September 17th - Mutually Exclusive

Mutually exclusive means incompatible.

You can't do both.

It's impossible.

 

Or is it...

Start Quote

Authentic success and worldly success 

are NOT mutually exclusive.

Granted, it is easier to achieve them one at a time,

but pursuing both is not the impossible dream

once you realize the important distinctions between the two.

We need NOT choose between them.

We must only discern which of the two helps us care 

for our soul and the souls of those we love, 

and pursue that one first...

[In regards to having your cake and eating it too,]

it's quite possible to eat and have,

provided you bake two cakes at the same time.

Any cook knows that doubling the amount of your batter

is no big deal.

But going into the kitchen to make a second cake 

AFTER you've baked and iced your first 

AND washed the dirty dishes

requires a tremendous amount of psychic and physical energy...

[So instead of working on either your 

authentic success or your worldly success,

why not try working on both at the same time?

Just double the batch.]

"Success is important only to the extent 

that it puts one in a position to do more things one likes to do."

-Sarah Caldwell

End Quote 

That's one of the things I love about Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged.

This idea is very prominent in her book and her philosophy.

“Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants.” 
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“I do not think that tragedy is our natural fate and I do not live in chronic dread of disaster. 

It is not happiness, but suffering that I consider unnatural. 

It is not success, but calamity that I regard as the abnormal exception in Human Life.” 
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe 

or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. 

I know not and I care not. 

For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. 

And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it.

 My happiness is not the means to any end. 

It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.” 
― Ayn Rand, Anthem

“In order to deal with reality successfully 

- to pursue and achieve the values which his life requires - 

man needs self-esteem; he needs to be confident of his efficacy and worth.” 
― Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

“Now observe that in all the propaganda of the ecologists—amidst all their appeals to nature and pleas for “harmony with nature”—there is no discussion of man’s needs and the requirements of his survival. Man is treated as if he were an unnatural phenomenon. Man cannot survive in the kind of state of nature that the ecologists envision—i.e., on the level of sea urchins or polar bears....

In order to survive, man has to discover and produce everything he needs, which means that he has to alter his background and adapt it to his needs. Nature has not equipped him for adapting himself to his background in the manner of animals. From the most primitive cultures to the most advanced civilizations, man has had to manufacture things; his well-being depends on his success at production. The lowest human tribe cannot survive without that alleged source of pollution: fire. It is not merely symbolic that fire was the property of the gods which Prometheus brought to man. The ecologists are the new vultures swarming to extinguish that fire.” 
― Ayn Rand, Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution

“I refuse to apologize for my ability

—I refuse to apologize for my success—

I refuse to apologize for my money.” 
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“Happiness is that state of consciousness 

which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values. 

If a man values productive work, 

his happiness is the measure of his success in the service of his life.” 
― Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

“Happiness is the successful state of life, pain is an agent of death. 

Happiness is that state of consciousness 

which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values. 

A morality that dares to tell you to find happiness in the renunciation of your happiness

—to value the failure of your values—is an insolent negation of morality.” 
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Anyways...

I think you can and should find your calling, 

and love what you do in order to live.

Why can't you find happiness?

***

Gratitude Journal

***

1) Birthday dinners! My mom is one of the best cooks ever.

2) Primary programs. Jacob memorized his one line, and he said it wonderfully! And Robbie promised him a full snickers bar if he would. I don't know what the heck he was thinking...but now I owe him a snickers bar.

3) It's bed time. Thank goodness.

4) Double stroller! I'm so grateful my friend gave me her old one, I'm so excited to drop and pick up Jacob at school tomorrow without having two toddlers have a total meltdown and refuse to walk any further.

5) Confidence.