"The key to success is to surround yourself with positive, supportive people who believe in you and your vision. To achieve more with less, you need to be willing to simplify your life and focus on what truly matters. Success is not about being the best; it's about being the best version of yourself."
-- Richard Koch
"You are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn't making you stronger, they're making you weaker."
-- Timothy Ferriss
"At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent."
-- Suzie Hayman
"Mastery is not a question of genetics or luck, but rather a result of the slow accumulation of skills and knowledge over time. To master anything, you must first be willing to be a student. You must approach the learning process with an open mind and a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them."
-- Robert Greene
"Life is short. We’re only allotted so much time to make our mark. I say that’s all the more reason to get focused. Stop producing outputs that don’t make your soul sing. Avoid trying to be effective or efficient doing things that you’re not proud of and make no impact. Determine what outputs really matter to you at this stage in your life, chart your five moves to accomplish your big dreams, and go make it happen while getting insanely good at what you do. From there, the world is yours."
-- Brendon Burchard
"The bottom line is, whenever possible, try to turn your goals from being good to getting better. Rather than lament all the ways in which your relationships aren’t perfect, focus on all the ways in which they can be improved. At work, focus on expanding your skills and taking on new challenges rather than impressing everyone with how smart and knowledgeable you are. When your emphasis is on what there is to learn rather than what there is to prove, you will be a lot happier and will achieve a lot more."
-- Heidi Grant Halvorson
"You cannot consistently act in a manner inconsistent with the way you see yourself. If you don’t believe that you have potential, you will never try to reach it. And if you aren’t willing to work toward reaching your potential, you will never be successful."
-- John C. Maxwell
"High performers have to succeed over the long term because they have the guts to expect something great from themselves. They repeatedly tell themselves they must do something and do it well because that action or achievement would be congruent with their ideal identity. High performers’ dreams of living extraordinary lives aren’t mere wishes and hopes. They make their dream a necessity. Their future identity is tied to it, and they expect themselves to make it happen. And so they do."
-- Brendon Burchard
"Therefore, when you have great thoughts or loving thoughts or joyous thoughts, you produce chemicals that make you feel great or loving or joyful. The same holds true if you have negative, fearful, or impatient thoughts. In a matter of seconds, you begin to feel negative or anxious or impatient."
-- Dr. Joe Dispenza
"Every time something good happens, write a brief note about it and slip the paper in a jar. Include everything, from big events such as birthday parties or special celebrations, to praise from your partner, a friend or at work, to simply seeing a lovely sunset or hearing a bird sing. Watch the jar get full. On New Year’s Eve, or whenever you feel down, empty the jar and read out the slips. We often forget all the little things that cheer us up and make life enjoyable, and sometimes we even forget the big things if feeling bad gets in the way. This simple idea can help you remind yourself that life is also full of good moments."
-- Suzie Hayman
"One principle lies at the heart of this effort: Everything is trainable. No matter what skill you want to learn, with enough training and practice and intention, you can become more proficient at it. If you don’t believe this, your journey to high performance stops here."
-- Brendon Burchard
"Being joyous and enthusiastic every day means you have to be doing what you truly want to do and being who you are truly meant to be. Setting yourself up in a life that suits you requires the reflection and wisdom to know and accept yourself first and then the courage to pursue your own path. That’s the true definition of wisdom—not just knowing the right choice but acting on it. That takes autonomy and preparation and courage."
-- Donald Van de Mark
"At some point, everybody gets knocked down by life. Getting back up and remaining persistent in the face of trial—there’s another trait worth being known for."
-- Joshua Becker
"You should never wait to pursue a dream or add value out of fear that you lack the “right stuff.” High performance happens because of what you deliberately think and do on a routine basis in order to excel and serve at higher levels. It is this quest to challenge yourself to develop good habits that will make you feel enlivened and help you realize your full potential."
-- Brendon Burchard
"Plan the emotional experiences of your day. As you think about the hours ahead, visualize yourself engaging in the activities and feeling the emotions that you desire. See yourself approaching everything with confidence, joy, enthusiasm, love—and any positive emotion you prefer. Instead of settling for a reactionary emotional existence, start to live an intentional life of feeling. Pick your emotion and make it your mantra for the day."
-- Sandra Anne Taylor
"If you can influence your brain to change before you experience a desired future event, you will create the appropriate neural circuits that will enable you to behave in alignment with your intention before it becomes a reality in your life. Through your own repeated mental rehearsal of a better way to think, act, or be, you will “install” the neural hardware needed to physiologically prepare you for the new event."
-- Dr. Joe Dispenza
"One thing is certain: Not having the requisite skills to reach success in your field is a serious deficit. Without greater skill acquisition, there’s no progress in your career, so it’s essential that you identify the major skills you need to develop so you can win today and in the future."
-- Brendon Burchard
"Take responsibility for your failings rather than trying to push the blame on to anyone else. If you did it, recognize that and own the problem – no excuses or fudges. Offer amends to yourself – what can you do now or in the future to make up for the past? As well as resolving not to make the same mistake, give yourself some reparation – another chance, a new opportunity. And, once you’ve put a sincere apology on the table, move on. Let it go. Don’t worry about it again."
-- Suzie Hayman
"Every person’s job in life is to be oneself well. Not that everyone’s purpose is to “excel” or “be kind” or “think globally and act locally” or any other bit of bumper sticker wisdom. It’s simply to be all you can be. It’s very close to Joseph Campbell’s advice to all his college students, “Follow your bliss.” Doing so will, in all likelihood, make you joyful."
-- Donald Van de Mark
"Effectiveness in life does not come from focusing on what is automatic, easy, or natural for us. Rather, it is the result of how we consciously strive to meet life’s harder challenges, grow beyond our comforts, and deliberately work to overcome our biases and preferences, so that we may understand, love, serve, and lead others."
-- Brendon Burchard
"No greater mistake exists than that which so often haunts the human mind: that we cannot find time for things, things that we have previously decided for ourselves that we ought to do. Benjamin Franklin, in the midst of all his labors, found time to dive into the depths of philosophy, and explore an untrodden path of science."
-- William Alcott
