"Perfectionism is one of those traits that many people seem secretly, or not-so-secretly, proud to possess, since it hardly seems like a character flaw. Yet, at bottom, it is a fear-driven striving to avoid the experience of failure at all costs. At the extremes, it is an exhausting and permanently stressful way to live: there is a greater correlation between perfectionism and suicide, researchers have found, than between feelings of hopelessness and suicide. To fully embrace the experience of failure, not merely to tolerate it as a stepping stone to glory, is to abandon this constant straining never to put a foot wrong – and to relax."
—
Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote
The gurus of positivity and optimism can’t bear to contemplate that there might be happiness to be found in embracing failure as failure, not only as a technique for achieving success. But, as the Zen-influenced writer Natalie Goldberg argues, there is an openness and honesty in failure, a down-to-earth confrontation with reality that can seem lacking at the higher altitudes of success.
(Source: Guardian)
My god, life! Who can understand even one little minute of it?
Don’t try. Just pretend you understand.
That is very good advice.
Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?”
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.
—Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
"There is nothing wrong with being scared … as long as you don’t let it affect you until the danger is over. Being hysterical is okay, too … afterwards and in private. Tears are not unmanly … in the bathroom with the door locked. The difference between a coward and a brave man is mostly a matter of timing."
—
Robert A. Heinlein, Job: A Comedy of Justice
Photo: benoitp
"There are many shades of gray in the world and many times when the hidden way is best; but some things are purely evil and must be fought to the death."
— Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age
"We are all giants, raised by pygmies, who have learned to walk with a perpetual mental crouch."
— Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising
"Most hearts of any quality are broken on two or three occasions in a lifetime. They mend, of course, and are often stronger than before, but something of the essence of life is lost at every break."
—
Robertson Davies (1913-1995), Leaven of Malice
Image by lonelypierot
