Always choose the future over the past. What do we do now?

What’s new?” is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question “What is best?,” a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream.

Either accept that you are making the choice to stay where you are, take responsibility for your choice, and stop complaining . . . or . . . take the risk of doing something new and different to create your life exactly the way you want it.

There's a point when you go with what you've got. Or you don't go.

New is overvalued relative to great. For example, when choosing which movie to watch or what book to read, are you drawn to proven classics or the newest big thing? In my opinion, it is smarter to choose the great over the new.

One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.

We make countless choices in life, some large and some seemingly small. Looking back, we can see what a great difference some of our choices made in our lives. We make better choices and decisions if we look at the alternatives and ponder where they will lead. . . . Our present and our future will be happier if we are always conscious of the future. . . . “Where will this lead?” is also important in choosing how we label or think of ourselves. . . . Don’t choose to label yourselves or think of yourselves in terms that put a limit on a goal for which you might strive.

"We are told we must choose — the old or the new. In fact, we must choose both. What is a life if not a series of negotiations between the old and the new?"

[<i>Speech upon being awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade)</i>, Frankfurt Book Fair, October 12, 2003]

People complain about their poor memories, but I’ve heard it said that we don’t have a retention problem, we have an attention problem. By searching for the new, you are reminding your brain to pay attention and rewiring it to recognize that there’s something to learn in everything. Life isn’t as certain as we assume.

If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old

Every time you're making a choice, one choice is the safe/comfortable choice - and one choice is the risky/uncomfortable choice. the risky/uncomfortable choice is the one that will teach you the most and make you grow the most, so that's the one you should choose.

Why change? Everyone has his own style. When you have found it, you should stick to it.

Choose well.

Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that you life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?