Does anybody here use some sort of mantra that they always keep at heart? I'm your text book wimpy, self-loathing, bitter virgin but I'm always trying my best to better myself everyday. I need some sort of concrete directions that will help me guide to what my goal is. Thinking something about like, "I need to be a better person" is too vague for me.
tl;dr Please post your favorite motivational images
Memento Mori
I've read about it and it sounds like the words written in our university building: Ars longa, vita brevis. So in a sense, does Memento Mori is synonymous somehow with Yolo or is it the other way around?
No images, and they'll sound lame, but as you age, old sayings tend to have more gravitas. Some that I find myself repeating to try to make things better include:
>What's the worst that could happen?
>I'm still learning.
>I can't change the past, but I can still change the future.
>Be the bigger man.
>Am I going to be able to sleep tonight if I do this?
There are a few slightly religious ones that I've adopted to help myself get through very stressful work days. I'm not religious, but they're a little comforting:
>There but for the grace of God go I.
>Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.
>The only time you should look into your neighbor's bowl is to make sure he has enough food. (Or something to that effect!)
The closest I'd have to a poetic-sounding mantra would be "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot. You might consider reading the whole thing if you're so inclined, but here's a part that I find in my head almost daily:
>There will be time, there will be time
>To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
>There will be time to murder and create,
>And time for all the works and days of hands
>That lift and drop a question on your plate;
>Time for you and time for me,
>And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
>And for a hundred visions and revisions,
>Before the taking of a toast and tea.
I've been thinking of mine these past months. It ranges between
Persistence
or
To make light in/of darkness.
or
Always Forward, never back
or
To fill the shell of something great and make whole again.
Anyone has something along the lines of "I'm the master of my own body"? Something to remind myself when I have the urge of watching porn or masturbating excessively.
What I do is go on Jow Forums and the like. Knowing what you don't want to be like can be as motivating as having a target to strive for. I'm serious.
“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
You dont get what you deserve in life, you get what you negotiate for
You stop you die, go hard or go home.
This and other parts of Meditations.
Also, Rocky's motivational speech to his son in the film Rocky.
Help ever, hurt never
Dont compare yourself to others, compare yourself to who you were yesterday
And you too will one day die.
You have one life, there are no practice runs.
Do not wait until retirement to fulfill dreams.
Focus on finding happiness, not making money.
Better to be broke as fuck in paradise than rich in the concrete jungle.
>Somebody yells in my ear
"YOU'RE GONNA STOP ONCE IT BECOMES HARD??"
Not very philosphical but very helpful in times of when I need the extra mental strength.
>as you age, old sayings tend to have more gravitas
Ain't that the truth. I think it's a combination of boiling things down in your head to basic ideas, and living through experiences that make you realize the truth in sayings that once seemed either obvious or cheesy.
I have a personal matra of 'it sucks now but it'll suck a whole lot worse if you leave it'. Motivates me into doing a whole ton of shit I never used to, without really thinking about it or starting that internal monologue negotiation thing. Getting out of bed in the morning, washing dishes, getting off the computer and onto real-world activities.
You can see Bear Grylls has to pull the same shit whenever he says 'let's get into it'.
user, I was like you in a different way. I was a suicidal shut in back in the day. I came to an epiphany that I still carry, and that’s to say I decided to become the person I never had, but always wanted while growing up.
I wanted to become the friend in need, so I did. I realized that people would come to like me if I was upfront about who I was, and so I became honest.
I want to say the best that you can do is decide on what kind of person you want to be, or what is your ideal— and what it takes to get closer to it, bit by bit.
This has to do a lot with changing the way you look at yourself too, user. Because if you think of yourself that way, you’ll never be able to comprehend why people will like you if you can’t muster the courage to like yourself.
>Who cares less, wins.
>Better for girls to think you're a distant asshole, than it is for them to think you're creep.
>There's nothing wrong with protecting yourself.
>You don't have to look for trouble for it to find you - so be prepared and know that avoiding trouble is a waste of time.
>The best defence, is a good offence - in terms of the modern workplace.
I feel that the last one needs explaining. I had to fight to keep my job since I started. Here seven years and the majority of that was fighting, pushing myself to reach constantly higher expectations till I was exhausted.
Certain members of the management were out to get me and keeping my head down and working harder was never going to save me.
Until I started to investigate them and there behaviour, looking into their pasts for patterns of this behaviour, threatening legal action and going above their heads.
As soon as it looks like I'm trying to get them sacked, they don't want to go after me anymore.
Ripping the target of my back and putting it on theirs saved my job. Most of them relocated to another depot after that.
Since then, I've had two years without any problems at my job, this is the first time I've ever actually felt I had any job security because they stopped the moment I fought back. Which leads to another lesson;
>Always be prepared to go after people who fuck with you.
>Reality is that which, even if you stop believing in it, doesn't go away
>Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you
>The darkest hour is just before the dawn
>Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor
Pretty much I just try to be realistic, avoid wallowing in negative emotions and accept that nothing worth having is easy to get.
Life needs hard work and the motivation to do it. Those that have neither and still get what they truly want are few and far between.
I'm saving this thread, which is important for me when I do fall back down to my old habits.
I know y'all hate Christ fags here but my mantra that I internally repeat all the time is "Love God, and Love others as thyself" God to me is a universal life force.