One can waste years this way, systematically postponing precisely the things one cares about the most. - 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.

It's weird how when I don't respond to someone's email, it's because I'm busy,' observes the novelist Leila Sales, poking fun at this tendency in herself, 'but when other people don't respond to my emails, it's because they hate me.

Ceaseless optimism about the future only makes for a greater shock when things go wrong; by fighting to maintain only positive beliefs about the future, the positive thinker ends up being less prepared, and more acutely distressed, when things eventually happen that he can't persuade himself to believe are good.