Excerpt: These 25 Work Ethic Quotes will get you FIRED up and ready to tackle the challenges of your life (because there’s never a shortage of those).
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Introduction: Your Work IS Your Life
“Work is finding yourself alone at the track when the weather kept everyone else indoors. Work is pushing through the pain and crappy first drafts and prototypes. It is ignoring whatever plaudits others are getting, and more importantly, ignoring whatever plaudits you may be getting. Because there is work to be done. Work doesn’t want to be good. It is made so, despite the headwind.”
Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy
Why do all of this work at all? Why show up when it’s raining and cold? Why push through writing tasks when Netflix is one click away? Why keep working when you’re getting praised and approved of for what you’ve already done? Why not stay indoors, become complacent, relax, and soak in the compliments you’ve already received? …Well, because that’s not how your best work comes to life—that’s why. And that task of bringing to life your best work, may be your most important calling on this earth.
What task could be more important? Work that manifests itself into the world from thought to reality, that comes uniquely through your potential, life experiences, and creative perceptions, should be considered one of the most sacred fulfillments of your life that there is. Your work IS your life. Your work IS your fulfillment. Your work IS your legacy.
Now, let’s talk about how you get there. The work that you set out to do certainly doesn’t start out good. In fact, it almost always starts out awful. Any work that you find where this isn’t the case, you should carefully consider continuing. Being able to do work more easily, that others find hard, might be a sign that you’re in alignment with your innate capabilities, aptitudes, and potential. And don’t worry, if you find that most of the work that you set out to do is all equally awful, you’re not out of luck—you just have to pick something and begin.
Here’s one of the keys to getting ahead in life: spend less time “searching for your passion” and spend more time building valuable skills. The more time you spend searching for something that “pulls you” or is going to make the work “easy,” the less time you’ll be spending building skills that make you better at doing work and more able to get done what’s hard.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t search for something that aligns with your capabilities, aptitudes, and potential. I do believe that when you search you find. However, this should not be the sole occupation of your time. If you can’t find a passion that “speaks” to you and everything you’ve tried feels “luke warm,” then just pick something!
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All things being equal (as far as emotional appeal goes), choose to learn about work that’s going to give you the most valuable skill set. Or choose work that you have unique opportunities to learn based on your connections, location, or situation. Or just pick at random! Choosing not to work and build skills because you’re busy “searching” for your passion is nothing but an excuse. And it’s an excuse that can take away precious time that you could otherwise be investing. And let me make one thing clear: Your “passion” won’t come looking for you. So you can drop that notion out of the window now. You have to engage with the world, experiment, and build skills to find your way.
What’s interesting is that when you become better at doing the work (with deliberate practice and patience), you’ll probably find that you’ll start liking it more. It makes sense right? We tend to like what we’re good at—at least a lot more than what we’re bad at. And so when you pick what to pursue, whether for a particular reason or at random, you’ll find that the more you dedicate yourself to the work, the better you’ll get, and the more you’ll like doing it.
You’ll start a positive upward cycle that could very well lead you to your life’s work. And it’s precisely the work that you find yourself doing alone when everybody else is out having fun or is cozied up scrolling through their timelines that will indicate that you’re on your way. Because your life’s task is greater than a night out; your mission is more powerful than passive entertainment; and your legacy is what’s being built right now. So, let’s get to work.
Work ethic is a quality that seems to be universally accepted as being fundamental to a person’s greatest successes. Below, you’ll find our list of 25 work ethic quotes that will fire you up and get you thinking like (or at least allow you to peer into the minds of) some incredibly hard working and successful individuals.
We can’t control where we start in life, but we sure as hell can control how hard we work to move forward from that starting point. And some of the most remarkable stories in human history revolve around people who worked their way from nothing and made their lives into something—but, again, almost universally, none of them did it without an incredible work ethic.
With work ethic being one of the few things that IS within our control in life, it should remain one of our primary focuses. It’s easy to get lost, confused, dazed, and distracted from the storm of things that are out of our control, but that’s not going to help us move forward.
Double down on your work. Block out distractions. Focus on what’s within your control. Control it. Repeat day-in and day-out. Double check occasionally to ensure you’re heading in the right direction. And trust the process.
But, don’t just take it from me. Take it from some of the greats listed below. Onward to our collection of powerful remarks from people who have lived it, breathed it, felt it, and have shared it for moments exactly like this—moments to inspire and ignite others. Thanks and enjoy!
The List: 25 Work Ethic Quotes to Re-Ignite (or Reinforce) The FIRE In Your Belly
“I am just an average man, but by God I work harder than the average man.”
Winston Churchill, via The Way of the Seal
“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”
Chuck Close
“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”
David Bly
“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.”
Michelangelo
“Today, working hard is about taking apparent risk. Not a crazy risk like betting the entire company on an untested product. No, an apparent risk: something that the competition (and your coworkers) believe is unsafe but that you realize is far more conservative than sticking with the status quo. Richard Branson doesn’t work more hours than you do. Neither does Steve Ballmer or Carly Fiorina. Robyn Waters, the woman who revolutionized what Target sells – and helped the company trounce Kmart – probably worked fewer hours than you do in an average week. None of the people who are racking up amazing success stories and creating cool stuff are doing it just by working more hours than you are. And I hate to say it, but they’re not smarter than you, either. They’re succeeding by doing hard work.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
Abraham Lincoln
“I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.”
