Catalyst Quotes

“Searching for the Truth – Challenged to Change Ourselves”

“I am one of the searchers.  There are, I believe, millions of us.  We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content.  We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret.  We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand.  We like to walk along the beach; we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty.  We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well.  Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter.  To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know – unless it be to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide.  Most of all we love and want to be loved.  We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give.  We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful.  It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves.”   (James Kavanaugh, There Are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves)

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“Faith is universal.  Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary. Some of us pray to Jesus, some of us go to Mecca, some of us study subatomic particles.  In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.”   (Dan Brown, Angels & Demons)

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“We live in an age fit for heroes.  No time has ever offered such perils or prizes.  Man can provide a full life for humanity – or he can destroy himself with the problems he has created. The test … will be whether man confuses the growth of wealth and power with the growth of spirit and character.”   (Vince Lombardi)

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“The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing.”   (Ernest Hemingway)

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“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.  And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”   (Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist)

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“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”   (Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning)

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“Make Big Plans – Choose Your Response – Be Response Able”

“Every project we undertake starts with the same question:

‘How can we do what has never been done before?’”   (Stuart Hornery, Lend Lease)

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“Make big plans … that’s the best way to make big things happen.

Write down your plans.  Share them with trusted colleagues.  Seek out team members and accomplices.

Shun the non-believers.  They won’t be easily convinced, but they can be ignored.

Is there any doubt that making big plans increases the chances that something great will happen?

Is there any doubt that we need your contribution?

Why then, are you hesitating to make big plans?”   (Seth Godin)

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“The worst moments are your best opportunity.  That’s how we judge you and how we remember you.  You are presumed to be showing us your real self when you are on deadline, have a headache, are facing a customer service meltdown, haven’t had a good night’s sleep, are facing an ethical dilemma, are momentarily in power, are caught doing something when you thought no one else was looking, are irritable, have the opportunity to extract revenge, are losing a competition or are truly overwhelmed.

What a great opportunity to tell the story you’d like us to hear about you.”   (Seth Godin)

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“To be proactive means you take the initiative to do whatever’s necessary to make good things happen.  The best way to predict your future is to create it.

The opposite of this is to be reactive; which basically means that your life is a function of your feelings, your moods, your impulses, or how other people treat you.  You feel you have ample justification to say that you are what other people have made you.  You are what your past has made you.  You are what is happening to you.  And so you don’t take responsibility.

The underlying principle of being proactive is to take responsibility.  You and I have the capacity to choose our response.

I am responsible. 

I am response able.”   (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey)

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“Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don’t live in a perfect world.”   (Joyce Meyer)

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“When [what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine] come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life.  For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life.  And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution.  Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions:  knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.”   (Jim Collins, Good to Great:  Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t)

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“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.  Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”   (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching)

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“What Kind of Person Do You Want to Be in Life”

“You are what you want to become.  Why search anymore?

You are a wonderful manifestation.

The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible.

There is nothing that is not you.”   (Thich Nhat Hanh)

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“You don’t need anyone’s affection or approval in order to be good enough. When someone rejects or abandons or judges you, it isn’t actually about you.  It’s about them and their own insecurities, limitations, and needs, and you don’t have to internalize that.  Your worth isn’t contingent upon other people’s acceptance of you — it’s something inherent.

You exist, and therefore, you matter. You’re allowed to voice your thoughts and feelings. You’re allowed to assert your needs and take up space.  You’re allowed to hold onto the truth that who you are is exactly enough.  And you’re allowed to remove anyone from your life who makes you feel otherwise.”   (Daniell Koepke)

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“Ask yourself what kind of person you want to be in the life that you will live today.  Throughout the day, remind yourself that your life is happening right now.”   (H.H. the Karmapa)

“And maybe what growing up really means is knowing that you don’t have to be just a character, going whichever way the story says.  It’s knowing you could be the author instead.”   (Ava Dellaira)

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“10 to Zen

Let go of comparing.

Let go of competing.

Let go of judgments.

Let go of anger.

Let go of regrets.

Let go of worrying.

Let go of blame.

Let go of guilt

Let go of fear.

Have a proper belly laugh at least once a day (especially if it’s about your inability to let go of any or all of the above.)”  (BuddhaHeart)

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“Remind myself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment.”   (Og Mandino)

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“So How Good Do You Want to Be?”

“Do you deserve it?

Do you deserve the luck you’ve been handed?  

The place you were born, the education you were given, the job you’ve got?  

Do you deserve your tribe, your customer base, your brand?

Not at all.  ‘Deserve’ is such a loaded word.  

The question shouldn’t be, ‘do you deserve it.’  

I think it should be, ‘what are you going to do with it now that you’ve got it?’”   (Seth Godin)

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“Many people are eager to have soothsayers predict their future.  

Fewer are willing to take responsibility for writing their own fortune.  

Your future is a blank sheet of paper waiting for you to create what is to come.”   (Jim Clemmer)

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“So how good do you want to be?  All of us want to be good at our jobs, but how good do we really want to be?  Quite good.  Good.  Very good.  The best in the field.  Or the best in the world?  Talent helps, but it won’t take you as far as ambition.  … Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great.  Most people are looking for a solution, a way to become good.  There is no instant solution, the only way to learn is through experience and mistakes.  You will become whoever you want to be.

You can achieve the unachievable.  Firstly you need to aim beyond what you are capable of.

