Quotes About Growth

Acceptance can transform but if you accept in order to transform, it is not acceptance. It is like loving. Love seeks no reward but when given freely comes back a hundredfold. He who loses his life finds it. He who accepts, changes.

People do think that if they avoid the truth, it might change to something better before they have to hear it.

I never said I knew much. How was I supposed to learn anything living out here? I didn't know enough to do half the things I did in my life. Things happen. You do what you can about them and you see what happens next.

breakups mean flowers.

I've always liked high school. I'm not deluded, of course. I know these aren't the best years of my life, but as a subject and experience, it's pretty interesting.

Why should you feel guilty if you refuse to be intimidated by [someone] who persists in standing in the way of your being that best self or who is "hurt" when you finally manage it? . . . The highest love a person can have for you is to wish for you to evolve into the best person you can be. No one owns you, no matter what your relationship.

You may feel like dwelling on your limits or your fears. Don't do it. A perfect prescription for a squandered, unfulfilled life is to accommodate self-defeating feelings while undercutting your finest, most productive ones.

MBR: In my lifetime I've been called a multitude of names, yet I can't recall seriously learning anything by being told what I am. I'd like to learn from your appreciation and enjoy it, but I would need more information.

the actions that have contributed to our well-being

Marshall, I wish you had taught me two years ago what you taught me this morning. I wouldn't have had to kill my best friend.

We begin to feel this bliss when messages previously experienced as critical or blaming begin to be seen for the gifts they are: opportunities to give to people who are in pain.

If the way we evaluate ourselves leads us to feel shame, and we consequently change our behavior, we are allowing our growing and learning to be guided by self-hatred.

An important aspect of self-compassion is to be able to empathically hold both parts of ourselves—the self that regrets a past action and the self that took the action in the first place. The process of mourning and self-forgiveness frees us in the direction of learning and growing. In connecting moment by moment to our needs, we increase our creative capacity to act in harmony with them.

Assim, quando fazemos algo pouco enaltecedor, nosso desafio é nos autoavaliarmos a cada momento, de modo que nos inspiremos a mudar (1) na direção em que gostaríamos de ir e (2) por respeito e compaixão com nós mesmos, em vez de por ódio, culpa ou vergonha.

It should not surprise us that people cause us troubles, temptations, oppositions and difficulties. We should accept these and bear them for as long as God wishes, and view them as highly beneficial to our spiritual development.

People don't get better without follow-up. So let's get better at following up with our people.

If you want to change anything about yourself, the best time to start is now. Ask yourself, "What am I willing to change now?" Just do that. That's more than enough. For now.

We can change not only our behavior but how we define ourselves. When we put ourselves in a box marked "That's not me," we ensure that we'll never get out of it.

If we're satisfied with our life—not necessarily happy or delighted that we've exceeded our wildest expectations, just satisfied—we yield to inertia. We continue doing what we've always done. If we're dissatisfied, we may go to the other extreme, falling for any and every idea, never pursuing one idea long enough so that it takes root and actually shapes a recognizably new us.

going backwards is not about creating change. It's about understanding.

Improvement is hard. If it were easy, we'd already be better.

Peter Drucker famously said, "Half the leaders I have met don't need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop.

But for some reason, many people enjoy living in the past, especially if going back there lets them blame someone else for anything that's gone wrong in their lives. That's when clinging to the past becomes an interpersonal problem. We use the past as a weapon against others.

Understanding the past is perfectly admissible if your issue is accepting the past. But if your issue is changing the future, understanding will not take you there.