When you’re ready to make a change – a personal or professional improvement, or if you aim to launch a whole new initiative in work or life, don’t be surprised when you encounter this paradox – great excitement and energy, combined with FUD – fear, uncertainty, and doubt (a term we often used in the world of enterprise software; our competitors would use FUD in an attempt to introduce confusion every time our company launched a new product!)
Maybe you want to start a business, or change jobs. Perhaps you have just been promoted and need to manage at a whole new level. Joy and FUD are inevitable.
One way to ensure this paradox doesn’t stall your progress is to be inspired by mere mortals, just like you, who encountered the paradox and pushed through it.
Here are 11 powerfully simple quotes that will remind you to keep pursuing your goals, you are definitely up to the task of achieving a whole new level of impact, success, rewards. The paradox is proof you are on the right track!
1. Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.
– Sara Blakley, founder and CEO of Spanx
2. You must do the thing you think you cannot do…
(this one of my all time favorites; it was taped to my mirror in the room I rented while I was putting myself through college.)
3. I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.
–Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo
4. Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.
– Anne Sweeney, Former President of Disney/ABC Television Group
Sweeney recently decided, at age 55 to leave a wildly successful career as an executive at ABC/Disney to pursue her dream of becoming a film director. She is walking the talk! Of her decision, she said, “If not now, when?”
5. Our greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising up every time we fail.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
6. You cannot tailor-make the situations in life, but you can tailor-make the attitudes to fit those situations.
– Zig Ziglar, bestselling author
7. Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or walk around it.
– Michael Jordan, NBA champion, 5 time MVP, Olympic gold medal winner
8. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
– Thomas Edison
9. I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk.
– Oprah Winfrey
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.
10. Ayn Rand, novelist/philosopher
11. You know more than you think, you can contribute more than you know.
– Caren Merrick – me!
(I challenge audiences with this nearly every time I speak – whether to large or small groups, and I love seeing the expressions on peoples’ faces as they realize this truth about themselves!)
What quotes have inspired you to take action?
If you’ve found this inspiring, please share with your friends!
