“The final moment of success is often no more thrilling than taking off a heavy backpack at the end of a long hike. If you went on the hike only to feel that pleasure, you are a fool. Yet people sometimes do just this. They work hard at a task and expect some special euphoria at the end. But when they achieve success and find only moderate and short-lived pleasure, they ask is that all there is? They devalue their accomplishments as a striving after wind. We can call this the progress principle: Pleasure comes more from making progress toward goals than from achieving them.” PeopleIfsFeelsLongEndsSometimesHardMomentsHappinessAsksGoalPleasurePrinciplesProgressAchieveSpecialWindHard WorkFoolTasksStriveFinalsHeavyAccomplishmentModeratesThrillingEuphoriaShort LivedDevalue Author:Jonathan Haidt
“When I think about, say, 1995, or whever the last moment was before most of us were on the internet and had mobile phones, it seems like a hundred years ago. ... Time passed in fairly large units, or at least not in milliseconds and constant updates. A few hours wasn't such a long time to go between moments of contact with your work, your people or your trivia.” PeopleThinkingYearsLongMomentsSeemsLastsTimeHoursInternetLong TimeHundredYears AgoConstantPhonesContactUnitsMobileTime PassesMobile PhonesUpdatesTrivia Author:Rebecca Solnit
“It is easy to imagine that the Buddha, the awakened one, is something or somewhere other than here or that awakening to reality will happen sometime other than now. But as long as we continue to think in terms of time we will deceive ourselves. The you who is chasing enlightenment will never become enlightened. Instead of striving towards some distant goal that you will never reach, I invite you to stop and ask: How am I avoiding the enlightenment that is already present in each moment? How am I seeing separation where it doesn't exist?” ThinkingLongMomentsRealityHappensTimeAsksEasyGoalTermImagineSeeingEnlightenmentStriveAwakeningSeparationEnlightenedInvitesImagine ThatDeceivingAvoidingChasingAwakened Author:Adyashanti
“the curse of human nature is imagination. When a long anticipated moment comes, we always find it pitched a note too low, for the wings of imagination are crushed into its withering sides under the crowding hordes of petty realities.” HumansLongMomentsRealitySidesImaginationHuman NatureLowsWingsNotesCursePettyCrushedHordeWithering Author:Gertrude Atherton
“Conscience is a creator of meaning. As a sense of constraint rooted in our emotional ties to one another, it prevents life from devolving into nothing but a long and essentially boring game of attempted dominance over our fellow human beings, and for every limitation conscience imposes on us, it gives us a moment of connectedness with an other, a bridge to someone or something outside of our often meaningless schemes.” GivingHumansLongMomentsGamesHuman BeingsEmotionalConscienceFellowsCreatorBoringLimitationBridgesTiesMeaninglessRootedSchemesConstraintsDominanceConnectedness Author:Martha Stout
“Consider for a moment what you pay attention to all day long. What seems important to you, what do you take for granted and hardly attend to at all? Write it down. Do not judge your answers. Be honest and simple. As you keep track all week long, you'll be amazed at what claims your attention, what you give your precious life force to.” GivingWritingLongImportantMomentsSeemsForceSimpleAnswersPayAttentionWeekHonestHonestyJudgingClaimsTrackGrantedBeing HonestPay AttentionAmazedDo Not JudgePrecious Life Author:Brenda Shoshanna