Words of Wisdom
I took this picture of Fort Jefferson at Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida in March 2021
Quotes I've collected through the years:
If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.
"Three things you control every day are your ATTITUDE, your EFFORT and your ACTIONS. It doesn’t matter what others are doing or who you think is being unfair. Every day you can focus on being positive, working hard and making others around you better." Jon Gordon
Don't wait for things to get easier, simpler, better. Life will always be complicated. Learn to be happy right now. Otherwise, you'll run out of time.
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
--Albert Einstein
“There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
—Christopher Morley
“The people I see living the best lives are central nodes in networks rather than at the top of a hierarchical pyramid.”
—Tom Morgan
“Courage is knowing it might hurt, and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that's why life is hard.”
—Jeremy Goldberg
"Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley."
--Theodore Roethke
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important. – Ambrose Redmoon
The art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of our great men. - Capt. J.A. Hatfield
“If you wait until everything is perfect to act, you will never act.”
A goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot. - Joe Vitale
“We will have pain in life – either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”
An email from Steve Jobs, sent to himself, remarking on how much we all need each other:
"I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow I did not breed or perfect the seeds.
I do not make any of my own clothing.
I speak a language I did not invent or refine.
I did not discover the mathematics I use.
I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate.
I am moved by music I did not create myself.
When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive.
I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with.
I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being."
“A goal not written is only a wish.”
Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen on shaping the world:
"The world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want, and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think."
Madeleine L'Engle, the award-winning writer and poet who produced more than 60 books during her career, on inspiration:
"Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it."
"Motivation often comes after starting, not before. Action produces momentum."
”Complaining is the weak person’s weapon.”
Change your thoughts and you change your world - Norman Vincent Peale
Success is a peace of mind that is the direct result of the self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
John Wooden
We overestimate what we can do in the short term and underestimate what we can do in the long term
A great leader’s legacy is not in what they do but what the people they serve do. - George Couros
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about." Charles Kingsley
Writer, artist, and podcast host Debbie Millman on busyness:
"Busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is just shorthand for the thing being "not important enough" or "not a priority." Busy is not a badge. You don’t find the time to make things, you make the time to do things."
“The observant person finds many teachers."
“Criticize to uplift, not to destroy."
Brene Brown on when to value feedback:
“If you’re not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback. If you have constructive feedback you want to give me, I want it... But if you’re in the cheap seats, not putting yourself on the line, and just talking about how I can do it better, I’m in no way interested in your feedback.”
People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”
F.M. Alexander
Comparison is the thief of joy. (Unless you’re the best!)
-Teddy Roosevelt
Don’t be afraid to find out how good you can be.
Think of who you want to be in 10 years and let that person inform what you’re doing right now.
-Bob Goff
Hard choices = Easy life
Easy choices = Hard life
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
If you want to maximize your odds of success, then you need to operate in an environment that accelerates your results rather than hinders them.
Meanwhile, people who struggle to succeed could be fighting an uphill battle against their environment. What often looks like a lack of willpower is actually the result of a poor environment.
Lawyer and activist Vernon Jordan on the collaborative nature of life:
"You are where you are today because you stand on somebody’s shoulders. And wherever you are heading, you cannot get there by yourself. If you stand on the shoulders of others, you have a reciprocal responsibility to live your life so that others may stand on your shoulders. It’s the quid pro quo of life. We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give."
Source: 2002 speech at Howard University
"We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life.” –Theodore Roosevelt
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” —Epictetus
There is the story of the alcoholic father with two sons. One follows in his father’s footsteps and ends up struggling through life as a drunk, and the other becomes a successful, sober businessman. Each are asked: “Why are you the way you are?” The answer for both is the same: “Well, it’s because my father was an alcoholic.” The same event, the same childhood, two different outcomes.
“Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everyone is better than you at something. This is a fact of life. Someone is better than you at making eye contact. Someone is better than you at quantum physics. Someone is better informed than you on geopolitics. Someone is better than you are at speaking kindly to someone they dislike. There are better gift-givers, name-rememberers, weight-lifters, temper-controllers, confidence-carriers, and friendship-makers. There is no one person who is the best at all these things, who doesn’t have room to improve in one or more of them. So if you can find the humility to accept this about yourself, what you will realize is that the world is one giant classroom. Go about your day with an openness and a joy about this fact. Look at every interaction as an opportunity to learn from and of the people you meet. You will be amazed at how quickly you grow, how much better you get.
“Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.” —Benjamin Franklin
Marcus Aurelius would say something similar: “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” Why? For starters because the only person you control is yourself. It’s a complete waste of time to go around projecting strict standards on other people—ones they never agreed to follow in the first place—and then being aghast or feel wronged when they fall short. The other reason is you have no idea what other people are going or have been through. That person who seemed to rudely decline the invitation you so kindly offered? What if they were working hard to recommit themselves to their family and as much as they’d like to have coffee with you, are doing their best to spend more time with their loved ones? The point is: You have no idea. So give people the benefit of the doubt. Look for good in them, assume good in them, and let that good inspire your own actions.
Never stop being positive because of negative people.
