or even a mid-year bad mood. But it is a great time to assess where I stand. What good have I done this year, and what good remains to be done in the half year ahead? Examine your life regularly. Face it squarely. Change what you can. Accept what you can’t. Spend your days wisely.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. -Annie Dillard

“Teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”

Eric Johnson

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Before what and how should come why. If you want to bring people along with you and bring out their best, first tell a story. Why are we here? Imagine journeying together on a grand adventure? Imagine what could be?

Tolstoy said “Art is infection.” An artist has a feeling she wants to share, and if she makes good art, effective art, the audience catches that very same feeling.

Lead others with rules and procedures and how-tos and you might end up with a seaworthy ship. Lead, though, with vision, with artfulness, with a compelling why, and you have a chance at an excellent journey, a shared life-worthy adventure worth talking about and remembering.

Lukewarm is no good

Eric Johnson

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. -Roald Dahl

via Maxistentialism

Those things that make you come alive? Abandon your restraint and caution and give them all you’ve got.

Shoreline of wonder

Eric Johnson

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Want a wonderful, wonder-filled life? Don’t stop learning. Keep searching. Keep growing. More knowledge will make you more uncertain and more humble. And more in awe of the mystery of being alive in the universe.

If you keep pushing out into the sea of mystery, expect discomfort and disillusion and maybe long periods of feeling lost. The alternative, though, is a safe, secure, and numb sleepwalk of a journey to nowhere.

The only competition that matters

Eric Johnson

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How much better are you today than you were a year ago? Not better off. Better as a human, regardless of any change in circumstances beyond your control. I should be embarrassed to be virtually the same man I was even a few months ago. Principles should remain. Performance should improve.

Don’t look with envy at what others are doing. Don’t let the pace others set determine your pace. Don’t try to win some competition that doesn’t even exist. Live your life as excellently as you can.

As I said previously:

The only competition that matters is the one between who you want to become and who you are. Comparison with others will distract or discourage and put you off course. The you of one year from now should be able to kick the ass (in overall awesomeness and, maybe, physically as well) of the you from today.

“Wish the things which happen to be as they are”

Eric Johnson

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life. –Epictetus

This is some serious mental jujitsu. There’s a fine line between passiveness and acceptance. One is weak. The other is strong.

Take action to make your plan happen, but accept whatever does happen as though it’s part of the plan.

Internal armor

Eric Johnson1 Comment

Wanting to reform the world without discovering one’s true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes. -Ramana Maharshi

A very Stoic-like thought from an Eastern sage. There is much overlap in the wisdom of the East and the insights of Stoicism.

It’s nice to want the world to be better and to work to fix its problems, but you’re only truly in control of your actions and your responses. Instead of complaining about external problems, make sure your internal armor, your “Inner Citadel” as the Stoics would say, is in place.