Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe.
Thought is constantly creating problems that way and then trying to solve them. But as it tries to solve them it makes it worse because it doesn't notice that it's creating them, and the more it thinks, the more problems it creates.
A mind too active is no mind at all.
If there is something to worry about, my mind has a tendency to worry about it. That can cut two ways. It can really keep you on the ball, but if you worry about every little thing, it's not a good use of time and energy.
The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem!
Idle minds are the devil's research-and-development department.
Don't waste too much time wishing, hoping, and being envious; it'll make you bugnutty.
As I obsess about my ancient problems, I feel more like I'm sinking in quicksand than lighting a torch. I'm creating neither heat nor light, just the icky, perversely pleasurable squish of self-pity between my toes. My only defense is that I'm not the only one down here in the muck - our whole culture is doting on tales of personal tragedy.
As entrepreneurs, or artists, or just people with dreams, the worst thing you can do is get so caught up in planning the perfect idea that you never get around to actually... well, doing it. I call this building castles in your mind.
Yet it looks as if the thing we use to solve our problems with is the source of our problems. It's like going to the doctor and having him make you ill. In fact, in 20% of medical cases we do apparently have that going on. But in the case of thought, its far over 20%.
The worst thing you can think about when you're working is yourself.
Generally I get up at around 7. But oftentimes, I'll be lolling in bed a little bit earlier - sometimes as early as 5:45 - filing in my mind all the things I have to get done. Which is, of course, totally unproductive.
Idleness of the mind is much worse than that of the body: wit, without employment, is a disease - the rust of the soul, a plague, a hell itself.
If I were to sit around and think about all the things that were said about Live, I'd never get anything done.
An idle head is a boxe for the winde.
A thought falls like a ripe fruit from the tree of idleness.
Worry is a useless mulling over of things we cannot change.
Pointless thinking is worse than no thinking at all.
'What if?' is just about the worst question I can ask myself, and I want to avoid it at all costs for the rest of my life.
The trouble with Reason is that it becomes meaningless at the exact point where it refuses to act.
I think everyone has a door in their brain that says, 'Do not exit here.' If you go past it, you'll find all the dumb thoughts in there, all the stupid things that shouldn't be said. I've probably gone there more than anyone should in a given lifetime.
If you overthink things, you end up doing things without the right reasons in mind.
I try not to go down the 'what if' road very often. It isn't fruitful and just makes you feel crummy.
When I'm on the set, I'll come up with ideas if I'm sort of just between responsibilities, because there's a lot of sitting around on set. Invariably, though, the stuff I come up with on the set tends to be bad.
I'm not a big watcher of myself. You start looking at things you shouldn't be looking at that have nothing to do with anything of importance.
