Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One

“there was no point comparing what couldn’t be compared. The scale of happiness or misery isn’t the same for everyone. I”

“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but by perseverance.” That’s H. Jackson Brown, Jr. —”

“Alcuni guardano il fango sul fondo dello stagno, altri contemplano il fiore di loto sulla superficie dell'acqua. E' una scelta.”

“Le changement est une porte qui ne s'ouvre que de l'intérieur.”

“You know, Camille, life is like a hot-air balloon. To go higher we have to know how to lighten the load and to throw overboard all those things that prevent us rising.”

“Don’t you agree that there’s nothing worse than the sense that life is passing you by? Simply because you don’t have the courage to go for what you really want,”

“While not being clinically depressed, one could still have a feeling of emptiness and unease and suffer from the unpleasant sensation that although you had everything you needed to be happy, you didn’t have the key to make the most of it.”

“Acute routinitis. It’s a sickness of the soul that affects more and more people in the world, especially in the West. The symptoms are almost always the same: a lack of motivation; chronic dissatisfaction; feeling you’ve lost your bearings and everything meaningful in life; finding it hard to feel happy even though you have more than enough material goods; disenchantment; world-weariness . .”

“The best way to bolster your self-esteem is to learn to be your own best friend. You have to value yourself, to have compassion for and to be kind to yourself, to show yourself gratitude as often as possible. Will you promise to”

“I am the only one responsible for my life and happiness.”

“You’ll find that the difficulty isn’t knowing what you ought to be doing to feel better, but to commit yourself completely and to move from theory to practice.”

“Soha nem mondhatom elégszer: a pozitív gondolkodás lényege hatással van a testre és az elmére.”

“Tudja, Camille, az élet olyan, mint egy léghajó. Ha magasabbra akarunk szállni, meg kell tanulnunk elszakadni dolgoktól, és kidobni a kosárból azt, ami nem enged felemelkedni.”

“Egyedül én vagyok felelős az életemért és a boldogságomért.”

“The key to achieving your objective is to frame it properly before you begin. Do you know the ‘SMART method’?” “No, I—” “You need to make sure that your objective is S for Specific (you have to avoid it being vague) and M for Measurable—in this case, for example, success would be losing ten pounds. Then there’s A for Attainable, defined as being achievable, thanks to a series of short steps; it mustn’t be an ‘unreachable star.’ R for Realistic: to keep you motivated, your objective has to make sense in relation to your personality and your possibilities. And, finally, T for Timely: you need to set yourself a deadline.”

“- Dites-moi, vous qui êtes sage, qu'est-ce qu'il y a dans votre esprit ?- Dans mon esprit, il y a deux chiens, un noir et un blanc. Le noir est le chien de la haine, de la colère et du pessimisme. Le blanc est celui de l'amour, de la générosité et de l'optimisme. Ils se battent tout le temps.Le disciple est un peu surpris.- Deux chiens ? Qui se battent ?- Oui, pratiquement tout le temps.- Et lequel gagne ?- Celui que je nourris le plus.”

“Vede, Camille, che impatto hanno ancora su di lei gli eventi esterni disturbanti? Permette loro di compromettere il suo benessere. La verità è che non potrà mai controllare del tutto il corso delle cose, e rischia di sentirsi esternamente come un piccolo tappo di sughero sballottato da onde capricciose. Per il saggio, invece, la tempesta può anche scatenarsi in superficie, ma in profondità continua a regnare la calma... Il segreto è riprendere il controllo della propria mente e decidere di vivere bene anche le cose sgradevoli. Trovare il positivo anche nel negativo Vedrà, è un approccio all'esistenza che cambia tutto.”

“Fare quel che ami è la libertà; amare quel che fai è la felicità”

“To do what you love is freedom; to love what you do is happiness.”

“You’re probably suffering from a kind of acute routinitis.”

“And what do you need?” Claude shot back. “I don’t know . . . I need him to pay attention to me, to be kind and thoughtful. But instead of that, it’s like having a robot in the apartment. He does nothing but moan and then hide behind his computer, in his own little world. I even get jealous of his virtual friends! While he’s online, everything around him could collapse and he wouldn’t notice! And in the meantime I have to be everywhere, looking after Adrien, his homework, cooking dinner. It’s not fair!”

“YES! I’m proud of myself,” I cried with more conviction. “That’s better,” he said, adding some hot water to the coffee he’d been served. “The best way to bolster your self-esteem is to learn to be your own best friend. You have to value yourself, to have compassion for and to be kind to yourself, to show yourself gratitude as often as possible. Will you promise to do that for me?” “I can try. But won’t I have a swollen head afterward?” I joked. “In your case, there’s room for it,” he immediately shot back. “And speaking of that, for the start of next week I want you to send me a list of all your best qualities, everything you’re good at, all the successes you’ve had in your life. Can you do that?”

“Isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration?” “Only slightly. You can’t imagine how many happiness illiterates there are. Not to mention all those lacking any emotional intelligence. It’s a real scourge. Don’t you agree that there’s nothing worse than the sense that life is passing you by? Simply because you don’t have the courage to go for what you really want, because you haven’t stayed faithful to your deepest-seated values, to the dreams you harbored as a child?”

“Well, you may know what Abbé Pierre said: ‘We have as much need of reasons for living as of the necessities of life.’ So don’t say it’s not serious. It’s tremendously serious! Troubles of the soul are not something to be taken lightly. And listening to you, I actually think I know what’s wrong.” “You do? Really?” I sniffled. “Yes . . .” He hesitated a moment before continuing, as if trying to work out whether I was going to be receptive to what he had to say. He must have decided I was, because he went on, as though revealing a great secret. “You’re probably suffering from a kind of acute routinitis.” “A-what?” “Acute routinitis. It’s a sickness of the soul that affects more and more people in the world, especially in the West. The symptoms are almost always the same: a lack of motivation; chronic dissatisfaction; feeling you’ve lost your bearings and everything meaningful in life; finding it hard to feel happy even though you have more than enough material goods; disenchantment; world-weariness”

“Don’t you agree that there’s nothing worse than the sense that life is passing you by? Simply because you don’t have the courage to go for what you really want, because you haven’t stayed faithful to your deepest-seated values, to the dreams you harbored as a child?”

“We have as much need of reasons for living as of the necessities of life.”

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm,’ as Winston Churchill used to say.”

“wise men learn to act on the things they can control, not on those they can’t. You can’t change external events, but you can change the way you react to them.”

“not doing anything is what would really hurt. The worst thing is not failure. It’s not having tried.”

“Often it’s not the other person you no longer love but what the relationship has become.”