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Yes—in the end, we all face becoming the adult supervision we originally rebelled against. Yet often we react petulantly and prefer to think: Now that I’m in charge, things are going to be different!
Ego needs honors in order to be validated. Confidence, on the other hand, is able to wait and focus on the task at hand regardless of external recognition.
monk is a man who is separated from all and who is in harmony with all.
Ego blocks us from the beauty and history in the world. It stands in the way.
“Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”
Go and put yourself in touch with the infinite, and end your conscious separation from the world. Reconcile yourself a bit better with the realities of life. Realize how much came before you, and how only wisps of it remain.
We have to fight to stay sober, despite the many different forces swirling around our ego.
“It requires a strong constitution to withstand repeated attacks of prosperity.”
Most successful people are people you’ve never heard of. They want it that way. It keeps them sober. It helps them do their jobs.
If success is ego intoxication, then failure can be a devastating ego blow—turning
“Almost always, your road to victory goes through a place called ‘failure.’”
When we face difficulty, particularly public difficulty (doubters, scandals, losses), our friend the ego will show its true colors.
This is what we’re aspiring to—much more than mere success. What matters is that we can respond to what life throws at us. And how we make it through.
According to Greene, there are two types of time in our lives: dead time, when people are passive and waiting, and alive time, when people are learning and acting and utilizing every second.
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
It’s always so tempting to turn to that old friend denial (which is your ego refusing to believe that what you don’t like could be true).
When we lose, we have a choice: Are we going to make this a lose-lose situation for ourselves and everyone involved? Or will it be a lose . . . and then win?
He who will do anything to avoid failure will almost certainly do something worthy of a failure.
If your reputation can’t absorb a few blows, it wasn’t worth anything in the first place.
Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.
A person who can think long term doesn’t pity herself during short-term setbacks.
“Hate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the best and the objective center of your life.”
Meanwhile, love is right there. Egoless, open, positive, vulnerable, peaceful, and productive.
There’s a quote from Bismarck that says, in effect, any fool can learn from experience. The trick is to learn from other people’s experience.
