More self, less connection to the larger world.*
Alan Lightman

[The Dalai Lama] teaches that there are two ways to get above the noise of your life:
1. Lift your attention to the divine and develop your spiritual nature.
2. Look outward and serve others with compassion.**
Arthur Brooks

You are not me–
Aren’t you glad?–
But you are You–
An odyssey of the Ego–

You are more than You–
Aren’t you glad?–
You and I can be We–
The pilgrimage of True Self.

Together, we are more than We–
Aren’t we glad?–
We are part of everything–
Life’s unfolding path–

*Alan Lightman’s The Transcendent Brain;
**Arthur Brooks’ The Meaning Of Your Life.

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We are trying to be good ancestors, to make a world in which the land that, in the past, fed many species, including ours, will feed them in the future, to take the fork in the road that leads to well-being in the short-term, and the long.**
Rebecca Solnit

Maybe we can at least learn to listen again to the world. Who knows into what secrets that will lead us.*
Kenneth White

Yesterday,
I walked
to birdsong,
To vibrant greens
of trees,
To diverse
grasses and plants,
And it was good.

Wellbeing
secrets
miracle–

Walking on earth is a miracle! We do not have to walk in space or on water to experience a miracle. The real miracle is to be awake in the present moment. Walking on green earth, we can realise the wonder of being alive.^

Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There;
Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul;
^Thich Nhat Hanh, quoted in Mary Ruth Broz and Barbara Flynn’s Midwives Of An Unnamed Future.

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Justice can be …
… the standards we hold ourselves to
… the way we treat people [and our planet]
… the promises we keep
… the integrity we bring to our words
… the loyalty and generosity we give to our friends
… the opportunities we accept (and turn down)
… the things we care about
… the difference we make for people.*
Ryan Holiday

We become part of the solution by becoming aware of how we are part of the problem, and acting accordingly.**
Adam Kahane

Everything is connected,
I see my implication,
There are things I can do,
I remember the connections,
There are things we can do,
Small steps, small steps…

*Ryan Holiday’s Right Thing, Right Now (suggestion in square brackets is mine);
**Adam Kahane’s Everyday Habits For Transforming Systems.

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Three factors characterise human existence as such: man’s spirituality, his freedom, his responsibility.*
Viktor Frankl

There are Hidden Forces that are harder to detect and can control your life like strings on a puppet. They come in the form of:
1. Imposter Syndrome
2. Personal trauma
3. Narratives.**
Todd Herman

You cannot be explained by science alone.

You are more than a product of your genes and environment.

You are not passing through time without purpose.

You belong here– you are here.

Your pain hones and may be your greatest definition.

Your story is changing, becoming.

Boundlessness awaits.

All experience, to borrow an expression of the mystics, is bounded by the boundless.^

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor And The Soul;
**Todd Herma’s The Alter Ego Effect;
^James Carse’s Breakfast At The Victory.

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Learning is underrated.
People wonder why they’re not living their ideal life.
Maybe they never learned how.*
Derek Sivers

One more truth about your ikigai: You may already have found it. Sometimes it’s as straightforward as thinking differently about what you’re already doing.**
Rob Bell

Oftentimes
we’re looking outward
to find our better life,
But what about looking inward?–
What has your life
got to teach you today?–
What might it take
to hear the whispers:
Wisdom comes
through simple steps–
Listening and heeding.

*Derek Sivers’ How To Live;
**Rob Bell’s How To Be Here.

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There are no ordinary people.*
C. S. Lewis

All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul. It is always there and the more deeply you listen, the greater the surprise, and discoveries that will unfold. To enter into the gentleness of your own soul changes the tone and quality of your life.**
John O’Donohue

I hope you haven’t made up your mind yet.

I hope you’re still exploring.

Everyone is more than they are today.

More than they are in this moment.

What if holiness is a human word?

And, when we listen to our souls, we are being holy?

And, when we meet the soul of another, we are being holy?–

A person isn’t this or that but a multiplicity?

To be respected– which is to suspend judgement.

For you to be more who you are, and, if I may, me too.

What if we only need to behave in this way to begin?

Judging short-circuits sensing.^

*From Ben Hardy’s Be Your Future Self Now;
**John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty;
^Adam Kahane’s Everyday Habits For Transforming Systems.

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We make a difference by seeing and dancing with it. We can work with a system to achieve our goals, and we can change a system over time.*
Seth Godin

It can be reorganised and restructured to produce different behaviours, but rarely easily or quickly. System transformation is therefore a long and winding journey – not a short or straight-forward project…We combine persevering and resting to ensure that we remain effective and healthy for the journey.**
Adam Kahane

Fables, behaviours, foibles …
Relationships, journeys, finances …
Activity, mundanity, rest …
Errors, failures, prejudices …
Guilt, regrets, dreams …
Plans, disappointments, settlement–

The system that each of us is
never changes in the blink of an eye –
The harder we are on ourselves,
The more we push,
The greater the resistance–

Better to learn our complexity,
To see ourselves clearly
so we can dance awhile.

*Seth Godin’s This Is Strategy;
**Adam Kahane’s Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems.

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Living inside our mental models is so seductively convincing that it can be a shock to realise they are not the real world.*
John Higgs

The Alter Ego is your deepest self, the truest version of you.**
Todd Herman

Kal-El became Clark Kent
to find his home in a new world–

Such a big world
for each of us to find our place in–

It may take a lifetime
to connect to ourselves and our world–

Just because we make us up
doesn’t mean we aren’t true–

We feed our truest self
with as much reality as possible–

Then the real
magic begins–

Placebos are part of an ancient human tradition of endowing objects or symbols with magic.^

*John Higgs’ William Blake vs The World;
**Todd Herman’s The Alter Ego Effect;
^Ethan Kross’ Chatter.

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MERAKI (adj): Pouring yourself wholeheartedly into something, such as cooking, and doing so with soul, creativity and love. [Greek]*
Ella Frances Sanders

In Blake’s sense, a firm persuasion was a form of self-knowledge; it was understood as a result, an outcome, a bounty that comes from paying close attention to an astonishing world and the way each of us is made differently and uniquely for that world.**
John Higgs

Life is best
when poured into
an expressive life.

Whether streams
or oceans of possibility–
A soul must decide.

What matters is
that we find our way to
soulful, wholehearted works.

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.^

*Ella Frances Sanders’ Lost In Translation;
**John Higgs’ William Blake vs The World;
^Antoine de Saint Exupéry, quoted in gapingvoid’s blog: When In Doubt, Swim Upstream.

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The most interesting strategies happen at the edges, and the edges exist because that’s where the constraints are.*
Seth Godin

*Seth Godin’s This Is Strategy.

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