Meditations for Mortals
"One never notices what has been done; one can see only what remains to be done." — Marie Curie
Perhaps you've tethered your self-esteem to the most crazy-making standard of all, "realising your potential" — which means you'll never get to rest, because how can you ever be sure there's not a little more potential left to realise?
"My favourite way of combating the feeling of productivity debt in everyday life is to keep a 'done list,' which you use to create a record not of the tasks you plan to carry out, but of the ones you've completed so far today — which makes it the rare kind of list that's actually supposed to get longer as the day goes on."
"People today are in danger of drowning in information; but, because they have been taught that information is useful, they are more willing to drown than they need be." — Idries Shah
Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket. That is to say: think of your backlog not as a container that gradually fills up, and that it's your job to empty, but as a stream that flows past you, from which you get to pick a few choice items, here and there, without feeling guilty for letting all the others float by.
Resist the urge to stockpile knowledge. At least where non-fiction sources are concerned, it's easy to fall into the assumption that the point of reading or listening to things is to add to your storehouse of knowledge and insights, like a squirrel hoarding nuts, in preparation for a future when you'll finally get to take advantage of it all.
"Consuming information is a present-moment activity, like everything else. It's not merely that a fixation on retaining facts is a poor way to reap the benefits of reading."
"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." — William James
Every worthwhile goal is supposed to feel hard, unglamorous, unsexy.
"Going was dying, and staying was dying. When we get to junctures like that, we had better choose the dying that enlarges rather than the one that keeps us stuck." — James Hollis
"The question can be a startlingly powerful one, particularly when you find yourself torn between options, or between external pressures and your own ambitions, or unable, for any other reason, to figure out what to do next: What's the life task here? Never mind what you want. What does life want?"
By definition, a life task is something your life is asking of you; so while it might coincide with your parents' expectations, or your society's ideals, it also very easily might not.
Ask yourself what you'd truly be willing to do, to address some fear-inducing challenge in your life.
"Beyond the mountains, more mountains."
"I choose to live in Easy World, where everything is easy."
"'Great news! I found the cure for my anxiety!!' the author Sarah Gailey once announced on social media. 'All I need is for everyone I know to tell me definitively that they aren't mad at me, once every fifteen seconds, forever.'"
"If you can't do something, saying no right away usually makes it much easier for everyone."
"To treat life as a pilgrimage to a future and better existence is to disown its present value."