"In 2010, [[Marco Rubio]] was pacing the halls of his home, making fund-raising calls for his surprise Senate bid, when his three-year-old son snuck out the back door and fell into the pool. Rubio had heard the chime of the door opening, assumed someone else was paying attention, and returned to his important phone call. **A few minutes later, he found his son floating facedown in their pool, barely breathing. Even after this near tragedy he returned almost immediately to work—his ambition, like Lincoln’s, a “little engine that knew no rest.” Only with distance could Rubio begin to see the cost of this drive, what important things we miss when we give ourselves over to it entirely**. "As he wrote, “**I think I understand now that the restlessness we feel as we make our plans and chase our ambitions is not the effect of their importance to our happiness and our eagerness to attain them. We are restless because deep in our hearts we know now that our happiness is found elsewhere**, and our work, no matter how valuable it is to us or to others, cannot take its place. But **we hurry on anyway, and attend to our business because we need to matter, and we don’t always realize we already do**.” ([Location 1351](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07QY3CZ9L&location=1351)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[work-life-balance]], [[teaching-anecdotes]], [[parenting]], [[ego]], [[self-reflection]], [[self-control]], [[routines]], [[bad-habits]] **Source** -- [[202409180133 - B - Stillness is the Key]]