Quotes About Motivation

Motivations are too tangled and complex.

Some people say pain is a fuel for greatness and if that's true, then my tank will forever be full.

I have always demanded the maximum of myself, but the tank is quite empty. The balance of the hard work I put in day in and day out and the satisfaction I get out of it at the end of the day is no longer there.

A lot of us have energy that we can tap into. We sell ourselves short.

In truth, the writer's problems are usually psychological, like everyone else's.

In Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster makes a distinction between self-righteous service and true service. Self-righteous service flows out of human effort and goals; true service flows out of God and love.6

We may be able to begin tennis instruction or piano lessons by dint of will, but we will not keep at them for long without joy. In fact, the only reason we can begin is because we know that joy is the end result. That is what sustains all novices; they know there is a sense of pleasure, enjoyment, joy in mastery.

The law demands good works and uses its terror--rejection, shame, fear of punishment, unanswered prayer, personal tragedy, etc.--as motivation. Here performance is a necessity to secure the blessings and avoid the curses. Grace, on the other hand, allows us to serve on a different basis--not from fear but on the basis of love and gratitude, from appreciation and gladness for blessings freely given and freely received.

Quotes are nothing but inspiration for the uninspired.

There are disadvantages.You shouldn't join a star venture if you are lazy, a loner, in poor health, don't want to be committed, tired of life or in a relationship that is already shaky - it would not survive the competition! Otherwise, it's a 'no-brainer'.

The undertaking of a new action brings new strength.

An oft-heard exclamation in teachers' lounges and school conferences is: "If she'd only try harder, she would do better." In fact, the opposite is true. In actuality, If she only did better, she would try harder.

Poor school performance and productivity are temporary; motivation is permanent.

My contention throughout this book is that reconnecting to nature is one key to growing a larger environmental movement. That reconnection is visceral and immediately useful to many people's lives. Encouraging personal reconnection does not mean less engagement with global environmental issues; it means more. To act, most of us need motivation beyond despair.

Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A word of optimism and hope. A "you can do it" when things are tough.

I don't know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports.

What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. ... If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance.

Most projects are built by people, and those people are the foundation for success and failure. So, it pays to think about what it takes to help make those people successful.

People believe they lack will power, but will power is not something you either have or don't, like blue eyes. Instead, it's a skill, like tennis or typing. You have to train your nervous system as you would train your muscles and reflexes. You have to take yourself to the psychic gym—but with the certainty that each time you practice an alternative behavior, you've made it easier to do next time.

Here's a simple intervention to show what a little change in your negative narrative can do. First-year college students who receive worse grades than they anticipate are highly likely to drop out. Some conclude they're just not college material, while others, who have a positive narrative, will absorb the news and decide to work harder.

A powerful example of beliefs at work: When schoolchildren are encouraged to believe that their bad grades come from lack of effort rather than lack of intelligence, they show remarkable gains in both persistence and accomplishment.

Pleasure and desire are altogether different things in the brain.

motivation follows action instead of the other way around.

Procrastinators tend to buy self-help books about procrastination, then take them home, put them on a shelf, and never read them.