"The government is cutting music programmes in schools and slashing Arts grants as gleefully as a morbidly American kid in Baskin Robbins. So if only to stick it to the man, isn’t it worth fighting back in some small way? So write your damn book. Learn a Chopin prelude, get all Jackson Pollock with the kids, spend a few hours writing a Haiku. Do it because it counts even without the fanfare, the money, the fame… ."
— Concert pianist James Rhodes articulates the urgency of finding your purpose and doing what you love. As a wise woman eloquently put it, “Start with a big, fat lump in your throat, start with a profound sense of wrong, a deep homesickness, or a crazy lovesickness, and run with it.” (via explore-blog)
(Source: , via explore-blog)
"It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait and see if it lasts. The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound - that he will never get over it."
— Robert Frost (via writingquotes)
"Too many guys think I’m a concept, or I complete them, or I’m gonna make them alive. But I’m just a fucked-up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind; don’t assign me yours."
— Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (via creatingaquietmind)
(Source: larmoyante, via creatingaquietmind)
"Baumeister suggests many strategies for increasing self-control. One of these strategies is to develop a seemingly unrelated habit, such as improving your posture or saying “yes” instead of “yeah” or flossing your teeth every night before bed. This can strengthen your willpower in other areas of your life. Additionally, once the new habit is ingrained and can be completed without much effort or thought, that energy can then be turned to other activities requiring more self-control. Tasks done on autopilot don’t use up our stockpile of energy like tasks that have to be consciously completed."
—
Riffing off psychologist Roy Baumeister’s fantastic book Willpower, Erin Rooney Doland advocates for learning new habits by starting small in an excerpt from the forthcoming 99U anthology Manage Your Day-to-Day.
Also see how to rewire your habit loops. Because, as William James knew, habit is everything.
(via explore-blog)
(Source: , via explore-blog)
"Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive."
— Hafiz (via perfect)
(Source: shaktilover, via livingfragmented)
