Get Everything Done

I'm starting a new AF book, and am putting some of my favourite quotes in the front pages. Does anybody have some suggestions?

Here are some I've got so far:

"One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." - Anon

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." - Vincent van Gogh

"The time comes in life when we have read enough. It's time to stop reading. It's time to lay down the books and write." - Albert Einstein

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anais Nin

"If you hear a voice within you saying 'you are not a painter', then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." - van Gogh

And one I heard during an old Bette Davis interview:
"A good percentage of our time is spent doing things that we loathe. Marvelous! It puts starch in your spine." - Bette Davis

My absolute favorite:

"Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day."

- Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet

"Just Do It!"
Nike slogan

Never mind the product - just love the sentiment...

Good ones! (I have a t-shirt that says "Just frickin' do it!")


"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents." - Andrew Carnegie (ouch!)


"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water." - Rabindranath Tagore

"A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules."

-- Anthony Trollope (who became a prolific novelist using the "little and often" principle)

Ok, some of my favorite quotes have already been done - Rilke (IMHO the best poet of the 20th century), Nin and van Gogh's silenced voice. Here's what I have on my daily sheet:

Don't let what you can't do get in the way of what you can do.
- John Wooden

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
- Theodore Roosevelt

And just for the fun of it, here's some Douglas Adams:
"The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate."

"Keep calm and carry on" ( http://images.google.co.uk/images?rlz=1C1GGLS_en-GBFR291US313&sourceid=chrome&q=Keep+calm+and+carry+on&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=JLpBSqKvKdGMtgfysJinCQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=5&ct=title )

"If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run" Kipling http://www.poetry-online.org/kipling_if_insp_father_son.htm

Sir Francis Drake's Prayer :-
"O Lord God, when Thou givest to Thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same unto the end, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory."
May, 1587.

"Arise! for rosy fingered dawn has pinched the bum of softly snoring night" Omar Khayam, loosely translated

""It has been said ... that there are few situations in life that cannot be honourably settled, and without loss of time, either by suicide, a bag of gold, or by thrusting a despised antagonist over the edge of a precipice on a dark night." Ernest Bramah

"The method employed I would gladly explain,
While I have it so clear in my head,
If I had but the time and you had but the brain -
But much yet remains to be said." Lewis Carroll

"The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I will walk carefully."
-- Russian Proverb

Lots more on http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/quotings.htm#Alfonso

"The sense of danger must not disappear
the way is certainly both short and steep
however gradual it looks from here
look if you like, but you will have to leap" - Auden

No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.


-- John Donne

"Those who are free don't want anything. They don't want anything from their mind, they don't want anything from their emotions, they don't want anything from anyone and they don't want anything from life. They don't want anything. If you don't want, all that's left is an incredible sense of being free." Adyashanti (The Impact of Awakening)

The secret of health for both mind and body
is not to mourn for the past, not to worry
about the future, or not to anticipate troubles,
but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
--Siddartha Guatama Buddha

If the problem can be solved,
there is no use worrying about it.
If it can't be solved,
worrying will do no good

Tibetan Saying

When times are hard, always remember that it's always darkest...just before it goes completely black.

Divide each difficulty into as many parts as necessary to resolve it. - Rene Descartes

A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time. - Mark Twain

The long span of the bridge of your life is supported by countless cables called habits, attitudes, and desires. What you do in life depends upon what you are and what you want. What you get from life depends upon how much you want it—how much you are willing to work and plan and cooperate and use your resources. The long span of the bridge of your life is supported by countless cables that you are spinning now, and that is why today is such an important day. Make the cables strong! - L.G. Elliott

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time. - Charles Dickens

The shorter way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time. - Mozart

The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose. - E.M. Gray

It's not the work that's hard, it's the discipline. - Anon

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little. - Plutarch

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another. - Walter Elliott

All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit. - Conrad Hilton

One of the commonest mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic - something or other which we do not possess. Success is generally due to holding on, and failure to letting go. You decide to learn a language, study music, take a course of reading, train yourself physically. Will it be success or failure? It depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word "decide" contains. The decision that nothing can overrule, the grip that nothing can detach will bring success. Remember the Chinese proverb, "With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes satin." - Maltbie Davenport Babcock

A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a “Yes” merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. - Gandhi

What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that's another matter. - Peter F. Drucker

If you chase two rabbits both will escape (Anon on a daily calendar)

Sports do not build character - they reveal it (Heywood Broun)

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time (Samuel Smiles)

One of my favourites : Everyone's responsibility is no one's responsibility (Anon)

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge (John Nesbitt)

Data data everywhere but not a thought to think (Theodore Rozak)

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts, wisdom lies in their simplification (Martin H Fischer)

Meetings are indispensible when you don't want to do anything (John Kenneth Galbraith)

You shouldn't take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up (G K Chesterton)

Genius begins great works, labour alone finishes them (Joseph Joubert).

I'm not particularly well read - most of the above I got from the little quotes at the bottom of my daily calendar - but I like them.

... Colin

Mark, I'm trying to follow the "new multi-tasking" that Mozart (although Colin says it's Samuel Smiles - I'll have to research this...) recommends in:

The shorter way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time.

