…but their careers have changed them, altered them physically and emotionally, …

Someone once told me that our bodies' cells regenerate every seven years, making as completely new people at seven-year intervals.

Maybe this is my fourth regeneration, my chance at a new start, an opportunity to be kinder to what I've been given, for that's all there is, and the meter is running.

Ask what are you passionate about? Not, what do you.

But then again, most things in life aren't innate.

Progress requires practice and dedication to a certain extent, a healthy obsession. Hence, passion is mixture of love and obsession.

An issue people rarely talk about these days is what true passion actually feels like. Instead we assume that passion feels like excitement - that passion is inherently exciting - but the assumption is wrong.

Excitement comes and goes; it wanes when times get hard, when the work gets tough, when creative flow turns into drudgery. True passion, however arise after you've put in the long hours necessary to become a skilled craftsman, a skillset you can then leverage to have an impact, to gain autonomy and respect, to shape and control your destiny.

For any dimension of life, for any skill set - be it exercise, ballroom dancing, or writing - a person must be willing to drudge through the drudgery to find joy on the other side.

I've aspired all over the place, writing haphazardly whenenver I get excited - and I excite easily.

The reality of my daily grind is that life's mundane tasks eat up most of my time …
These activities are my true priorities.

Until I actually put these pursuits first, until I make these undertakings part of my everyday routine, they are not my actual priorities.

What if you removed one material posession - just one - from your life each day for a month? What would happen?

Why declutter? Why do you want to get rid of things?

Do I love this? Does this have a function?

Now anytime I feel the urge to hold on to something,, I get rid of it as soon as I hear myself think those words: “just in case”

Careers are dangerous because people invest so much of themselves into their careers that they establish an identity and social status based upon where they work and what they do for a living.

Sure, I need money to pay for the basics, but I don't need to struggle to earn money to buy crap I don't need anymore.

Now, before I spend money, I ask myself one question: Is this worth my freedom?

Basically I no longer waste money, and so it is far less important to pursue it endlessly.

We always asked “What if?” with so much optimism (as kids), but now the only time we seem to ask it is out of fear.

I sit in my chair for 2 hours a day, every day, without any distractions

… exhausted, worn out, but it's that good kind of worn out, how you feel when your mind and body've synchronized, heart and thoughts pulsing at the same rate, on the same continuum, transcending intention…

The point, however, is not to limit myself. My journey toward a simpler life has never been about deprivation. Rather, I limit myself in the short term so I can learn more about me, learn about my psyche, and ultimately identify what is meaningful in my life.

Transference - leveraging one's current skillsets and transferring those skills to new endeavors.

Creativity. If we are constantly consuming we are not creating.

It turns out that killing the Internet at home was the best decision I've ever made with respect to productivity.

If I see something I want to do research on the Web, I just can't jump at the impulse; I have to write it down and use that list during connectivity.

there were three things that significantly changed his life: establishing habits he enjoyed, simplifying his life, and living with no goals

That is to say, I don't do things I dislike, but I do do a lot of things that force me to feel discomfort.

The truth is; you can skip the pursuit of happiness altogether and just be happy.

Basically, I take 20 minutes each day to sit quietly, doing nothing with my body. Nothing. No playing computer chess or texting or doodling or reading or watching TV. I just sit or lie awake, alone, smothered in my own thoughts, undisturbed - no phone, no computer, no music - and I just stare off into space, unfocus my eyes, and let my mind wander.

It doesn't matter what you think about, just that you know you've got some time to think.

Another way (to start learning)is to start anew. Not unlike kindergarten, this manner of learning ir simultaneously terrifying and exciting, because everything in the atmosphere is so new, so vivid, so uncertain and uncharted. Growth happens rapidly amid the terror and excitement of elementary school.