The Little Book of Contentment Quotes

“Failure is simply an indicator that something in our method needs to be changed.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“Realize that failure isn’t a reason to judge yourself.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“Why do we need to compare ourselves to others or the images we have of others (who are, after all, also flawed)? What does this do for us? It’s harmful, not helpful.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“When you’re whole, you don’t need someone else’s validation to be happy — because you accept yourself. You don’t need someone else to love you in order to feel loved — because you love yourself.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“If someone behaves rudely and you get angry with him, the problem isn’t the other person’s actions … it’s your reaction. Or more accurately, it’s not even your reaction, but your action based on that reaction.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“How do you respond to people who push you to do more, get more, be more when you are content with who and where you are? Leo: Smile, and give them a hug. What we have to learn is that no matter how content we’ve learned to be, there will always be people who expect us to act differently, who push us or get angry with us or make us feel guilty. That’s OK. That’s the way of the world, and we can never change that. The only thing we can change is how we handle it. So I suggest learning to empathize with these people, smile, and give them a hug. It might not change how they try to push us, but it might, and more importantly, we have changed our reaction to them.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“There are a million possible reasons someone might do something, and they are not a judgment on you. They are more a statement of what’s going on with the other person.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“to change our reactions, we must first be aware when these reactions happen. You can’t change them if you’re in automatic mode. Once you notice it, the key thing is not to act — it’s OK to have the feeling, but the action is what is usually destructive. Acting in anger means you’re going to do something not kind, not helpful.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“The path to contentment, then, is to stop comparing ourselves to these ideals. Stop judging ourselves. Let go of the ideals. And gradually learn to trust ourselves.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment

“Does their rejection of your idea or proposal mean that you aren’t good? No. It’s possible your idea isn’t great, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t good or that you don’t have good ideas — maybe this is just not the right idea right now. But it’s also likely that it’s a good idea but that this person doesn’t appreciate it, or their interests don’t align with this idea right now, or maybe they have other priorities and can’t deal with this idea. Instead, thank them and move on to someone else who might be interested.”
― Leo Babauta, The Little Book of Contentment