Catalyst Quotes

“Start Living the Life You’ve Imagined”

 

“It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.”   (Henry James)

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“Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul.”   (Niccolo Machiavelli)

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“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season.  It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year.  It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow.  Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.”   (W. E. B. DuBois)

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“No matter how intelligent or able you may be, if you don’t have a sense of urgency, now is the time to start developing it.  The world is full of very competent people who honestly intend to do things tomorrow, as soon as they can get around to it.  Their accomplishments, however, seldom match those of the less talented who are blessed with a sense of the importance of getting started now.”   (Bits & Pieces)

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“Choose action, not rest.  Choose truth, not fantasy.  Choose a smile, not a frown.  Choose love, not animosity.  Choose the good life in all things, and choose the opportunity as well as the chance to work when springtime smiles on your life.

Much of the effort and opportunity of springtime rests in the depth and degree of our faith.  Life provides no assurance that the planting of seeds will provide the reaping of crops.  We have only the demonstrated experiences of others to draw upon.  The storms of life could cancel our efforts expended in the fields of opportunity.  But to expend no effort during the spring will assure no results during the fall.”   (Jim Rohn, Seasons of Life)

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“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch.  Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”   (e. e. cummings)

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“The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t ‘ is you.  And you don’t have to listen.”   (Nike)

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“Have You Exhausted All Possibilities? Raise the Bar”

 

“Some people have called feedback the breakfast of champions.  But it isn’t the breakfast, it’s the lunch.  Vision is the breakfast.  Self-correction the dinner.”   (Stephen R. Covey, First Things First)

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“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.”   (John Maxwell)

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Some people I know work hard to lower the bar at work.

That was my strategy at gym class in high school.  Not only did I do the minimum amount permitted, I worked hard to do just a little bit less than that. By the time the semester was over, the teacher was relieved if I even bothered to show up at all.

Most people seek to meet the bar.  They figure out what’s expected, and do that.

A few people, very few, work to relentlessly raise the bar.  She’s the one who over delivers on projects, shows up ahead of schedule, instigates, suggests and pushes.

Raising the bar is exhausting, no doubt about it.  I’m not sure the people who engage in this apparently reckless behavior would have it any other way, though.  They get to experience a fundamentally different day, a different journey and a different reputation than everyone else.

[Why now? What has changed that makes promoting bar gymnastics more than a selfish effort by the boss to get more labor out of the workforce?

Simple.  This is the post-industrial era.  Success is not about speeding up the assembly line as much as it relies on individuals able to create leaps forward.  The person capable of doing that sort of work is in far higher demand than ever before.]”   (Seth Godin)

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“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.  Motivation determines what you do.  Attitude determines how well you do it.”   (Lou Holtz)

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“You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience.  The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.  Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgment.”   (Unknown Author)

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When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this:  you haven’t.”  (Thomas Edison) 

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“Know Yourself and Be Better”

 

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”   (Aristotle)

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“There are and will be times in our lives when our self-esteem will be called up and challenged.  Such times are critical opportunities.  They are structured so that who we are in terms of the vital themes of competence and worthiness are put in our hands in a way that can lead to either their increase or decrease.  Additionally, such an outcome depends largely on the degree of work, (i. e., struggle and awareness) that one does.  When the three factors – vulnerability, possibility and work – are taken up together, they constitute the underlying hope of self-esteem.”   (Dr. Chris Mruk)

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“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”   (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem.  That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.  (Thomas Szasz)

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“A speaker began a seminar, pulling a crisp, new bill from his pocket, and asked, ‘Who would like this $20 bill?’

Hands started going up.  He said, ‘I’m going to give this $20 bill to one of you, but first let me do this.’  He proceeded to crumple up the bill.  He then asked, ‘Who still wants it?’  Still the hands were up in the air.

‘Well,’ he replied, ‘what if I do this?’  He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor, so now the bill was not only crumpled, but also dirty.  ‘Now who still wants it?’  Still the hands went into the air.

‘My friends, you have all learned a valuable lesson.  No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.  It was still worth $20.  Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.  We feel as though we are worthless.  But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in the eyes of those who love you.  You are special – don’t ever forget it.’”  ( Anonymous)

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“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.  Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.  Try to be better than yourself.”   (William Faulkner)

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“Every day ask yourself, ‘What would I do today if I were a better person?’”  (Robert Brault)

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“Believe; We Can Change Anything”

 

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”   (Roald Dahl)

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“Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done.  God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing.”   (John Andrew Holmes)

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‘I Believe’

“I’ve been out walking for hours.

I’ve got something on my mind.

How did we get here? Where are we going?

And why is life so hard?

I read the stories, see the photographs.

World’s in a crazy space.

I’ve got to hold on to my dreams;

There’s just no other place.

There’s just no other place.

Chorus:

I believe

We can change anything.

I believe

We can rise above this.

I believe

There’s a reason for everything.

I believe

In my dream.

I’ve seen the shadows of the living.

Seen them turn and walk away.

And I keep searching for the right words

To send these thoughts away.

There’s a picture I like to look at,

A picture of a beautiful face.

And I see something in her eyes,

Sends me to a better place.

Sends me to a better place.

Chorus:

I believe

We can change anything.”   (‘I Believe’ song lyrics by Joe Satriani)

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“Lord, take me where You want me to go;

Let me meet who You want me to meet;

Tell me what You want me to say, and

Keep me out of Your way.”   (Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM, New York City Chaplain who died in 9/11)

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“’You’re dangerous,’ he says.

‘Why?’

‘Because you make me believe in the impossible.’”   (Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction)

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“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”   (Theodore Roosevelt)

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“Someday, You’ll Find Yourself”

 

“There are no happy endings.

Endings are the saddest part,

So just give me a happy middle

And a very happy start.”   (Shel Silverstein, Every Thing on It)

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“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back.

Because if you can look up, you can get up.”   (Les Brown)

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“It’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world.  Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much.  My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain, and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.”   (Alan Ball, ‘American Beauty’)

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“People tend to think that success is all about the end point, the victory. I would argue that success is in the little details, the perseverance through each day and just being able to close your eyes at night knowing that you didn’t lose sight of your goals.”   (Unknown)

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“Those folks who meet with life success and then tell the world it was due to their hard work, really make my job challenging.  They almost NEVER work harder than others.  They don’t even work smarter than others.

They simply leveraged the magic by thinking, speaking, and acting in line with what they wanted.

But, oh, no, they have to go out and tell impressionable minds that it was their hard work, and so, for all who listen and nod, it becomes hard work.

Leverage the magic by thinking, speaking, and acting as if all the things you want have become all the things you have.”     (signed)   ‘The Universe’     (Mike Dooley, ‘Notes from the Universe’)

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“As soon as we notice that certain types of events ‘like’ to cluster together at certain times, we begin to understand the attitude of the Chinese, whose theories of medicine, philosophy, and even building are based on a ‘science’ of meaningful coincidences. The classical Chinese texts did not ask what causes what, but rather what ‘likes’ to occur with what.”   (M.L. von Franz)

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“Someday, somewhere – anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.”   (Pablo Neruda)

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