“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” Wayne Dyer
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar
“I was thinking one day and I realized that if I just had somebody behind me all the way to motivate me I could make a big difference. Nobody came along like that so I just became that person for myself.” Unknown
Some days you wake up motivated and ready to go. And some days things feel heavy as you arise and it is hard to get going and find that inner drive.
At least in my experience.
So over the past 10+ years I have found some simple and smart strategies that work for me to get back into the right groove and to get things done.
Here are 32 of my favorite tips and habits for doing just that.
Bonus: Download a free step-by-step checklist that will show you how to improve your motivation and keep it stable (it’s easy to save as a PDF or print out for whenever you need it during your day or week).
It will motivate you, recharge you and help you reclaim your inner strength when you need it.
Here’s 151 of the most though-provoking, encouraging and helpful quotes for the times when life is hard and you need to stay strong.
Bonus:Download a free step-by-step checklist that will show you how to stay positive. It’s easy to save as a PDF or print out for whenever you need it during your day or week.
Inspiring Quotes to Help You Stay Strong
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie
“Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.” – Susan Gale
“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert H. Schuller
“When written in Chinese the word “crisis” is composed of two characters – one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” – John F. Kennedy
“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.” – Sarah Dessen
“He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.” – Louisa May Alcott
“I like criticism. It makes you strong.” – LeBron James
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
“We acquire the strength we have overcome.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.” – Napoléon Bonaparte
“It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more ‘manhood’ to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.” – Alex Karras
“You can’t really be strong until you can see a funny side to things.” – Ken Kesey
“When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” – Unknown
“The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.” – R. G. Ingersoll
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” – J.K. Rowling
“Concentration is the secret of strength.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Life is very interesting. In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.” – Drew Barrymore
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” – Christopher Reeve
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott
“Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there.’ – Eckhart Tolle
“Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.” – Albert Schweitzer
“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” – Robert Schuller
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
“Most great people have attained their greatest success one step beyond their greatest failure.” – Napoleon Hill
“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” – Wayne Dyer
“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” – John Wooden
“Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.” – Lou Holtz
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher
“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.” – John Newton
“The more one judges, the less one loves.” – Honore de Balzac
“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength” – Oprah
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Our strength grows out of our weaknesses” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands – and then eat just one of those pieces.” – Judith Viorst
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.” – Leo Buscaglia
Quotes to Help You When Life is Hard (or You’re Having a Rough Day)
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Make up your mind that no matter what comes your way, no matter how difficult, no matter how unfair, you will do more than simply survive. You will thrive in spite of it.” – Joel Osteen
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” – Hermann Hesse
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” – Lao Tzu
“Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope” – Hal Lindsey
“Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement – and we will make the goal.” – Jerome Fleishman
“Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.” – Muhammad Ali
”Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” – Thomas Edison
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford
“It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.” – John Steinbeck
“In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” – Lee Iacocca
“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” – Arthur Golden
“It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.” – Colin Powell
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” – J.K. Rowling
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” – Maya Angelou
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” – Marie Curie
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.” – Vernon Howard
“Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.” – Wayne Dyer
“A man may fail many times but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” – John Burroughs
“Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.” – William Ellery Channing
“People living deeply have no fear of death.” – Anais Nin
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see in truth that you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” – Kahlil Gibran
“At any given moment you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end.” – Christine Mason Miller
“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.” – Duke Ellington
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
“If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” – Mary Engelbreit
”Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.” – Brian Tracy
“When I hear somebody say ‘Life is hard’, I am always tempted to ask ‘Compared to what?'” – Sydney J. Harris
“The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.” – Chinese Proverb
“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.” – Helen Keller
“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
“It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou
“If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” – Bruce Lee
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” – Soren Kierkegaard
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“I don’t really want to become normal, average, standard. I want merely to gain in strength, in the courage to live out my life more fully, enjoy more, experience more. I want to develop even more original and more unconventional traits.” – Anaïs Nin
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Chinese Proverb
“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” – Arthur Golden
“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” – Catherine Ponder
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.” – Frank Herbert
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.” – Barbara Bloom
“When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint on the clouds of doubt,
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit.” – Edgar A. Guest
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ’Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” – Thomas Paine
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” – Walt Disney
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of a greater or equal benefit.” – Napoleon Hill
“Though I might travel afar, I will meet only what I carry with me, for every man is a mirror. We see only ourselves reflected in those around us.