Never stop being excellent because of average people.
Never stop being a believer because of doubters.
You are responsible for your own morale.
Always tell the truth (you’ll have much less to remember)
Your level of preparation will always be revealed.
The Grass is Greener where you water it. - Neil Barrington
Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
Promote what you love; don’t bash what you hate.
Leadership isn’t about being in charge. It’s about taking care of the people in your charge.
“Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions."
“No matter how educated, talented, rich, or cool you believe you are, how you treat people ultimately tells all. Integrity is everything.”
A task left undone remains undone in two places - at the actual location of the task and inside your head. Incomplete tasks in your head consume the energy of your attention as they gnaw at your conscience. - Brahma Kumaris
There is always more to do than you can do, and you can only do one thing at a time. The key is to feel as good about what you’re not doing as about what you are doing at that moment. -- David Allen
Complete the projects you begin, fulfill the commitments you have made, live up to your promises - then both your subconscious and conscious selves can have success, which leads to a feeling of fulfillment, worthiness, and oneness. - John Roger
You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.. - Alvin Toffler
Everything in life worth achieving requires practice. In fact, life itself is nothing more than one long practice session, an endless effort of refining our motions. When the proper mechanics of practicing are understood, the task of learning something new becomes a stress-free experience of joy and calmness, a process which settles all areas in your life and promotes proper perspective on all of life’s difficulties. --Thomas Sterner
Many people say to focus on growing your business and career. But I say to focus on loving, serving and caring and your business and career will grow exponentially. Focus on loving, serving and caring one person at a time and people will be drawn to you and your business, service, school, class, project, hospital, etc.
Do this day in and day out, one person at a time and the impact you have and the legacy you leave will be amazing. You won’t just experience success for yourself. You will be a true success by helping others be successful.
-Jon Gordon
If you make a mistake, make it once.
He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much. - Elbert Hubbard
Don't give up what you want most for what you want now.
“No individual has any right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it.”
--George Washington Carver; inventor
"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; Perfection is GOD's business " ----- Michael J. Fox
“Time is neither our friend nor our enemy; it is something that gets measured out to us, to see what we will make of it.” --Richard Gaylord Briley
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone, and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
-Nelson Mandela
No other career has the ability to influence or make a lasting difference in so many lives. When an executive works overtime, they get a bonus. When a teacher works overtime, they shape a life.
A teacher accepts what you are and helps discover what you can be.
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
Arthur Ashe
Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
Arthur Ashe
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill
Where there is clarity of vision, there is immediate acceleration toward the known goal.
“Never forget what someone has done for you. Never remember what you have done for others.”
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
Our rewards in life will depend on the quality of the contributions we make.
If you want to be the best, you can’t be like the rest.
If it doesn’t matter on the day you die, it doesn’t matter.
Just because something is difficult, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. It means you should just try harder.
There comes into the life of every man a task for which he and he alone is uniquely suited. What a shame if that moment finds him either unwilling or unprepared for that which would become his finest hour. – Winston Churchill
The heart of the performance trumps the perfection of the performance.
Today do the things that others won’t so that tomorrow you can do the things that others can’t.
Talent is cheap. Dedication is costly.
You are only as strong as you allow yourself to be; never get discouraged, never give up because consistency & dedication is the key to success.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. – Colin Powell
We are not born winners or losers, but we are all born choosers. - Lee White
“It is not necessary for a man to be actively bad in order to make a failure in life; simple inaction will accomplish it. Nature has everywhere written her protest against idleness; everything which ceases to struggle, which remains inactive, rapidly deteriorates. It is the struggle toward an ideal, the constant effort to get higher and further, which develops manhood and character.” –James Terry White
First we make our habits, then our habits make us. - Charles Noble
“Courage is the power to face a disagreeable present in the interest of desirable permanent ends.” --William De Witt Hyde
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
When a toxic person can no longer control you, they will try to control how others see you. The misinformation will seem unfair but stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth, just like you did. --Jill Blakeway
Comfort or Great?
Any excuse will do.
People are attracted to strength.
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. - John C. Maxwell
If we search for the fundamentals which actually motivate us we will find that they come under four headings: love, money, adventure, and religion. It is to some of them that we always owe that big urge which pushes us onward. Men who crush these impulses and settle down to everyday routine are bound to sink into mediocrity. No man is a complete unit of himself; he needs the contact, the stimulus, and the driving power which is generated by his contact with other men, their ideas, and constantly changing scenes.
—Edward S. Jordan
"Try to be surprised by something every day. It could be something you see, hear, or read about. Stop to look at the unusual car parked at the curb, taste the new item on the cafeteria menu, actually listen to your colleague at the office. How is this different from other similar cars, dishes or conversations? What is its essence? Don't assume that you already know what these things are all about, or that even if you knew them, they wouldn't matter anyway. Experience this one thing for what it is, not what you think it is. Be open to what the world is telling you. Life is nothing more than a stream of experiences — the more widely and deeply you swim in it, the richer your life will be."
--Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Don't measure your life by how many breaths you take, measure it by the moments that take your breath away.
Don’t quit when you’re tired. Quit when you’re done.