Tag: Quote Inspired

What To Do When You Realize You’re On The Wrong Train

Published on October 21, 2024

“If you get on the wrong train, get off at the nearest station, the longer it takes you to get off, the more expensive the return trip will be.”
Japanese Proverb

It’s pretty easy to see how this relates to life.

Once you realize you’re on the wrong path—with a person, a behavior, an educational or career path etc.—take action as soon as possible to get off and adjust.

…Duh.

The harder to understand piece to this advice is the “once you realize” part.

…Because it isn’t always immediately obvious that we’re on the wrong train in life. Or what starts out feeling like the right train, slowly and so subtly that we don’t even realize it, becomes the wrong train. Or we miss the station we’re supposed to exit at and board a different train and find ourselves several stations in the wrong direction.

The real key to properly applying this analogy to your life is in understanding how you can stay on top of your realizing.

An excellent place to start is to do your homework up front: Are you sure this train is heading in a direction you want to head? Are you sure this is the best train to get you there? How sure are you that you can trust the sources that are giving you this information?

And an excellent ongoing practice to have once you’ve boarded a train is to do checkpoints along the way: Am I still heading in my ideal direction? Am I sure there isn’t another train that can get me where I want to go faster? Do these landmarks match what the direction of this train promised?

Stepping Into Your Power

Published on October 9, 2024

“Without resistance to what it is, you’ll feel more in your power.”

…This is a line my friend Nat shared with me when discussing the power of connecting to the present moment and what it can do for your mentality and ability to act—especially during turbulent times filled with change.

How often do we step out of our power, simply because we’re self-sabotaging?

How often do we minimize what we’re able to do because of self-limiting, junk beliefs?

How often do we unknowingly increase the resistance in our lives by arguing against reality and unnecessarily exacerbate situations?

Reality is what it is. It’s unchangeable in this moment. Once you accept this and reallocate your mental resources from what’s out of your control to what’s in… and settle yourself back into the present moment… you just might find yourself, not only stepping into your next moments with less resistance, but into your full power as an infinitely-potentialed human being.

Become The Ocean

Published on June 26, 2024

“If you don’t become the ocean, you’ll be seasick every day.”
Leonard Cohen

Try and sail forward without consideration or respect for the almighty waves and winds and depths of the ocean—and you’ll undoubtedly lose.

There is no straight line across an ocean just like there is no straight line across life.

And the more you try and force a straight line or fight the ocean’s almighty currents… the quicker you’ll fatigue, get “seasick,” and fail.

As it is in water: the harder you fight the greater the resistance—so, too, is it in life.

So, don’t fight the ocean and don’t fight life—surrender instead.

And no, I don’t mean give up or quit. Surrender to the forces of the ocean—the forces of life—and learn to align with those forces so you can more smoothly flow.

Learn how to set your sails so the wind is always at your back. Learn how to steer your ship so that the power of the waves is either split down the middle (and mitigated) or aligned with the direction you’re heading anyway. Learn how to rest and recover so that your energy levels are always replenished and ready to be deployed on even the stormiest of days.

In short: learn how to become one with the ocean, as opposed to being a rebellious little ship.

P.s. The above quote was my inner work prompt for the day. What comes to mind for you when you read that quote?

Traveling the Distance

Published on June 9, 2024

Today, the Martial Arts Association I’m a part of hosted a black belt and higher level degree test for 80 candidates.

Each earned their way onto that testing floor from years and years of consistent hard training and well displayed martial arts culture / respect.

And each outlasting many of their peers who started on the same journey with them. Maybe only 1% makes it all the way from white belt to black belt. And maybe .01% makes it to the higher degrees. Their dedication carried them forward to a place where most never travel.

And so it is with everything we do in life.

There’s nothing wrong with stopping something you’re no longer passionate about or choosing to explore other areas of interest. But, do that too much, and you’ll never get to travel to that place where only the smallest of percentages get to.

What you pick doesn’t matter per se… what matters is that you pick.

And that you give what you pick your absolute best shot… through thick and thin… when it’s sunny outside and when it’s rainy… when you’re feeling lazy and when you’re feeling on top of the world… when you’re feeling low and when you’re feeling unstoppable…

Traveling the distance is what gives us roots. It’s what gives us depth. It’s what gives us wisdom.

Miyamoto Musashi said, “To know ten thousand things, know one well.” …And this is what he means.

Go deep in one specific domain and the rest of the universe reveals itself. Submit to your lazy nature and dilly dally your way from one thing to the next to the next… and you’ll forever only understand what’s on the surface.

On Feeling Empty Inside

Published on May 25, 2024

I finished uploading quotes from The Prophet today (you can read my 18 favorites here).

My overall favorite is one that echoes an idea I got tattooed on my arm—which is of a majestic exposed roots tree that reminds me that the branches of happiness can only go as high as the roots of sadness go deep. The line from The Prophet goes:

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 27)

…Which, I found to be another powerful, analogous way to look at and move through sorrow. Because it really does feel like a carving away at your being… which I think is where the descriptions of feeling “empty” or “hollow” or “dead” inside might come from.

But, with that emptiness… with that space… comes a future opportunity.

And it may not happen that day nor may it happen a week or a month after. But, eventually, that space that was carved from sorrow can become precisely the vessel needed to contain more of the opposite… more joy… more wonder… more love… and quite possibly even more than you had room to carry (or could fully appreciate) before.

Where Inconvenience and Love Cross

Published on May 19, 2024

This quote has been running through my mind over the past few days—especially as I reflected on that last night with Stella:

“…I talked about how love was an action, an instinct, a response roused by unplanned moments and small gestures, an inconvenience in someone else’s favor.”
Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart (Page 143)

I’ve thought about love a lot and have tried to define it before.

But, when it comes to love that is pointed towards another or love that is shared… I think those six words sum it up beautifully: “…An inconvenience in someone else’s favor.”

Remember this the next time your loved ones ask you for a favor that’s inconvenient with your schedule… or when you’re feeling “too busy” to plan your next outing or date… or when they’re going through a hard time and you’re traveling or away…

…It’s precisely the inconvenience that makes a task or act special.

…An action, instinctual response, or small gesture that would’ve been easier for you not to do because of the other things you’ve gotta do (for you), but did anyway because of what it meant to the other person (which shows what the other person means to you).

P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week here.

When Life Is Fair

Published on April 30, 2024

“If life is fair, and it will be, it will serve you immeasurable beauties, joys and pleasures—you will feel at times that you do not have the capacity to take them in. You will. Our hearts they are boundless. If life is fair, and it will be, it will bring you huge, merciless sorrows. Devastations of your boundless heart. I wish for you the grace to persevere and accept them across time, for that is the only way these kinds of things can be taken in.”
Dan Weiss

While it is undeniably true that life is unfair in the circumstances into which we are born (i.e. socioeconomic status, parents, access to resources, etc), and in how some people are born into and taken from this world without a fighting chance, it’s also true that for most of us, life is fair in how we’re all going to feel the entire spectrum of human emotions.

…We’re each going to feel joy and pleasure just as we’re each going to feel sorrow and devastation. We’re each going to feel the mesmerizing beauty of love just as we’re each going to feel the heart-wrenching pain of loss. We’re each going to feel grateful and sentimental; nervous and insecure; jealous and enraged; lonely and shameful; amazed and confused; euphoric and peaceful…

…Not at the same times and not in equal proportions, but in full nonetheless. So when you’re thriving, soak it all the way in. And when you’re struggling, remember, you’re never alone. And just because you’re feeling something different than us, doesn’t mean we won’t or don’t feel that, too. Be patient and be kind…

…Because on this front—life is fair.