I continue here with the passages that are marked in my copy of this book by Gregg Levoy:
On the "Past":
"The past contains hints about "the deeper-than-conscious goals toward which the movement of our lives is trying to take us."
* * *
"The past reminds us of our struggles with our destinies."
* * *
"By opening the inactive file...we may discover the lost opportunities of our lives."
* * *
"...our past begs the question inherent in any history: Does it have a goal?"
* * *
"The past can't be changed, only your attitude toward it can."
On "Calls" and "Callings":
"In a sense, patterns are calls."
* * *
"The dream that won't go away is a call, as is the symptom that recurs, the section of the bookstore you always go to first, and the lesson you've endlessly had to learn or are intent upon impressing on your children."
* * *
"...it often turns out that calls are echoes coming out of the chasms in our lives."
* * *
"We decline the invitation of our callings because we feel inadequate to the task, but the opposite is also true. We're afraid of our own power."
* * *
"Sometimes we're robbed of our calls by the fate into which we fell headlong at birth."
* * *
"When the brass ring comes around in life, kiddo, you'd better grab it, because it may never come around again."
* * *
"Much of the pain associated with callings comes from avoiding them, from not surrendering to them."
On "Shadows":
"...it is what we despise in people, or envy, or worship, or become obsessed with."
On "Healing":
"...once he had touched the wound in himself, he could bring healing touch to that same wound in others."
On the "Right Path":
"If it feels safe, it's probably not the right path, but if it scares you, it probably is."
On our "Power":
"It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us."
On "Conformity":
"Don't sit down in life. All through your life you're going to be asked to sit down, to conform, comply, and compromise, and it can be very deadly if you get in the habit of doing that."
* * *
"Be leery of the price of conformity. Stand up, create things, do things."
On the "Mind":
"The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings."
On "Freedom":
"Until you actually make a choice, freedom is only potential energy, energy in abeyance, in waiting."
On "Other's Opinion":
"...in the course of life a small number of people will like you, a small number will dislike you, and the vast majority won't care one way or the other."
* * *
"If we look only to others to show us who we are...then the reflections we'll have of ourselves will always be distorted a little."
On "Parents":
"When we attempt to carry our parents' unfulfilled lives, we squeeze out our own."
On "Self-esteem":
"Ironically, it's a function of self-esteem that we resist our callings."
On "Insincerity":
"The most exhausting thing in my life is being insincere."
On "Timing":
"The skill that seems most essential for such leaps is a certain feel for ripeness."
On "Change":
"If you're taking chances and making changes just for the sake of not standing still, your action may be more about running away from something than moving toward something."
* * *
"Motion is not necessarily progress any more than noise is necessarily music."
* * *
"By trying to shelter ourselves from change, we isolate ourselves from living."
* * *
"An ordeal may serve the purpose of shaking us loose from our moorings in order to set us up for important changes we can't see or imagine yet."
On "Risk":
"Is the payoff worth more than the pain?"
* * *
"...the important risks we don't take now become the regrets we have later."
On "Sacrifice":
"Sacrifice is the shadow in the calling."
On "Fear":
"Fear is a signal that you're close to something vital and that your call is worthy of you."
On "Life":
"Your life mirrors what you put into it or withhold from it."
* * *
"...the purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things."
On the "Secret to Success":
"You've got to ask! Asking is, in my opinion, the world's most powerful--and neglected--secret to success."
On "Best Mentors":
"The best mentors are also those who are students at the same time, other people's mentorees."
On "Great Struggles":
"Great struggles aren't inevitably followed by great triumphs and then great vacations. Sometimes great struggles are followed by more great struggles. Maybe triumph and reward ensue,and maybe not."
--Gregg Levoy
