Motivating Quotes That Actually Motivate
Scrolling through social media can often turn into a sea of motivating quotes typed in skinny fonts with the slightly faded background of some mountains and a lake. I used to see quotes and know for a fact they were not said by the person listed on the post… one of my pet hates right there.
For example, I’d see: ‘“If you judge a goldfish on its ability to climb a tree, it’ll live its whole life thinking its ignorant.” – Benjamin Franklin.
What? No. That was Einstein, for the love of physics it was bloody Einstein! Although, that’s not as bad as seeing just complete misquotes, or made-up ones that make absolutely no sense. “If you don’t drive your business, you’ll be driven out of business!”, yeah… obviously mate. Didn’t plan to register as an LTD and twiddle my thumbs for 12 years.
OK, rant over, I officially hate social media quoting of almost all descriptions. However, there are some genuinely useful, thought-provoking and motivating quotes from people who really have done something right. More importantly, though, these people have done a LOT of things wrong, too. Truthfully, it’s those mistakes that breed these excellently influenced quotes, not the success itself. That is something to keep in mind as we continue through this article.
Our Pick for the Top 10 Best Motivating Quotes:
Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
This quote is one of my particular favourites. I’ve heard it many times throughout my life and I’m glad to say it has genuinely been the fuel for decisions to act on desires over the course of the last few years. Just believe, that’s half the job. Think of something you’ve been wanting to do, and haven’t. Especially something you have a little self-doubt about. I can almost guarantee the main reason you haven’t done this is due to a lack of time. No one has enough time. When thought about, however, there’s someone else doing it. There’s someone else doing it as well as working more hours than you are.
So, you know it’s possible. You know there is enough time. Believe you can make it work, and go do it. Take up painting on the weekends, just buy the supplies, sit down and paint for one hour. Believe you can do that and you’ll start believing you can do anything. It’s actually astonishing when you realise how influential this can be to you, even day to day. This realisation, though, comes only from its utilisation. Try it.
Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”
– Salvador Dali
The myth of perfection is simply that, a myth. I can’t personally think of anything I would class as genuinely perfect, apart from certain people, which is subjective perfection anyway. As long as subjectivity exists, perfection is quite literally impossible. People that believe they are perfectionists spend their life frustrated with their work. A perfectionist will never be satisfied, ever. One of my best friends and someone I happen to work very closely with is a through and through perfectionist.
The man drives himself nuts.
He’s a big camera guy. I remember once receiving a call from him explaining that he must purchase a replacement camera due to the fact that his current setup had a single dead pixel. (Dead pixels are just black pixels that don’t create that part of the image). For context, there are around 24 million of these tiny little pixels. He had zoomed in so far on his computer that he could see this 1 in 24 million pixels being dead, and he moved to replace the whole setup.
Anyway, the point is, the extra effort to buy a new camera didn’t improve his image quality, or talent or skill, it ran him £250 difference. Had he spent that time not trying to be perfect, but trying to simply be better than his previous self, he’d have been much better off. Side note, he reads these articles… apologies, Kris ;).
Focus not on being your perfect self, focus on being better than your former self.
It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop.”
– Confucius
If I can’t do it quickly, I don’t want to do it at all. The fierce impatience in me is why I am a complete sucker for this quote. Reminding myself that I can just do it slowly and eventually it’ll be done, is a tool I do actually use in my day to day life. Sometimes I’ll find myself with a long list of to-dos and something like 48 hours to do it. I’m sure you can relate, it’s always 3 days worth of work that has to be done in 2.
As well as this, there’s usually something that I really do not want to do. It’s too hard, it’s boring or it’ll just take me a long time to complete. So, I sit down and I start. I go slow but I never stop. The focus is always there but there’s no real pressure to get it done fast because I have simply removed this pressure by entering the task with the knowledge that I shall take it slow. One step, then the next.
The key to this motivating quote is that, when utilised, you never do it slowly for the entire task. You might take it slow for the first 20%, then you realise that actually it’s even more boring to do it slowly and you’ll begin to want to just get it done. By this time, you’ve already started. It’s a great tool to counteract the anxiety of a tough task that’s been on your mind for a while. It’s always the starting that’s the issue, so use this as a way to ease in and this anxiety will simply melt away.
If you hear a voice within you that says you cannot paint, go and paint and that voice will be silenced.”
– Vincent Van Gogh
If you’ve seen ‘Creed’, you’ll remember the scene in the gym where Rocky and Adonis are looking into the mirror. Rocky explains to Adonis that the person he’s looking at is who he’s fighting, not his official match opponent. Rocky says that it’s never against the guy in the ring, it’s against the guy in the mirror.
