Busying yourself with an activity is the best way to change the channel. Exercise, engage in conversation on a completely different subject, or get working on a project that will distract your mind from the barrage of negative thoughts.

Build a skill set that’s worth something.

For the longest time, I believed that there’s only one purpose of life: And that is to be happy.

Happiness can’t be a goal in itself. Therefore, it’s not something that’s achievable. I believe that happiness is merely a byproduct of usefulness.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

We all need comfort: It’s one of our basic needs as human beings. But we also need growth. So whatever you do, don’t stay in your comfort zone for too long. Try to keep moving forward every day: Even if it’s just a tiny step. No magic. Just effort.

Don’t take it too seriously. Don’t overthink it. Just DO something that’s useful. Anything.

But success is not about a glorious vision. It’s about you, working on your goal—even when no one’s watching. With an emphasis on working because dreaming alone won’t get you anywhere.

Worrying involves negative--often catastrophic--predictions about the future.

Awareness is the first step in putting an end to overthinking. Start paying attention to the way you think. When you notice you’re re-playing events in your mind over and over, or worrying about things you can’t control, acknowledge that your thoughts aren’t productive.

Ask yourself what steps you can take to learn from a mistake or to avoid a future problem. Instead of asking why did this happen? Ask yourself what can I do about it?

Don’t try to be something you’re not. If you’re an introvert, don’t pretend that you can work in a boiler room. If you’re an extrovert, don’t pretend you can work in solitude. Stay close to yourself—there’s no point in pushing yourself so badly that your life becomes miserable

When you notice yourself overthinking things outside of your scheduled time, remind yourself that you’ll think about that later.

Thoughts themselves do NOT cause us to suffer Suffering comes from how we relate to thoughts

When we are drowning under a tsunami of rapidfire thoughts and don't know how to stop thinking, the mind SEEMS to be an all-powerful entity with the power to make us suffer. In truth, however, the ONLY power the mind has is the power we give it through habit.

An important tip on how to stop thinking is to take everything the mind tells you with a large pinch of salt! We don't suffer because of the content of the mind. We suffer because we believe it. What you don't believe has no power over you.

questioning everything the mind comes up with through using the question: "Do I know for absolute certain that this is true?" If you practice this, you will quickly come to see that the mind is filled with a million and one beliefs and assumptions which simply have no basis in truth

We create suffering for ourselves through wanting it to be different from how it is. Through consciously choosing to allow whatever the mind comes up with to be OK, we wrap even the most disturbing thoughts in peace.

You woke up this morning, breathing and with a heartbeat. You get to enjoy today and hopefully wake up again tomorrow. You get to see your family and friends, and enjoy food and life’s luxuries. It can sometimes be easy to forget to be grateful for the most basic thing: life itself.

you should be grateful for your health because it is the foundation of who you are. According to Reiss, you don’t necessarily need to be physically and mentally well to feel healthy, but when you do feel healthy, it’s one of life’s greatest blessings.

So even if you don’t have the most exciting job in the world, remember to feel some gratitude for it every once in a while, because your life would be a lot different without it.

Feel thankful and express that gratefulness if you are lucky enough to have family who is more like friends: They’re people you can confide in and who will be there for you through thick and thin. Many people don’t have that kind of family, so be grateful. And remember to tell them how lucky you are.

You can’t pick your family, but you can pick your friends. If you’ve chosen good ones, remember to be grateful for them and express your love and appreciation.

friends are the families we make. Friends help you remember who you really are and who you can become. They remind you what you want and need, as well as what you deserve. True friends are there through your best and darkest times. Appreciate that connection. Express your gratitude every chance you get.

Free time lets you be you. You get to do your favourite things, no matter what those are. Free time allows you to sleep more, enjoy the outdoors, relax at home, garden, fish— whatever you enjoy most. Be grateful that you get the opportunity to do the things you love.

It is important to feel gratefulness for today’s modern gadgets. Think about how much they contribute to your daily life. For some, they help them do their jobs every day. Some people use them solely as a form of entertainment. For some, they provide a beat to keep you motivated during your run or gym workout.

Feel even more gratefulness for the modern techno-gadgets that keep people alive, like pacemakers. Today’s gadgets do so much to keep our lives going that we often overlook them. Instead, the next time you’re typing away on that computer, remember to appreciate it and be grateful.

Do or do not. There is no try.

'Lovelace' was really great. I got to work with the wonderful Amanda Seyfried, Hank Azaria and Peter Sarsgaard, so it can't get no better than that, right?

I was afraid to express myself for a while.

I want to build a machine that can drill wells for water. With this problem of water in many places in Africa, we need to find a solution for how you can dig wells so you can be pumping water from deeper places.

One of the things you learn as a journalist is that when there's no accountability, we humans are capable of tremendous avarice and venality. That's true of union bosses - and of corporate tycoons. Unions, even flawed ones, can provide checks and balances for flawed corporations.

Pride goes before a fall

I think nobody since has written such extraordinary work as Shakespeare writes. The characters he writes are full of inconsistencies, which is a great human quality - I mean, we're all very inconsistent in the way we behave.

All we are asked to bear we can bear. That is a law of the spiritual life. The only hindrance to the working of this law as of all benign laws is fear.

Color-blocking two bold shades feels so modern.

My dad would give me $10, which is a lot of money when you're 9, to sing at church, on tables at restaurants, at family functions, just about anywhere.

Real novelists, those we admire, those we consider timeless in their language and character and scene, those who receive accolades for inventive language and form, have writing lives we imagine in specific ways.

I agree with Kathi Zellweger that sanctions mostly punish the ordinary people who live at the edge of starvation.

I meet people, and we can get past small talk pretty quickly if they've read my books. It's a great shortcut.

Congress is headed in the wrong direction with this bill which removes any and all incentives from the food industry to improve their products for children.

I talk about race a lot. It's been my work ever since I came out of acting school. But it's true that in a way talking about race is a taboo. Because so many of our debates about race have to do not with race but with what we are willing to see, what we will not see and what we don't want to see.

The values of Islam are expressed by Muslims clearly. September 11 changed the world, and put Muslims on the spotlight.

I won't do 'Strictly' or any of those ghastly reality programmes. 'I'm a Celebrity' would be the end. It makes me shudder.

A good face they say is a letter of recommendation. O Nature Nature why art thou so dishonest as ever to send men with these false recommendations into the World

It is understanding that gives us the ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.

My parents weren't stereotypical and pressuring me to go to college. They mentioned it a lot and constantly, but it wasn't a do or die thing, like, 'You have to do this or you're done.'

I tour alone. There's no sound check, no back up. I stay with the hosts; I am in a family home and it's really nourishing. I just have to remember after the show not to run out into the living room in my pyjamas. Every day, it's a new relationship being built. It's odd and wonderful.

I have a very varied taste in music. Everything from rap to classical to Latino to Rat Pack to jazz.