let me play the lion too

“No human being, even the most passionately loved and passionately loving, is ever in our possession.”

“Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.”

“Do what nature demands. Get a move on — if you have it in you — and don’t worry whether anyone will give you credit for it. And don’t go expecting Plato’s Republic; be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant.”

Having no sense of urgency isn’t normal; there are things you should be handling as soon as they come to you, and there are things you need to be actively aware of and taking care of. By having no sense of urgency, believing a higher power will handle something, ignoring the obvious, or leaving things until the last minute, you make your life significantly more difficult than it would be otherwise. I also think that you have to be able to rely on yourself, and by consistently holding off from doing things, you make yourself unreliable in your own mind. One might think that they fail at everything they do because they’re not skilled enough, but many a time, it’s because they leave things for way too late. Get in the habit of doing things promptly, get in the habit of answering emails and doing work projects/assignments swiftly, get in the habit of asking questions if you're confused, and get in the habit of being able to depend on yourself to get things done and never look back. If you can’t rely on yourself and handle business, you’re missing out on opportunities.

embarrassment is the cost of entry.

“Decay, growth, fullness, emptiness, now murky, now bright, the sun shifting, the moon changing phase — day after day these things proceed… Life has its sproutings, death its destination, end and beginning tail one another in unbroken round, and no one has ever heard of their coming to a stop.”

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”