Remembering that you are going to die is the best way that I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. - Oliver Burkeman

The greatest achievements often involve remaining open to serendipity, seizing unplanned opportunities, or riding unexpected bursts of motivation. To be delighted by another person, or moved by a landscape or a work of art, requires not being in full control.

The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning,' argued the social psychologist Erich Fromm. 'Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.' Uncertainty is where things happen. It is where the opportunities – for success, for happiness, for really living – are waiting.

in recent years, some psychologists have reached the conclusion that pessimism may often be as healthy and productive as optimism.