Catalyst Quotes

Compiled by Alex Pena ~ ‘Catalyst’: “to spark, to ignite, energize, mobilize; something that accelerates a reaction (DDI)." Thought-provoking & motivational quotes and stories for you to read, reflect on and move forward in making creative and positive changes in your life.

Archive for the month “November, 2012”

26 Nov 2012

“Attitude Determines Altitude”

“I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important. My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free. Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money or I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my health or I can rejoice that I am alive. Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing up or I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born. Today I can cry because roses have thorns or I can celebrate that thorns have roses. Today I can mourn my lack of friends or I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships. Today I can whine because I have to go to work or I can shout for joy because I have a job to do. Today I can complain because I have to go to school or eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.

Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework or I can feel honored because I have been provided shelter for my mind, body and soul. Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping. What today will be like is up to me; I get to choose what kind of day I will have!” (Author Unknown)

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26 Nov 2012

“How Do You Get People to Change?”

“How do you get people to change? The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture or systems. All those elements, and others, are important. But the core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people, and behavior changes happen … mostly by speaking to people’s feelings.” (John P. Kotter, Harvard professor and author of Leading Change)

“So, you want to change your people! Do you know your people? If you don’t know your people, there won’t be any understanding. With no understanding, there’s no trust. With no trust, no change. If you don’t love your people, there won’t be passion for change. With no passion, no value for taking risks. If people don’t take risks, there won’t be any changes. So, if you want to change your people … You have to know them.” (Mother Theresa)

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.” (Albert Schweitzer)

“After a game, coaches review the day’s videotape relentlessly. They watch over and over again to see what worked and what did not, who executed properly, and who did not. They use what they learn … . This technique can be effective in business too. Replay the tape at the end of your day. In your mind, spend a few minutes in the evening thinking through the conversations you had during the day, and the actions you took. Think about how you handled challenging situations – what worked and what you’ll do differently next time. Reflect on what you learned about others, and about yourself. Commit to improving. Congratulate yourself on the things you did well. Do it every evening. Make it a habit.” (The Six Fundamentals of Success, Stuart R. Levine)

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25 Nov 2012

“Living Fearlessly; Making the Most of One’s Best”

“You don’t hear so much about people with a dream today. It’s almost as if they’re afraid to discover what they’re individually capable of and would rather just follow the other fellow. But all of us have more inside us that we believe possible. We have to dream big and dare to fail to bring it out.” (Norman Vaughan, explorer/mountain climber)

“Living fearlessly is not the same thing as never being afraid. It’s good to be afraid occasionally. Fear is a great teacher. What’s not good is living in fear, allowing fear to dictate your choices, allowing fear to define who you are. Living fearlessly means standing up to fear, taking its measure, refusing to let it shape and define your life. Living fearlessly means taking risks, taking gambles, not playing it safe. It means refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer when you are sure that the answer should have been ‘yes.” It means refusing to settle for less than what is your due, what is yours by right, what is yours by the sweat of your labor and your effort.” (Michael Ignatieff)

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

“I’ve learned that only through focus can you do world-class things, no matter how capable you are.” (Bill Gates)

“One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world – making the most of one’s best.” (Harry Emerson Fosdick)

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25 Nov 2012

“No Need to Wait to Improve the World”

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” (Harriet Tubman)

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” (Langston Hughes)

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” (Harper Lee, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’)

“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.” (Pope John XXIII)

“If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened.” (Epictetus)

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” (Anne Frank)

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23 Nov 2012

“Look Outside Your Heart, Dream; Look Inside, Awake”

“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” (Joseph Campbell)

“Is there a human being alive who is capable of getting to an airplane who doesn’t know how to buckle his seatbelt? Given that we have 100% seatbelt understanding among the flying population, why do flight attendants repeat the instructions literally millions of times a year?

It’s stuck.

Change gets made by people who care, who have some sort of authority and are willing to take responsibility. Often, though, finding all three is tough, particularly when faced with the immovable object of the stuck organization.

