Getting started quotes

I believe that it's in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.

A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.

Action is the foundational key to all success.

I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve.

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.

If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

Most of us are good 'starters' but poor 'finishers' of everything we begin.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.

If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.

If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll get nothing done.

Always I will take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.

Action is the food and drink which will nourish my success.

Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy.

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.

Event + Response = Outcome.

If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it.

You are never going to feel like it.

Motivation is garbage.

Stop whining, start hustling.

Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

Conditions are never perfect. 'Someday' is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.

Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.

Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.

It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer.

I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.

It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.

Things don't just happen, they are made to happen.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice, their choice.

We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Our destiny is not written for us, but by us.

The time is always right to do what's right.

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.

If you can't fly, run; if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.

Freedom is not a state; it is an act.

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them.

In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.

This didn't come about because of consensus. It happened because we said: this we believe, this we will do. It's called leadership.

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work.

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.

Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we help. Only if we help shall they be saved.

The greatest danger to our future is apathy.

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

Well done is better than well said.

Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?

For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.

Our characters are the result of our conduct.

The beginning is the most important part of any work.

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, but because we do not dare, things are difficult.

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Let us cultivate our garden.

Only thoughts reached by walking have value.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

My thinking is first and last and always for the sake of my doing.

It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.

What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act.

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have.

Real artists ship.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

Nothing is particularly hard if you subdivide it into small jobs.

I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.

In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.

Screw it, let's do it.

Small steps lead to big accomplishments.

Done is better than perfect.

Don't stop. Don't even think about stopping until you get there, and don't give much thought to where 'there' is.

Change before you have to.

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.

An entrepreneur is someone who will jump off a cliff and assemble an airplane on the way down.

Do things that don't scale.

The sidelines are not where you want to live your life. The world needs you in the arena.

Optimism for me isn't a passive expectation that things will get better; it's a conviction that we can make things better.

We have a strategic plan. It's called doing things.

Don't worry, be crappy.

You don't have to think about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing, then you do it without thinking.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.

UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

You're off to great places. Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way.

Oh the things you can find If you don't stay behind!

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world!

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.

I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today.

Balance your thoughts with action. If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

If you hear a voice within you saying, 'You are not a painter,' then by all means paint, boy, and that voice will be silenced, but only by working.

Do not confuse dreams with wishes. There is a difference.

I know how it looks. But just start. Nothing is insurmountable.