“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
It’s human nature to measure ourselves relative to others and try to be better. We see competitions today, throughout history, and across the globe designed to determine who’s better in some way. For example, who’s faster, stronger, smarter, more attractive, talented, or creative. However, beyond outright competitions, we calculate these attributes on our own. Next, we take our measurements and compare them to ourselves–to gauge our own value and self-worth. This quote, by William Faulkner, reminds us to not focus on being better than anyone now or anyone who’ve come before us. Besides the dangerous and unhealthy aspect of making our self-worth entirely dependent on others, this also robs us…
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
This quote, by Stephen Covey, is about not being so focused on a schedule or to-do list. Instead, it encourages us to reflect on what is on it. Are the things on it all that important? Or should we be prioritizing other things? Are those other priorities being neglected? Yes, it’s important to prioritize our schedules. However, it’s equally important to make sure we are making time in our schedules for the things that matter to us most.
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Why We Should All Try to Have a Growth Mindset
Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”
“Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.”
You may have heard inspirational quotes and messages about stepping out of your comfort zone, not being afraid to take risks, and trying something new. However, the unspoken assumption is to try that new thing once. This quote, by Virgil Thomson, challenges us to try something new not once but three times. “Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.” Perhaps we don’t have to do so exactly three times. There are many instances where once is enough. The bottom line is to not be quick to decide whether…
“Don’t limit your challenges. Challenge your limits.”
No one ever becomes a professional athlete or marathon runner without ever once pushing themself beyond their limits. That person must train to be at the level they are in. It’s that extra mile–those extra reps–that redefine what they can achieve. If they would stop or go easy every time they feel the’ve reached their max, they would never grow but plateau. This idea not only applies to fitness but other aspects of life that challenge us. However, when challenges mount, the first thing we want to do is limit them. We want to make them small until we’re comfortable. But if we were to limit our challenges all the…
“Happy people build their inner world; unhappy people blame their outer world.”
Sometimes we’re not in control of the things that happen around us in our outer world. However, what we can control is our inner world. This quote, by T. Harv Eker, is about finding your happy place on the inside–creating happiness within. Building your inner world means building a barrier between you and everything else happening around you. This can allow you to create a more stable sense of happiness and peace. So instead of blaming your outer world for your circumstances, you’re able to find strength within to face them.
“F-E-A-R has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Rise.’ The choice is yours.”
You may have heard of the acronym F.E.A.R representing the phrase “False evidence appearing real”. But this isn’t the only way the word fear has been turned into an acronym. This quote, by Zig Ziglar, offers two additional phrases from the word fear: “Forget Everything And Run” and “Face Everything And Rise”. What is so beautiful about these two phrases is that they offer a choice between two different meanings we can give to fear. It can either mean something we forget and run away from or something we face; and in the challenge that comes from facing our fear, we’re able to rise. Unfortunately, we’re more inclined to forget…
“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”
Getting what you want all the time seems like the most ideal way to live. There’s nothing that will ever disappoint you. However, according to this quote by Dalai Lama, sometimes not getting what we want is luck. Sometimes, that helps make the moments we do get what we want much sweeter. We appreciate the blessings we do have a bit more. Perhaps what we wanted could have led us down the wrong path. Or maybe, what we wanted is not best for us now but better at another point in time. So next time we don’t get what we want, let’s consider these possibilities. We just don’t know what…
“If you’re stuck in a puddle, it means there’s higher ground all around you. You just have to step onto it.”
This quote, by Emilyann Girdner, reminds us to not lose hope whenever we feel stuck in a rut. It’s like being stuck in a puddle. But if there’s anything you can guarantee about puddles, it’s the fact that they don’t carry on forever. There’s a point where the puddle ends because there’s always higher ground surrounding it that forms the puddle in the first place. So when we find ourselves stuck in life’s puddles, all we have to do is keep moving forward. Eventually we’ll not only come out of it but experience a bit of growth–because we’re standing a bit taller than before.
“Don’t compare yourself to others. Be like the Sun and the Moon and shine when it’s your time.”
The Sun is about 400 times larger than the Moon at 1.4 million km across versus the Moon’s 3,474 km across. The Sun is also 27 million times greater in mass than the Moon (Source). Sometimes we compare ourselves to others, like the Moon in comparison to the Sun. We perceive another person’s light as shining brighter–bigger–better. However, despite the Sun’s greater size and mass, its orientation in the solar system makes it look to be the same size as the Moon when viewed from Earth. Furthermore, the Moon, despite its much smaller size in the solar system, entirely blocks the Sun during solar eclipses. And while the Sun is…
“Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.”
This quote, by Wayne Dyer, has a way of making us think beyond the here and now–beyond the things that may be weighing us down and beyond our physical being. We are all so much more than our occupation, physical appearance, accomplishments, and shortcomings. It’s important to take care of our body. But in addition to that, how can we take care of our soul? It’s a part of us that’s all our own. One that can never be duplicated or imitated.
