Quotes Tagged "fulfillment"

In the words of Jean de La Fountaine, 'A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

Whatever path you choose will take you to the same destination. The only thing that should guide you is your intuition.

... the decisions you make are your decisions. And without checking in with yourself and what you want or need, you’ll find that you start doing your work and living your life for everyone but yourself. That’s not productive, it’s not sustainable, and it’s certainly not fulfilling.

And individuals often are deeply spiritual or creative in their free time but don’t apply those same values or skills in the work- place. It’s only rational to think that what brings you success and fulfillment in your personal life will also bring you success and fulfillment at work. Therefore, all the ideals I espouse are applicable to both your business and personal lives, because both are made up of people.

Once we’ve met our basic needs—safety, security, sustenance, and shelter—those same emotional elements, not material wealth, determine our level of fulfillment, or, as some may refer to it, our personal success. These parallel truths—that amazing achievement and lasting fulfillment for both individuals and organizations come from understanding and harnessing those emotional elements—are critical to flourishing in our new age, the Age of Ideas.

A few years ago my therapist asked me, “What do you want out of life?” I said the first thing that came to my mind: “I want to be successful.” He looked at me, puzzled, and replied, “What do you mean?” “You know what I mean,” I said. “I want to be successful. I want to be wealthy, powerful, and recognized.” In other words, I framed a conventional vision of success, the one drummed into us by popular culture and other social dimensions. My therapist chuckled at my naïveté for a moment and then asked, “Alan, why do you believe that wealth, power, and recogni- tion are the definition of success?” He then went on to explain to me that success is defined as “accomplishing an aim or purpose,” but the definition of that aim or purpose is up to the individual. My mind was officially blown.

Up until that day, I had never really thought about why I defined success that way—instead, I’d been obsessed with how I would attain those things. That focus on the how instead of the why had really tripped me up. It had led me to make some very bad decisions and to experience some very unhappy times. When you follow the influence of mainstream culture—television, movies, magazines, and more—to elevate the goals of wealth, power, and recognition above all else, it becomes logical to take selfish or negative actions in order to attain them. After all, that kind of approach—playing the game, playing for keeps, as they say—is put forth as the way to achieve success and happiness. Machiavelli’s writings are often referenced to support this point of view—statements like “the ends justify the means”—but it should be noted that Machiavelli died alone and in exile.

It’s only when you free yourself from external definitions of success that you’re able to comprehend the folly of this type of pursuit. Ask yourself: What’s the point of attaining a goal if it isn’t going to satisfy your internal needs? All you’re going to end up with is some form of a trophy (money, a big house, a nice watch, some press clippings) alongside a big bowl of unhappiness and dissatis- faction. You can only define yourself as a success if the result of your actions is the satisfaction of your internal desires, not that of some superficial, outside force. It isn’t relevant if society deems you a success—it’s whether you believe you’re achieving success that matters. For some this may mean fame and fortune, but for others it may just mean putting food on the table every night for their family and having a loving relationship with their spouse. The determining factor is how you feel and what you desire on the inside. The first and most powerful step is realizing you have the power to determine what success looks like for you. Only then can you free yourself from the myth and begin the journey of living your truth.

Rather than defining success by the number of people who love us, may we define it by the number of people we have loved.

As our eyes are open we see all that we have created. Everything we see and or experience is mirror of our conscious omnificence, good or bad.

We have collectively and constantly created and are creating the world we exist in, who knows who really authored what. If every success is someone else’s failure, and failure someone else’s success, how then can we not all be part of the manifested.

Measurement is an illusion

If you spend enough “time” in the future or past you will realize neither exist or existed.

Do you need to know that you are happy to be happy?

What is a word? What is the word death without its meaning to us? What is the word life without it’s meaning to us? Is it meaningless? Does it in fact have less meaning? Less meaning implies opposition. Less meaning than what? What is life or death without the meaning we attach to it. Without the words life or death, If In fact we knew them not, what then would they be? The answer is simple, nothing... no thing. So then what is a word, if not a fabrication made to solve the problem of not knowing. Not knowing is the beautiful landscape of life, of being. We act like we know what death is, and go on experiencing it while we think we are living. The word for this is irony or more specifically tragedy.

Thoughts are a way of concealing the truth.

If we live to change the world, we lose our life, if we let the world be, our life will change the world.

What happens in the moment is more important than remembering it. Being is more important than seeing.

healthiness and happiness are dependent on each other

Transcendence begins when you realize that you are a law of nature.