The happiness of pursuit, Chris Guillebeau

Ci-dessous, retrouvez les citations et passages (en Anglais) que j’ai trouvé le plus intéressant du livre du célèbre blogger et auteur Américain Chris Guillebeau, The happiness of pursuit.

The happiness of pursuit est un livre très intéressant sur le bonheur, l’aventure et la recherche d’un sens à nos vie.

• If you want to achieve the unimaginable, you start by imagining it. Before beginning, take the time to count the cost. Understanding exactly what you need to do, and then finding a way to do it, makes a qu’est much more feasible. (Page 11)

• Courage comes through achievement but also through attempt. (Page 11)

• Adventure is for everyone. (Page 13)

• If I didn’t try, I’d always wonder what might have happened. (Page 20)

• Qu’est bring meaning and fulfillment to our lives. (Page 22)

• Remember

-A quest has a few key features, including a clear goal, a real challenge, and a set of milestones along the way.

-Pay attention to the ideas that draw your interest, especially the ones you can’t stop thinking about.

– This book isn’t just a study of what other people have done. You, too, can identify and Perdue a quest. (Page 25)

• Lesson: When you sense discontent, pay attention. The answer isn’t always « go for it » (though often it is), but you shouldn’t neglect the stirring. Properly examined, feelings of unease can lead to a new life of purpose. (Page 35)

• Mash up: Dissatisfaction + Big Idea + Willingness to Take Action = New Adventure (Page 25)

• Remember

-Many quest begin from a sense of discontent it alienation. If you find yourself feeling discontented, pay attention to the reasons why.

– Add action to discontent: Find a way to do something about the uncertainty you feel.

-Asking yourself a series of questions (« What do I want? » « How am I feeling? and so forth) can help you find your next steps. (Page 38)

• « Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t. Lauren Bacall (Page 39)

• Embracing a calling is about being the best at something, or doing something that you feel no else can do. Not necessarily in a competitive manner, where you have to beat someone else, but according to your own standard of what you know is true. (Page 47)

• Do I really want this job? Is this relationship right for me? If I could do anything, would it be what I’m doing today… or something different? (Page 67)

• If I didn’t do it, I would always wonder about what could have been. (Page 79)

• « I’d like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been to hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. » Chris McCandless (Pages 84, 85)

• Remember 

-You have to believe in your quest even if others don’t.

– We tend to judge risk based on outcome—but the outcome isn’t always up to us.

-Life itself is risky. Choose your own risk level. (Page 86)

• « Do one thing every day that scares you. » Eleanor Roosevelt (Page 87)

• We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a single day, but underestimate what can happen in a year. (Page 115)

• Remember

– Ask yourself what it will cost to follow your dream. Get specific. Be sure to clearly understand the time, money, and other costs before you begin.

– Generate confidence by listing the questions that your project provokes, and also the objections that you’ll want to deal with in advance.

-Planning is good… but if you spend all your time planning without making progress, try doing something instead. (Page 121)

• The path to the summit consists of repetitive movements, but it is precisely the arduousness of the task that makes the accomplishment an epic one. (Page 139)

• « I want to be remembered as a person who wasn’t afraid to stare things. » Tina Roth Eisenberg (Page 151)

• She clearly defines her projects, and she breaks them down into multiple parts. (Page 158)

• Lesson: To be creative, don’t think outside the box. Make yourself a box and get into it! (Page 159)

• « I’ve just grown from a boy with a inclination into a man with a focus. It all started with a dream, but then I followed that dream. Following the dream made all the difference. » Stephen Kellogg (Page 163)

• Remember

-If your family or close friends don’t understand your dream, you need to find people who do.

– Must a dream have only one owner? Not if two or more minds see the world from the same perspective.

– Even with the support of others, it’s hard to struggle through hardship without sufficient motivation of your own. (Page 175)

• Lesson: Find what troubles you about the world, then fix it for the rest of us. (Page 179)

• What’s truly worth living for? (Page 188)

• What bothers you?

If you’re trying to find your own quest, you may find it helpful to ask yourself a few questions. Some people find their quests by focusing on passions and interests—something they live to do or parts of the world they want to explore.

If that doesn’t work, though, try a different approach. 

Instead of asking what excites you, ask what bothers you. There is no shortage of problems in the world, but which one are you most troubled by? What problem are you able to do something about? (Pages 190, 191)

• Remember

-Having an enemy or opponent (even an imaginary one) can keep you focused.

-What’s worth living for? matters more than What’s worth dying for?

-Understanding what bothers you is just as important as understanding what excites you. (Page 192)

• « I am a slow walker, but I never walk back. » Abraham Lincoln (Page 193)

• The leader requires a team (and the team requires a leader). (Page 195)

• Without the team, the effort would have been in vain. Without the leader, there would have been no effort. (Page 195)

• My quest was never about proving something to others. It was always about proving something to myself. (Page 207)

• Remember

– The middle of the quest can be the hardest part. As long as you still believe in the goal, don’t stop!

– By saving as little as 2$/day for just a few years you can go anywhere in the world.

-If your quest relies on external recognition, be sure you have sufficient internal motivation as well. (Page 211)

• Be wrong as fast as you can. (Page 213)

• Remember 

-The right kind of misadventures—the ones that yield information—can produce confidence.

-If you’re going to worry about something, worry about the cost of not Pershing your dream.

– Sometimes stopping is the right decision. When considering a shift, ask: Is my heart still in this?

(Page 222)

• When it comes to travel, you should create your own itinerary and not have it be dictated by others. (Page 226)

• « Don’t settle: Don’t finish bad books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it. » Chris Brogan (Page 234)

• The right time to leave is when you’re ready, not just when someone else makes the decision for you. (Page 234)

• Remember

-Sometimes quests don’t tie up well. Sometimes it’s hard at the end.

-If it’s hard to explain the totality of a quest, focus on a few stories.

-The real world is what you make of it. After completing a quest, the next steps are up to you. (Page 256)

• Everyone dies, but not everyone truly lives. (Page 268)

• When something goes wrong, strive to accept it as an investment in learning. (Page 269)

Si vous souhaitez l’acheter pour le lire en entier, cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous (il vous redirigera vers Amazon et me permettra de gagner un pourcentage de votre achat si vous passez par mon lien) : The happiness of pursuit, Chris Guillebeau