“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”
We know a plant is still alive when we observe visible changes to it from time to time. Perhaps a new bloom, a new leaf, or it’s an inch or two taller. Its changes are a sign of growth, and its growth is a sign of life. Usually, a plant that’s no longer changing, i.e. growing, is most likely dead. This quote, by Gail Sheehy, reminds us that the same is true in our lives. Meanwhile, we are reminded to embrace positive change. Like the plant, if we’re not changing, we’re not growing. And if we’re not growing, we aren’t really living. When it comes to change, it’s already happening…
“Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don’t let these feelings stop them.”
Successful people are fearless, successful people act without hesitation, and successful people have no worries. Each one of these statements is false. However, we tend to subconsciously assume they’re fact. This quote, by T. Harv Eker, reminds us that our idea about successful people are most often wrong. They do have worries, doubts, and fear. Yet they forge ahead in spite of these feelings. If you’re waiting for these feelings to go away as a prerequisite for success, then you may find yourself waiting indefinitely, and you may find success always out of reach.
“If you’re doing something outside of dominant culture, there’s not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself.”
Whether we want to believe it or not, things like our age, gender, race, and socioeconomic background play a factor in where we go to school, when, if we attend college, what we major in, the career we pursue, when we start a family. The list goes on. Simply put, a lot of what happens in our life is already laid out for us per our dominant culture. But once in a while, we step outside of our trajectory. As this quote by Ava DuVernay reminds us, paving a different path isn’t always going to be easy. It might feel uncomfortable, and there may be moments we feel like we’re…
“Dreams don’t have to just be dreams. You can make it a reality; if you just keep pushing and keep trying, then eventually you’ll reach your goal. And if that takes a few years, then that’s great, but if it takes 10 or 20, then that’s part of the process.”
In an interview, world renowned tennis player, Naomi Osaka, was asked what advice she would give her younger self. After joking about eating too much rice, she follows up with this inspiring quote that echos some of the challenges and adversities she faced in becoming a pro tennis athlete. In a nutshell, this quote reveals that accomplishing your dreams boils down to three things or “three Ps”: perseverance, patience, and perspective. You have to keep at it (perseverance), understanding things may not happen overnight (patience), all while having a mindful appreciation of the process (perspective).
“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what? Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident, and more and more successful.”
It’s human nature to come up with every excuse in the book before we finally start something. And a very common excuse we get ourselves to believe is that it’s just not the right time to begin. Sounds like a logical reason. But there’s a difference between the condition being feasibly and the condition being perfect. This quote comes from Mark Victor Hansen, motivational speaker/author and co-founder of the book series Chicken Soup for the Soul. It serves as a reminder that chasing after the perfect condition–when everything is just right–inevitably results in us never getting started. “There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions.” So if…
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“God has perfect timing; never early, never late. It takes a little patience and it takes a lot of faith, but it’s worth the wait.”
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Living Life Poetically: The Son Will Shine
“If you talk about it, it’s a dream, if you envision it, it’s possible, but if you schedule it, it’s real.”
There’s something about writing your dreams down that makes them a lot more likely to become reality. That simple act takes them from an idea in your head to something more tangible. And that’s what this quote, by Tony Robbins, is all about. But this quote takes things a step further. Because even more effective and real than writing those goals down is scheduling them on a calendar. Just remember to give yourself enough time and grace.
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“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that, I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.”
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.”
This quote is not to be taken literally. It’s from the classic children’s story, Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie. In the story, Peter Pan’s ability to fly is significantly influenced by his belief that he can without any second thought or hesitation. While the story is made-up, the core principle is real. Nothing kills our ability to do something more than doubt. The moment we doubt whether we can is the moment our likelihood of doing it significantly decreases. Unfortunately, believing in yourself can be easier said than done. So, if self-doubt does creep in despite your effort to fight it, there’re a couple things you can do. First, it…
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.”
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”
“Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.”
There are different kinds of storms that vary in intensity. What you see following a day of thunder, lightning and rain is far better than what you see after a hurricane or tornado. Some storms leave destruction at their wake while some restore the earth. The same applies to life. When bad things happen, like a storm, it’s natural to assume the worst–That our life would turn upside down. But as this anonymous quote reminds us, not all storms come to disrupt our life. Some leave things better than before, like a rain storm replenishing the soil for new things to growth. So when you’re going through a challenge or…
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”
It’s easy to assume people who show courage aren’t afraid–that they lack fear. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s fear in all of us, and this quote, by Mark Twain, reminds us that fear is not necessarily absent in the midst of courage. It’s there. However, what is also present is a resistance to or mastery of fear. This means overcoming fear with faith (resistance) or using it as fuel (mastery) or both. So courage doesn’t absolve all fear but, in a way, it can be created and strengthened by it. It doesn’t have to be about choosing one or the other but deciding how we redirect…
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
We all have that voice inside our head that says we can’t do something. And so we don’t do it, which only proves the voice in our head was right. This quote, by Vincent Van Gogh, is about silencing that voice the best way we can–by doing the thing it says we can’t. “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint.” By simply doing that thing, we literally invalidate the word can’t. And that is just the first step. Once we do that thing, we may get to do it well.