This scene was so powerful because Rocky explains this concept perfectly. There’s an instinctive voice in all of us as human beings. Simply due to the fact that we have not done something before, there is no evidence filed in your brain to suggest that there’s a possibility you can do it. That lack of evidence leads the brain straight to the ‘I can’t’ attitude. We skip the ‘I haven’t, but I could’ process because this was not necessary when we were hitting each other with clubs.
Basically, the process goes:
‘I have not slain this size of animal for dinner before.’
‘Therefore, It is a risk as there is no evidence suggesting I can do it without being killed.’ ‘Therefore, I must not try.’
It worked a treat a gazillion years ago, but now we have to build that in-between thought process manually. Just because you have no evidence saying it’s possible, it’s not always life and death – there’s rarely genuine harm in trying – so whatever it is, give it a go!
Only those that risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– Thomas Stearns Elliot
This one comes back to early human brain processing, too. Back then, risks were almost always life or death, as aforementioned. This is why there are certain ‘in between’ thought processes that we have to execute ourselves, because the brain doesn’t do it automatically. Too far over the edge of a cliff, not worth the risk. Too far past the requirements of your task, potential greatness.
I have a mantra that I utilise in a lot of my everyday tasks. An extra 5 minutes could change the world. The night before writing this article I was working on a project. I’d been at it for a good few hours and was utterly exhausted and totally done with my laptop screen. However, I said to myself that phrase; an extra 5 minutes. I spent 5 minutes making some minor tweaks that really would have been missed, had I not have made them.
For this task, it didn’t matter so much. I have used this many many times, though, and on more than a few occasions I have made the best decisions of the entire project in those extra five minutes. Sometimes, those five minutes have turned into 2 hours as I discovered an entirely new possibility for something great.
So, risk going too far. Always spend the extra five minutes. It’s those people who spend those few little minutes that make a great big impact.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
Excellence in the little things means excellence in the big things. A shift in perspective is always refreshing and influential in your workflows and processes. The perspective shift suggested by this motivating quote is to think of greatness, excellence or expertise as things of consistency. The idea that these things are goals is plainly incorrect. If excellence is your goal, it means you’re everything but excellent in the pursuit of it. Putting it like that really shows how much of a juxtaposition that type of mindset breeds.
Instead, look at excellence as something that runs alongside the pursuit of your goals. If your goal is currently some form of greatness, change the goal to something tangible: achieving a managerial or leadership position. Once this goal has changed, excellence then becomes something you can be right now. Present excellence in every email you send, every note you take, every idea you express. This leads to a collection of acts of excellence that then serve the journey towards your goal.
It’s important for someone else to be able to recognise brilliance in every element of your work. The age old phrase; look after the pennies and the pounds… rings true here. Be excellent in the way you set up your workspace, in the way you answer every phone call, in the way you speak in a presentation. That is what leads to excellence overall.
He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t.”
– Pablo Picasso
This one is similar to the first of the motivating quotes; believing is half the journey. Picasso dives a little deeper into this concept, however. He suggests that not only is believing half the task, but disbelief is a fate-sealer. If you don’t believe you can do something, you’ll struggle hard to achieve it. If you actively disbelieve you can do it, there’s no point in even trying. It’ll be like pushing water uphill, but there’s no end to the hill, and the water is a double-decker bus.
You cannot cross the ocean without the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
– Christopher Columbus
This motivating quote is all about your comfort zone. The enemy of progress for so many, staying in your comfort zone is like turning down a buy one get one free deal at Tesco… why? Just because it’s more familiar?
Seems silly, right? Yeah, it is. And so is going no further than your comfort zone allows. Have the courage to lose sight of the shore and you might reach a much nicer shore on the other side. These risks aren’t life and death these days, you know.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
– Proverb
It’s never too late. Everyone has something they’d like to do, to achieve or to create. A lot of us ended up elsewhere, however. 10 years deep into a career that wasn’t necessarily exactly what you wanted to do can very easily discourage someone to try anything new – perhaps what they really wanted.
Yes, it would have been best to plant that tree 10,15,20 years ago. What’s done, however, is done. Shift your perspective and realise that you can’t go back and plant it then, so you have to just plant it now. Accept that it’ll be different than you thought, but anything is possible.
Nothing works better than just improving your product.”
– Joel Spolsky
I left this one until last because of its astonishing simplicity. Every business person is very focused on tips, tricks of the trade, knacks and fixes that can propel their business to virality.
Whilst this is the shape of the business world for a lot of companies, it’s easy to lose sight of what actually matters. Ultimately, you’re there to sell a product or provide a service. If it won’t sell, or it will sell but you’re after growth and expansion, your absolute first port of call should be simply improving the thing you sell. It’s the number one way to increase your chances of custom.
If you found any of these motivating quotes useful or inspirational at all, I sincerely hope they help you thrive every day.