Their attitudes and actions are only a reflection of our own.
The whole world and its condition has its counter parts within us all.
Turn the gaze inward. Correct yourself and your world will change.” – Kristen Zambucka
Insightful Stay Strong Quotes to Renew Your Self-Belief
In this section I want to share timeless and deep wisdom that’ll make you think. Make you see things from a new perspective.
And help you to rebuild your belief in yourself and what you can accomplish.
“The harder the struggle, the more glorious the triumph. Self-realization demands very great struggle.” – Swami Sivananda
“Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you have overcome. ” – N. R. Walker
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine
“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” – Jodi Picoult
“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller
“You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.” – Michelle Obama
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge
“The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.” – Leonardo da Vinci
“Don’t give up. There are too many nay-sayers out there who will try to discourage you. Don’t listen to them. The only one who can make you give up is yourself.” – Sidney Sheldon
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what the storm is all about.” – Haruki Murakami
“No matter how much it hurts now, someday you will look back and realize your struggles changed your life for the better.” – Unknown
“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.” – Malcolm X
“It is only in our darkest hours that we may discover the true strength of the brilliant light within ourselves that can never, ever, be dimmed.” – Doe Zantamata
“It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.” – Miles Davis
“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.” – Joseph Campbell
“Resilience is not what happens to you. It’s how you react to, respond to, and recover from what happens to you.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” – Michael Jordan
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.” – Vivian Komori
“Ask for help. Not because you are weak. But because you want to remain strong.” – Les Brown
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
Short but Powerful Quotes to Help You Stay Strong
Finally, a couple of handfuls of quick and punchy ones.
Those thoughts from the past few hundreds of years that get right to the point and many times have helped me to snap out of a sad funk or brought me back into taking action mode again.
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“This too shall pass.” – Persian adage
“Stay strong, stay positive, and never give up.” – Roy T. Bennett
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” – Bruce Lee
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Khalil Gibran
“Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.” – Zig Ziglar
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – Will Rogers
“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”’ – Nelson Mandela
“It’s not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain.” – Vivian Greene
“Don’t let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” – Dalai Lama
“Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.” – Joseph Conrad
“Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.” – Dan Reeves
“The darkest hour has only sixty minutes.” – Morris Mandel
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” – Bob Marley
“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” – Harry Golden
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman
“Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” – Helen Keller
“Sometimes bad things have to happen before good things can.” – Becca Fitzpatrick
“The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.” – Japanese Proverb
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” – Steve Maraboli
“Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll
“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon
“You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.” – Brian Tracy
Here’s the next step…
Now, you may think to yourself:
“This is really helpful information. But what’s the easiest way to put this into practice, actually stick with it and stay positive even on tough days?”.
Well, I’ve got something special for you.
A free step-by-step checklist with 14 practical steps that will help you to stay positive. Save it or print it out so you have it for your daily life and for the next time when you get stuck in negative thinking.
Click the download image below to download the free checklist:
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Beecher Stowe
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” William Shakespeare
Life is not always great.
At times it may not even feel OK.
When you’ve had several setbacks in a row, bad luck or things aren’t going your way – even though you do your best – then it may feel like: my life simply and honestly sucks.
It’s a part of a life well lived but how you look at and handle these dark or negative situations can have a huge impact on your life, success and happiness.
In this week’s article I’d like to share the best advice and most inspirational quotes on failure from the past from the people who walked this earth before us (well, quite a few of them are still here and walking among us).
