Power of Living With A Purpose

"Several analyses of the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study have observed a link between a high sense of purpose and decreased mortality in adults over fifty. Purpose has been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events and to prevent the worst effects of Alzheimer’s disease. There is also evidence linking volunteerism with decreased risk of death—not to mention a stronger sense of well-being. This suggests that living with purpose can actually help us live longer—and better."

-- Gladys McGarey

Put Yourself in The Ring

"Use it or never gain it at all. Put yourself in the ring before you feel ready. You don’t need to get comfortable before you can practice your skills—your comfort grows as you practice your skills. As polyglots show us, even experts have to start from day one."

-- Adam Grant

Become The Driver of Your Own Life

"To be the driver of your life, it is essential to set goals. Goals give us power by directing our focus toward relevant behaviors and away from unimportant actions, energizing and increasing persistence, and providing a standard against which we can continually compare our performance, increasing our desire to attain the standard."

-- Ryan Gottfredson

Destress Yourself

"For some people, having a regular massage helps them de-stress. For other people, it's going for a run or engaging in some other form of strenuous exercise. Taking a walk in the countryside, spending time with your family, getting an early night, and meditating can all help to keep you on an even keel emotionally. Find the activities that work most effectively in keeping you at your best, and then make sure you nurture yourself by doing them frequently."

-- Stephanie Philp

Do What You Must

"You must fight the temptations that keep you from completion of the tasks that lead to achievement.  You must force yourself and discipline yourself to resist these temptations and push through to completion. Do what you must: Set benchmarks and create balanced scorecards, measures, metrics, and deadlines for every key task. These things activate your subconscious forcing system, enabling you to start earlier, work harder, stay later, and get the job done."

-- Andrew Clancy

Expected Part of Future Success

"Highly creative people who think differently have figured out that failure is a learning experience and, as such, is a necessary and expected part of future success."

-- Michael Edmondson

You Are Here For A Reason

"Each of us is here for a reason, to learn and grow and to give our gifts. When we are able to do so, we’re filled with the creative life energy that I call the 'juice.' The juice is our reason for living. It’s our fullfillment, our joy. It’s what happens when life is activated by love. It’s the energy we get from the things that matter and mean something to us."

-- Gladys McGarey

Why You Need A Clear Goal

“People have lots of dreams, wishes, and desires, but they never truly focus on their goals and whether they can realistically achieve them. When you have clear goals, you can weigh the pros and cons of every decision without getting tied up in what other people think. But you can only achieve your goals if you know what they are.”

-- James P. Owen

Be The Driver of Your Life

"The moral of this chapter is that if you want to be successful in your life, work, and leadership, you need to be the driver rather than the passenger. When you are the passenger, you do not have a clear destination in mind and you allow your external world to determine both your direction and destination. When you are the driver, you control your destiny. You have a clear destination in mind and are taking action to advance toward that destination."

-- Ryan Gottfredson

Remind Yourself From Time To Time

"One way to help keep you focused on what you want is to remind yourself from time to time what your life would be like if you don't make this big decision. What would happen? Would you go back to wishing and hoping for change?  Would things stay the same? Would things actually get worse? Remember those words from my mother: if you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got."

-- -- Joel Fotinos

Focus Solely on Your Process

"Everyone has goals. The people who actually achieve their goals create routines. They build systems. They consistently take the steps that, in time, will ensure they reach their ultimate goal.  They don’t wish. They don’t hope. They just do what their plan says, consistently and without fail.  They forget the goal and focus solely on the process."

-- Jeff Haden

Your Level of Success At This Point of Life

"The level of your success at this point in your life is the sum of your thoughts, beliefs, and actions up to now. And if you keep living your life with the same thoughts, beliefs, and actions, then you'll continue to achieve roughly the same amount of success. You won't get something different until you do something different. And you won't do different things until you become different."

-- Joel Fotinos

Why Your Situation Did Not Change

"If you do not change your attitude and your actions for the better, then your situation will not change for the bettter. I know that sounds obvious, but one thing I have found from my own experience, and from having taught these ideas to thousands of people over the years, is this: we often say we want change, but we don't commit to the change. Then nothing changes, and then we complain about it. It's important for you to embrace this simple truth—you will need to change your attitude, and you will need to change your actions."

-- Joel Fotinos

The Living Force

"True health is about living with the world around us as an engaged, participatory experience. It’s about cooperating with the living force within us: our will, our desire to be here and to share our gifts with the world. Our willingness to do so becomes our sense of purpose, and once we have that, our souls can be healthy in any state."

-- Gladys McGarey

Defeat Physical and Mental Stress

"Go for a walk, a run or a bike ride (usually better before the shower!) Exercising, even just a 20 minute walk each day means that you're moving your body. Exercise helps defeat emotional, physical and mental stress.  Better still, exercise floods your brain with positive chemicals and leaves you feeling great."

-- Stephanie Philp

To Be Adaptable to Changes

"Life in the 21st century certainly challenges individuals to think differently about everything. We need to implement the process of thinking differently in our lives so that we become adaptable to the changes ahead."

-- Michael Edmondson

In Order For You To Improve

"No matter our roles, advancement and improvement require gaining new knowledge, learning new tasks, and developing more skills."

-- Ryan Gottfredson

Your Age Is Not a Limitation

"If you think age is your limitation, search for amazing people over fifty (or sixty or seventy or eighty, or whatever age), and you will find dozens and dozens of stories of people older than you who started a new chapter in their lives and had great success.  Or if you think you're too young, search for amazing people under twenty-five (or twenty, or seventeen, or fifteen, or even twelve) to find stories of people who have achieved amazing things at a young age. Whatever your circumstance, the internet is a great place to find inspiration from others who have shared that same circumstance and overcame it."

-- Joel Fotinos

Nothing Can Hold You Back

"There will always be obstacles that stand between you and anything you want to accomplish. The ability to solve problems is essential in any successful endeavor, and you possess that ability, if you desire the goal intensely enough; nothing can hold you back."

-- Andrew Clancy