In a world of hustle and bustle, it’s sad that we have to wait for the harsher realities in life to jolt us awake. In the end, all the worldly possessions we strive for or the status we all reach for mean nothing. Have you loved and did you love? That’s all that matters in the end. Here are 14 inspiring quotes about life from Mitch Albom’s beloved book Tuesdays with Morrie.
1. “Don’t let go too soon, but don’t hold on too long.”
Mourning has to happen, we have to honor those that we lose by really sinking into that feeling of loss. But we are amiss when we spend too much time there. Use pain and heartache to catapult you to new purposes and look around at what’s left of living. Look at it with a new-found perspective. Don’t be defined by your losses. Let your losses define your motivation.
2. “Love each other or perish.”
A life without love is like a plant without water, it slowly deteriorates. Love brings life, it brings motivation and inspiration. Love brings with it confidence and adventure. Love makes life come alive and without it we are wilting away day by day. Start planting the seeds by putting love out there and watch how the more love you share, the more comes back to you.
3. “What if today were my last day on earth?”
Nothing teaches gratitude as much as thoughts about how precious time is. Truly the best way to go forth in life is to appreciate how precious it is to be alive. When we think of it this way, we are more purposeful with how we spend our time and what goals we give ourselves.
4. “Love is the only rational act.”
We try to fight love but we are fighting for make believe walls and holding on to insecurities. Let it all go and just let love out. Stop letting your life be ruled by anything more than what’s in your heart.
5. “Love always wins.”
Resistance and friction happens when we’re fighting to protect the little bubble of a world we live in, we’re hoarding all the wrong things in this bubble. We want to be right. We want to have pride. We want the wrong things. Love is the only solution to conflict. Love heals all wounds.
6. “Find someone to share your heart, give to your community, be at peace with yourself, try to be as human as you can be.”
Don’t isolate. Get in the world and interact with it. When it seems that nothing is going your way think about what vibes you give out to the universe. Usually what you send out is what comes back to you. Get comfortable with people and with giving of your heart. The art of a big heart takes practice. The more you share your heart, the more you feel it will be reciprocated. Then you start to get the confidence to try harder. Soon you become good at it with practice and more of it comes back to you.
7. “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
We all spend so much time with our energies everywhere but in our hearts. All searching for happiness and acceptance when it’s within us, right with us all along. Isn’t it funny that when we figure this out, everything else seems to fall into place?
8. “If you really want it, then you’ll make your dream happen.”
Sometimes we don’t know what we really want. Sometimes pain finally forces us to look inside and figure it out. In pain, good things happen, if you let it. Find out who you are and start crafting the dream that’s inside of you. Be the better person you’re meant to become. Once you know what you want and it’s clear it and you can see it, you can move mountains to make things happen.
9. “So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
Everyone needs to find something inside that drives them, that they’re willing to push themselves through tough times. Don’t wait for a tragedy to happen or a tragic loss to happen for you to realize that you need to find your purpose. Take the time to find out what it is, do the work to find out who you are and what you want.
10. “Don’t cling to things because everything is impermanent.”
Things come and go. Life seems so much more stressful with more stuff. Think about how our life has evolved even over the last 10 years. The rise of consumerism has given way to so much clutter in our lives. We all each have 10 pairs of shoes for one season. Eight different versions of a jackets for one season. A raincoat, a workout coat, a nice dressy coat-okay maybe one in black and one in red, a long one, a short one, a leather one. Remember when it was so easy to keep up with one? So we’ve created a lot of stress in our lives trying to keep up with our possessions. This stress takes away from the quality time we can be spending with people. Life is about relationships, not things.
11. “Accept who you are; and revel in it.”
The biggest lesson is life is that the sooner you know how to be as authentic to your self as possible is when you really come alive. Be no one else but as you as you can be.
12. “Everyone knows they’re going to die but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.”
The best thing is to not live life in denial. There is as bit of pressure in life to make it count. Don’t be complacent about life. Be aware and try to make something matter in the time you are here. If you don’t know where to start, it usually good to start with giving of yourself and finding out where that takes you.
13. “Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”
Don’t live a life of regret. Don’t linger in the wrongs. Linger in making things right and moving from there. Say sorry even when you don’t want to, the act of saying it will release you. Hanging on to wrongs does nothing for you. Move forward.
14. “Without love, we are birds with broken wings.”
In order to fly we need to be intact. Love is what holds us together and keeps us up in the air soaring with the wind blowing in our faces feeling alive.
Featured photo credit: By Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher via google.com
