"Success happens when preparation meets opportunity. Your ability to capture an opportunity is directly proportional to your optimism, skill level, and preparedness. Optimism allows you to seize an opportunity the moment it shows up, and your skill level and preparedness allow you to transform it into a concrete success. The more optimistic and prepared you are, the more opportunities you will seize and the more successes you will have."
-- Jeffrey Spencer
"Make sacrifices to try things. Make sacrifices to get out of your comfort zone. Make sacrifices to do things that are risky, and when you fail, be courageous to stand up and try again."
-- Flavian Mwasi
"Sometimes fear holds us back not from starting but from trying again. Overcoming fear is not a onetime achievement but a lifelong skill. Your first attempt (or second or third) at pursuing something meaningful may not go as well as you would’ve liked, but if you’re ever going to be successful at it, you’ll have to try again."
-- Joshua Becker
"It is far easier to rationalize that it’s too difficult, too expensive, or too time-consuming than to accept the idea that if we are willing to work hard enough, smart enough, and long enough we can accomplish anything. Instead of making a commitment, we make up an alibi. If you find that you frequently invent excuses for why you didn’t do something or have a million reasons why something didn’t work out as planned, it’s time for a reality check. Stop explaining and start doing!"
-- Napoleon Hill
"Sound practical wisdom cannot, it is true, be rapidly acquired anywhere but in the school of experience; but the world abounds with men who are old enough to be wise, and yet are very ignorant. Let it be your fixed resolution not to belong to this class."
-- William Alcott
"But a well-rounded life—one that easily shifts focus from work to other activities—resonates with diversity and interest. Your decision to pursue other interests for their own sake resonates with the Universe on many levels and opens you up to endlessly joyous options."
-- Sandra Anne Taylor
"The goals we set for ourselves are shaped in large part by our beliefs about our abilities. If there are goals that appeal to you, but you have avoided setting them in your life, it’s time to ask yourself why. How sure are you that your beliefs are correct? Is there another way to look at things?"
-- Heidi Grant Halvorson
"The influential people in your life, with their opinions and nudges, may offer the intellectual and emotional tools to help you choose a wise path. But in the end, the choice, whether rendered early on or after years of false starts, is yours alone to make."
-- Marshall Goldsmith
"I believe living a life aligned with your values and passions is the quickest way to happiness in both the short term and the long term."
-- Joshua Becker
"The great majority of people go through life without giving much thought to who they are and how they got to where they are today. As a result, life just happens to them, like a series of random events, with no explanations and few connections between them."
-- Brian Tracy
