#988 Work joyfully and peacefully

Establishing goals is all right if you don't let them deprive you of interesting detours.  ~ Doug Larson

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.  ~ Winston Churchill

We should work on our process, not the outcome of our processes.  ~ W. Edwards Deming

Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results.  ~ James Allen

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.  ~ Golda Meir

Quotes about outcome, life

- What interesting detours have you pursued?
- What observations can you make about your strategies and processes?
- How ethically minded are you?

#987 Back into integration

We seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves... We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own . . . We demand windows.  ~ C.S. Lewis

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.  ~ Oscar Wilde

One's action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not to be a mere rushing on.  ~ D.H. Lawrence

In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.  ~ Anthony Robbins

There is only one story - going out into disunity and coming back into integration.  ~ Joseph Campbell

Quotes about doing, life

- From what windows do you want to look?
- How difficult is it for you to do nothing, to be still?
- What have you been successful in integrating?

#986 Purpose and passion

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.  ~ Carl Jung

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.  ~ Helen Keller

This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on.  ~ Oswald Spengler

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.  ~ William Cowper

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.  ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Quotes about purpose, life

- What light have you kindled?
- Which of your actions will live on?
- What's your purpose and passion?

#985 An attitude of the heart

It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and another to hear. ~ H.D. Thoreau

If you spend more time asking appropriate questions rather than giving answers or opinions, your listening skills will increase. ~ Brian Koslow

Listening is the only way to entertain some folks. ~ Kin Hubbard

The older I grow the more I listen to people who don’t talk much. ~ Germain G. Glien

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. ~ Dr. Joyce Brothers

Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals.  ~ J. Isham

Quotes about listening, life

- How are your listening skills?
- To what extent do you ask good questions to enhance the communication?
- How much do you listen from the heart?

#984 Life is fun or suffering?

Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better.  ~ George Santayana

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.  ~ Katharine Hepburn

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.  ~ Dale Carnegie

The world is a funny paper read backwards. And that way it isn't so funny.  ~ Tennessee Williams

The making of fun where no real occasion for fun exists is essentially what comedy is about.  ~ David L. Hall

Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.  ~ George Orwell

Quotes about fun, life

- What is better than fun?
- What fun have you experienced in doing something?
- Is life more fun or suffering or ...?

#983 The best of our nature

Intimacy is being seen and known as the person you truly are.  ~ Amy Bloom

Man's life would be wretched and confined if it were to miss the candid intimacy developed by mutual trust and esteem.  ~ Edwin Dummer

Our most intimate friend is not the one to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.  ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

His voice was as intimate as the rustle of sheets.   ~ Dorothy Parker

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.   ~ Thomas Jefferson

Communication leads to community, that is, understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.  ~ Rollo May

Quotes about intimacy, life

- To whom do you appear as you are?
- Who are your dearest friends and acquaintances?
- Where have you experienced a vibrant community?

#982 That's all that matters

Laughter has no foreign accent.  ~ Paul B. Lowney

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.  ~ Erma Bombeck

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.  ~ Victor Borge

Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart. 'Cause that's all that matters in the end.  ~ Kris Kristofferson

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought.  ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Quotes about laughter, life

- When have you experienced laughter which crossed many boundaries?
- How complete is Kristofferson's list about the things which matter?
-What is bittersweet about laughter?