“If you have ever been completely enraptured by something – a landscape, playing an instrument or a sport, a person, etc. – you know that there are states where the opinion of others and the basic premises we operate under simply don’t exist. Not that they don’t exist indefinitely, but that their presence or lack thereof have no implications on your health or happiness.”
The shift, I would think, is to reframe the problem in our mind. Rather than telling ourselves “what is the quickest, least painful way to get out of this?” we should ask ourselves “what can I learn from this? How can I come out from this situation better equipped than I was before?”.
“Given the amount of time that we have, there is no reason that planning and doing can’t happen on the same day. The reasons we procrastinate – perfectionism, laziness, feigned apathy, etc. – may differ, but the result is the same: we don’t get any work done.”
“On the contrary, the more often that we can stand against this and do the things we know we should, the easier it becomes to overrule that internal monologue telling us to do the opposite.”
“The regret we would feel from missing out on something special, particularly if we can identify the forces that changed our circumstances (such as the death of a loved one), would almost certainly pain more than the discomfort experienced by stepping outside of our comfort zone. If we had the chance to go back for one last shot, I’m almost certain we’d all take it.”
“The truth is, nothing will change if we don’t intentionally block out time, if we don’t make today different. Ignorant to this truth, we can go through life continually pulled to different tasks, telling ourselves that tomorrow will bring us free time to chase after our aspirations and really enjoy ourselves.”
“Our experience is not dependent on the conditions surrounding us, but the way we perceive and internalize those conditions. Whatever the weather or whomever you’re with, a beautiful memory is just around the corner, or maybe, just maybe, it’s exactly where you are right now.”
“Given our propensity, particularly in first-world countries, to take circumstance for granted, the simplest enjoyments tend to dissipate as time passes. Forgetting the transitoriness of this life, what was once a scene that invoked boundless and unconstrained emotion becomes reduced to a mere cog in the cycle of a day.”
“It is a given that we must give ourselves realistic goals, but, with proper energy management, we can push ourselves to do much more than we would regularly think possible.”
“Ultimately, this provides no benefit to us, and can often detract from an experience. Comparison, in this context, is most useful for ensuring that we are on a path that we want to be on. From that, we can look at where we were yesterday, and look at how today is moving us closer to a desired result.”