My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh — anything but work.
A big turning point for me occurred the day I realized my firing was a blessing in disguise. Not only did I admit I wasn’t an indispensable employee, but I also lost interest in a regular nine-to-five job. I decided to spend as much time as possible away from the workplace, particularly in summers. A normal job was now out of the question. What’s more, my career as a professional engineer was over.
What’s the use of being a genius if you can’t use it as an excuse for being unemployed? — Gerald Barzan
Over the years, many people have asked me how I am able to utilize so much leisure time without getting bored. This made me realize that many individuals have problems attaining satisfaction in their spare time. It also occurred to me that very little had been written on how to manage and enjoy leisure time.
I am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend, than be one. — Clarence Darrow
Never adopt the excuse that you weren’t born as talented or fortunate as others. The hand that you were dealt at birth isn’t as important as what you do with it.
Most people think only once or twice a year. I have made myself an international reputation by thinking once or twice a week. — George Bernard Shaw
Creativity is a powerful tool for anyone who is willing to put forth the necessary effort to develop it — and use it. Researchers in the area of creativity indicate that the major difference between those who use their creativity and those who don’t is that those who do simply think they are creative. Put another way, people who are regularly creative are aware of their natural ability and use it to their advantage.
People who don’t develop the habit of carefully examining their own premises and beliefs run the risk of seeing a world that has little relationship to reality.
Contrary to popular belief, old dogs can learn new tricks, but only if they want to learn them. The only thing that stops any one of us from learning new behaviors is ourselves
Some people see things that are and ask, “Why?” Some people dream of things that never were and ask, “Why not?” Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that. — George Carlin
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. — Edward R. Murrow
The moral of this true story is: Don’t get stuck in your beliefs. Only the foolish and the dead don’t change. Rigid thinking limits your ability to see things in a different light. Today’s world is changing at an unprecedented pace.
you should always be alert to creative shortcuts to success. In this regard, the most creative shortcut to success is to think more about it.
Success should constitute all the things that will make you happy in life. These include meaningful work, mental, physical, and spiritual health, friendship, love, security, peace of mind, and plenty of free time.
A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. — Vicomte Francois René de Chateaubriand
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest. — Mahatma Gandhi
Being true to yourself is important. Upon close examination of your life, you may determine that some of the things you presently want, and are pursuing with great zeal, may be a lot less important to your happiness than you think.
Instead I left Vancouver, moved to London, England and spent ten years in publishing [ok, 6.5 years was 9-5 BUT it was an amazing place to work, brilliant colleagues and authors and international travel]
In April 2013, I returned to Canada and noticed how obsessed everyone is with house prices, working to maintain expensive lifestyles etc. The atmosphere here is quite unjolly compared to other places I’ve lived.
After all these years, The Joy of Not Working is still in my active reading pile — I like to dip into it when I start thinking about taking the easy path and getting a 9-5.
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. — Helen Keller
sense of moderation. Today most of us cherish Donald
the average forty-year-old white-collar worker can expect to change employers three times in his or her career, with at least one firing or layoff.
People who are chronically bored tend to have the following traits: They are anxious for security and material things. They are highly sensitive to criticism. They are conformists. They are worriers. They lack self-confidence. They are not very creative.
When we get bored, we can place the blame on many things: society, friends, relatives, dull TV programs, an uninteresting city, a depressed economy, the neighbor’s stupid dog, or a gloomy day.
If You Do Boring, Stupid, Monotonous Work, Chances Are You’ll End Up Boring, Stupid, and Monotonous
“No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather.”
it’s not what you become, but what you don’t become that will hurt most in the end.
Ashley Montagu also had an important message: “The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become.”
The technical content of the job has diminished for which I believe I show an aptitude and commitment; this change is due to a corresponding increase in administrative duties, for which I am entirely unsuited and which are of little interest.
A career is a job that has gone on too long. — Jeff MacNelly
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. — Walter Bagehot
This means you have to be totally dedicated to the purpose you have chosen. With anything short of this, you will probably bail out at the first sign of trouble.
As is invariably the case when any individual achieves a measure of success, I now have to endure many critics who imply in one form or another that I had to be lucky,
Based on the comments that the agent forwarded to me, it appeared that most publishers thought that the manuscript was written by a ditchdigger whose last three years of education were spent trying to get through grade nine.
Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. — Norman Vincent Peale
furnished, with stuff the Salvation Army wouldn’t accept. My car was over ten years old — a beater that doubled in value every time I filled it up with gas.
There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them. — Clare Boothe Luce
I tried to keep things in proper and positive perspective. I was busted, cleaned out, flat broke, stony broke, bankrupt, insolvent, and without a bean. I was not reduced to poverty, however, nor was I on skid row, nor was I impoverished, nor was I pauperized, nor was I broken, nor was I beggared, nor was I with nothing to hope for, nor was I without prospects.
Action brings momentum. As a matter of course, by being adventurous, you will make things happen. You may not wind up exactly where you had intended, but where you end up may be just as good, if not better.
Activities that turn you on now Activities that turned you on in the past (but you have stopped doing) New activities you have thought of doing (but haven’t done yet)
Attempt a form of writing, such as a song or a poem, that you have never tried before.
See how many strangers will say hello to you.
I believe working consumes more money than most people understand.