“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn’t stop you from doing anything at all.”

– Richard Feynman

“Our prison is constructed from a lifetime of Shoulds, the world of choices we’ve unwittingly agreed to, the walls that alienate us from our truest, most authentic selves. Should is the doorkeeper to Must. And just as you create your prison, you can set yourself free.”

– Elle Luna

“We build too many walls and not enough bridges”

– Isaac Newton

Sometimes in life we find ourselves in a bad place that causes us pain and makes us unhappy. All too often our reaction to this is to bunker down and build walls to protect ourselves. But all we are really doing is reinforcing ourselves in the bad place, further entrenching ourselves and making it that much harder for anyone else to reach us.

When we find ourselves in a place we do not want to be, we should instead use that same effort to built bridges instead. Something that will take us somewhere else. It can be a bridge to be with people you know care about you, a bridge so someone else can reach you if you don’t have the strength to leave the bad place on your own yet, or just a bridge to somewhere different. You don’t know what that journey of the bridge will bring, but you know for sure that whatever it might be has got to be better than sitting behind a big wall with only the bad place that you know surrounding you.

“The scientists proved we’re all gonna die
They got charts and equations, the how and the why
You did not invite em and neither did I
But they’re here, drink up, we’re all gonna die”

– George Watsky, Ghost Party

One day, we’re all going to die. It’s part of the deal when we get the amazing opportunity to be alive. It’s one thing that’s true for every person, no matter who they are. Since we don’t know when it’s going to happen, it’s important to live as openly and fully as you are able, so that if you died tomorrow you can say that you did as much as you could, touched as many lives as you could, and took advantage of as many opportunities as you could with the time you had.

“I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.”

– Stephen Grellet

“That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Don’t expect to get anything back, don’t expect recognition for your efforts, don’t expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits in your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are.”

– Paulo Coelho

“Keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life’s a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.”

– Marilyn Monroe

Try to smile and laugh as much as you can every day. They say laughter is the best medicine, and I can honestly say I rarely feel as good as when I’ve had a good laughing fit. The kind of laughter that brings tears to your eyes. Smiles are infectious. They’re one of the few things you can spread to someone else that they won’t mind catching.

“Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential — as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.

You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them.

To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.”

– Bill Watterson

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.”

– Dalai Lama