The Mantras

Here are some of our favorites:

The small things you love can be your whole reason for being.

You don’t need a grand purpose or a world-changing mission. Sometimes the reason you’re here is to make coffee the way you like it, sing badly in the shower, notice the light hitting your wall at 3pm. A life doesn’t have to be epic to be meaningful.

Connection starts with imperfection.

Nobody connects with perfection. We connect with the messy parts of each other that admit "I don't have it together either." Real connection begins when you stop performing.

There's a reason the base of Mount Everest is littered with dead bodies.

Chasing impossible standards doesn't make you noble, it just makes you tired. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is choose a smaller mountain. The view from a hill you reached in one piece is infinitely better than the view from a peak that killed you halfway up.

You only have so many f*cks to give each day. Spend them wisely.

Your attention is finite. Your energy is finite. Your capacity to care is finite. So stop wasting it on things that don't deserve it: what strangers think of you, what you look like in that photo, whether you're doing enough. Save your f*cks for the things that actually matter to you. Everything else can wait.

The only way to completely avoid setbacks or loss is to build a wall around yourself, but in doing so, you bury yourself.

Safety is tempting. Avoiding pain makes sense. But the wall that protects you from hurt also blocks growth, connection, and surprise. You can’t numb the hard stuff without numbing the good stuff. So maybe don’t build that wall.

Happiness isn’t a finish line.

You don’t arrive at happiness after you fix everything. Happiness is a practice. A daily choice to notice what’s working instead of what isn’t. It’s deciding—again and again—that today, right now, is enough. Even on the days it feels impossible.

Creativity is the most human thing there is.

Our culture treats creativity like a luxury. What a shame. When life feels mechanical, creativity reminds you that you’re more than your to-do list. It doesn’t have to be grand. Doodle. Cook something new. Rearrange a shelf. Small creative acts reconnect you to your inner world.

Your inner critic is a bully pretending to be a coach.

That voice in your head that says you're not good enough, not productive enough, not trying hard enough? That voice lies. Real growth comes from encouragement, not punishment. Talk to yourself the way you'd talk to someone you love. Anything less is just cruelty dressed up as motivation.

Done is the only thing that matters.

Perfectionism lives in fear. Fear of being seen, fear of being judged, fear of being found out. But the world doesn't need your perfect version. It needs your real version. The messy draft. The flawed attempt. The thing you made even though you weren't sure it was good enough. That's the one that matters.

Synchronicity is real. Pay attention.

When you move toward what you love, coincidences start showing up. You think of someone and they text. You need an answer and it appears. Call it synchronicity or pattern recognition. Either way, it only works if you’re awake enough to notice. Attention is what lets the world meet you halfway.