"Here’s a critical point: Once you have initiated the cause, the effect takes place by itself. Once you have pushed the rock down the hill, it rolls by itself, by the law of gravity. Once you have planted a positive or negative seed in your mind, either flowers or weeds will grow. You can control the cause, but the effect happens automatically, whether you want it to or not."
-- Brian Tracy
"The greatest discovery in life is self-discovery. Until you find yourself you will always be someone else. Become yourself."
-- Myles Munroe
"Time is the force that magnifies those simple daily disciplines into massive success. To grasp how the slight edge works, you have to view your actions through the eyes of time. Difficult takes a little time; impossible takes just a little longer."
-- Jeff Olson
"As you move forward on the success journey, you need to remember that what happens in you is more important than what happens to you. You can control your attitudes as you travel on the journey, but you have no control over the actions of others. You can choose what to put on your calendar, but you can't control today's circumstances. Unfortunately, the majority of the fear and stress that people experience in life is from things they can do nothing about. Don't let that happen to you."
-- John C. Maxwell
"The most important application of the law of cause and effect is this: Thoughts are causes, and conditions are effects. Your thought is creative. You determine what happens to you by the thoughts you think, especially those thoughts that are charged with emotion, either positive or negative. Your thoughts are like the computer in a guided missile. They lead you unerringly to your target."
-- Brian Tracy
"Those with a growth mindset, in contrast, believe that intelligence is not finite, and one can improve through effort and hard work. They recognize that failure is an opportunity for growth and learning, rather than a sign of one’s lack of ability. Individuals who adopt a growth mindset approach learning with less stress and anxiety than one with a fixed mindset, and are less likely to have perfectionistic tendencies, since they value mistakes as a chance to learn."
-- Lisa Orbe-Austin
"Taking responsibility means figuring out what you want in life and acting on it. Set your goals—then go out and work toward them. Figure out what kind of space you would like to live in … then create it. It doesn’t take a lot of money to create a peaceful, loving home for yourself. Look around and see who you would love to include in your circle of friends … then pick up the phone and make plans to get together. Don’t sit around waiting for them to call you."
-- Susan Jeffers
"Your natural state is to be happy, healthy, joyous, and full of excitement at being alive. You should wake up each morning eager to start the day. You should feel wonderful about yourself and your relationships with the people in your life. As a fully functioning, mature adult, you should be doing things every day that move you upward and onward toward the realization of your full potential. You should be grateful for all your blessings, in every area of your life."
-- Brian Tracy
"Growth equals change. If you want to get better, you have to keep changing and improving. That means stepping out into new areas. If you dedicate time to new things related to areas of strength, then in you'11 grow as a leader. Don't forget: leadership, if you're through growing, you're through."
-- John C. Maxwell
"In daily life, there are many occasions when I could make things easier—in the short run, at least—if I would, metaphorically speaking, “just stop rowing.” But I have found that the achievement of significant goals generally requires me to be able and willing to “take one more stroke,” even though I am dead tired. I’m convinced that it is this ability, as much as any, that allows some people to excel in the challenges they undertake, while other people fail. It is also possible that at some point in my life, my ability to survive will depend on whether I have the fortitude to take just one more breath—and then another. I would like to think that rowing helps me develop this fortitude."
-- William B Irvine
"Successful people do whatever it takes to get the job done, whether or not they feel like it. They understand that it is not any one single push on the flywheel but the cumulative total of all their sequential, unfailingly consistent pushes that eventually creates movement of such astonishing momentum in their lives."
-- Jeff Olson
"Success across life, work, and leadership requires us to take the reins, taking full ownership of our life and destiny. Having this level of command requires that we are conscious of and in control of the very aspect of ourselves that drives essentially everything we do: our mindsets. When we take charge of our mindsets we become the driver and conscious creator of a brighter future."
-- Ryan Gottfredson
"Like the Wright brothers, you can transition from limiting beliefs to expansive possibilities. You can move from absolutes such as I can't do math well to I could do math to I am learning to do math well to I do math well From there, you can keep opening more possibilities to get better at math!"
-- Matthew E. Poll
"When we embrace the present moment, when we fully accept it, when we act as if we’ve chosen it, we transcend our mental limits and start to discover things which had previously been hidden from view."
