My favourite motivational quotes and how they have actually changed my life!

Motivational quotes are a great way to cheer us up and spur us on, not to mention they look great as wall art! But sometimes these words really hit home and do much more than provide a five-minute lift. The following quotes are burned into my brain and they surface over and over when I need them most.

Whether I’m having a tough meeting, an unproductive day, writer’s block or just need a little more confidence in myself, these words have changed my life.

So here’s a little pep talk to lift your day!

Progress is good enough.

Strive for progress, not perfection.

– Unknown

There is nothing like striving for a little bit of perfection to put the brakes on… well, everything! You can’t move forward until you’ve researched EVERYTHING. You can’t share your creations until they are just right and you couldn’t possibly step into the great unknown of any new project until you somehow know and are prepared for every aspect.

Probably some of the best advice I read before starting blogging was that a year into it, you would look back and think your early posts were such rubbish that there was no point agonising over them now. So you may as well just write your first twenty posts now to get them under your belt and start improving.

It’s really about recognising that sometimes the only way to get better, closer to this unicorn of perfection, is to start by being mediocre. I’m sure there aren’t many success stories out there that don’t have a few mediocre starts under their belt, or failures for that matter. Which leads me to my next favourite…

Taking action.

Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Wishing is not enough, we must do.

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ooh goodness, this has taken me a long time to learn! I’m a thinker, you see. I like to think, philosophise, theorise… But I also have big dreams. And there is only one way I am going to get there. By doing.

This is what the VIBES method teaches; our thoughts must be followed up with action if we want to achieve success.

So these are the words, truly, that have helped me to start taking steps over the last two years to really follow my dreams, rather than just, well… dream them. The more I lean in to the power of thoughts, the more I understand that the only reality is the thoughts that we put into action. Without action, our thoughts remain unrealised and our dreams remain just that, dreams.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

– Confucius

This is pretty much the story of the hare and the turtle, right? Just one foot in front of the other will get us to the finish line. It’s the distractions, re-directions, self-doubt and loss of focus that stops us from reaching the finish line, not the speed we are going.

Being brave enough to walk your own path.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference.

Robert Frost

It’s tough swimming against the current, when everyone else is going one way and you’re going the other. But we just weren’t made to all take the same path.

And learning to listen to your inner voice, trusting your inner voice, and making choices that are right for you, that’s where you’ll find your true happiness.

Embracing change.

The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

– Socrates

Why is this the secret to change?

Because when you focus on building the new, the old just falls away. It doesn’t need a second thought. Any time spent worrying about the old is just time wasted.

The power of thought.

When we truly start understanding the power of our thoughts and the extent to which our thoughts shape our environment, that’s when we start to take better care of what we allow into our thoughts.

Whatever you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.

– Henry Ford

And lastly…

What you think, you become.

What you feel, you attract.

What you imagine, you create.

– Buddha

I try to remember this one every day. This is the motivational quote, in fact, that inspired my clothing brand Manifest Your Vibes.

What you think, you become.

I wanted to help people keep their thoughts focused and their intentions on their goals. Writing your goals down in your journal is a good place to start, but what happens when you put the journal down and your day gets busy? Wear your intentions of course! With motivational, law-of-attraction inspired clothing and accessories you can carry your intention with you all day, every day!

By keeping our focus on our goals, and not allowing distractions to steal our focus, we can manifest our dreams into reality. Now how’s that for a bit of motivation?!