Welcome to Litsy!

“Keep your eyes on the prize.”
—Alice Wine, civil rights activist

the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.

You can train people in the concepts, in how to think and what kinds of actions have worked, but you can‘t blueprint the specific sequence in every detail because circumstances are always different and always changing.

It‘s not that there‘s all that much to learn. It‘s like learning to play music: there are only twelve notes, after all. But to learn it, you need to hear it, and play it, over and over.

The point is simply to come up with a plan that will get you out of the starting gate.

Because if you don‘t create a concrete deadline, that last 20 percent never seems to show up—and you‘re always living in the 80 percent time saying, “Someday…”

“Do or do not—there is no try”

It‘s in that moment‘s decision, when nobody else is watching and no one will ever know, when your choice is so slight, so subtle, so insignificant … it‘s at that moment that you find out whether or not you have slight edge integrity.

The price of neglect is much worse than the price of the discipline.

Whatever the dream, whatever the goal, there‘s a price you‘ll need to pay, and yes, that does mean giving up something.

A burning desire backed by faith simply means deeply, passionately wanting to get somewhere and knowing—not hoping, not wishing, but knowing that you‘re going to get there.

No matter what you are trying to accomplish, you need to ask yourself, am I willing to put in 10,000 hours or more to get what I want?

I don‘t think it matters how successful you are, the funk is still going to get you at times. It comes for everyone. It doesn‘t discriminate.

Cultivating positive outlook does not mean you are always happy. It does not mean life never gets you down. It does not mean you walk around with an idiotic grin on your face even when you‘re hurting, and it doesn‘t mean living in denial, ignoring the realities of pain and struggle, or checking your brain at the door.

people who have made a habit of positive outlook don‘t just see the glass as half-full: they see it as overflowing.

If you will commit to showing up consistently, every day, no matter what, then you have already won well more than half the battle.

You wait and watch and work: you don‘t give up.

Skill, knowledge, experience, connections, resources, finesse, expertise, all these things are part of the journey—but none of them are possible until the journey itself is initiated.

Trying to get rid of an unwanted habit is a bit like trying not to think about an elephant (the more you try not to think about it, the more you think about it).

Looking for the positive side of every challenge can become a habit, and so can finding the cloud in every silver lining.

“Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.”
—Charles Reade (attrib.)

“People who feel good about themselves produce good results.” Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

simply because I didn‘t want to face that man in the mirror empty-handed again that night.

And all too often, what really happened is that they spent the day treading water like a duck swimming upriver against a strong current, its little webbed feet flailing away underneath but getting him nowhere.

Doing things won‘t create your success; doing the right things will. And if you‘re doing the wrong things, doing more of them won‘t increase your odds of success. It will only make you fail faster.

Each and every incomplete thing in your life or work exerts a draining force on you, sucking the energy of accomplishment and success out of you as surely as a vampire stealing your blood.

Let it go and let it flow.

Steady wins the race.

Who won the race—the tortoise or the hare? We all know the answer to that one. Yet we live in a world where most everyone has come to expect instant this and instant that, and if we don‘t get the results we‘re after fast and faster, we quit.

“Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.”
—Chinese proverb

Leadership is not something you do; it is something that grows organically out of the natural rhythm of learning.

It‘s amazing the impact one person can have on your life, just from the influence of how they see you, and what they see in you that you may not even see in yourself.

the quickest and surest path to raising the quality of your life is to start hanging out with people who have been there and done that.

“You must hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anyone else says to you, don‘t let ‘em get your goat. Try fightin‘ with your head for a change.”
—Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

What determines where you end up? It‘s all a question of what route you have programmed into your subconscious

You, through the power of your own thoughts, are the most influential person in your life. Which means there is nobody more effective at undermining your success—and nobody more effective at supporting your success.

it‘s not even a matter of “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Forget wishing—it‘s a matter of what you think, period.

But most of the time, it‘s that silent voice whispering between your ears—and there is no voice more powerful.

“It‘s not how you plan your work, it‘s how you work your plan.”

You return again and again to take the proper course—guided by what? By the picture in mind of the place you are headed for. John McDonald, The Message of a Master

"Would you like me to give you the formula for success? It‘s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.… You‘re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn‘t at all. You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that‘s where you‘ll find success. On the other side of failure." Thomas Watson

Life is doing. If you aren‘t doing, you‘re dying.

the problem is not that people read too little, but that they fill their brains with stuff that ain‘t doing them no good.

They spend their lives building someone else‘s dream, not because they aren‘t capable of building their own but because they never gained the knowledge they need.

Time may not heal all wounds, but it does bring about all change, sooner or later.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.”
—Abraham Lincoln (attrib.)

Gandhi put it this way: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

The universe is curved, and everything is constantly changing. There are only two possibilities. Either you let go of where you are and get to where you could be, or you hang onto where you are and give up where you could be. You are either going for your dreams or giving up your dreams. Stretching for what you could be, or settling for what you are. There is simply no in-between.

The size of the problem determines the size of the person.

Visions and visionaries make people uncomfortable.