Quotes About Determination

Your work is too important to be left to how you feel today.

Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most.

It's human nature to quit when it hurts. But it's that reflex that creates scarcity.

Success comes from doing the hard part. When the hard part is all you've got, you're more likely to do it. And this is precisely why it's difficult to focus. Because focusing means acknowledging that you just signed up for the hard part.

Focus is a choice. The runner who is concentrating on how much his left toe hurts will be left in the dust by the runner who is focusing on winning. Even if the winner's toe hurts just as much. Hurt, of course, is a matter of perception. Most of what we think about is. We have a choice about where to aim the lens of our attention.

Don't listen to the cynics. They're cynics for a reason. For them, the resistance won a long time ago. When the resistance tells you not to listen to something, read something, or attend something, go. Do it. It's not an accident that successful people read more books. Symptoms

the only thing holding you back from becoming the kind of person who changes things is this: lack of faith. Faith that you can do it. Faith that it's worth doing. Faith that failure won't destroy you.

Quejarse es estúpido. Actúa u olvídalo.» Stefan Sagmeister

Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time.

Excellence isn't about working extra hard to do what you're told. It's about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.

Here's an assignment for you: Write it down. Write down under what circumstances you're willing to quit. And when. And then stick with it.

Initiative = Happiness

Seeing clearly means that you're smart enough to know when a project is doomed, or brave enough to persevere when your colleagues are fleeing for the hills. Abandoning your worldview in order to try on someone else's is the first step in being able to see things as they are.

Sometimes, never let them see you sweat, is truly bad advice. The work of an individual who cares often exposes the grit and determination and effort that it takes to be present. Perfecting your talk, refining your essay and polishing your service until all elements of you disappear might be obvious tactics, but they remove the thing we were looking for: you.

If you took organic chemistry in college, you've experienced the Dip. Academia doesn't want too many unmotivated people to attempt medical school, so they set up a screen. Organic chemistry is the killer class, the screen that separates the doctors from the psychologists. If you can't handle organic chemistry, well, then, you can't go to med school.

Being an artist isn't a genetic disposition or a specific talent. It's an attitude we can all adopt. It's a hunger to seize new ground, make connections, and work without a map. If you do those things, you're an artist.

Don't fall in love with a tactic and defend it forever. Instead, decide once and for all whether you're in a market or not. And if you are, get through that Dip.

Quitting is difficult. Quitting requires you to acknowledge that you're never going to be #1 in the world. At least not at this. So it's easier just to put it off, not admit it, settle for mediocre.

When people quit, they are often focused on the short-term benefits. In other words, "If it hurts; stop!

Successful people don't just ride out the Dip. They don't just buckle down and survive it. No, they lean into the Dip. They push harder, changing the rules as they go. Just because you know you're in the Dip doesn't mean you have to live happily with it. Dips don't last quite as long when you whittle at them.

For the rest of us, it's not about what you're born with, it's about what you do.

People settle. They settle for less than they are capable of. Organizations settle too. For good enough instead of best in the world. If you're not going to put in the effort to be my best possible choice, why bother?

As we'll see, the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce. To create solutions and hustle them out the door.

Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations. Reactive quitting and serial quitting are the bane of those that strive (and fail) to get what they want. And most people do just that. They quit when it's painful and stick when they can't be bothered to quit.