Why are quotes so great?
In my opinion quotes are great because they are quick pieces of information that can truly guide you in tough moments of life. Quotes are a piece of timeless wisdom that can be applied when needed at moments where the decisions are paramount to life changes.
One of the most life changing moments for me as an example was when I decided to leave my “secure” city job of being a firefighter to pursue entrepreneurship and run my own executive coaching company. I had realized that one of the biggest reasons I wasn’t achieving the success I wanted was because I was only giving 50% to my coaching company. That at the time I wasn’t working as hard as I should if I wanted greater success. The reason was I didn’t need to coach to survive I had another stream of income and earned a salary it was EASY money. As I dreamed of the amount of success, I had wanted there was a quote that was burning with great intensity in my mind.
It was the story of Hernán Cortés which was echoed to me in the form of a quote by Tony Robbins in a seminar I attended of his. He said “If you want to take the island you have to burn the boats” this translated to, when people are put in live or die situations they tend to live. It changes you and evolves you into the person you need to become to survive, it gives you the urgency and the will you need to thrive. With this quote in my mind, I looked at my career as the boats and my dream of being a coach as the island. With that thought burning inside me, I handed in my letter of resignation and never looked back, launching me to higher levels of success and fostering a will to succeed that meant my survival or failure.
To me once I made that decision failure was no longer an option, and I would be a very successful coach. Shortly after that decision was made, in the next few months, I was able to 5x my income. I spent all my time focused on growing my clientele, my company, and my network. The reward was the feeling of achievement, that exactly what I set out to do happened. Did I mention this was during the COVID-19 pandemic? While businesses were shutting their doors for the last time, I was just starting and thriving.
You see quotes can help you drive yourself deeper into your purpose. Quotes are the echoes of great people who say something so powerful and profound that it shatters the continuum of space and time, it can last for decades, even centuries. A quote is a specific set of words strung together so perfectly from someone so dedicated to the statement that the energy, emotion and feeling they bring with them is what makes them timeless. You have the ability to pull on this profound power at any time you like, you have the ability to hold these phrases in your mind, heart, and soul. A quote can be your guiding light in the darkest of days, don’t discount the strength of a powerful word, from a pragmatic person. I hope this story gave a little insight as to the power of quotes.
Quotes have a way of reminding us of what’s important, and they have a way of showing us a path to success, which others have been so generous to share with us. I created what I call a quote board, it’s displayed promptly in my kitchen, and I read it every single morning. I start my day by reading my favorite quotes. I want to commit these quotes to my memory because they have such a powerful impact, not only on me, but also on others as well, when I repeat them. These quotes also represent to me how I want to live my life, which helps guide my decisions. I also ask my clients to do this as well, it’s a great way to keep positive thoughts and inspiring words fresh in your mind. If you keep these quotes on a white board like I do, you can also change them out after you memorize one, or if you just find something that’s more relevant to what you want to achieve/think.
Here are my current top 20 favorite quotes that have, and continue to inspire me today:
1. “Success isn’t achieved, it’s displayed.” – Billy Alsbrooks
2. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
3. “Be Tolerant of others & Strict with yourself.” – Marcus Aurelius
4. “There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge, both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.” – Napoleon hill
5. “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
6. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
7. “Some men see things as they are and say “Why”, I dream of things that never were, and say “Why not?” – George Bernard Shaw
8. "He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” – James Allen
9. “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer
10. “A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.” – Tony Robbins
11. “Life has no limitations; except the ones you make.” – Les Brown
12. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu
13. “Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” – Stephen Covey
14. “This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes.” – Mark Manson
15. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates
16. “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius
17 “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
18. “The past has no power over the present moment.” – Eckhart Tolle
19. “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” – Rumi
20. “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.” – Bruce Lee
As a bonus I’m throwing in one more quote that has guided my life almost indefinitely to help me with my success, I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. It’s very special to me:
21. “If you try something without giving it your 100%, it’s like not doing it all. Give everything you try the effort it deserves.” – My mom