You must develop a complete disregard for where you abilities end.  Try to do the things that you’re incapable of.  If you think you’re unable to work for the best company in its sphere, make that your aim.  If you think you’re incapable of running a company, make that your aim. If you think you’re unable to be on the cover of Time magazine, make it your business to be there.  Make your vision of where you want to be a reality.  Nothing is impossible.”   (Paul Arden, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be)

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“Vision without execution is hallucination.”   (Thomas Edison)

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“No one’s life should be rooted in fear.  We are born for wonder, for joy, for hope, for love, to marvel at the mystery of existence, to be ravished by the beauty of the world, to seek truth and meaning, to acquire wisdom, and by our treatment of others to brighten the corner where we are.”   (Dean Koontz, Life Expectancy)

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“Being Brave Doesn’t Mean You Aren’t Scared”

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird.  It would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.  We are like eggs at present.  And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.”   (C. S. Lewis)

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“The decision to be positive is not one that disregards or belittles the sadness that exists. It is rather a conscious choice to focus on the good and to cultivate happiness—genuine happiness. Happiness is not a limited resource.  And when we devote our energy and time to trivial matters, and choose to stress over things that ultimately are insignificant. From that point, we perpetuate our own sadness, and we lose sight of the things that really make us happy and rationalize our way out of doing amazing things.”   (Christopher Aiff)

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“There are moments in your life that make you, that set the course of who you’re gonna be.  Sometimes they’re little, subtle moments.  Sometimes, they’re not.  …  Bottom line is, even if you see ‘em coming, you’re not ready for the big moments.  No one asks for their life to change, not really.  But it does.  So what are we, helpless?  Puppets?  No.  The big moments are gonna come.  You can’t help that.  It’s what you do afterwards that counts.  That’s when you find out who you are.”   (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)

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“Sometimes I think that wisdom slips from my mind like drool from the lips of an idiot…

Where’s all this stuff coming from?  Is it any good?  Any good in, you know, the wisdom sense? Who am I to spout this stuff anyway?

Well, here’s the thing.  You too can find yourself shedding wisdom like cat hair if you only allow yourself the liberty of introspection.

Think about what you alone know that no one else does.  That one neat wonderful profound insight.  It is fully yours.  No one else on this planet of about six billion people understands it like you do.

Now, see if you can share it with someone.  Bestow it, a gift of yourself.

Wisdom is like gossip.  Except it’s the good kind.”   (Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration)

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“Being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared.  Being brave means you are scared, really scared, badly scared, and you do the right thing anyway.”   (Neil Gaiman, Coraline)

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“The Question of What We Are”

“The question of what we are can only be answered by ourselves.  We each decide what we are by the life choices we make.  How we were made, who are parents are, where we are from, the color of our skin, who we choose to love, all those things do not define us. Our actions define us, and will keep defining us until even after death.”   (P. C. Cast, Destined)

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“If everybody spent enough time worrying about their own goddamn selves, no one would have to worry about anyone else.”   (Don De Grazia, American Skin)

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“You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.”   (Alan Wilson Watts)

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“Jesus Christ knew he was God.  So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, they’ll say you’re crazy and you’re blasphemous, and they’ll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing).  However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, ‘My goodness, I’ve just discovered that I’m God,’ they’ll laugh and say, ‘Oh, congratulations, at last you found out.’”   (Alan Wilson Watts, The Essential Alan Watts)

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“I’ve tried

 to become someone else for a while,

only to discover that he, too, was me.”   (Stephen Dunn)

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“What I’m looking for is not out there, it is in me.”   (Helen Keller)

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“Don’t Exist. Explore. Challenge Yourself.”

“How do you expect to be happy with more if you’re not happy with what you have now?”   (Anonymous)

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“How do I get rid of the fear?

Alas, this is the wrong question.

The only way to get rid of the fear is to stop doing things that might not work, to stop putting yourself out there, to stop doing work that matters.

No, the right question is, ‘How do I dance with the fear?’

Fear is not the enemy.  Paralysis is the enemy.”   (Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog, April 20, 2014)

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“Don’t exist.

Get out, explore.

Challenge authority.  Challenge yourself.

Change forever.

Become who you say you always will.  Keep moving.  Don’t stop.  Start the revolution.  Become a freedom fighter.  Become a superhero.  Just because everyone doesn’t know your name doesn’t mean you don’t matter.

Are you happy?  Have you ever been happy?  What have you done today to matter?  Did you exist or did you live?  How did you thrive?

Become a chameleon – fit in anywhere.  Be a rock star – stand out everywhere.  Do nothing, do everything.  Forget everything, remember everyone.  Care, don’t just pretend to.  Listen to everyone.  Love everyone and nothing at the same time.  It’s impossible to be everything, but you can’t stop trying to do it all.  

Make this moment your reckoning.  Your head has been held under water for too long and now it is time to rise up and take your first true breath.

Do everything with exact calculation, nothing without meaning.  Do not make careful your words, but make no excuses for what you say.  F*** ’em all.  Set a goal for everyday and never be tired.”   (Brian Krans, A Constant Suicide)

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“When nobody else celebrates you, learn to celebrate yourself.  When nobody else compliments you, then compliment yourself.  It’s not up to other people to keep you encouraged.  It’s up to you.  Encouragement should come from the inside.”   (Joel Osteen)

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“Who wants to be normal when we can be special?”   (Phoebe Halliwell, ‘Charmed’)

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