Thus, you should carefully consider which among the main things you want in life is the most important, and renounce all the others to dedicate yourself to that thing alone. Among the many matters that press in on us on any given day, at any given moment, we must give ourselves to the most productive, but no matter how little—ignore the rest, and devote yourself entirely to the most important thing. If you find yourself reluctant to abandon the others, you will never achieve your primary aim.
–—Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness, translated by Meredith McKinney, 113
