“The ability to ask beautiful questions, often in very unbeautiful moments, is one of the great disciplines of a human life. And a beautiful question starts to shape your identity as much by asking it as it does by having it answered. And you don’t have to do anything about it. You just have to keep asking. And before you know it, you will find yourself actually shaping a different life, meeting different people, finding conversations that are leading you in those directions that you wouldn’t even have seen before.”

— David Whyte, On Being interview “The Conversational Nature of Reality”

“The ability to ask beautiful questions, often in very unbeautiful moments, is one of the great disciplines of a human life. And a beautiful question starts to shape your identity as much by asking it as it does by having it answered. And you don’t have to do anything about it. You just have to keep asking. And before you know it, you will find yourself actually shaping a different life, meeting different people, finding conversations that are leading you in those directions that you wouldn’t even have seen before.”

— David Whyte, On Being interview “The Conversational Nature of Reality”

My last mistake is thinking that the goal will fix everything. Like, once I reach my goal, it would fix me. It would rid me of all my self loathing and I will be magically cured. The problem with goal-first mentality means that you are putting off happiness until you hit your milestone. "There is no goal. The goal will never make you happy. All we have is today and the happiness you feel in it. There is no success or failure. You are the only one who can make failure feel like a failure."

When I saw this, I had to stop, I was like "whoa". This is the reminder of the decade, because I am constantly under this illusion that a goal and reaching that goal will make me happy forever. But every goal that I reached, when I did it, it did make me happy. It was a climax, but a very short climax... How many millions do I have to chase in order to be happy?

It's important to fall in love with the process, not the product. So that way, you can be happy now. Goals and direction are important, but don't think that it's going to make you happy forever. My pro-tip is to give yourself permission to be happy now. And happiness is an inside job. Only you can make yourself happy, and if you don't know how to make yourself happy now and you don't know why you're not happy, then no goal, abstract goal or tangible goal, is going to fix that need.

— Jenn Im

4/13/2021
Brief notes:

often times we think surrender means losing something in the process of letting go. but that is not always the case. surrender means shifting one's perspective on something, and thus, letting go of one's attachment to it. surrender is only a loss if it is forced upon you, or when it does not align with your intentions. in all other contexts, surrender is likely a challenging yet liberating experience of paradigm shift, release, and metamorphosis.

we cannot forsee the future. that is not our burden to bear.
so when in doubt, ask yourself "if i knew that i would be supported, what would i do?"
and then, do that.
observe and intuit.
pay attention to the signs, the happenings around you, so that you are as ready as you can ever be to venture into the unknown.
that is what it means to trust your path.
it means to trust your intuition, to hone it through observation, and to explore consciousness as we experience reality.