Notes

Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her enterprise is going to be—and cocky enough to believe she can pull it off anyway.

— Steven Pressfield, Do the Work

What if nothing needs to be different? What if the way things are, right now, right here, is enough? This is an invitation to step back into a broader field of okayness. There is effort arising, but it’s taking place within a broader field of effortlessness, which we can observe it from. — Henry Shukman, The Way

There is just one condition that ensures unconditional love: that there is no game to be played. There is nothing you want from the other, and there is nothing they want from you. All that matters is mutual presence, and we already know what this feels like in the context of our closest bonds. The key is to take this same dynamic and apply it to the greater world as well.

Yeo, Lawrence. The Inner Compass: Cultivating the Courage to Trust Yourself (p. 80).

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. — Frank Herbert, Dune

The litany encourages facing fear, allowing it to pass over and through oneself, and then using the inner eye to observe its path. This process aims to break free from the destructive power of fear and regain control.

An idea is not worth pursuing if too many people are talking about it: “The big thing is if too many people are talking about it then you might think you’re so clever and you have your own take on it and whatever but it’s you’re probably just being influenced by other people.”