Skip to content

    “The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.  It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this.  It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.  The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it.  If you’re proud of how your hair looks, you’ll develop all sorts of habits to care for and maintain it.  If you’re proud of the size of your biceps, you’ll make sure you never skip an upper-body workout.  If you’re proud of the scarves you knit, you’ll be more likely to spend hours knitting each week.  Once your pride gets involved, you’ll fight tooth and nail to maintain your habits.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

      “All big things come from small beginnings.  The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision  but as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger.  Roots entrench themselves and branches grow.  The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us.  And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

        “Habits often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold and unlock a new level of performance.  In the early and middle stages of any quest, there is often a Valley of Disappointment.  You expect to make progress in a linear fashion and it’s frustrating how ineffective changes can seem during the first days, weeks, and even months.  It doesn’t feel like you are going anywhere.  It’s a hallmark of any compounding process: the most powerful outcomes are delayed.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

          “Time magnifies the margin between success and failure.  It will multiply whatever you feed it.  Good habits make time your ally.  Bad habits make time your enemy.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

            “Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits.  Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits.  Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits.  Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits.  Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits.  You get what you repeat.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

              “It doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now.  What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success.  You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.  If you’re a millionaire but you spend more than you earn each month, then you’re on a bad trajectory.  If your spending habits don’t change, it’s not going to end well.  Conversely, if you’re broke, but you save a little bit every month, then you’re on the path toward financial freedom—even if you’re moving slower than you’d like.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

                “We all deal with setbacks but in the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits.  With the same habits, you’ll end up with the same results.  But with better habits, anything is possible.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

                  “The morning ritual is particularly effective in its ability to set the tone for a positive, energized day during which you are more likely to use spot practices and implement your new skills to greater effect.  The evening ritual provides the perfect complement, helping you lock in the achievements of your day, glean the most important lessons or insights, and go to bed with a feeling of satisfaction and confidence in what the future holds.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                    “Rutted routines that develop from doing the same thing the same way every time—often unconsciously, or at best without deliberate decision-making—are those that stifle creativity.  However, when we create rituals around powerful tools for performance and awareness, such as the morning and evening rituals, or when we train the fundamentals common to our missions or critical nodes, then we are grooving peak performance behavior into our subconscious.  These are good routines that will help unlock creativity and success.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                      “When it comes to habits, the best approach isn’t to focus on eliminating unwanted behaviors but to replace them with new habits and drown the old out.  This is true of replacing a nasty habit like smoking with a healthy habit like exercise, and it’s just as true with replacing a character habit like laziness with a more useful one such as embracing the suck.  Our habits define us:  Solid character habits define a solid character.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                        “Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.” ~ Franz Kafka, via Daily Rituals

                          “Like your private bedroom, your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream.  Your schedule — in at about the same time every day, out when your thousand words are on paper or disk — exists in order to habituate yourself, to make yourself ready to dream just as you make yourself ready to sleep by going to bed at roughly the same time each night and following the same ritual as you go.  In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives.  And as your mind and body grow accustomed to a certain amount of sleep each night —six hours, seven, maybe the recommended eight — so can you train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined waking dreams which are successful works of fiction.” ~ Stephen King, via Daily Rituals

                            “The best way to change long-term behavior is with short-term feedback.” ~ Seth Godin

                              “When things get tough or uncomfortable, we tell ourselves: it’s OK to quit, it doesn’t matter, we’ll do it next time, we’re not disciplined enough, we suck at this, we can’t do it, it’s too hard, it would be nice to take a break, life is too short to struggle, we deserve a reward, just this once won’t matter, we’re going to fail, it’s better to fail quietly, we just don’t feel like it right now, let’s not think about this, hey a squirrel!  So what can we do if our story is working against us?  Change the damn story. Create a song to sing about yourself at the epic hero of your dreams. Sing this song daily, and be proud of it. Go after the dream, fight the forces of distraction and dullness and self-doubt, rise up to be your best self. You are the writer of your story, the composer of your song, and every moment is a chance to rewrite it, a new draft ready to be crafted into something better.” ~ Leo Babauta, Blog

                                “Whether people change their mindset in order to further their career, heal from a loss, help their children thrive, lose weight, or control their anger, change needs to be maintained.  It’s amazing – once a problem improves, people often stop doing what caused it to improve.  Once you feel better, you stop taking your medicine.  But change doesn’t work that way.  When you’ve lost weight, the issue doesn’t go away.  Or when your child starts to love learning, the problem isn’t solved forever.  Or when you and your partner start communicating better, that’s not the end of it.  These changes have to be supported or they can go away faster than they appeared.” ~ Carol Dweck, Mindset

                                Quotes That Have Changed My Life – Volume 1

                                  No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

                                  I have a passion for quotes and firmly believe in their ability to change a person’s life when read, reflected upon, and applied seriously.

                                  The very essence of a quote is insight and wisdom derived from other people’s life experiences and packaged through their own lens in the most direct and to-the-point method possible.

                                  These ideas get you thinking, make you nod your head, and help you to express your own opinions and feelings (I know they have certainly helped me express mine) and may help you live your life in a more fulfilling way.

                                  Below, you will find my first installment of 2 quotes that have changed my life.

                                  If any of the quotes below resonate with you, be sure to spend some time reflecting on them yourself and thinking about how you can apply their insight to your life – a year from now, you’ll be glad you did!Read More »Quotes That Have Changed My Life – Volume 1