I realised that no one will ever know me, and that fills me with both comfort and distress. — VaZaki Nada
There’s a strange comfort in knowing who I am and the values I stand for, while showing the various images of me to different types of people. It’s not about having many personas. It’s more about understanding that humans are too complex. It takes a lifetime to understand one person completely.
I know myself completely, because I took a lifetime to figure that out. It doesn’t (never) happen in a moment, it’s more of a collection of failures, trial, error and experiments, where I figured these principles out.
Guiding Principles
Here’s a bunch of guiding principles of what makes me Lisa. In general, it’s just a balance between loving who I am yesterday, yet striving to become a better version of me today.
TL:DR; Be your own best friend, truly love yourself, appreciate solitude, strive for improvement everyday and delete all the obstacles in the way.
They are a mix of personal rules, thoughts, goals and quotes.
1. Be In Love with Life
I started this journey in 2009, of trying to make sense of my existence, my purpose and my being. It’s been 10 years, and I’ve been living my absolute version of my life goals. I’m more in love with life every single day. Sure, some days are shit, but through the shit, I learn to appreciate more about the goodness life brings! Shit happens anyway.
- My goal is to build a life, and career, where I’m not constantly waiting for the weekend. I want to enjoy my life, and not wish it away every week. I want to love every single Monday.
- Please: Do everything you possibly can in one lifetime. — Kanye West
- And one morning she got out of bed without pressing snooze on her alarm clock six times. She started to breathe. She began to see the world with more beauty than she could possibly imagine. Of all the heartache, of all the goodbyes, and of all the sadness that once swallowed her, she no longer stayed with them. Something changed, and she felt an aura that left her falling deeply with everything. No, she was not in love with a special someone nor was she in love with something as temporary as a new piece of clothing. She was in love with living and that was so important, for now, she can see the magic in her life just by breathing.
- I want to inspire people. I want someone to look at me and say, ‘Because of you I didn’t give up
- Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.
- I’ve loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. — Galileo Galilei
- Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive. — Hafiz
- How do people not fall in love with everything and everyone, I just don’t understand it, there is so much to love and so little time. — Nicholas Browne
- Travel inspires you, motivates you and change you. You only realise how small and tiny you are when you see the endless opportunities the world has for you. We are indeed, living in the world of abundance.
- I just love that feeling when things are about to change. Like when you know that in a few seconds you’re going to do something and become someone else.
- I am not afraid to die, but to think I haven’t lived. That terrifies me.
2. The Process of Success
Note to self: work fucking harder. suffer in silence and let your success do the talking
- Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple. — Albert Einstein
- I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me. — Joshua Graham
- I want a lot and I’m gonna achieve all of it
- And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honour, for love. — George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
- If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me
- Some days she has no idea how she’ll do it, but every single day it still gets done.
- If you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot you don’t
- If you don’t make the time to work on creating the life you want, you’re eventually going to be forced to spend a LOT of time dealing with a life you DON’T want. — Kevin Ngo
- Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My god, do you learn. — C. S. Lewis
- Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself. — Edmund Lee
- Why do we even try? When the barriers are so high and the odds are so low—why don’t we just pack it in and go home? It would be so much easier. It’s because in the end, there’s no glory in easy. No one remembers easy. They remember the blood, and the bones, and the long agonizing fight to the top. And that, that is how you become legendary. — Amelia Shepherd, Grey’s Anatomy
- I didn’t come this far only to come this far
- You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it. — Albert Einstein
- I know what I want and I’m going to get it.
3. Most Valuable Asset is Time
- Be picky with who you invest your time in, wasted time is worse than wasted money.
- Solitude is dangerous. It’s very addictive. It becomes a habit after you realise how peaceful and calm it is. It’s like you don’t want to deal with people anymore because they drain your energy. – Jim Carrey
- I like being alone. Therefore, in order to win me over, your presence has to feel better than my solitude.
- If I’m not with somebody who really excites or inspires me, then I’d rather be by myself.
- Sometimes you just have to take a day to shut the world out so you can open up to yourself and deal with the chaos inside of you. And you don’t need to feel guilty or apologize or try to justify needing space. You just do what you need to do to take care of yourself, and that’s it. No explanation needed. — Dele Olanubi
Define your own principles.
Love,
L