Fate is that thing we cannot avoid. It comes for us despite how we try to run from it. Destiny, on the other hand, is the thing that we must chase, what we must bring to fruition. It's what we strive toward and make true. When bad things happen, the idea of fate make us feel better, whereas taking the time to consider eulogy values help us think more about destiny. Success doesn't come from shrugging off the bad as unchangeable and saying things are already "meant to be," it's the result of chasing the good and writing our own future.
Less fate, more destiny.
—Howard Suber, UCLA Professor (Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science behind why everything you know about success is (mostly) wrong)
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
I was shipwrecked before I even boarded... the journey showed me this — how much of what we have is unnecessary, and how easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things whenever it's necessary, never suffering the loss. Seneca, Moral Letters, 87.1
Everything changes sooner or later. The good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. Profits turn into losses and losses turn into profits. Approval may turn into disapproval and disapproval may turn into approval. Mistakes and setbacks add up to success. Then success leads to failure. This is life. It is never too late to start again.
April 25th: There's nothing wrong with being wrong
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
If anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it- for I seek the truth, by which no one has ever been harmed. The one who is harmed is the one who abides in deceit and ignorance. ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.21
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Are you angry when someone's armpits stink or when their breath is bad? What would be the point? Having such a mouth and such armpits, there's going to be a smell emanating. You say, they must have sense, can't tehy tell how they are offending others? Well, you have sense too, congratulations! So, use your natural reason to awaken theirs, show them, call it out. If the person will listen you will have cured them without useless anger. No drama nor unseemly show required. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.28
As an organizer, I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be — it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be.
First rule of change is controversy. You can't get away from it for the simple reason all issues are controversial. Change means movement, and movement means friction, and friction means heat, and heat means controversy.
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Watch the stars in their courses and imagine yourself running alongside them. Think constantly on the changes of elements into each other, for such thoughts wash away the dust of earthly life. ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.47