One approach to getting unstuck is the clean sheet of paper. Dictate that the speech before flight is going to change, that the menu will be redone, that the qualifications are going to start over, from zero.

Move your team, completely rewrite (and) throw out the standard script — by creating a vacuum, you give your team permission to invent.” (Seth Godin)

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” (Kahlil Gibran)

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart …. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” (Carl Jung)

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23 Nov 2012

“An Old Farmer’s Advice”

At times, the best advice comes from simple folks. As you read the advice from an old farmer below, some of them may not make sense at first because of the “country talk” but think about them and great wisdom will come to you. Enjoy! ~ GM Universe

“An Old Farmer’s Advice:

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.
Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
Words that soak into your ears are whispered … not yelled.
Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.
Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
You cannot unsay a cruel word.
Every path has a few puddles.
When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
The best sermons are lived, not preached.
Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.
Don’t judge folks by their relatives.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.
Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t botherin’ you none.
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.
Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’.
Always drink upstream from the herd.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.
If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.” (www.appleseeds.org/)

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23 Nov 2012

“Remove a Mountain; Carry Away Small Stones”

“Nobody is here to fulfill your dream. Everybody is here to fulfill his own destiny, his own reality.” (Osho)

“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” (Maya Angelou)

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.” (Ernest Hemingway)

“Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic.” (Jean Sibelius)

“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face … we must do that which we think we cannot.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

“The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” (Chinese Proverb)

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21 Nov 2012

“Thank You”

“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” (Edward Sandford Martin)

“Encourage one another. Many times a word or praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept people on their feet.” (Charles Swindoll)

“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” (Brian Tracy)

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” (Meister Eckhart)

“If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” (W. Clement Stone)

Thanksgiving Day is primarily an American holiday celebrated on November 22; however, Canada has a Thanksgiving Day celebrated in October and many other countries throughout the world set aside a day to give thanks and show gratitude. Regardless of whether there is a formal day to celebrate either as a cultural or religious holiday, giving thanks and showing gratitude is ingrained in all of us. Tell those around you “Thank You.” ~ GM Universe

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21 Nov 2012

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“Don’t Be Content Easily”

“…in all the woods and forests, God did not create a single leaf the same as any other …. People go against nature because they lack the courage to be different.” (Paulo Coelho)

“Three daily reminders: Have courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Have the courage to do the right thing because it is right.” (Mark Twain)

“Never doubt the capacity of the people you lead to accomplish whatever you dream for them. It’s a principal that leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela have all embodied. Imagine if Martin Luther King had said, ‘I have a dream – I wonder if people will be up to it?’” (Benjamin Zander)

“Don’t be content easily. Those who remain content easily remain small: small are their joys, small are their ecstasies, small are their silences, small is their being. But there is no need! This smallness is your own imposition upon your freedom, upon your unlimited possibilities, upon your unlimited potential.” (Osho)

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” (e.e. cummings)

“Trust the still, small voice that says, ‘This might work and I’ll try it.'” (Diane Mariechild)

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20 Nov 2012

“Rule Number 6”

“Two prime ministers were sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly an aide burst in, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The host prime minister quietly said, “Peter, kindly remember Rule Number Six.” Peter was instantly restored to complete calm, apologized for the interruption, and left the room. The prime ministers resumed their discussion. Several minutes later, another aide rushed in, shouting and stamping. Again the host prime minister quietly said, “Marie, please remember Rule Number Six.” Marie calmed down immediately, apologized, and left the room.

The visiting prime minister said “I’ve seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Tell me, what is this Rule Number Six?” The host prime minister said, “It’s really very simple. Rule Number Six is ‘Don’t take yourself so damned seriously.’” After a moment of pondering, the visiting prime minister inquired, “And what, may I ask, are the other rules?” The host replied, “There aren’t any.” (Unknown Author)

“Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.” (Elbert Hubbard)

“I am the author of my life. Unfortunately, I’m writing in pen and I can’t erase my mistakes.” (My Friend)