Our culture today confuses great attention with great success, assuming them to be the same thing, but they are not. You are great, already. Whether … - Mark Manson

Our culture today confuses great attention and great success, assuming them to be the same thing. But they are not.

Some of the most difficult and stressful moments of our lives also end up being the most formative and motivating. Some of the best and most gratifying experiences of our lives are also the most distracting and demotivating. Don’t trust your conception of positive/negative experiences.

There’s a bluntness to Russian culture that generally rubs Westerners the wrong way. Gone are the fake niceties and verbal webs of politeness. You don’t smile at strangers or pretend to like anything you don’t. In Russia, if something is stupid, you say it’s stupid. If someone is being an asshole, you tell him he’s being an asshole. If you really like someone and are having a great time, you tell her that you like her and are having a great time. It doesn’t matter if this person is your friend, a stranger, or someone you met five minutes ago on the street.

The most disciplined people aren't fighting their emotions; they've just rearranged them so that doing the "right" thing feels easy.