Failure Quotes to Motivate You and Help You Bounce Back
“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” – C. S. Lewis
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
“No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.“ – Napoleon Hill
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
“The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.” – Buddha
“An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.” – Charles F. Kettering
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
“When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw
“A man may fail many times but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” – John Burroughs
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” – J.K. Rowling
“Anyone who attempts is not a failure.” – Sarah Dessen
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has tried.” – Stephen McCranie
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote
“Failure is success in progress.” – Albert Einstein
“No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley
“If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” – James Cameron
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou
“You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you.” – Maxwell Maltz
“Success is not a good teacher, failure makes you humble.” – Shah Rukh Khan
“To be wrong is nothing unless you continue to remember it.” – Confucius
“Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.” – Virgil Thomson
“When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.” – Eloise Ristad
“Part of being a man is learning to take responsibility for your successes and for your failures. You can’t go blaming others or being jealous. Seeing somebody else’s success as your failure is a cancerous way to live.” – Kevin Bacon
“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” – Douglas Adams
“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” – John Wooden
“I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustrations were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.” – Anthony Robbins
“Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.” – George Eliot
“A man may fall many times, but he won’t be a failure until he says that someone pushed him.” – Elmer G. Letterman
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” – Bill Gates
“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” – Randy Pausch
“You build on failure. You use it as a steppingstone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” – Johnny Cash
“Failure is an attitude, not an outcome.” – Harvey MacKay
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem
“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy
“I don’t believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.” – Oprah Winfrey
“There is no such thing as failure, only results.” – Tony Robbins
“Children have a lesson adults should learn, to not be ashamed of failing, but to get up and try again. Most of us adults are so afraid, so cautious, so ‘safe,’ and therefore so shrinking and rigid and afraid that it is why so many humans fail. Most middle-aged adults have resigned themselves to failure.” – Malcolm X
“What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning – and some of them many times over – what do you find? That you can swim? Well – life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!” – Alfred Adler
“Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
“Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.” – Napoleon Hill
“You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” – John C. Maxwell
“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” – Tom Krause
“Success isn’t permanent and failure isn’t fatal.” – Mike Ditka
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“Life is full of screwups. You’re supposed to fail sometimes. It’s a required part of the human existance.” – Sarah Dessen
“I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.” – Herbert Bayard Swope
“The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
“Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything.” – Marilyn Monroe
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford
“Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.” – Zig Ziglar
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“It’s only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you’re not expressing the utmost of your human experience.” – Lupita Nyong’o
“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.” – Barack Obama
“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H.G. Wells
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of a greater or equal benefit.” – Napoleon Hill
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Jack Canfield
“All my successes have been built on my failures.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” – Confucius
“It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” – Zig Ziglar
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” – Sophocles
“In any case, you must not confuse a single failure with a final defeat.“ – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Oliver Goldsmith
“Your dream doesn’t have an expiration date. Take a deep breath and try again.” – Unknown
“No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist.” – Chris Hardwick
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” – Elbert Hubbard
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.” – Mark Twain
“Success builds character, failure reveals it.” – Dave Checkett
“Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel
“I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.” – John Keats
“You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying. To do the best you can do everyday.” – Jason Mraz
“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” – Beverly Sills
“Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.” – Roger Von Oech
“There is something good in all seeming failures. You are not to see that now. Time will reveal it. Be patient.” – Swami Sivananda
“Do not let arrogance go to your head and despair to your heart; do not let compliments go to your head and criticisms to your heart; do not let success go to your head and failure to your heart.” – Roy T. Bennett
“A bad day for your ego is a great day for your soul.” – Jillian Michaels
“Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” – Gena Showalter
“I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.” – Amelia Earhart
“If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want.” – Richard Yates
“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes—understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” – Arianna Huffington
“Never feel shame for trying and failing for he who has never failed is he who has never tried.” – Og Mandino
“A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions–as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
“The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures. The person who knows only success can be more oblivious to all the pitfalls.” – Randy Pausch
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho
“You always pass failure on your way to success.” – Mickey Rooney
“Failure is a greater teacher than success” – Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.” – Roy T. Bennett
“If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want” – Richard Yates
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Chris Bradford
“What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?” – John Green
“But instead of spending our lives running towards our dreams, we are often running away from a fear of failure or a fear of criticism.” – Eric Wright
“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ” – Coco Chanel
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” – Ken Robinson
“Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” – Zig Ziglar
“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” – Napoleon Hill
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” Marcus Aurelius
“So many fail because they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin.” W. Clement Stone
A start in the form of just one small step can take you further than you might have dreamed. No matter if we’re talking careers, relationships, a habit or an actual journey somewhere in the world.
And a good start to your morning can set the tone for your whole day and greatly help you to make it a good or even great one.
But we can also expand our perspective. Zoom out and see a whole new year in front of us.
How can you start your 2017 off on the right foot and set a good or great tone for the year?
“New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights” Hamilton Wright Mabie
This year is coming to an end. Just a couple more days to go.
But before we step through that doorway I’d like to quickly share one last article with 3 of my favorite questions of all time that can help you shape 2017 into 365 days that will be simpler, happier and self-kinder.
Stay safe, enjoy your New Year’s celebration and see you next year!