Words have power — and the ones in this post are guaranteed to challenge the way you think and perhaps even change the way you live. They have inspired me to choose life, persevere and live life to the full.
Don’t give up on yourself just yet, your most amazing life is still ahead of you. Your very best work, project, experiences are in front of you, not behind you. Whether you feel stuck or just need a good dose of inspiration from great minds, these should do the trick.
1. Don’t try harder, try differently. If you’re trying to do something and it’s not working, and you try again and it’s not working again, take a step back and try to figure out if there’s a different way to go about doing things. This is applicable to everything from packing a truck to solving people problems.
2. “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.” — Steve Jobs
3. The way you are today is most likely the way you will always be — change is hard. You can’t even change yourself 10 percent. But you can change 10 things about yourself 1 percent. Make tiny changes you can sustain.
4. The human mind is naturally creative, constantly looking to make associations and connections between things and ideas. It wants to explore, to discover new aspects of the world, and to invent. To express this creative force is our greatest desire, and the stifling of it the source of our misery.
5. When you take a new job, negotiate for more vacation time, not for more money. Then take all your vacation every single year. You can always get more money — you can never get more time.
6. If you want to make something people really care about, that they actually give a holy shit about, you have to care about it yourself.
7. Money talks — it says “goodbye”. Money will never love you, it can only buy comfort, not love or security or health or opportunity. Money is good to have but it’s not the end goal. Loving another person is the end goal. As the song says, “The greatest thing you will ever learn is to love and be loved in return.” Believe it.
8. Listen more than you talk. Whatever the context, people will think you’re smarter” — Esther Dyson
9. Stop looking for shortcuts. No, really, stop. Read the whole book, not the Wikipedia summary. Think about it. Life is not a collection of sound bites.
10. Meaning” is a good thing. Life is pretty useless without it. And if you can find it in your work, even better, because that raises your odds of being successful considerably.
11. You may not be where you want to be but if you are at least trying you are better than everyone else who isn’t trying moving or making progress. Somewhere inside you is something special. You just need the courage to let it out.
12. Think progress not perfection. In education when someone improves and moves closer to their goal but still struggles this is a good mantra to keep in mind. In education, as well as in life, instant improvement is rare.
In day to day life we seek to get better, and even if we still **** up now and then, thinking “progress, not perfection” will keep you motivated when you come up against a challenge.
13. Idleness will almost always lead to regret later. The secret to being happy and content, in general, is to do something of value to yourself and/or others regularly.
14. Show up everyday and work on your most important life work. Whether the outcome is magnificent or eternal, whether it changes people’s lives, changes the world, changes you or groundbreaking, it matters that you show up.
15. “When you waste a moment, you have killed it in a sense, squandering an irreplaceable opportunity. But when you use the moment properly, filling it with purpose and productivity, it lives on forever.” — Menachem Mendel Schneerson
16. “Don’t think about why you question, simply don’t stop questioning. Don’t worry about what you can’t answer, and don’t try to explain what you can’t know. Curiosity is its own reason. Aren’t you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And this is the miracle of the human mind — to use its constructions, concepts, and formulas as tools to explain what man sees, feels and touches. Try to comprehend a little more each day. Have holy curiosity.” — Albert Einstein
17. When the pain of where you are is greater than the fear of where you are going, you will change.
18. “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman
19. “The wisdom of the years tells me that growing old is a frame of mind, and the way to stay young is to listen to your dreams and to keep one’s vision more ahead than behind” — Andy Russel
20. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power of habit becomes easier to grasp, and the only option left is to get to work.” — Charles Duhigg
21. Giving up is always easier than holding on. Funny how people have the courage to miss out the potential and start all over again. Usually repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Don’t give up just yet.
22. Every life is special. You matter. Your dreams matter. It’s up to you to take action in the direction of your dreams, and when you do, you’ll be met halfway — I promise. Pursue your ultimate potential, anything less is not worthy of your time
23. “We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.” — Leo Tolstoy
24. “All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they’ll tell you will be wrong.” — Michael Crichto
25. It may be safer and easier to say nothing but committing to having a point of view improves your thinking, your attitude and your trajectory. Speak up. Not just tomorrow, but every day.
26. Make no mistake. The world is waiting for you. Waiting for you to stop asking for permission. To stop questioning yourself. To stop listening to everyone else. Waiting for you to start something.
Waiting to hear what you have to say. Waiting to use your product. Waiting to share your ideas and creativity. You are the only one who can push yourself that further to just start.
27. Being noticed is not the same as being remarkable. Don’t get noticed for the wrong reasons. Be remarkable for your smartest and best work. You will be amazed at what you can do if you put your mind to it. Not everyone appreciates your efforts to be remarkable. In fact, most people don’t. But go for it anyway.
28. Start. Move, make, create, ship, do. Just start. That’s what entrepreneurs do. They start. They start something. Sometimes it is something big. Sometimes it is a big failure. Either way, they got sh** done.
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