Michael Ende Quotes

A 'harmonized' life these days sounds like a tall order. Between housework, homework, workwork, and busywork, there are perpetually too many things to do, and not enough time to find that mythical balance. Nothing is more frustrating than feeling like you're doing doing doing but getting nothing truly done that you really want.

Building up expectations, creating unrealistic time frames, feeling like our end goal is the end all, be all can all lead to frustration or anxiety. We end up feeling as though we have to power through what we want rather than enjoy the process and just let the result come as it may.

I'm a precrastinator. Yes, that's an actual term. You know that panic you feel a few hours before a big deadline when you haven't done anything yet? I just feel that a few months ahead of time.

I think a lot of women, especially ones that want to achieve career goals, tend to worry. I don't want anyone to worry their life away.

If any of those times you rushed around madly - trying to get somewhere faster - had ever made any real difference in the quality of your life... don't you think you'd be able to slow down by now?

I've learned to relax more. Everybody feels pressure in what they do, maybe mine is just a little different because there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to accomplish what I want to.

I envy people who can think, 'No, I'm not going to work today' when they have a huge pile of deadlines stacking up.

We need to distinguish between stress and stimulation. Having deadlines, setting goals, and pushing yourself to perform at capacity are stimulating. Stress is when you're anxious, upset, or frustrated, which dramatically reduce your ability to perform.

I'm a 24-hour tweet machine, I'm a 24-hour blogger. When there's no pressure on me, I can talk and write and lecture with the best of them. But put a deadline on me and I start getting writer's block.

I've never had a chance to sit down and enjoy what's happened - I've been too panicked about the next move. So I took some time out. I thought either I do this now or in 10 years' time I'll end up in the Priory.

Procrastination is your body telling you you need to back off a bit and think more about what you are doing.

I don't waste my time doing my head in about stupid things that don't really matter and don't waste time worrying over nothing.

Most people are too fretful, they worry to much. Success means being very patient, but aggressive when it's time.

If you don't enjoy it, then putting in the long hours is going to take their toll.

I can be in a little bit of a state of overwhelm and panic if I don't start out being connected to grace and gratitude.

The whole thing is, do as much as you can, when you possibly can, and don't stress.

We can outrun the wind and the storm, but we cannot outrun the demon of hurry.

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.

Long week. Long month. Long life.

We found ourselves wanting to hurry time along, which was not in the long run good for our health. Everybody was trapped in this contradiction but nobody ever dared to articulate it.

Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?

I try not to get caught up on how cool I am. That way nothing ever gets done. I'm always thinking about what I haven't done.

I'm a project guy, but when my list of things to do gets too long or involved, it can stress me out to the point of catatonia. So I focus on the small stuff first and keep the larger picture as motivation - but not so close that it overwhelms.

Maybe that's good to not feel like you have to keep up when there's so much to keep up with right now. It's bottomless.

Are you aware that rushing toward a goal is a sublimated death wish? It's no coincidence we call them 'deadlines.'