Fulfillment
“You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” ~ Henry Drummond
“Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine.” ~ Buddha
“I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply all my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.” ~ Og Mandino
“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of a man is to live, not to exist.” ~ Jack London
“Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity. Reduce selfishness, have few desires.” ~ Lao Tzu
“All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means – for example, wealth and status – with that life itself. This misguided focus on the means to a good life makes people get further from the happy life. The really worthwhile things are the virtuous activities that make up the happy life, not the external means that may seem to produce it.” ~ Epictetus
“Life is too short to be small.” ~ Bernjamin Disraeli
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” ~ Maya Angelou
“My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.” ~ Ronald Reagan
What Will Matter
“Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought by what you build,
not what you got but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success but our significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught,
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
What will matter is not our memories but the memories of those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that maters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.”
~ Michael Josephson
“How do I define success? Let me tell you, money’s pretty nice. But having a lot of money does not automatically make you a successful person. What you want is money and meaning. You want your work to be meaningful, because meaning is what brings the real richness to your life.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
“What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” ~ Bob Dylan
“I’ve come to embrace the notion that I haven’t done enough in my life. I’ve come to confirm that one’s title, even a title like president of the United States, says very little about how well one’s life has been led. No matter how much you’ve done or how successful you’ve been, there’s always more to do, always more to learn, and always more to achieve.” ~ Barack Obama
“Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy. Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.” ~ Anne Frank
“I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!” ~ Anne Frank
“If you feel that your life is going nowhere, check out the friends you hang out with.” ~ Anonymous