Don’t worry about the minor details. This is a compilation of don’t sweat the small stuff quotes from the well-known Richard Carlson book. Continue reading because it promises to be intriguing.
Richard tells us throughout the book to fight negative ideas, follow our intuition, love others, and be of service to others and it has been so inspiring we had to get these don’t sweat the small stuff quotes for you.
This article contains amazing collections of don’t sweat the small stuff quotes from Richard Carlson’s book and it promises to be worth your time.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Quotes
Richard Carlson’s book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, offers several suggestions for making your life less stressful and more serene.
1. “Make peace with imperfection.”
2. “Our disappointment comes about in essentially two ways. When we’re experiencing pleasure we want it to last forever. It never does. Or when we’re experiencing pain, we want it to go away now. It usually doesn’t. Unhappiness is the result of struggling against the natural flow of experience.”
3. “In the Buddhist tradition, difficulties are considered to be so important to a life of growth and peace that a Tibetan prayer actually asks for them. It says, “Grant that I may be given appropriate difficulties and sufferings on this journey so that my heart may be truly awakened and my practice of liberation and universal compassion may be truly fulfilled.”
4. “Think of your problems as .”
5. “True happiness comes not when we get rid of all of our problems, but when we change our relationship to them when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice patience, and to learn.”
6. “When you do too many things at once, it’s impossible to be present-moment oriented. Thus, you not only lose out on much of the potential enjoyment of what you are doing, but you also become far less focused and effective.”
7. “Search for the grain of truth in other opinions.”
8. “Be grateful when you’re feeling good and graceful when you’re feeling bad.”
9. “Your life will always be filled with challenges. It’s best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.”
10. “When you look at life and its many challenges as a test, or series of tests, you begin to see each issue you face as an opportunity to grow, a chance to roll with the punches.”
11. “When we have preconceived ideas about the way life should be, they interfere with our opportunity to enjoy or learn from the present moment.”
12. “Humility and inner peace go hand in hand. The less compelled you are to try to prove yourself to others, the easier it is to feel peaceful inside.”
13. “I can’t think of a single person whom I consider to be inwardly peaceful who doesn’t carve out at least a little quiet time, virtually every day.”
14. “To a large degree, the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live in the present moment.”
15. “When you take time, often, to reflect on the miracle of life – the miracle that you are even able to read this book – the gift of sight, of love, and all the rest, it can help remind you that many of the things that you think as “big stuff” are really just “small stuff” that you are turning into big stuff.”
16. “One of the nice things about surrendering to the fact that life isn’t fair is that it keeps us from feeling sorry for ourselves by encouraging us to do the very best we can with what we have.”
17. “One of the most important questions you can ever ask yourself is “Do I want to be ‘right’ – or do I want to be happy.”
18. “Regardless of who you are or what you do, remember that nothing is more important than your own sense of happiness and inner peace and that of your loved ones.”
19. “When our attention is in the present moment, we push fear from our minds.”
20. “The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what is, rather than insisting that life be exactly as you would like it to be.”
21. “A wonderful, heartfelt strategy for becoming more peaceful and loving is to practice allowing others the joy of being right – give them the glory. Stop correcting.”
22. “A powerful technique for becoming more peaceful is to be aware of how quickly your negative and insecure thinking can spiral out of control.”
23. “Luckily, there is a way to be happy. It involves changing the emphasis of our thinking from what we want to what we have.”
24. “Whenever we are attached to having something a certain way, better than it already is, we are almost by definition, engaged in a losing battle.”
25. “Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are – always!”
26. “When you are fearful or frantic, you literally immobilize yourself from your greatest potential, not to mention enjoyment.”
27. “Just for fun, agree with criticism directed toward you (Then watch it go away).”
28. “Argue for your limitations, and they’re yours.”
29. “Live this day as if it were your last. It might be!”
30. “Spend a moment every day thinking of someone to thank.”
31. “When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.”
32. “Indeed, the important question in terms of becoming more peaceful isn’t whether or not you’re going to have negative thoughts – you are – it’s what you choose to do with the ones that you have.”
33. “So often, either consciously or unconsciously, we want something from others, especially when we have done something for them – It’s almost as though we keep score of our own good deeds rather than remembering that giving is its own reward.”
34. “The key to a good life is this: If you’re not going to talk about something during the last hour of your life, then don’t make it a top priority during your lifetime.”
