“Don’t Think You Cannot”
“Urgent, please read ASAP.
That’s what gets done, of course. The urgent.
Not the article you haven’t gotten around to writing, the trip to the gym that will pay off in the long run, the planning for your upcoming birthday party, dinner with your parents (who would love to see you), ten minutes to sit quietly, saying thank you to a friend for no real reason … no, we do the urgent first.
The problem, of course, is that the queue of urgent never ends; it merely changes its volume as it gets longer.
Yes, we’ve heard it said that it’s the important, not the urgent, that deserves attention. But it understates just how much we’ve been manipulated by those that would make their important into our urgent. (Seth Godin)
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“Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.” (Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible)
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“‘But what if I make a mistake?’ Will asked.
Gilan threw back his head and laughed. ‘A mistake? One mistake? You should be so lucky. You’ll make dozens! I made four or five on my first day alone! Of course you’ll make mistakes. Just don’t make any of them twice. If you do mess things up, don’t try to hide it. Don’t try to rationalize it. Recognize it and admit it and learn from it. We never stop learning, none of us.” (John Flanagan, Erak’s Ransom)
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“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.” (Michael Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason)
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“There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitation of your own mind as to what you cannot do. Don’t think you cannot. Think that you can.” (Darwin P. Kingsley)
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Catalyst Quotes 