I didn’t expect to have a Part 3, but while reading the Art of Taking Action I found two quotes that reinforce Oliver Burkeman’s quote in Part 1 about having a superpower.
Alternatively, they are about maturity. About outgrowing the belief that your feelings dictate your actions.
So here they are.
Oliver Burkeman (the quote in Part 1): To be able to do what needs doing, whether or not you feel like it, is pretty close to a superpower.
George Bernard Shaw: Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness but it is greatness.
Eknath Easwaran: Nothing in life is more satisfying, more masterful, than to be able to change our likes and dislikes when we need to. In fact, anyone who has mastered this skill has mastered life, and anyone who has not learned to overcome likes and dislikes is a victim of life. The statement we hear so often these days – “I like it, so I’m going to do it” – is a confession that that person is not free. When I say, “I am going to do this because I like it; I am not going to do that because I don’t like it,” what I am really saying is, “My hands are bound; I have no choice in life.”
May you too have superpowers!
Links and Other Clicks
The Art of Taking Action, by Gregg Krech.
Cycle Uphill 
Now that you put it out there, I either change and master this art of accomplishing things as they need to be done, or admit that I have no free will and am a servant to my lazy likes and dislikes. Tough choice!
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Join the crowd!
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The superpower would be to not just push through everything that needs to be done, but to actually approach what needs to be done with willingness and lack of resistance. Those quotes could lead some people to a life of drudgery and duty. I think there has to be some accounting in there for what you like for what you’re drawn to doing. It’s a fine line that I understand all too well can lead to distraction and procrastination. But sometimes not doing something means it isn’t ready to be done, or it doesn’t really need to be done. There’s some middle ground here.
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Back in 1972 I came up with my personal motto, “There’s only one way to do it and that to ‘do it’!”.
16 years later Nike took my motto and improved on it to “JUST DO IT”.
I still think of this when I need to do something and ever fiber of my being tells me to procrastinate on it, or even worse, just forget about doing it because it is too hard.
I like your inspirational quotes to help me along this path to being a man of action.
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Glad to be able to help you on this path!
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