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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Science repeatedly tells us that happiness rarely comes from money or fame or status, even if you’re lucky enough to have any of those; it comes from a life well lived. A life where you don’t let fear or past scars or made-up BS get in the way of growing, refining and using your talents, exploring your edges, and having adventures.
Ambition for the world means looking past your own happiness, and the test is “Will you give more to the world than you take?” No matter who you are, no matter how much privilege you do or do not have, you can find a way to give more to the world than you take.
Important In Jacqueline Novogratz’s wonderful book Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, she lays down the challenge to “give more to the world than you take.” Important connects to that. It’s a project or a goal that’s for a bigger win than just self-satisfaction or self-gratification. The stakes are higher than your life.
I’ve found it can be helpful to test any Worthy Goal by making explicit its connection to a bigger win that goes beyond my own personal gratification.
I find “Why?” a pretty hard question to answer. I end up spouting sweeping, self-justifying generalizations that I don’t quite believe myself.
Verbs for your active draft Begin. Set up. Initiate. Dismantle. Launch. Dare. Hire. Start. Finish. Create. Break. Fire. Produce. Change. Reinvent. Summon. Ask for. Reach out. Challenge. Marry. Abdicate. Protest. Improve. Record. Work out. Collaborate with. Build. Defenestrate. Reframe. Plant. Transform. Pursue. Disrupt. Connect with. Engage. Bring together. Harvest. Seize. Study. Follow. Teach. Re-engage. Instigate. Venture. Unleash. Provide. Rearrange. Post. Sort out. Kickstart. Write. Confront. Commit to. Toss out. Invite. Defy. Lead. Join. Free. Organize. Return to. Reinitiate. Generate.
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Seeking “perfection” just runs the risk of leaving you becalmed. “Perfection” is just misery dressed up in fancy clothes. We actually want “good enough.” “Good enough” can be a tricky standard to hold, mostly because it sounds very close to “not good at all.” But “good enough” means it’s over the line, it’s in the light, it’s made the cut.
