We’ve all been there. Whether you’re struggling to make it through a trek on the treadmill, finish that last curl-up or hit that tough yoga pose, you feel like giving in and giving up. Guess what? Don’t! For the next time you find yourself needing a little motivation, here are some quotes that may give you that push to make it through.
“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” – John Wooden
“If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.” – Anonymous
“The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” – Lao Tzu
“When people are determined, they can overcome anything” – Nelson Mandela
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” – Maya Angelou
“If you want to soar in life, you must first learn to F.L.Y (first love yourself)”- Mark Sterling
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t do.” – Nikki Rogers
Jose Barrera from The Endorphin Effect provided us with some of these quotes, all of which come from Dan Millman’s “Peaceful Warrior.”
“The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination.”
“A warrior does not give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he does”
“Everything you’ll ever need to know is within you; the secrets of the universe are imprinted on the cells of your body.”
“Everyone tells you what’s good for you. they don’t want you to find your own answers. they want you to believe theirs.”
“Your fears are not walls, but hurdles. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquering of it.”
“The first step to change,… is accepting your reality right now. Honoring your process. Compassionate self-awareness leads to change; harsh self-criticism only holds the pattern in place, creating a stubborn and defensive Basic Self. Be gentle with yourself as you would with a child. Be gentle but firm. Give yourself the space to grow. But remember that the timing is in god’s hands, not yours.”
“The time is now, the place is here. Stay in the present. You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you plan or hope for.”
“Start where you are at, use what you have, do what you can” – Arthur Ashe
“What doesn’t help you hinders you, and that does not deserve your energy, you deserve your energy” – Humberto Medina
“A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.” – Vince Lombardi
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John R. Wooden
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote
“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.” – Washington Irving
“Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.” – Theodore N. Vail
“You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.” – Booker T. Washington
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.” – Dale Carnegie
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.” – Anatole France
“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” – Wayne Dyer
“Success is … knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.” – John C. Maxwell
“A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” – George Lorimer
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chan
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Ryun
“You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” – George Bernard Shaw
“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” – Denis Waitley
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something–your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Steve Jobs
“If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it–teach yourself to be impatient.” – Gurbaksh Chahal
“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
“The Man Who Has Confidence In Himself Gains The Confidence Of Others.” – Hasidic Proverb
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life–think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.” – Proverb
“Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.” – Chris Grosser
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Anonymous
“If you’re going through hell keep going.” – Winston Churchill
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” – Oscar Wilde
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” – Anonymous
“When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you.” – Lolly Daskal
“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” – Bruce Feirstein
“I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey
“No masterpiece was ever created by a lazy artist.” – Anonymous
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein
“Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.” – Anonymous
“Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – Lolly Daskal
“Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.” – Anonymous
“Your problem isn’t the problem. Your reaction is the problem.” – Anonymous
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs
“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” – Ray Goforth
“Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life.” – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” – Robert Collier
“All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” – Michael John Bobak
“You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing.” – Philippos
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing–that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
“We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret.” – Earl Nightingale
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. ” – Les Brown
“I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.” – Martha Stewart
“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” – Colin R. Davis
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou
“There is no traffic jam along the extra mile.” – Roger Staubach
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference.” – Robert Frost
“In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.” – Jane Smiley
“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” – Diane Ackerman
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – Will Rogers
“Entrepreneurs are great at dealing with uncertainty and also very good at minimizing risk. That’s the classic great entrepreneur.” – Mohnish Pabrai
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein
“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino
“Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller
“Knowing is not enough we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“Imagine your life is perfect in every respect; what would it look like?” – Brian Tracy
“What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110% all the time.” – Don Zimmer
“We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action.” – Dr. Henry Link
“The future belongs to the competent. Get good, get better, be the best!” – Brian Tracy
“A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them.” – Henry Kravis
“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” – Tony Robbins
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” – Audre Lorde