Well, in terms of taking on a bajillion projects anyway. :-)

I thought Drucker's quote particularly applied to Autofocus:

What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that's another matter.

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." said the Cat.
"I don't much care where." said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go." said the Cat.

—Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

A little more tactical -- a recent tweet from David Allen, founder of GTD.

"Being organized means never having to rethink what something means when you look at it."

http://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/2299260236

One of my favorites from businessman Jim Rohn:
"Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job."
http://jimrohn.com

And one on success from the father of personal development, Earl Nightingale:
""Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal."

Mark,
I've sometimes chosen a book to read based on a quotation out of it. (I'm not going to be reading the collected speeches of Adolf Hitler any time soon - that's one of my occultist brother's interests.) That's why I wonder - who is this Samuel Smiles person? How come I've never heard of him? Even Jack Handey of "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey" (Saturday Night Live) was a real person.

They always attribute that Marianne Williamson passage to Nelson Mandela because he presumably used it in his inaugural speech - but that turned out to be an urban legend too. Oh well, it's a nice quote anyway. :-)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

And thank you for correcting the spelling mistake I made in the title topic! :-)

Jacqueline offers "A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time. - Mark Twain "

I think he's wrong. Earlier this year I went from drinking a litre of strong coffee a day to zero. Didn't feel good for some weeks, but the habit was discarded overnight.

The problem with many platitudes and pronouncemnets is that even when they come from famous people and are uttered with a confidence that lends them an aura of deep wisdom, than can be just dead wrong. "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.": Ken Olsen, whose company DEC went from the second largest computer manufacturer to nowhere.

David, I think it depends on what kind of habit it is - and what kind of person the individual is.

If it was something like coffee (a quite addictive substance), I'd likely substitute a glass of water for every second cup of coffee, and ease into it. Or switch to green tea. No use giving myself headaches to get to a goal a bit faster. Smoking? Cold turkey worked the best because it was so hard to detox I never wanted to go through that again. Getting into a habit of exercise? I do best if at first I never miss a day, but don't put in the 2 hours a day that I have when training hard in the past. Getting in the habit of cleaning the house regularly? Baby steps and little routines work wonders.

The Ken Olsen quote? Check out snopes, that's another quote taken completely out of context. And DEC was bought out by Compaq about 10 years ago, so it did go somewhere.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/kenolsen.asp

I have this on my wall in the office..


"Its kind of fun to do the impossible."

Walt Disney.


Regards,

Derek.

"Smile, breathe and go slowly". Thich Nhat Hanh

"Go easy, step lightly, stay free". The Clash

Ian

We must ourselves BE and DO, and not rest satisfied merely
with reading and meditating over what other men have been and done.
Our best light must be made life, and our best thought action.

Samuel Smiles - from "Self-Help" at Project Gutenberg (it's a good history lesson): http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/selfh10.txt

One of my favorite Mark Forster quotes in "Get Everything Done":

"The simple secret of people who are naturally good at running their lives is that they always take resistance as a spur to action instead of avoidance. In fact what we are talking about here is rediscovering the old virtue of courage. In reality only one thing stands between me as I am and me as I want to be - and that is fear. And the best and only remedy for fear is, and always has been, action."

From Mike Rhode's 20x2 talk at this year's SXSW 2009. The topic was "What's it gonna take?"

"No choices based in fear. Believe in who you are."

http://www.rohdesign.com/weblog/archives/003039.html

"This task was appointed to you, Frodo of the Shire. If you do not find a way, no one will." -- Galadriel (Return of the King, 2003)

"Don't be afraid all this is too big for you, Buck. It's big all right, but it still depends on what each of us does. History lesson number 1." -- The President (Henry Fonda) (Failsafe, 1964)

(((Jacqueline)))
AGAIN, you bring tears to my eyes! Before I became disabled, I could simply use my sense of decency and responsibility to do what I had to do to keep my conscience reconciled. The same stuff kept me on point when I had to partake in the duller aspects of relentless and gruelling practicing to progressively attain mastery of my talents and ambitions.
Although I'm much further along with accepting who and what I am now, I do get maudlin and feel real shame about being disabled.....hence, tolerated far more often than respected. *blush* When the pain and shame combo has me wanting to to quit trying....or to chide myself because I'm relegated to doing the mundane in 5 minutes increments.....I get disheartened. Worse, I shame myself with thoughts like....It took you half hour to mop the floor, you bloodied up your food....now you have to throw it all away...don't talk because people think you're mentally handicapped or a drunk.......then....I think.....HELL TO! I'm going to squeek out whatever's in me to claim whatever I can out of this life of mine. I may be undesired and handicapped....but my honor and courage are intact!!!!! Now, get off my ass and find the gratitudes that are there waiting for my notice!!!!!.................and.............there the gratitudes are.....patiently awaiting my notice........
Thank you, Jacqueline! I'm so busy feeling like a damn buffoon mopping my floors 5 minutes at a time until they pass my satisfactions, I allow the shame to mask that I'm still working from a perspective of the same courage and honor my Dad taught me. He also used to say, (not verbatum, but the jist of it...)Learning is always time well spent. What separates man from the beasts is the capacity to feel compassion. When you add intelligence to that compassion, it is elevated to wisdom.
I, too often, allow my ego to trump my compassion in matters of my disabilities........You have offered me a nugget of wisdom my Dad used to talk about.......Thank you, Jacqueline......I needed this reminder to honor what drives me to be my best and stay at my work......not necessarily the pathetic implementation! ROTFL!
I forget that what's inside me isn't any different than before....
learning as I go