35. “One of the mistakes many of us make is that we feel sorry for ourselves, or for others, thinking that life should be fair, or that someday it will be. It’s not and it won’t. When we make this mistake we tend to spend a lot of time wallowing and/or complaining about what’s wrong with life. “It’s not fair,” we complain, not realizing that, perhaps, it was never intended to be.”
36. “Something wonderful begins to happen with the simple realization that life, like an automobile, is driven from the inside out, not the other way around. As you focus more on becoming more peaceful with where you are, rather than focusing on where you would rather be, you begin to find peace right now, in the present. Then, as you move around, try new things, and meet new people, you carry that sense of inner peace with you. It’s absolutely true that ‘Wherever you go, there you are.’”
37. “We forget that life isn’t as bad as we’re making it out to be. We also forget that when we’re blowing things out of proportion, we are the ones doing the blowing.”
38. “Being listened to and heard is one of the greatest desires of the human heart. And those who learn to listen are the most loved and respected.”
39. “Thinking of someone to love each day keeps your resentment away!”
40. “An argument that happened while you were walking out the door on your way to work is no longer an actual argument, it’s a thought in your mind.”
41. “If we would just slow down, happiness would catch up to us.”
42. “Choose to be kind over being right and you’ll be right every time.”
43. “As long as you think more is better, you’ll never be satisfied.”
44. “It’s the recognition that other people’s problems, their pain and frustrations, are every bit as real as our own – often far worse. In recognizing this fact and trying to offer some assistance, we open our hearts and greatly enhance our sense of gratitude.”
45. “Effective listening is more than simply avoiding the bad habit of interrupting others while they are speaking or finishing their sentences. It’s being content to listen to the entire thought of someone rather than waiting impatiently for your chance to respond.”
46. “We tend to believe that if we were somewhere else – on vacation, with another partner, in a different career, a different home, a different circumstance – somehow we would be happier and more content. We wouldn’t!”
47. “Imagining yourself at your own funeral allows you to look back at your life while you still have the chance to make some important changes.”
48. “Your heart, the compassionate part of you, knows that it’s impossible to feel better at the expense of someone else.”
49. “Ask yourself the question, ‘Will this matter a year from now?’ ”
50. “We live our lives as if they were one big emergency! We often rush around looking busy, trying to solve problems, but in reality, we are often compounding them.”
51.“The key to a good life is this: If you’re not going to talk about something during the last hour of your life, then don’t make it a top priority during your lifetime.”
52.“Imagining yourself at your own funeral allows you to look back at your life while you still have the chance to make some important changes.”
53.“Indeed, the important question in terms of becoming more peaceful isn’t whether or not you’re going to have negative thoughts – you are – it’s what you choose to do with the ones that you have.”
54.“One of the mistakes many of us make is that we feel sorry for ourselves, or for others, thinking that life should be fair, or that someday it will be. It’s not and it won’t. When we make this mistake we tend to spend a lot of time wallowing and/or complaining about what’s wrong with life. “It’s not fair,” we complain, not realizing that, perhaps, it was never intended to be.”
55.“We tend to believe that if we were somewhere else – on vacation, with another partner, in a different career, a different home, a different circumstance – somehow we would be happier and more content. We wouldn’t!”
56.“Something wonderful begins to happen with the simple realization that life, like an automobile, is driven from the inside out, not the other way around. As you focus more on becoming more peaceful with where you are, rather than focusing on where you would rather be, you begin to find peace right now, in the present. Then, as you move around, try new things, and meet new people, you carry that sense of inner peace with you. It’s absolutely true that, ‘Wherever you go, there you are.’”
57.“The first step in becoming a more peaceful person is to have the humility to admit that, in most cases, you’re creating your own emergencies. Life will usually go on if things don’t go according to plan.”
58.“True happiness comes not when we get rid of all of our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice, and to learn.”
59.“As you put more emphasis on being a loving person, which is something you can control – and less emphasis on receiving love, which is something you can’t control – you’ll find that you have plenty of love in your life.”
60.“Our disappointment comes about in essentially two ways. When we’re experiencing pleasure we want it to last forever. It never does. Or when we’re experiencing pain, we want it to go away – now. It usually doesn’t. Unhappiness is the result of struggling against the natural flow of experience.”
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