Friday Quotes About Focus, Determination & Perseverance
Real quick: After you read these Friday quotes about focus, determination and perseverance, click here and get a simple, powerful exercise you can use to achieve personal growth using the wisdom of these reflection quotes.
(The exercise is towards the bottom of that page, just beneath the 3 pictures with quotes).
If you do the exercise, you’ll be glad you did. Promise.
You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.
~ Mae West
Words of Wisdom from the Epic Sage, Mae West
Yes indeed, we only live once. And, as they say, there are no dress rehearsals. So, this is it Sparky. Better play it right.
This week’s quotes provide some global framework perspective that might help you play the right game, and play it well.
Each of the three Friday Quotes below build upon each other. The concepts embodied in these friday quotes about focus, determination and perseverance are:
- Know what game you’re playing (most people get to the end of their lives having played the wrong life game)
- Know what equipment/tools you have with which to play that game (and most people don’t recognize or capitalize on their best fulfillment and success tools) and
- Don’t manufacture rules (limitations) that aren’t even a required part of the game and, most importantly, that hold you back. You guessed it, we all assume and create rules that hold us back from becoming, being and living as big as we are capable of doing.
We Are All Social Beings
You and I are social beings. We’re made that way. We need others to survive. And without others’ help, we can never thrive. Ever.
We experience our world through our senses. Others’ behaviors, actions and reactions are important to us. They give us feedback as to how well we fit in. How safe we are. Both literally and figuratively.
And, because we all lack the ability to absolutely know others’ beliefs, intentions and future behaviors, we’re left to try and figure out just how well we actually do fit in. And, of course, just how safe we actually are.
So, it’s only natural that, in our pursuit of fitting in, so we might survive and thrive, we compare ourselves to others, often with the intention of figuring out how to “fit in” and be safe.
Enter Ego
But we also have this thing called ego. It wants more than to just fit in. Ego wants to be better. No, it wants to be the best.
After all, I AM different, right? I know it. I feel it. Hard as I want to fit in, I know in my heart that I am, in many ways, different.
And, if I am different, and I am, I want not to be inferior. I don’t want to be the same. I want to be better. More valuable. More exceptional in positive ways.
So, I need to fit in, for survival, but I also want to be the best. Which works against fitting in.
Being better not only satiates my ego, it also increases my survivability. Because, being special, being better, makes me of greater value to others. It makes me more capable. Potentially a leader.
But it also makes me a threat. To others’ egos. To others’ sense of fitting in. To others’ sense of comparable survivability.
A Different Approach
Think of anything great any human being’s ever done. Inventions. Science. Arts. Relationships. Commerce. Love. War.
Every great achievement requires great risk.
So, what if we were to throw out our natural need to fit in and the conflicting need to stand out and be better? At least insofar as how most of us allow these unconscious, human dynamics to control us and undermine our potential to be great, live great and achieve great?
What if we choose to celebrate our uniqueness? With passion? With confidence? With wonder, awe and excitement?
Yet also, without the arrogant, in-your-face “you MUST accept me as I am” or “look how special I am” mindset and behavior-set many individualists seem to engage in?
What if we celebrate our uniqueness, not demand others do the same, while applying our unique perspectives, passions and gifts to the betterment of others?
And this way, we fit in, by being of value to others. We will fit in, in that, if everyone is being their best, unique self, adding their greatest, individual value, then we will each fit in to a larger, complex puzzle whose whole is much greater than the sum of its individual parts.
Because, the truth is, no matter where you go…
Confidence, Self Love, Be True to Yourself
Because, no matter who we try to be, we can never get away from who we truly are. And when we try to be someone we really aren’t, people see it. And they dismiss us as inauthentic. Untrustworthy. Unlikable. Unsafe.
So, celebrate who you are. How you are just like me, and him, and her, in that we all need to fit in. We all need to be seen, heard, loved and appreciated. We all need to be safe, valued and valuable.
Yet, we are all also different.
And in these things, we are all just the same: Just the same; quite unique; and imperfectly perfect.
Because, at the end of the day… I mean, quite literally, at the end of your day, at your last breath, all that will have mattered was: did you live big? Did you matter to others? Did you use your wisdom, awareness, passions and gifts to make a difference.
Did you make things better? Were you the change you wished to see in the world?
Friday Quotes Closing
It’s said that how we do one thing, we do everything. If this is true, and there seems to be overwhelming evidence it is, what then? Use these Friday Quotes as more than momentary inspiration. Use them to build a better you. More positive and productive mindset. New and superior habits. A process that makes you more focused, motivated and productive each day. Click through here to the Personal Growth Exercise below the pictures and quotes on this page to complete the Friday Quotes Exercise, so these quotes might be more than just temporary inspiration for you.
And when you’re done, click here for a great resource on mindfulness.
How do you motivate your team?
Leadership (both inspiring and motivating your employees to achieve your goals) is a mixture of art and science.
Leadership skills are largely learned and developed through mindful, consistent practice.
CLICK HERE to begin mastery of motivation and inspiration skills by taking advantage of our acclaimed management and leadership skills development training courses, both online and in our live workshops.
