You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
Your fear is the most boring thing about you.
Interpretation
Fear is a common experience, but letting it define you is uninteresting.
This quote by Elizabeth Gilbert suggests that fear is a universal emotion that many people experience, yet allowing fear to dictate your actions and identity is dull and uninspired. Instead of letting fear limit your potential, embracing challenges and stepping outside of your comfort zone can lead to a more vibrant and fulfilling life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming personal challenges.
You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek happiness. Not just any kind of happiness, either, but profound happiness, even soaring happiness. And what could possibly bring a person more soaring happiness than romantic love.
When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?
And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight.
But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilling yearnings.
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.
I allow myself to fail. I allow myself to break. I'm not afraid of my flaws.
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
Certainly I'm angry at the way Indians have been treated and continue to be treated. But I don't think it's a helpless emotion.
We may be personally defeated, but our principles never!
Sometimes overturning brutal regimes takes time and costs lives. I wish it weren't so. I really, really do.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.