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It’s true our lives can pass small and unnoticed by the masses, and we are no less dignified for having lived quietly. In fact, I’ve come to believe there’s something noble about doing little with your life save offering love to a person who is offering it back.
But when you’re in it, when you say all those words and don’t mean them a couple months later, you feel like a fool. You wonder if your words have power anymore, and what is a man if his words are weakened?
The strongest character in a story isn’t the hero, it’s the guide. Yoda. Haymitch. It’s the guide who gets the hero back on track. The guide gives the hero a plan and enough confidence to enter the fight. The guide has walked the path of the hero and has the advice and wisdom to get the hero through their troubles so they can beat the resistance.
It’s a genius rule, if you think about it. Right from the start we weren’t allowed to wear a costume. And let’s face it, most of us wear our jobs like a costume. My entire identity—my distorted sense of value—came almost exclusively from the fact I wrote books.
He said people who didn’t feel like they’d accomplished much felt insecure around those who had. Bill said he wished we lived in a world where people couldn’t say what they did at all. He said the world would be a healthier place if nobody were allowed to wear a costume.
we aren’t designed to spend too much time thinking about ourselves, that we are healthier when we’re distracted by a noble cause.
how much I fear change, even change for the better. I thought about how there are so many lies in fear. So much deception. What else keeps us from living a better story than fear?
in order to experience a meaningful life, I’d have to face the fear of jumping in—not just in relationships, but in life, in our careers and our rest and our play.
those of us who are never satisfied with our accomplishments secretly believe nobody will love us unless we’re perfect.
my flaws were the ways through which I would receive grace. We don’t think of our flaws as the glue that binds us to the people we love, but they are. Grace only sticks to our imperfections. Those who can’t accept their imperfections can’t accept grace either.
I think the risk of trusting Betsy is worth the reward of intimacy.”
They want their team members to trust the “positive intent” of their customers. So when a customer comes in with a complaint, they don’t want their team members to assume they are trying to rip off the company or get something for free. They know the occasional loss will be offset by the connection they create with their customers by trusting them.
She was talking about what it meant to risk yourself on love. It meant diving into the unknown, where there were very real dangers, but mostly rewards.
what our head knows our body often defies.
It costs personal fear to be authentic but the reward is integrity, and by that I mean a soul fully integrated, no difference between his act and his actual person.
Having integrity is about being the same person on the inside that we are on the outside, and if we don’t have integrity, life becomes exhausting.
I wonder how many people get tempted by the gains they can make by playing a role, only to pay for those t...
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It’s true people are attracted to intelligence and strength and even money, but attraction isn’t intimacy. What attracts us doesn’t always connect us. I can’t tell you how many friends I have who have been taken in by somebody sexy or powerful or charming but soon after find themselves feeling alone in the relationship. It’s one thing to impress people, but it’s another to love them.
