“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…
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
This quote, by William Shakespeare, is from the play, The Merry Wives of Windsor. It’s the antithesis of procrastination because it encourages us to be much earlier than even a minute too late. When we’re too late at something, even if it’s just by a minute, there may be no turning back–depending on what that thing is. So next time you’re tempted to procrastinate, remember that there can be a sort of permanence to being too late.
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“Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.”
“Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.”
How Less Can Mean More
“Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.”
Waiting for the perfect time is something we tend to do both consciously and subconsciously. But more often, the “perfect time” never comes. Because more often, there’s no such thing. It’s just something we made up in our head. This quote, by Napoleon Hill, reminds us to not wait but trust the process. To start wherever we are.
“Life is fragile. We’re not guaranteed a tomorrow, so give it everything you’ve got.”
It’s easy to take each day for granted and forget life is fragile. This quote, by Tim Cook, reminds us to do our best each day–to give it everything we got. Yes, some days we just don’t have the energy to give it everything we got on everything we do. But we can still live life to the fullest. Rest to the fullest. Practice self-care, mental health, and physical health to the fullest. Work hard to the fullest. Play to the fullest. Enjoy each moment to the fullest.
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“Watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
“No one is you and that is your power.”
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me.
“One day or day one. You decide.”
Each day, you can either say “one day” or you can say today is “day one”–the start of a new adventure. This anonymous quote reminds us that the choice is ours to make today a day we begin what we’ve been putting off or to make it a day we continue to push it off further. Each day, we have the power to choose when one day becomes now.
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“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along’.”
The Struggle is Real–Why We Need Empathy and Perspective
“Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality.”
It’s natural to daydream as we envision the future. Of course, everything is perfect. We’re more in shape, we’ve accomplished all our goals, we’re more grounded and at peace, we’re content, all our relationships are thriving–the list goes on. But why cant that future be now? That’s what this quote by, Malala Yousafzai, is about. Why not “make our future now,” and “make our dreams tomorrow’s reality?” Let’s try our best to live our future today.
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”
This quote is by the legendary painter, Pablo Picasso. It serves as a great reflection on the things we choose to put off, or procrastinate. Yes, there are things we can’t possibly get done in one day. Even if we work on them all day, we may need more time; and completion may have to be “put off” until tomorrow. However, we can still use the day to make progress. So imagine the thing(s) you constantly put off never getting done–Period. Next, consider how that makes you feel. Are you willing to live with that possibility? If not, that means the thing (or those things) you put off deserve more…
“The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.”
Sometimes motivation is hard to come by. The drive and energy that inspires us to action are completely gone. So, we’re left with fatigue, a dull spirit, and a whole lot of procrastination. We’re more prone to think of our goals as something we’ll get to in the future, instead of something we can work on now. An unmotivated feeling can last a few minutes to a few hours, days, weeks, and even much longer. This quote, by Norman Vincent Peale, reveals an effective technique to being more motivated and energized no matter what. The trick is to orient your goals as something bigger than yourself. Reflect on how accomplishing…
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
You have a dream or life goal that’s constantly being pushed off for later. Perhaps it’s to go somewhere, see something, or do something. But you just don’t feel ready to take the plunge. This quote, by Les Brown, reminds us that what typically prevents us from chasing our dreams is fear. Basically, we’re not living our dreams because we’re living in fear of all the things that could potentially go wrong if we do go for it. And so, in the words of Langston Hughes, it’s a dream deferred. Fear prevents it from ever coming to pass. Therefore, instead of living our fears, which is a more natural thing…
The Problem of Perfectionism and “Product” Goals
Recently, I was talking to a friend about goals. We all have them. And if you don’t, get yourself some. But I digress…As we were sharing our goals, she asked me a simple question about one of mine. She asked me when the book I’m working on will be published. I had no response. Even worse, I hadn’t given enough thought or planning on it to know the answer. The truth is, I feel like it’ll never be done. The finish line seems so far in the distance that I sometimes forget it’s there. I actually stop moving toward it. The truth is, I often go months at a time…
