A “Common Place Book” is an idea I heard about last year where you record any quote or saying that you find noteworthy. I figured it would be a fun exercise, so I opened my Notes App and quickly created a new list under the bolded title: Common Place Book. Most of the quotes I added are from podcasts or books. In the future, I hope to pull more words of wisdom from in-person conversations. Regrettably, I have not always been great at recording the source of the quote, but I will include its origin whenever possible.  I started this practice in September 2024 and have been doing it for over six months. I only have about 30 quotes saved; below, I chose and expanded on five phrases that stuck out to me, in no particular order.

1. “I am addicted to feeling important.”

This quote is from Captain Brad Geary, who discussed his operational experience in the Navy as a podcast guest with Shawn Ryan. This particular snippet came from a conversation between Geary and one of his teammates where Geary asked him whether he would ever give up his job. The other operator responded that he could never see himself leaving because he felt “addicted to feeling important.”

As I transition out of the Navy, one of the things I am reckoning with is not having a built-in sense of feeling important. It truly is an addictive sensation that is probably present in many professional careers. It feels good and purposeful to feel important and to constantly receive external validation about the necessity and meaning of one’s work.

2. “How cheap is your happiness? How small of an inconvenience does it take to knock you off your path?”

So many brief, wise quotes make instinctual and intellectual sense when I read them but immediately slip my mind as I move on with my day. But this one stuck with me. During my days, I find myself reflecting on its significance as a tangible practice. Typically, when a minor inconvenience strikes in life and I feel my mood shifting towards anger, annoyance, or any negative response, if I can remember to ask myself “how cheap is my happiness?” it gives me a much healthier perspective on whatever issue life has concocted. It is always worth remembering that life’s circumstances do not dictate my happiness. I get to set the price for what my happiness sells for.

3. “The three most addicting things in the world are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.”

This quote is a humorous statement but also strikingly accurate. Opioids, calories, and stability. All are very addicting and worth pursuing. We live biologically wired to attain these three things at all costs and to hang on to them for life. Yet, we often encounter a twisted version of these things in our modern lives. Do we need to gorge ourselves in preparation for a potential period of starvation in the future? Probably not. But we are wired to do so. So much of the food we eat today and so many of our decisions take advantage of these biological drives. Comfort. More. Safety. 

What I had never thought about seriously was the monthly salary. It is a societal agreement that a monthly salary is an accurate measurement tool for success, stability, and resources we can consume. That’s just how our system works. Get a job, make money, and use the money to stay alive. Repeat. This system means safety and security. As long as I keep getting my monthly paycheck, I can stay alive and provide the necessary resources for myself and my family. But that is not the only way to achieve the essential tools in life to stay alive. It is just what we drum into the heads of every person listening relentlessly and without question. The monthly salary is how we are supposed to live. There is nothing wrong at all with living like this, but the assumed benefits are addictive and bought into by so many people that to entertain any other way of living is bizarre and foreign.

4. “If you raise the price of the hotdogs, I will fucking kill you.”

When I am by myself, I generally don’t emote a lot. It takes a lot for me to laugh or show much expression. However, when I heard this story, I genuinely laughed out loud. I love it. The summarized story: Costco has been known for decades for its hot dogs, which cost $1.50. This price has not changed since 1984, even through massive company growth and inflation. It is an iconic symbol that makes Costco, Costco. One day, a new CEO took over the behemoth wholesale grocery store, and one of his first ideas was to raise the price of the hot dogs. His reasoning was valid: the hot dogs are significantly underpriced, the company is not making any money on the hot dogs, and they could make a killing if they just raised the price slightly. Upon hearing this suggestion from the new CEO, the founder of Costco responded: “If you raise the price of the hotdogs, I will fucking kill you.” While there are layers to this response that highlight its genius, next time you dine at Costco’s sensationally underpriced yet consistently delicious gourmet market, give a quick thanks to the founder.

5. “We overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in ten years.”

One year is so much easier to conceptualize than a decade. It is why we make New Year’s Resolutions and not New Decade Resolutions. I can look to the future year with a perceived temporal understanding of what actions I can and should take. But ten years? It becomes much cloudier and more challenging to piece together. It is hard to even think of my last decade on this Earth as one continuous narrative. Too many things have happened. However, there is tremendous power in purposeful decision-making scaled out to a decade. Most decisions we make are limited to our immediate lives and, thus, are short-term decisions. But what if I just made a couple of decisions every year where I considered the length and power of a decade? In a decade, I will be 39 years old. What do I want my life to look like? What do I want my relationships to look like? What will the lives of those close to me look like? Insert the old saying about how the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second-best time to plant a tree was 19 years ago… or something like that.