Quotes about Personal Growth

A birthday is a time to reflect on the year gone by, but to also set your goals for the upcoming year.

Well, you know how it is. We either grow up to be our mother or we make a solemn vow to the universe to be her polar opposite. Doesn't work every minute of every day, though.

you from putting it completely behind you.

Sooner or later you have to recognize the old patterns. But even that wasn't enough, she now realized. It wasn't sufficient to simply watch them play out while thinking, Yes, indeed, that is my pattern, and then continue to do it that way all the same. No. Sooner or later you had to get up off your sorry butt and do a little better for yourself.

There comes an age when you answer a call that has nothing to do with the family that raised you. You grow up over their heads, beyond their reach. They'll hate you for it, but this is the natural order of things.

We either grow up to be our mother or we make a solemn vow to the universe to be her polar opposite. Doesn't work every minute of every day, though.

He was different. He didn't waste his time with crap like that. He had living to do. He knew who he was and he didn't have anything to prove to anybody. He had no problem saying he made a mistake, or he didn't know. That's a sign of confidence in a person. People think it's the other way around. But it's only people who don't have their acts together who work so hard to make you think they do.

They were not children. They had grown into people he knew little about. And they had done so without his help or influence, or even,--for the most part--his witness. It made him feel as though something precious had been taken from him.

I love my brother Robbie, but not enough to save him. I love my sister Katie, but I've learned to do it from a distance. This is how we grow. Have you noticed that? This is what we call loving each other. No wonder we have wars.

But if I were to simply remain within my comfort zone, clinging to the way I want to feel—unchallenged—my comfort zone would just keep getting smaller.

But people can change. And sometimes they can change because of what they see in you. The way you are can inspire somebody. So I would say . . . just be a really good, clear example of what you hope both of you can be.

The first fifteen miles are the hardest, because I think I can't walk this far.

People make mistakes all the time. That's more or less the definition of a person: we're a bunch of walking, talking mistake-holders. When I make a mistake, if I was doing my best, I let myself off the hook.

When are you going to learn to act in your own best interests? In spite of what your emotions tell you to do?

The whole point of growing up is to get big enough to hold the world you want inside you. But it takes a long time, and you really must eat your vegetables, and most often you have to make the world you want out of yourself.

You're grown--crooked and backbent, but grown--and it's time to stop hanging your heart on your mother.

You are not the chosen one, September. Fairyland did not choose you – you chose yourself.

But it feels so good to be held, it feels so good to be spoken to like she is capable and wise, to hear her life gain weight, fed by Cascavel. Fed by being seen.

I've no idea what I shall do when I am grown! I don't suppose there is much call for Knights or Bishops or Heroines in Omaha or even Chicago. And I'm sure other girls are much better at it than I.

SF raised me, and I think it did a damn fine job. It at least removed a lot of potential sources of anxiety.

There are three things that it is never too late to say: Thank you, I'm Sorry, and I love You.

she'd felt as

You can't change other people: you can only change how you react to them.

It's not who you are that matters. It's what you do with who you are. The blood running through your veins is the only blood that matters. When you go out into the world, you have the chance to leave the past behind