“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”
A ship that’s always anchored to a harbor will have a lower chance of getting shipwrecked. But leaving it there means it will never fulfill its purpose–the reason for which it was built. While having a ship that never goes out to sea makes no sense, we’re sometimes like that ship with our life. Fear keeps us at harbor where we feel safest. Sometimes we’re there for a brief moment and sometimes indefinitely. This quote, by John A. Shedd, encourages us to find the courage to leave our harbor. Because like the ship, we wont be able to fulfill the purpose and goals written in our hearts without ever doing…
“Don’t bury your failures, let them inspire you.”
Inspiration is often the spark that leads to meaningful action; and one great but under appreciated source of inspiration is actually failure. However, when we fail, we tend to want to forget it ever happened as quickly as possible. But as this quote by Robert Kiyosaki suggests, we shouldn’t bury our failures, which is the natural thing to do. Instead, we can hold on to failures just long enough to learn something from them or at least long enough to try again with the new perspective that the failure gave us.
“Sometimes failure is the beginning of success.”
This quote comes from a novel by Astrid Scholte. It makes us imagine ourselves accomplishing a particular goal with our first step or attempt being falling flat on our face. It reminds us that sometimes there’ll be failures on our road to whatever destination we’re trying to reach. And sometimes that failure happens at the very beginning. The key is to not take that initial failure as final. It may just be the perfect beginning.
“Everybody, at some point in their life, has fallen down and not felt like getting back up, but you have to, no matter how difficult it is.”
Sometimes you feel like you have no energy or motivation left in you after a major letdown. This quote, by Charlie Hunnam, is a reminder that everyone has had moments when getting back up feels almost impossible. But no matter how impossible it feels, you have but two choices: to get up again or stay down. So, take the time you need after you fall to reboot. Then, by all means, get back on your feet. It’s not going to be easy, but it gets easier with practice, time, and support.
Living Life Poetically: Dream Catchers
“Dream Catchers” is a poem inspired by a conversation I had with someone close to me. They had good intentions. But my goodness, talking to them was such a buzzkill. I felt like I had to defend every decision I was making toward my personal goals and objectives, and every explanation I gave didn’t seem good enough. It took me a few days to re-motivate and reenergize myself–to remove the seeds of doubt they had planted in my mind and spirit. I had to remind myself of my why, and trust that I was making the right decisions for myself that they may not understand. In the end, I learned…
“The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.”
In a marathon, the runners typically stop running at the finish line. We don’t see anyone of them deciding to run an extra mile because the finish line is simply where the race ends. This saying about following the crowd, likely by Francis Phillip Wernig (aka Alan Ashley-Pitt), is similar to the concept of ending a race at the finish line along with the rest of the runners (i.e. the crowd). The saying reminds us that until we step outside of our comfort zone and pave our own path, our path would only go so far.
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
It’s hard to imagine that every adversity, failure, and heartache can result in something beneficial to the same or greater degree. However, they each have that potential. This quote, by Napoleon Hill, reminds us that every negative carries a seed. This seed can grow into something positive depending whether we choose to plant and nurture it. So every time we fall to rock bottom can be the perfect time to plant seeds while we’re there. They’ll eventually form roots by which we’ll grow.
“You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.”
If you’ve ever thought ‘why me?’ when something bad happens to you or when you realize your situation isn’t quite what you hope, there could be a simple answer to that question. The simple answer could just be because that’s the life you’ve been given. When we’re born, we have no choice over what life we would be given. We have no control over the cards we’ll be dealt. We may not feel like we can change, let alone handle, our life. However, this anonymous quote (possibly by Ain Eineziz) reminds us that whatever life we’re uniquely given is also one we’re strong enough to live. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be…
“The distance between your dreams and reality is called action.”
Whatever your current reality is, it can sometimes feel far away from your dreams. Adding to this is the fact that it’s hard not to see all the roadblocks you’ll face along the way. Therefore, the perceived distance between your dream and reality can feel both long and strenuous. This anonymous quote reminds us that the long and strenuous journey to our dreams is mostly perceived. Furthermore, this perception can change with action. When we begin to act on our dreams the distance between it and reality suddenly feels shorter. Yes, it gets shorter because action is the very thing that gets us closer to our dreams. But perhaps more…
“If you can’t stop thinking about it, don’t stop working for it.”
Sometimes the things that often occupy our thoughts are our unfulfilled goals and ambitions. Moreover, they have a way of nagging at us no matter how much time has passed or how many failures we’ve experienced in their pursuit. Fortunately, there’s a great way to silence these thoughts. Simply put, it’s by accomplishing whatever it is we hope to accomplish. Nothing more. Nothing less. This quote, by Michael Jordan, reminds us to think of those nagging thoughts as our spirit telling us to keep going.
