Have you achieved your big goals for this year?
It’s okay if you haven’t. What matters most is how you respond to your setbacks and difficulties, much like Marilynne Robinson writes in Housekeeping (also available on Audible):
If you do not resist the cold, but simply relax and accept it, you no longer feel the cold as discomfort.
So, if you need more guidance, here are some of my favourite Seth Godin quotes from his 2022 blog posts, together with a recommended title from Blinkist.
The thing that gets us stuck isn’t us. It’s the script that we’ve decided is our only option. ~ “Here we go again”
Learn more: Getting Past Your Past
Every day we get a new chance to begin again. And if you don’t, someone else will. ~ Ostracodish
Learn more: Bounce Back
Paying attention to something when the problem is still small makes it far less of an issue later. ~ Coming soon
Learn more: Stitches
The easy problems are often an illusion. If they were real and they were easy, they’d be solved already. ~ Difficult problems
Learn more: Wild Problems
A transition doesn’t have to be a crisis, unless we want it to be. ~ Speeding up for the red light
Learn more: Life Happens in the Transitions
Life’s a tragedy. It always surprises us, and eventually, we all die. But tragedies don’t have to lead to catastrophes. ~ Catastrophization
Learn more: Full Catastrophe Living
Quitting is underrated. ~ Sunk costs at work
Learn more: Quit
Plenty of people insist on freedom and independence. More rare and far more effective is to claim responsibility instead. ~ Demand responsibility
Learn more: How to Meet Yourself
If your plan, your idea or your art doesn’t involve any significant hurdles in moving forward, it’s probably not worth that much. ~ Significant hurdles
Learn more: Endure
When we embrace flexible, renewable and diverse approaches, we create actual progress. ~ Strength through resilience
Learn more: Get Off Your But
It’s tempting to find a sinecure where someone tells you what to do all day–after all, then you’re off the hook and you can’t be wrong, only the boss can. But it’s far more thrilling and useful and fulfilling to be the one who might mess up. ~ The opportunity to be wrong
Learn more: Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)
Decisions and crises and moments of significant effort and risk can be stressful. But the challenge of a stressful day is rarely directly related to today, it’s about tomorrow or years from now. How many good days?
Learn more: The Stress Prescription
We might all come out ahead if we focus on a productive and comfortable way to wrap things up, instead of fighting to the last moment. ~ Palliative care
Learn more: Time to Think
If you’re hoping to demonstrate power, confidence or status, taking responsibility is a better signal than whining. ~ Whining and status
Learn more: Mindset Matters
If you buy a piece of tech, it will break. If you buy an asset of some sort, it’s likely to go down in value one day. If you start a project, you will one day walk away from it. And everything that is alive will die. ~ But how will it fail?
Learn more: Life Is Hard
The time we spend fretting over what just happened is time we’re not spending on addressing the problem itself. ~ It’s not what you deserve, but it is what it is
Learn more: Own Your Past, Change Your Future
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