3 IDEAS FROM ME
I.
“The loser has more in common with the winner than with the person sitting on the sidelines.
The winner and the loser each had the courage to try. Both risked embarrassment. Both were willing to face uncertainty. Both were stubborn enough to continue.
Success is endurance in disguise. It belongs to the person who can absorb the losses without absorbing the identity of “loser.” It's the courage to start — and to stick with it — that is the real separator. Results tend to find the person who stays in the game.
The sidelines are safe, but sterile. Nothing grows there.”
II.
“In the modern world, it is easy to feel like a passenger: reacting to notifications, responding to demands, consuming whatever you happen to drive past on your screen.
But joy is found in being the driver. It's the act of looking at the raw material of your circumstances — your time, your energy, your relationships, your skills — and seeing what you can make from it.
It is the act of creating the life you want (in big and small ways) that makes you feel alive and imbues life with extra meaning. The fact that you can hold a vision in your mind and then, however imperfectly, bend reality a few degrees in that direction.”
III.
“You can be authentic and hardworking and still struggle to find your footing if you’re in the wrong environment.
- A fun person trapped in the wrong city.
- A loving partner in a relationship that won’t reciprocate.
- A great entrepreneur stuck in the wrong business.
Think about your placement as much as your performance. Plant yourself where you can thrive.”
2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I.
Painter Helen Frankenthaler reminds us that everything — even the mistakes and misfortunes — is material for your next move:
“You have to know how to use your accidents.”
Source: Paraphrased from Tyler Graphics interview (July 11, 1994)
II.
A famous quote from mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal reminds us that a great deal of the work is in the revision:
“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”
Source: Provincial Letters (1657)
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
If you wait, will it get easier, or will you just be older?
Until next week,
James Clear
Author of Atomic Habits
Cofounder of Authors Equity