-- Mario Alonso Puig
"Once we start thinking of setbacks as Stoic tests, we may discover that instead of dreading them, we look forward to them. Besides giving us a chance to develop our skill in dealing with them, setbacks give us an opportunity to display the skill we have thus far developed. Much as a tennis player can take pride in her playing ability, we can take pride in our ability, when set back, to find a good workaround without becoming angry, anxious, or despondent. It is a wonderful skill to possess—and one that relatively few people do possess."
-- William B Irvine
"Successful people are those who understand that the little choices they make matter, and because of that they choose to do things that seem to make no difference at all in the act of doing them, and they do them over and over and over until the compound effect kicks in."
-- Jeff Olson
"Take a risk a day—one small or bold stroke that will make you feel great once you’ve done it. Even if it doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to, at least you’ve tried. You didn’t sit back … powerless. Watch what starts to happen when you expand your comfort zone."
-- Susan Jeffers
"Regardless of where you work, whether on Wall Street, at a food pantry, or within the walls of your own home, being successful in your work means being a builder and creator of something greater than yourself. It means taking the reins as a contributor and value creator. Rather than just punching the time card or biding your time, you are actively engaged in fulfilling a mission. You are contributing in ways that add tangible (monetary, measurable) and intangible (attitude, morale, energy) value. Others hear and respect your voice, you receive recognition, and you command a salary that allows you to live with abundance. You either have security in your current job or are secure in knowing you can continually support those you are responsible for. You are, and are seen as, someone who can continue to add great value, either in a deeper way within your current position or in a new or higher-level position."
-- Ryan Gottfredson
"Also consider your achievements, however small they may seem. All too often we forget small wins along the way and focus on parts of our working life that didn’t go to plan. You can rectify this by reflecting on small achievements and celebrating along the way, which is an important process as this primes your thoughts towards achievements, which over time can make achieving goals part of your everyday life (building your confidence in the process)."
-- Gemma Leigh Roberts
"Mind you, hard work guarantees nothing in realms of creativity. (Nothing guarantees anything in realms of creativity.) But I cannot help but think that devotional discipline is the best approach. Do what you love to do, and do it with both seriousness and lightness. At least then you will know that you have tried and that—whatever the outcome—you have traveled a noble path."
-- Elizabeth Gilbert
"Simple daily disciplines—little productive actions, repeated consistently over time—add up to the difference between failure and success."
-- Jeff Olson
"“We see things not as they are, but as we are,” wrote Immanuel Kant. Your self-image is the lens through which you see the world. If you cannot see yourself being successful at something, you will probably talk yourself out of trying. Or, if you can see you have a talent for something, you may find all sorts of inner strength and external help. All your decisions are based on what you see you are capable of and, also, what you think you deserve."
-- Robert Holden
"THE BETTER YOU THINK, the better results you will get and the more successful you will be in every area. The most important measure, the only measure of the quality of your thinking, is the results you get, the consequences of what you decide to do as a result of the decisions you make."
-- Brian Tracy
"When we do not see our mindsets as being a key part of our lack of success, we generally incorrectly blame either external factors (e.g., don’t have enough money, time, or resources) or the wrong internal factors (e.g., intelligence, abilities, or personality). This misdiagnosis is problematic for at least two reasons. First, blaming these factors is closer to an excuse than a solution, because we generally cannot control these factors, at least not as easily as our mindsets. Because these factors are largely outside of our control, we hide behind them as an excuse for giving up, accepting a fate of living below our potential. We fail to recognize that others with less ideal circumstances and abilities have reached the levels of success we are seeking. Second, even if we can influence or change these factors, focusing on them instead of our mindsets means that our mindsets will likely to stay the same and continually prevent us from thinking, learning, and behaving in ways that will lead to greater success."
-- Ryan Gottfredson
"Devote the back half of your life to serving others with your wisdom. Get old sharing the things you believe are most important. Excellence is always its own reward, and this is how you can be most excellent as you age."
-- Arthur C. Brooks
"You are innately designed to use your personal power. When you don’t, you experience helplessness, paralysis and depression—which is your clue that something is not working as it could. You, like all of us, deserve everything that is wonderful and exciting in life. And those feelings emerge only when you get in touch with your powerful self."
-- Susan Jeffers
"You are making that choice, every day, every hour, and the impact of those choices—for better or for worse—will spread out over the surface of your life like a thick blanket of water hyacinth."
-- Jeff Olson
