We all wait for things to get easier….It will never get easier. What happens is, you handle hard stuff better….If you go around waiting for things to get easier in life, it’s never going to happen. Don’t think, “When is it going to be easy for me, like it’s easy for other people?” It’s not; it’s hard for everyone. Make yourself a person who handles hard well, not a person who’s waiting for the easy. If you have a meaningful pursuit in life, it will never be easy. People who handle hard well are the people who get the stuff they want. Don’t get discouraged if it’s hard; it’s supposed to be hard. Make yourself someone who handles hard well, and then, whatever comes at you, you’ll be great. – Kara Lawson, Women’s Basketball Coach, Duke University
Ordinary People
There are sufficient ordinary people; the world does not require that you be yet another one. Therefore, feel free to do what it takes to become extraordinary, should that interest you. --Steven R. Hobbs
Unavoidable Ills
We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided. --Clarence Day
A Ship in Harbor
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. --John A. Shedd
Patience and Time
Patience and time do more than strength or passion. --Jean de La Fontaine
Must and Can't
You must do the things you think you cannot do. --Eleanor Roosevelt
Hard to Fail
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. --Theodore Roosevelt
Nothing Permanent
There is nothing permanent except change. --Heraclitus
Hard Work Wins
Hard work wins. You get out of life what you put into it. You cannot control the outcome, but you are one hundred percent in control of the effort. And before you complain about what somebody did to you or said to you, go to the nearest mirror, look at it and say, what could I have done to change the outcome? And no matter how good you are, how hard you work, sooner or later, bad things are gonna happen to you. How you deal with those bad things will tell your mother and me if we raised a man. –Randolph Elder in Dear Father, Dear Son by Larry Elder
Curative
Every brand of psychotherapy regardless of its scientific, fundamental, or philosophical orientation, has converged on the idea that voluntary exposure to challenge is curative. — Jordan Peterson
Trip and Fall
The goal in life isn’t to never trip or fall, but, rather, to trip or fall less often than you used to. --Steven R. Hobbs
Swimming Against the Stream
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. --Woodrow Wilson
I Am Only One
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. --Edward Everett Hale
Failure will never overtake me...
Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. --Og Mandino
Largest Burden
The purpose of life is finding the largest burden that you can bear and bearing it. ― Jordan B. Peterson
The Life We Have Planned
“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” --E.M. Forster
Cannot Do, Can Do
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” --John Wooden
I've Failed
“I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.” --Michael Jordan
Strong Soul
Permanence, perseverance, and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: it is this that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. --Thomas Carlyle
Dare Mighty Things
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” --Theodore Roosevelt