French mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote: “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

It’s about resisting the tyranny of the ordinary, refusing to allow negativity to hijack your sense of awe and preventing any form of slavery to mediocrity from infesting your life. Leadership is about making a difference, right where you’re planted.

This basic and lower-functioning brain served to keep us safe thousands of years ago in a primitive world of relentless threats like starvation, temperature extremes, warring tribes and saber-toothed tigers. It functions to do one main thing: maintain a steady state while warning us against dangers so we survive and propagate our species.

the quickest way out of hard emotions is to have the wisdom and courage to go straight into them. Feel them to heal them. Name them to let go of them. Put a written voice to the dark energy of life’s burdens to dissolve them.

“No idea works until you do the work”

“Many of the finest athletes in the world,” Mr. Riley observed, “had less innate skill than their competition. But it was their exceptional dedication, commitment and drive to maximize whatever strengths they had that made them iconic.

“When you were much younger, you understood how to live. Staring at stars filled you with delight. Running in a park made you feel alive. And chasing butterflies flooded you with joy.

spend some time in the quietude of the early morning to make the return to the courage, conviction and compassion within you.

examples of hedonic adaptation in operation.