Michelle

“You have to accept that there will always be too much to do; that you can’t avoid tough choices or make the world run at your preferred speed; that no experience, least of all close relationships with other human beings, can ever be guaranteed in advance to turn out painlessly and well—and that from a cosmic viewpoint, when it’s all over, it won’t have counted for very much anyway.”
― Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

“Once you no longer need to convince yourself that the world isn’t filled with uncertainty and tragedy, you’re free to focus on doing what you can to help. And once you no longer need to convince yourself that you’ll do everything that needs doing, you’re free to focus on doing a few things that count.”
― Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

“Denying reality never works, though. It may provide some immediate relief, because it allows you to go on thinking that at some point in the future you might, at last, feel totally in control. But it can’t ever bring the sense that you’re doing enough—that you are enough—because it defines “enough” as a kind of limitless control that no human can attain. Instead, the endless struggle leads to more anxiety and a less fulfilling life.”
― Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

“It is by consciously confronting the certainty of death, and what follows from the certainty of death, that we finally become truly present for our lives.”
― Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals