The Big Think

“Brave, adventurous souls try [to climb Everest] because they’ve heard there’s magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because during the climb, if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and it’s hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard. These moments are so intense and unique that many people who reach the top start planning, almost immediately, to climb again. Even though any climber will tell you that most of the climb is treacherous, exhausting, killer. That they literally cried most of the way up.

And so I think that if there were people stationed, say, every thirty feet along Mount Everest yelling to the climbers — “ARE YOU ENJOYING YOURSELF!? IF NOT, YOU SHOULD BE! ONE DAY YOU’LL BE SORRY YOU DIDN’T!” TRUST US!! IT’LL BE OVER TOO SOON! CARPE DIEM!” — those well-meaning, nostalgic cheerleaders might be physically thrown from the mountain.”

I can attest to this.

h/t Lydia

“It’s rare for us to create anything incredible in a day. Even if you have a large goal in mind, it’ll require smaller, concise tasks. We want to rush in, work as hard as we can, and feel we have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time, but a little bit every day will go a lot farther. You can’t fly up a staircase. You need to use the steps.”

Great Acts are Made Up of Small Deeds

“All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one… characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.”

Henry David Thoreau

“The world will never starve for wonder, but only for the want of wonder”

G.K. Chesterton

“Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.”

Terry Pratchett

“We live in a world of snark and irony… but if there’s one word to describe Tim Tebow it would be “earnest”. Who uses that word anymore? Irony and sarcasm and cynicism is really just cowardice. And a person of genuine conviction is threatening to that worldview.”

Bill Whittle

“In almost all the varied walks of life, amateurs have more freedom to experiment and innovate. The fraction of the population who are amateurs is a good meausre of the freedom of a society.”
Freeman Dyson

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice.”
Mary Oliver

“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.” ~Nicola Tesla

“Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusions of counsel, until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong – these are the features that constitute the endless repetition of history.”

Winston Churchill

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

John Quincy Adams

A foolish trope of modernity is that experience leads to disenchantment and ennui. Boredom with life does not result from exhausting life’s riches, but from skimming them. Nothing is boring, except people who are bored.

Everything is Interesting. Read the whole thing

Heard while listening to the book tape “outliers” and working on the big prop today:

“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.

Malcolm Gladwell

“The advice to make the most of your talents applies to everyone. If anything, people who are constantly being told in school and elsewhere that they are ‘too dumb’ are MORE likely to miss their hidden talents and abilities than those who are constantly being told how special they are. Not everybody is going to win a Nobel Prize, or quit their day job to write great novels, but almost all of us are capable of more success and happiness than we now enjoy.

As I read the advice, it is not limited to the super geniuses or even the ‘nerds’. A person with a passion for cooking or gardening may be able to find better ways to make a living than a routine factory job in an industry that is shrinking by the day. Someone with a gift for empathy and understanding may do more good and have a richer life by going into health care or education rather than working as a clerk in a local store. Figuring out your real strengths and passions and having the courage to base career decisions on them does not just make sense for the budding Einsteins and investment bankers among us. It is about living your best life and honoring your Creator by placing the sum of your talents, be they great or small, in the common service as best you can.”

Walter Russel Meade