Quotes About Motivation

Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

People got insights into what was bothering them, but they hardly did a damn thing to change.

Histrionics know how to get looked at, but they don't have a clue about how to look at themselves. They often know less about their own history and motivation than about those of their favorite television characters. Histrionics' selective memories make their lives into a series of vivid but unconnected events, no more related to one another than the programs broadcast on a given night.

Ham-it-up managers like Gene make metaphors come to life and walk corporate hallways like an army of cheerful, highly motivated zombies. These vampires drain their employees of the ability to think for themselves by labeling critical comments as evidence of a bad attitude. They are also likely to withhold controversial information for fear of demotivating people.

Something had to be done. Apart from robbing a bank—a line of endeavor for which I lacked the needful preliminary training—I saw no way to get ahead in the world except by forcing some kind of opening for myself as a fiction writer. Thenceforth, for several years, I set aside five hours a night, five nights a week, for this kind of work. After my nine-hour office day, I came home, got a shower and a rubdown; and as soon as dinner was ended, I went to my desk and began writing.

People who suffer from learned helplessness think they have no control over their situations, so even if their suffering is great, they won't take the smallest action to change matters because they figure, What's the point?

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.

A strong desire derives a person straight through the hardest rock.

Si sa che agli uomini il bene bisogna, le più volte, farlo per forza.

In the final chapter of Profiles in Courage, Kennedy concludes: "The stories of past courage can define that ingredient—they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve

Perhaps the most important element of each activity is to inspire a group of people to perform at their very best. The best teachers are the unsung heroes and heroines of any society,

You don't get the best out of people by hitting them with an iron rod. You do so by gaining their respect, getting them accustomed to triumphs and convincing them that they are capable of improving their performance.

Leaders are usually unaware, or at least underestimate, the motivating power of their presence. Nobody sees themselves as others see them.

the very best footballers were competing against themselves to become as good as they could be.

One player's drive can have an enormous effect on a team - a winning drive is like a magical potion that can spread from one person to another.

The minute you start intruding too far, you take the drive out of the man.

If you overemphasise opponents strengths, you just plant seeds of doubt in your players.

If you're examining successful people, look at their mother and father, study what they did, for clues about energy and motivation.

I never had a particular quota that I expected any player to fulfil, but they all knew I expected nothing but the best from them.

I never expected the players to love me, but neither did I want them to hate me, because that would have made it impossible to extract the most from them. All I wanted was for them to respect me and follow my instructions.

Another crucial ingredient of motivation is consistency. As a leader you can't run from one side of the ship to the other. People need to feel that you have unshakeable confidence in a particular approach. If you can't show this, you'll lose the team very quickly.

If you hope to motivate people, you need to know when to prey on their insecurities and when to bolster their self-confidence. People perform best when they know they have earned the trust of their leader.