We learn when we’re in our discomfort zone. When you’re struggling, that’s when you’re getting smarter. The more time you spend there, the faster you learn. It’s better to spend a very, very high quality ten minutes, or even ten seconds, than it is to spend a mediocre hour. You want to practice where you are on the edge of your ability, reaching over and over again, making mistakes, failing, realizing those mistakes and reaching again.
2. Stop reading. Start doing.
Our brains evolved to learn by doing things, not by hearing about them. This is one of the reasons that, for a lot of skills, it’s much better to spend about two thirds of your time testing yourself on it rather than absorbing it. There’s a rule of two thirds. If you want to, say, memorize a passage, it’s better to spend 30 percent of your time reading it, and the other 70 percent of your time testing yourself on that knowledge.
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. –Mahatma Gandhi
Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable. –Coco Chanel
Courage is grace under pressure. –Ernest Hemingway
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. –Albert Einstein
Sometimes you can’t see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others. –Ellen DeGeneres
It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop. –Confucius
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. –Warren Buffett
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. –Dr. Seuss
You only live once, but if you do right, once is enough. –Mae West
Once you choose hope, anything’s possible. –Christopher Reeve
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires. –Nelson Mandela
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart. –Helen Keller
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. –Mahatma Gandhi
The difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting. –Walt Disney
When you cease to dream you cease to live. –Malcolm Forbes
May you live every day of your life. –Jonathan Swift
Failure is another steppingstone to greatness. –Oprah Winfrey
If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve. –Jeff Bezos
In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different. –Coco Chanel
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. –Dolly Parton
The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes. –Frank Lloyd Wright
You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them. –Michael Jordan
You can’t please everyone, and you can’t make everyone like you. –Katie Couric
I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine. –Neil Armstrong
Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve. –Mary Kay Ash
If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything. –Malcolm X
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain
It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. –Abraham Lincoln
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. –William Edward Hickson
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others. –Audrey Hepburn
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. –John Quincy Adams
If your are going through hell, keep going. –Winston Churchill
The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. –Oprah Winfrey
A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work. –Colin Powell
The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. –Mark Zuckerberg
Do one thing every day that scares you. –Eleanor Roosevelt
The purpose of our lives is to be happy. –Dalai Lama
Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. –John D. Rockefeller
Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once. –Drew Houston
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Keep your face to the sunshine and you can never see the shadow. –Helen Keller
One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody. –Mother Teresa
Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but to try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow. –Jay-Z
If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased. –Katharine Hepburn
All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. –Walt Disney
I avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward. –Charlotte Bronte
Don’t count the days, make the days count. –Muhammad Ali
Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen. –Michael Jordan
Life is short, and it is here to be lived. –Kate Winslet
Everything you can imagine is real. –Pablo Picasso
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. –Barack Obama
It is never too late to be what you might have been. –George Eliot
If you love what you do and are willing to do what it takes, it’s within your reach. And it’ll be worth every minute you spend alone at night, thinking and thinking about what it is you want to design or build. –Steve Wozniak
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. –Maya Angelou
In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you. –Deepak Chopra
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. –Thomas A. Edison
We should remember that just as a positive outlook on life can promote good health, so can everyday acts of kindness. –Hillary Clinton
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. –Bill Gates
There are no mistakes, only opportunities. –Tina Fey
We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. –Ronald Reagan
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. –Oscar Wilde
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. –Albert Einstein
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. –Nelson Mandela
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs
But you have to do what you dream of doing even while you’re afraid. –Arianna Huffington
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. –Jimi Hendrix
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou
If you can do what you do best and be happy, you’re further along in life than most people. –Leonardo DiCaprio
Success isn’t about how much money you make. It’s about the difference you make in people’s lives. –Michelle Obama
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. –Warren Buffett
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. –George Bernard Shaw
The best way of learning about anything is by doing. –Richard Branson
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. –John F. Kennedy
Don’t let the fear of striking out hold you back. –Babe Ruth
Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. –Harriet Tubman
What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning. –Billie Jean King
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. –Benjamin Franklin
If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. –Bill Clinton
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. –Martin Luther King, Jr.
As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. –Arnold Schwarzenegger
Find out who you are and be that person. That’s what your soul was put on this Earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth and everything else will come. –Ellen DeGeneres
Your voice can change the world. –Barack Obama
The more you dream, the farther you get. –Michael Phelps
You must do the things you think you cannot do. –Eleanor Roosevelt
Every moment is a fresh beginning. –T.S. Eliot
A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom. –Bob Dylan
If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes. –Andrew Carnegie
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. –Frederick Douglass
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. –Robert Frost
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. –J.K. Rowling
If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward. –martin Luther King, Jr.
The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope. –Barack Obama
If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it. –Elon Musk
Be fearless. Have the courage to take risks. Go where there are no guarantees. Get out of your comfort zone even if it means being uncomfortable. The road less traveled is sometimes fraught with barricades, bumps, and uncharted terrain. But it is on that road where your character is truly tested. Have the courage to accept that you’ve not perfect, nothing is and no one is — and that’s OK. –Katie Couric
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. –Henry Ford
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. –e. e. cummings
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. –Stephen Hawking
Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things. –Albert Einstein
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. –Robert Frost
The greatest gift you can give anyone is a gift of empowerment and love. What could be more loving than helping people you care about get free from their limiting beliefs and ignorance about success, and empowering them to create the life that they truly want from the depths of their soul?
The greatest contribution you can make to the world is to grow in self-awareness, self-realization, and the power to manifest your own heartfelt dreams and desires. The next greatest thing you can do is to help others do the same. What a wonderful world it would be if we were all to do that.
One of the most powerful ways to learn anything is to teach it to others. It forces you to clarify your ideas, confront inconsistencies in your own thinking, and more closely walk your talk. But most importantly, it requires you to read, study, and speak the information over and over again. The resulting repetition reinforces your own learning.
There is no perfect time to start. Don’t keep putting things off waiting for 12 doves to fly over your house in the sign of a cross before you begin. Just start.
You want to be a public speaker? Fine. Schedule a free talk for a local service club, school, or church group. Just having a date will put the pressure on you to start researching and writing your speech. If that’s too big of a stretch, then join Toastmasters or take a speech class.
You want to be in the restaurant business? Go get a job in a restaurant and start learning the business. You want to be a chef? Great! Enroll in a cooking school. Take action and get started — today! You do not have to know everything to get going. Just get into the game. You will learn by doing.
The greatest levels of contentment and self-satisfaction are experienced by those who have found a way to serve others. In addition to the true inner joy that is created by serving others, it is a universal principle that you cannot serve others without it coming back multiplied to yourself.
Decide what is important to YOU
Take some time to determine what causes and groups of people are important to you. What issues call out to you? What organizations make your heart sing? Do you care more about the homeless or the arts?
