'101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think', Brianna Wiest

Rating: 6.5/10

Lessons from '101 Essays That Change The Way You Think'

"...if you consciously learn to regard the "problems" in your life as opening for you to adopt a greater understanding and then develop a better way of living, you will step out of the labyrinth of suffering and learn what it means to thrive."

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"Accomplishing goals is not success. How much you expand in the process is."

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"You think "problems" are roadblocks to achieving what you want, when in reality they are pathways."

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"The things you love about others are the things you love about yourself. The things you hate about others are the things you cannot see in yourself."

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"There are many ideas that do not need or deserve to be validated, but everyone's feelings deserve to be seen and acknowledged and respected. Validating someone's emotions is validating who they really are, even if you would respond differently."

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"If you think love is something that exists anywhere but within your own mind and heart, you will never have it."

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"If you work on yourself enough, you'll understand what the struggle is for."

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"The point of hard work is to recognize the person it makes you, not what it "gets" you."

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"...happiness is a product of how you cope with your problems and whether or not you see them as the opportunities they are."

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"If you're wondering "what you should do with your life," it's likely that you're in the limbo between realizing you don't want what you once did, and giving yourself permission to want what you want now."

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"People don't thrive when they're fulfilled. They stagnate."

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"Find meaning and joy in the work you do, not the work you wish you did. Finding fulfillment in work is never about pursuing your idea of what your "purpose" is. It is always about infusing purpose into whatever it is you already do."

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"When you ask other people for advice on whatever you're worrying about, first ask yourself what you hope they'll say. That's what you want to tell yourself."

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"Focus on getting better, but let go of the end goal. You get better, not perfect."

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"To fully accept your life - the highs, lows, good, bad - is to be grateful for all of it, and to know that the "good" teaches you well, but the "bad" teaches you better.

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"It's not about following passion; it's about following purpose passionately."

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"Whenever there is a problem in your life, there is a problem with how you are thinking, reacting, or responding. Whatever you feel you are not receiving is a direct reflection of what you are not giving. Whatever you are angered by is what you aren't willing to see in yourself."

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"Nobody knows what they are "doing with their lives." Some people have a better idea of what they're working toward, but ultimately, none of us can accurately anticipate or summarize what your existence is about. Not yet."

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"All hatred is self-hatred. And everything is feedback."

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"The moment you know you're worth more than how you're seen, the moment you genuinely take stock in the notion that your life is more important than you, is the moment that everybody else's petty concerns fall to the wayside into the oblivion of unimportance. You become blind to them because you're only focused on what really does matter: you and whatever the hell you have to genuinely offer to the world."

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"There is no such thing as letting go; there's just accepting what's already gone,"

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"Every relationship you have is with yourself. Every person in whom you feel you return "home" to is just coming back to yourself.

It's always yourself you find at the end of the journey. The sooner you face you, the less you need other people to fill voids. (You cannot squeeze someone into your brokenness and expect that to make you whole.) The sooner you face you, the sooner other people's actions don't affect your negativity - your mindset doesn't depend on them. You don't depend on them. Relationships do not serve to give you eternal, perpetual happiness. They serve to make you more aware. The sooner you realize that said awareness is your own, the easier everything else is."

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"What we think, we become. And if what we are becoming is any indication, we are thinking far too much about the things that don't matter and not making room for uncertainty, for discomfort, for the things that are indeed unknown but which yield the best outcomes. The ones that are indeed larger than our mind's comprehension."