I wrote a blog entry about my Bournemouth marathon experience and posted it up at my running blog, go have a read of my Bournemouth marathon festival 2015 experience if you are interested in that. The reason I refer to it here is that in the article I shared a couple of my favourite quotes that I have been using to keep me driven and motivated during my running schedule and when I start my days. Here is what I wrote:

“I would trade whole years filled with mindless conformity for one hour of life crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks.” – Sir Walter Scott

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” – Mark Twain

“Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” – Charles Kettering

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali

This weekend’s mantra? “I am Titanium!”

As I said, those quotes are the ones I used throughout my training as running mantras, and the song has been played often on my Walkman a lot during my training. It is a favourite of mine and I love the message that I bent to fit my own circumstances regarding running.

I have written about other ways to use motivational quotes for starting your day: Wake up and be awesome. Also about how to use motivational quotes to form a mantra that you use when running or for any other aspect of life: Advancing your mantra.

Like many people, over the years, I have gathered up an ongoing list of my favourite motivational quotes that I use in a variety of different ways. I have even gone as far as to categorise mine and keep them in different notebooks on Evernote that I can access from all my electronic devices and I dip into them at least once a day. I have a few printed onto flashcards and stuck to my computer screen or placed into wallet too. Today, I thought I’d share some of my favourite motivational quotes with you.

1. “When a butterfly has emerged, it can never turn back into  a caterpillar.” – Colin Wilson

Later on, I’ll quote Richard Bach directly, but I really enjoyed his wonderful book about Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. A seagull who looked to advance his experience of life, master flight and seek more from life than simply trailing boats in a pack fighting over fish entrails and scraps as an existence. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull ascended and was reborn to higher levels of being in the book. This is not about spirituality to me, or about having better lives after this one. I like the idea of transformation and ascending to higher levels. I like the idea that we can evolve and elevate ourselves and our life and this quote reminds me of that.

While I am quoting Colin Wilson, here is another of his that has a similar theme that is one of the first thoughts I think when I wake up in the morning.

“When I open my eyes in the morning I am not confronted by a world, but by a million possible worlds.” Colin Wilson

Transformation is not just about big changes happening, but about perception and how we approach life, and these Colin Wilson quotes really remind me of thinking in those terms,

2. “We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.” – William James

I love this. Happiness is not a bi-product of something else we are doing. At least, that is my interpretation of the American philosopher’s quote. Happiness is less passive and more of a process for us to engage in and be an active agent of.

3. “I have more fun, and enjoy more financial success, when I  stop trying to get what I want and start helping other  people get what they want.” – Spencer Johnson

This sentiment is central to my entire working ethos in my professional field and is very similar to this one;

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein

When we look for who and how we can serve, other benefits follow suit without necessarily needing to actively pursue them. We are rewarded greatly on many levels when we serve others and add value to the world, and I think it is some of the best business advice anyone can receive – to work out how to add value, to be valuable and to serve others.

4. “Every problem carries a gift inside it.” – Richard Bach

Recently, I wrote about learning to love problems and finding ways to benefit from them: Learn to love life’s problems.  This quote encapsulates that for me. There are a couple of other quotes that I love that offer a similar theme and message.

“Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua Marine

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”– Bill Gates

We learn from problems, we learn from set-backs, we learn from mistakes. We benefit from them and develop out of them.

5. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison quotes offer us much about persistence and not giving up, but this one is particularly valuable to me. We are often closer than we think to getting it right, to having a success, and whether it is running, or developing my business or learning how to be a better Father, it is good to think that we are not always miles and miles away from what we seek if we continue to be strong and have the courage of our convictions.

Motivational sport quotation.

6. My favourite quotes list would not be complete if I did not include some input from Eric Thomas. I find him to be utterly inspirational. He is straight talking, no nonsense and drives me. HEre are a couple of Eric Thomas quotes that I love:

“Today, success is my only option! No matter the obstacles, no matter the sacrifice! I have decided I won’t be denied, I won’t be defeated!”

“Be phenomenal or be forgotten.”

“If you’re not leading your ideal life, it’s probably because your expectations are greater than your effort!”

This is sheer motivation for me and requires very little further explanation.

7. “There is a one thing that 99 percent of “failures” and “successful” folks have in common — they all hate doing the same things. The difference is successful people do them anyway.”

I have lots and LOTS of quotes that focus on one particular thing: Taking action. These are some of my other favourites about the taking action:

“Successful people do what they need to do whether they feel like it or not.” – Eric Thomas.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”– Walt Disney

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the hanging on of uncompleted tasks.” William James

Getting things done is a wonderful sensation. It nourishes on numerous levels. It uplifts, it removes fear, it invigorates and it paves pathways to success. I write about it often, I talk about it often, I talk to my clients about it often – taking action is a beautiful thing and when we start taking action, things change, life changes! I think this is the reason that one of my favourite ever film quotes has been something I say to myself in my head at the start of most training runs I go out on in the early hours, and before every training course I run, and before lectures I give, and before I work with individual clients…..

“Get busy living or get busy dying” – Red, the Shawshank Redemption.

Make Things Happen

8. “No one is coming.” – Nathaniel Branden.

When I first read this, I was shaken. It gave me a major kick up the backside. It really did. In my life, no-one else is responsible for who and how I am. The same is true for you. No-one is coming to save us, no-one is coming to make things better for us, no-one else can do it. This is about taking responsibility, ceasing the day and has so many levels to it that I’ll allow you to interpret for yourself just as I have.

9. “Be an artist at whatever you do. Even if you are a street sweeper, be the Picasso of street sweepers.” – Martin Luther King

Absolutely. Whatever you do, then aim to be as good as you possibly can be at it.

10. Although I have listed this as a top ten, you have already seen that it is more than that. I wanted my number ten to represent one single person whose quotes fill me with purpose, joy, love and wonder; the Dalai Lama. I just fall in love with life and the world every time I read quotes by him. I have hundreds of quotes by the Dalai Lama and they all have a sense of connection with each other, but are hard to choose between at the same time. Here are some that stand out for me:

“We don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate. Right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.”

“Human happiness and human satisfaction most ultimately come from within oneself.”

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”

“Choose to be optimistic. It feels better.”

“Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.”

“The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your action will be.”

“We need to learn how to want what we have, not to have what we want in order to get steady and stable happiness.”

There you have it, a collection of my favourite motivational quotes. What are your favourite motivational quotes and why?

If you’d like to learn more or if this article has resonated with you in some way, then visit these pages:

1. Have issues or themes such as those mentioned here held you back and/or are they still doing so now?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or  Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason.
2. Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others to overcome issues and deal with themes such as those mentioned here?
Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist for whom similar issues and themes are detrimentally effecting the success of your business?
Hypnotherapist Mentoring with Adam Eason.

If you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar.

Save

Save