Quotes

In my book I wrote about some of the things that keep me going when I want to give up. One of the things I love is inspirational quotes. When my goals seem hard or I’m tired, it’s nice to have these quotes where I can see them, or even to think about them to keep me going. So today I want to share some of these quotes with you and why they inspire me. I hope they will inspire you as well!

I love this quote. I have found this to be true in my exercising. I have found that the more work I put into my muscles, the easier it is to lift, consequently, I bump up my weights to where it gets harder and then, in time, that becomes easy. It’s a great way to measure progress, and I love it. I have also found it to be true when I run. The more I do it, the easier it gets, and the farther I can go. But it doesn’t just apply to exercise. When I am struggling with anything in my life, I have found that often the right decision is the hard one. But when we make those hard decisions because we know they are the right ones, and we see the results, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, it makes the next hard decision a little easier. And when we can continue to do the hard things, to make the best choices, that’s when real progress happens.

I shared this one on my Instagram page earlier this week. This one I started off thinking about with exercise a while ago, but I think it applies to so many areas of our lives. It seems like in our day and age that people in general are becoming less resilient. When things get hard they just give up instead of persevering. I have found in exercise as well as other areas of my life that not controlling my thoughts can sabotage my goals. When I start thinking things like “I can’t,” or “it’s too hard,” “is it really worth it?” Those are negative and destructive thoughts. We can’t give our mind the option. Just don’t stop, don’t play mind games, stay focused on the end goal and how to get there.

I love this quote. The devil only has the power over us that we give him. This quote reminds me of who I am, a daughter of God, and that I am meant for greater things than to fall prey to the devils influences. This world is a crazy place, and there are so many influences out there that seem to be swaying us every which way. But when we really look at it, there are only two influences in this world, Jesus Christ and Satan. I have the choice in every situation who I will listen to and who I will follow. I choose to follow Jesus Christ.

I love Albert Einstein quotes, and this is one of my favorites. There is rarely a point at which quitting is a good idea, and if you never quit, you never fail. In my book I also talk about the data that we collect from our trials and errors. Never is anything we do a failure unless you quit. It’s just data that needs to be viewed, reviewed, and then applied to help us see the next step or adjustment better. Don’t quit.

So often we have these awesome ideas and we start pursuing great things because of them. Then all of a sudden, either people around us start questioning us, or we start questioning ourselves, and we begin to doubt whether we will be able to succeed. How many times in our lives have we either started on something and quit because we doubted our ability to actually succeed, or we didn’t even start because we had so many doubts. Remember that those things we like to call failures are just data. Weed through the data and figure out how to keep going, but don’t doubt yourself or your abilities to succeed at whatever you put your mind to.

I love this one as well. I love a lot of quotes. But how many bad days have we each had in our lives, and yet we are still here. Sometimes in the middle of things, when nothing seems to be going right, we can’t seem to do anything right, usually those days our hair doesn’t work right. Traffic, even though it might be the same traffic every day, seems to be especially frustrating. Kids, friends, family, spouses just seem to grate on our nerves. Whatever starts it, sometimes it seems like a snowball effect all the rest of the day. We all have days like that, but those days pass. We can’t truly enjoy the fun, easy days if we never have the hard days, because there would be no way for us to compare and see the difference. And, I have also found that when those days do come, sometimes just a good laugh at something really ridiculous is the best therapy, it usually turns my day around, or at least makes it more tolerable and the next day is usually much better.

And last of all, the quote that changed my life. I don’t know as that’s totally true, but this quote for me brought me peace, way down deep inside when I heard it. I read it almost daily, it’s stuck to my fridge, the last line is printed on a 3×5 card in the window above my sink. This quote has helped me to have compassion on other people, as well as to press forward no matter what. I don’t have to worry about anyone else’s opinion of me, I only worry about my Heavenly Father’s opinion. It is amazingly freeing it is when you develop a relationship with God and you rely on Him, knowing that to Him your are worth everything to Him. You are loved, you are wanted, you are enough.

These definitely are not all my favorite quotes. I could probably write a dozen or more blog posts about quotes and still wouldn’t have shared all my favorites. But these are some of the ones that help me day to day to stay on track, and to move forward with thoughtful commitment, rather than be tossed about by the world and every wave that comes along. What are some of your favorite quotes?