booknewb

"I feel like now, in internet culture. It's all about. We're all just sharks looking for blood.  and anytime someone says racist stuff or drops an "N" bomb.  I feel like there's all these websites that are like "YES! We can write about that for a week. This is awesome."  We're not sharks. We shouldn't be looking for blood. We're human beings. We should talk to people and look for dialogue and understanding." -Aziz Ansari

I had a different view of how this holiday season would hopefully turn out. I guess, that not's going to be the case this time. But you know, that's just how it is. Sometimes you're particularly lucky. Sometimes not. Things don't always go the way we want them to be. And there's nothing wrong with that. We have full volition of how we spend our time. or make our choices. We are not prisoners of outcomes. We are active participants in the scenes we aspire to be in. We are not perfect. We make mistakes. But we also have the capacity to strive for the best versions of our selves. We become weak. We get scared. We get angry. We get lonely. A reminder that we are in fact, humans. The good thing to know is that, we survive. We have the opportunity to stand in courage. To be happy. To join each other in times of our failures and weaknesses.

"When our ambition is bounded, it leads us to work joyfully. When our ambition is unbounded, it leads us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others, to sacrifice things of real value. When our fears are bounded, we're prudent. We're cautious. We're thoughtful. When our fears are unbounded and overblown, we're reckless and we're cowardly. ... The lesson i want to leave you with from this data is that our longings and our worries are both to some degree overblown because we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing when we choose experience." -Dan Gilbert

"Your heart might be broken but it isn't gone. If it was gone, you wouldnt be this nice." Home Alone

On the difference between excitement and fulfillment "We confuse excitement with fulfillment. We confuse the big wins, with the money we make, with being fulfilled.  It's not. It's just exciting." On what we essentially ask for our leaders "Help me learn, Help me try.  Be there if I fail. Let me fail. Let me try and fail.  Help me build my confidence. Help me realize that I have more capacity than I think I have." On good leadership and quality of lives it affects "It's like being a parent. at some point, you will look back and see the life that you've created. and question is, do you want to be proud of it or not? And I don't mean your life. I mean the lives of others. Like a parent, you look back and you look at your children, and say "I did ok, I did ok, you know" That's the quality of your parenting is how well your kids turn out . well the quality of your leadership is how your people turn out, not your...

Paid my last respects to an old friend yesterday. Went to the St. Peter's Parish Shrine of Leaders.  I realized, I've been very near reminders mortality in the last few months.  As scary as the thought of death is, I remembered the first time I had a clear emotion/reaction to it. I was in grade school. It was an afternoon. I guess the teacher was out because I don't remember him/her in this memory. They had distributed this science magazine, a couple pieces of soft printed paper with science-y ideas. I don't remember the exact article but It was something about mortality. I remembered browsing through that magazine. I felt really scared. What's going to happen to me? What about my parents? and people i know etc.  That kind of fizzled out as the days went by. Then yesterday, i realized that death is special. It made me realize that the life we get to have is precious. That there's an end. It made me appreciate more of days we get to have. The mornings and ev...

"I think a broken heart is something that everybody should experience because it makes you appreciate any future experiences that you have.  You felt the hurt so you can enjoy the positive aspects of love." -Gates of Heaven(1978)

"There's going to be a day when you're not going to do this again. When that day comes, you're going to miss this."

Just saw the 2014 Spurs Championship Documentary. One that really stood out to me was this bit of dialogue by Gregg Popovich. "Pop: We start that training camp by watching that game, every frame of it. Manu: Pop wanted us to see it again, to feel it, to realize what happened. Pop: You're in control of things . You don't blame it on basketball gods or anything like that. What can we do better. Either we will or we won't." Perhaps the best way to start the healing process is take good stock of the events. To own what happened.To realize. To acknowledge. Not to push it away. Also, to realize that, You are in control of things. You don't blame time. You don't blame fate. What can we do to get better? Be the better person.

it's time.