Anna Quindlen on building a spirit

vutran | June 23, 2020, 5:09 p.m.

"There are thousands of people out there with the same degree you have; when you get a job, there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on the bus, or in the car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a résumé than to craft a spirit. But a résumé is cold comfort on a winter night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you’ve gotten back the chest X ray and it doesn’t look so good, or when the doctor writes “prognosis, poor.”

... You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are."

— Anna Quindlen

James Clear on the Cycle of Improvement

vutran | June 23, 2020, 5:03 p.m.

"The Cycle of Improvement:

1. Awareness - identify what you need to improve.

2. Deliberate practice - focus your conscious effort on the specific area you want to improve.

3. Habit - with practice, the effortful becomes automatic.

4. Repeat - begin again." 

— James Clear

James Clear on mental toughness

vutran | June 23, 2020, 5:02 p.m.

"Mental toughness is persistence not intensity." 

— James Clear

James Clear on The Paradox of Freedom

vutran | June 23, 2020, 4:59 p.m.

"The Paradox of Freedom:

The way to expand your freedom is to narrow your focus.

Stay focused on saving to achieve financial freedom.

Stay focused on training to achieve physical freedom.

Stay focused on learning to achieve intellectual freedom." 

— James Clear

Proverbs on words fittly spoken

vutran | June 19, 2020, 6:15 p.m.

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver."

— Proverbs 25:11

Alain de Botton on the enemy of good decisions

vutran | June 16, 2020, 6:03 p.m.

“The chief enemy of good decisions is a lack of sufficient perspectives on a problem.”

— Alain de Botton

Damian Lillard on how to look good in front of thousands

vutran | June 15, 2020, 4:38 p.m.

"If you want to look good in front of thousands, you have to outwork thousands in front of nobody." 

— Damian Lillard