Refuse to Accept Anything But the Best

Came across an interesting quote today:

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
W. Somerset Maugham

Which reminded me of another very interesting Chinese proverb which we have repeatedly found to be true:

Buy the best, cry once

These quotes strike a cord in two different areas, selecting and achieving what we want in terms of our goals. The first describes an approach to selecting and setting goals which we have consistently been very pleasantly surprised with - the bigger and better goals we set, the more we achieve.

The second ties in nicely with the first and actually results in a bit of thriftyness too. If we buy the best (refuse to accept anything but the best), we find we don't 'rebuy'. This is something we have repeatedly made mistakes with, buying something which is 'pretty close but not quite'. The result? A second, third or fourth purchase of essentially the same thing (cry, cry and cry again) costing far more and bringing far less enjoyment than if we'd purchased the right thing the first time.

There's a third quote from Steve (and it may be from somewhere else too):

You always over-estimate what you can do in a day and under-estimate what you can do in a year.

This one ties nicely in with the other two because if you think of achieving the best (dreams and goals) in the context of a day - overwhelming and unachievable. But, if you think in the context of a year or over a period of years, so much of the best becomes very possible.

Sharing What We've Learned

"We have stories to tell, stories that provide wisdom about the journey of life. What more have we to give one another than our "truth" about our human adventure as honestly and as openly as we know how?"

Rabbi Saul Rubin

Focused on What's Important

"If people are highly successful in their professions they lose their sense. Sight goes. They have no time to look at pictures. Sound goes. They have no time to listen to music. Speech goes. They have no time for conversation. Humanity goes. Money making becomes so important that they must work by night as well as by day. Health goes. And so competitive do they become that they will not share their work with others though they have more than they can do themselves. What then remains of human being who has lost sight, sound and sense of proportion? Only a cripple in a cave."

Or perhaps a person in a cubicle?

(The quote is by Virginia Woolf.)

Living Consciously (v. Unconscious Living)

...and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Thoreau

Labyrinth

"I don't see why we have to be so quiet, it's only a goblin city."

Sir Didymus

The Way to Go!

Wishing

Wishing is not a strategy.

Approach

If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it.

If you don't ask, the answer's always no.

If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

Twenty Years from Now...

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain

Snowbird...

So, little snowbird, take me with you when you go
To that land of gentle breezes where the peaceful waters flow..."

Anne Murray