No one wants to hear everything that's in your head. They just want you to live up to what comes out of your mouth.
Adam GrantRead
In the eyes of many people, giving doesn't count unless it's completely selfless. In reality, though, giving isn't sustainable when it's completely selfless.
Interpretation
Giving needs a balance between selflessness and self-care to be truly sustainable.
Adam Grant's quote highlights the misconception that true giving must be entirely selfless. Instead, he believes that sustainable generosity requires a degree of self-interest, as completely selfless actions can lead to burnout and reduce one's capacity to give in the long run. Acknowledging one's own needs is crucial for effective and enduring contributions to others.
In practice
During a workshop on volunteering, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of self-care among helpers.
No one wants to hear everything that's in your head. They just want you to live up to what comes out of your mouth.
When you procrastinate, you're more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.
We have many identities, and we can't be authentic to them all. The best we can do is be sincere in our efforts to earn the values we claim.
We all have thoughts and feelings that we believe are fundamental to our lives but that are better left unspoken.
You want people who choose to follow because they genuinely believe in ideas, not because they're afraid to be punished if they don't. For startups, there's so much pivoting that's required that if you have a bunch of sheep, you're in bad shape.
Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity.
Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don't realise it. - Miss Marple
Yet the definition we have made of ourselves is ourselves. To break out of it, we must make a new self. But how can the self make a new self when the selflessness which it is, is the only substance from which the new self can be made?
I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa.
Philosophy is speculation, Zen is participation. Participate in the night leaving, participate in the evening coming, participate in the stars and participate in the clouds; make participation your lifestyle and the whole existence becomes such a joy, such an ecstasy. You could not have dreamed of a better universe.
For the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment
But I was willing to embrace mortal life again, before chasing immortality.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.