p.s.
I forgot to give the reference:
"The simple secret of people who are naturally good at running their lives is that they always take resistance as a spur to action instead of avoidance.
As a child, if I ducked or shirked my work, my dad would sneek up on me and shout "BOO!" He called it the ghost of the unmet responsibility or undone work! LOL!
I don't even allow my pain to stop me.....I set my timer for 5minutes and go to work. Then I take a break. The ritual of wiping my face and upper chest with cool water "wipes away some of the fatigue".....I catch my breath.....gear up my mind for another round....5 more minutes.........until I'm done to my satisfaction (I've learned to crank down the bar a bit on these types of days! I can spiff it up better when the pain abates. My quality of life stays in tact. More importantly, it keeps up my confidence in myself. If I allowed my donkey brain to win the skirmish, I'd lose my faith in myself. I'm all I've got! LOL! I've GOT TO stay in good stead with myself! ROTFL!
learning as I go

Hi Seraphim
WHOA! This is pure gold! THANK YOU!

"This task was appointed to you, Frodo of the Shire. If you do not find a way, no one will." -- Galadriel (Return of the King, 2003)

learning as I go

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge points to all that is, imagination points to all there will be.
-- Albert Einstein

"Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings." - Arthur Rubinstein (1886-1982)

The reason this quote has a place on my fridge is because it is nice - REALLY NICE - to be able to have inspiring, even "impossible" wondrous goals in one's life .. but we are really not in control of life like that, all the time ... when a disability strikes one's self or a loved one, for example.

Learning as I go: Your implementation is anything BUT "pathetic" ... It is courageous, humble, practical, wise AND VERY INSPIRING !!

(((Bev)))
You offer me waaaay too much credit! Confession: If my truth were to be told, I actually HATE LIKE HELL living like this.........but........I have to make the best of a lousy situation....I can successfully distract myself from it because there's plenty to be grateful for....as well as plenty to resent! ROTFL...........It still beats the hell out of being dead! ROTFL! ROTFL! ROTFL!
learning as I go

p.s.
Although Rubinstein's music was used as an example by my mother that I wasn't nearly as gifted as people gave me credit for........I don't begrudge the guy!......but......he certainly didn't live by his own quotes either! ROTFL! He alientated almost everybody except when they had purpose for his career.......*sigh* At best, we can only use these ideas as ideals to strive toward......but I never simply accepted things as they were. My joie do vivre was to contribute to offering more........
learning as I go

de nnt do......oops.....too far off to not correct! sh**** I'll quit while I'm only this behnd.
learning as I go

time to press hibernate........

"The thought of suicide is a great solace; for it gets one through many a bad night."

Ganhdi, I think.

"You've got to keep going to get anywhere." May 1994 21 Sat 22 Sun

Yes, another little calendar quote! Perhaps I used it as a bookmark or something and that's why it's still around after all this time? I'm glad I kept it though...

Norman's in a good mood ;-)

BTW it's Nietzsche not Gandhi.

Hi Smileypete
ROTFL! Besides the fact that "BTW it's Nietzche not Gandhi" it's also a lousy way to get through many a bad night! It's actually not clever.....it's not very wise nor compassionate. I found much of Nietzche's perspectives to be quite a downer! ROTFL.
learning as I go

"Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people."

Martin Luther King, I believe.

"At bottom the world isn't a joke. We only joke about it to avoid an issue with someone, to let someone know that we know he's there with his questions; to disarm him by seeming to have heard and done justice to his side of the standing argument."
- Robert Frost

"We need to practice acting in spite of fear, in spite of doubt, in spite of worry, in spite of uncertainty, in spite of inconvenience, in spite of discomfort, and even to practice acting when we’re not in the mood to act."

"If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you’re willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy."

- Harv Eker

Hi Jacqueline
You always seem to tug at my heartstrings.....You quote sounds like I'm listening to my dad shoring me up except the life will be easy part. He used to say that things may feel effortless if you're willing or enjoying or totally engrossed, but never look for easy.....it's rarely fulfilling. Maybe he brainwashed me, but that's usually true...unless I'm intentionally in repose....but that's more about refreshing your mind or soaking in life's magesty, not looking for "easy". Challenge and excitement are what I love most. Effortless is more about attitude and/or mastery/familiarity.....not easy, yeah?
learning as I go

As I just happen to be watching the movie right now:

"The best things in life are dirty
The worst thing in life is...
Wakin' up clean, without a bean"

-- "Paint Your Wagon" (Book and Lyrics by Alan J. Lerner)

The best way to get things done is to do them.
The best way to do them is to start doing them.