Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that allows the wheel to function.

We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.

We fashion wood for a house,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes it livable.

We work with the substantial,
but the emptiness is what we use.

Laozi Tao Te Ching 11

If we pay attention, we will realize that every moment around us there is a world that we do not create—that’s been there for 13.8 billion years—and there are trillions of cells in your body that are doing what they’re supposed to do, all of nature, everything. And, you wake up and you realize, ‘I’m not doing any of this. I didn’t make my body, I didn’t make my mind think, I don’t make my heart beat, I don’t make my breath breathe—yet I have this notion that I have to make things happen. Yet, all throughout the universe things are happening everywhere, and I’m not doing them. So, why exactly am I the one that’s in charge of what’s unfolding in front of me?’ And, what you realize at some point, is that you’re not.

That the moment in front of you that’s unfolding is no different than all the zillions of other moments that aren’t in front of you that are unfolding in accordance to the laws of nature, the laws of creation. So, you start to practice saying, ‘I don’t want to check inside of me first to see what I want and what I don’t want. I want to pay attention to what the universe is creating in front of me—just like it’s creating everywhere I’m not—and let me see how I can participate in that, be part of that, instead of interfering with it with my desires and my fears.’ That’s living from a place of surrender.

Source

“I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched. I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people.”

Rest in Peace, Clayton Christensen

The people who radiate a permanent joy have given themselves over to lives of deep and loving commitment. Giving has become their nature, and little by little they have made their souls incandescent. There’s always something flowing out of the interiority of our spirit. For some people it’s mostly fear or insecurity. For the people we call joyful, it’s mostly gratitude, delight, and kindness.

-David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life

(Hat Tip: Anderson Layman)

Words can wound, but they seldom heal; it’s silence that more often heals or restores us.

Nothing fails like success. We gain success by doing what works for us. We do more of what works for us, until it doesn’t.

And then, the very thing that contributed to our success becomes the reason of our failure.

This happens because to often, we become prisoners of our own experiences. Because we find it difficult to step out of our limited viewpoints formed through finite experiences.

To avoid this, we need an ability to think critically, map our lessons to the context in which we currently exist and learn in an iterative way.

We need to belong to a community of people who can challenge our thinking. We need to contribute to this community. We need a mindset of an explorer who is ready to uncover and deal with the uncertain next.

Then we can build on our success rather than being imprisoned by it.

– – – –

And here is another perspective to consider.

We stand a chance to fail only when we have succeeded. So, if you are successful by external metrics (title, position, authority, material success etc) then do know that you may fail at some point. What goes up invariably will see a downfall.

How do we deal with a downfall after we have succeeded in the eyes of other people?

First and foremost, it is best not to be driven by or attached with external measures of success. Money, titles, authority are merely by-products of being who you truly are. When your doing stems from your being and feeds your joy, you will associate success with inner well-being rather than external measures.

Second is to work in your inner calm. We get too excited when we taste success and too dejected when we experience set backs. But most wise people I know have worked at building their inner state where they handle life situations with equanimity.

If we do this, we won’t really fail when we fail, but instead use it as an opportunity to step up further.

Nothing fails like success.

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness, without dreaming of it; but likely enough it is gone the moment we say to ourselves, “Here it is!” like the chest of gold that treasure-seekers find.

– Nathaniel Hawthorne