There are lots of quotes that inspire me. Most of them are ones that get me out of my head and into my heart.

When the workload is big and the spirit is thinking that ironing may be the only solution, as I’ve done all the laundry, I like this one:

“You do not have to complete the task, but neither can you put it down.” That usually helps me work for a set period of time, like an hour. After that, I want to keep working. That quote was from the Talmud, as is this one: “We do not see things the way they are, we see things the way we are.” Always good to get perspective. Sometimes I have to realize that I’m just walking through someone else’s reality and that doesn’t make it my reality, too.

I saw this written on a wall when I was in China, and at first didn’t understand it, then learned to love it: “We must separate truth from fact.”

And Thomas Edison’s advice: “We frequently miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

And after trying to do tackle something that was beyond my skill set, I finally said, “Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb at and not doing it.” This is not the same as not pushing yourself, but it is very different from wasting time trying to get something that you can’t do. Just to be clear: I will never be a ballerina, for reasons of age, weight, arthritis and talent. If I suddenly enrolled in ballet school with dreams of dancing the Nutcracker, it would be a waste of time. If I enrolled to increase balance, that would just be pushing the comfort zone. But I’ve spent an enormous amount of time tackling things I should have left alone.

This was a great exercise!