I found 3 more quotes that cropped up during my reading and I thought I'd share it here. I am not sure if I can make it a weekly thing but it sounds like fun. More reading and more interesting quotes to ponder about.
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast endless sea.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
How to motivate people is something I do ponder a lot about. There's a large chunk of our students at The Quad who have been training for years and years with us and have figured out their routines to make training a regular part of their lives. But "life happens" along the way and there's frequent dips in motivation - work stress, a pandemic, personal stress, or whatever. And sometimes, people fall off the wagon and lose all the good work they've put in.
So, what does it mean for me to teach them to yearn for the vast endless sea...
Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.
- Bruce Lee
Simple. Brilliant.
I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom. It’s only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of my mind come into play, that I arrive at an original idea. By giving my brain a chance to make associations, draw connections, take me by surprise.
- William Deresiewicz
This! Only when I give my brain the chance to stumble about, to ruminate on all the things that I think I know, when I am patient and stubborn to keep chipping away on an idea but without going into a loop - interesting things happen. These have happened less than a handful of times but can I enable myself to do more of this? Can I combine this with the first question I posed for myself today?
Hope you enjoy spending 5 minutes on one of these quotes. I'd love to hear your favourite quote - do share.