Larry Bird
“The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked. Period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me; you might be all of those things – you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there’s two things: You’re getting off first, or I’m gonna die. It’s really that simple, right? … You’re not going to outwork me.”
Will Smith
“What you do in practice is going to determine your level of success. I used to tell my players, ‘You have to give 100 percent every day. Whatever you don’t give, you can’t make up for tomorrow. If you give only 75 percent today, you can’t give 125 percent tomorrow to make up for it.‘”
John Wooden
“I don’t know what your future is, but if you’re willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory—than you will not regret it.”
Chadwick Boseman, Commencement Speech (2018)
“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”
Muhammad Ali
“You have to work hard in the dark to shine in the light. Meaning: It takes a lot of work to be successful, and people will celebrate that success, will celebrate that flash and hype. Behind that hype, though, is dedication, focus, and seriousness—all of which outsiders will never see.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 59)
“You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you’re down to your reflexes – your training. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of morning, you’re getting found out now, under the bright lights.”
Joe Frazier
“While others were out partying, I was training. While they were out dancing at the clubs, I was training… and training… and training.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing.”
William Arthur Ward
“My routine was grueling. It involved early mornings and late nights. It involved stretching, lifting, training, hooping, recovery, and film study. It involved putting in a lot of work and hours. It’s—no lie—tiring. For that reason, a lot of players pare down their lifting and training during the season. They try conserving their energy. Not me, though. I found that, yes, this work might be strenuous on the day-to-day, but it left me stronger and more prepared during the dog days of the season and the playoffs.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 195)
“Work is finding yourself alone at the track when the weather kept everyone else indoors. Work is pushing through the pain and crappy first drafts and prototypes. It is ignoring whatever plaudits others are getting, and more importantly, ignoring whatever plaudits you may be getting. Because there is work to be done. Work doesn’t want to be good. It is made so, despite the headwind.”
Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy
“My work ethic is the single most important factor in all of my accomplishments. Everything else is secondary. To me, a forty-hour work week is a 40 percent effort. It may be satisfactory, but that’s another word for mediocrity. Don’t settle for a forty-hour work week. There are 168 hours in a week! That means you have the hours to put in that extra time at work without skimping on your exercise. It means streamlining your nutrition, spending quality time with your wife and kids. It means scheduling your life like you’re on a twenty-four-hour mission every single day.”
David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me
“Some criticize my level of passion, but I’m not down with the prevailing mentalities that tend to dominate American society these days; the ones that tell us to go with the flow or invite us to learn how to get more with less effort. F*ck that shortcut bullsh*t. The reason I embrace my own obsessions and demand and desire more of myself is because I’ve learned that it’s only when I push beyond pain and suffering, past my perceived limitations, that I’m capable of accomplishing more, physically and mentally—in endurance races but also in life as a whole. And I believe the same is true for you.”
David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me
“The agony of defeat is as low as the joy of winning is high. However, they’re the exact same to me. I’m at the gym at the same time after losing 50 games as I am after winning a championship. It doesn’t change for me.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 195)
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
Nelson Mandela
“Many athletes have tremendous God-given gifts, but they don’t focus on the development of those gifts. Who are these individuals? You’ve never heard of them — and you never will. It’s true in sports and it’s true everywhere in life. Hard work is the difference. Very hard work.”
John Wooden
“Genes can’t make you successful if you’re not doing the work. Yes, it’s possible that the ripped trainer at they gym has better genes, but if you haven’t put in the same reps, it’s impossible to say if you have been dealt a better or worse genetic hand. Until you work as hard as those you admire, don’t explain away their success as luck.”
James Clear, Atomic Habits
“That’s what building a body of work is all about. It’s about the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up over time, over a lifetime to a lasting legacy. It’s about not being satisfied with the latest achievement, the latest gold star, because the one thing I know about a body of work is that it’s never finished. It’s cumulative. It deepens and expands with each day you give your best. You may have setbacks and you may have failures, but you’re not done. You haven’t even started.”
Barack Obama
“You have a nature. You can play the tyrant to it, but you will certainly rebel. How hard can you force yourself to work and sustain your desire to work? How much can you sacrifice to your partner before generosity turns to resentment? What is it that you actually love? What is it that you genuinely want? Before you can articulate your own standards of value, you must see yourself as a stranger—and then you must get to know yourself. What do you find valuable or pleasurable? How much leisure, enjoyment, and reward do you require, so that you feel like more than a beast of burden? How must you treat yourself, so you won’t kick over the traces and smash up your corral? You could force yourself through your daily grind and kick your dog in frustration when you come home. You could watch the precious days tick by. Or you could learn how to entice yourself into sustainable, productive activity. Do you ask yourself what you want? Do you negotiate fairly with yourself? Or are you a tyrant, with yourself as slave?”
Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 90)
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Written by Matt Hogan
Founder of MoveMe Quotes. On a mission to help busy people do inner work—for better mental health; for healing; for personal growth. Find me on Twitter / IG / Medium. I also share daily insights here. 🌱
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