Challenging Motivational Quotes

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Life is about accepting the challenges along the way, choosing to keep moving forward, and savoring the journey.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
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Viktor E. Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning)
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When the going gets tough, put one foot in front of the other and just keep going. Don’t give up.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.
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Eleanor Roosevelt (The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt)
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When things do not go your way, remember that every challenge β€” every adversity β€” contains within it the seeds of opportunity and growth.
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Roy T. Bennett
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You learn something valuable from all of the significant events and people, but you never touch your true potential until you challenge yourself to go beyond imposed limitations.
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Roy T. Bennett
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Challenge and adversity are meant to help you know who you are. Storms hit your weakness, but unlock your true strength.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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You are not a victim. No matter what you have been through, you're still here. You may have been challenged, hurt, betrayed, beaten, and discouraged, but nothing has defeated you. You are still here! You have been delayed but not denied. You are not a victim, you are a victor. You have a history of victory.
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Steve Maraboli (Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience)
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When you're following your inner voice, doors tend to eventually open for you, even if they mostly slam at first.
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Kelly Cutrone (If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You)
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Always believe in yourself and always stretch yourself beyond your limits. Your life is worth a lot more than you think because you are capable of accomplishing more than you know. You have more potential than you think, but you will never know your full potential unless you keep challenging yourself and pushing beyond your own self imposed limits.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Every challenge you face today makes you stronger tomorrow. The challenge of life is intended to make you better, not bitter.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Whenever you are going through life’s challenges, remember that for iron to be cast into its desired form, it must first go through intense heat.
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Idowu Koyenikan (All You Need Is a Ball: What Soccer Teaches Us about Success in Life and Business)
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You have come a long way and have won many battles. Whenever you’re faced with a difficult or challenging situation, you’ll overcome it. Yes, you can.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Difficulties and adversities viciously force all their might on us and cause us to fall apart, but they are necessary elements of individual growth and reveal our true potential. We have got to endure and overcome them, and move forward. Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Get Off The Scale! You are beautiful. Your beauty, just like your capacity for life, happiness, and success, is immeasurable. Day after day, countless people across the globe get on a scale in search of validation of beauty and social acceptance. Get off the scale! I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting your eyes are. I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it. I have yet to see a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humor, and contagious smile. Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life. It’s true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That’s it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Don’t give the scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful!
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Steve Maraboli (Life, the Truth, and Being Free)
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Don't give up! It's not over. The universe is balanced. Every set-back bears with it the seeds of a come-back.
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Steve Maraboli (Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience)
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Life throws challenges and every challenge comes with rainbows and lights to conquer it.
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Amit Ray (World Peace: The Voice of a Mountain Bird)
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It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.
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Isaac Asimov
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Finding the lesson behind every adversity will be the one important thing that helps get you through it.
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Roy T. Bennett
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Well, if it can be thought, it can be done, a problem can be overcome,
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E.A. Bucchianeri (Brushstrokes of a Gadfly (Gadfly Saga, #1))
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A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it.
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Ray A. Davis
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Let your life reflect the faith you have in God. Fear nothing and pray about everything. Be strong, trust God's word, and trust the process.
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Germany Kent
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How to win in life: 1 work hard 2 complain less 3 listen more 4 try, learn, grow 5 don't let people tell you it cant be done 6 make no excuses
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Germany Kent
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Never run from the enemy, tackle them
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Victoria Addino
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When you do what you love, the seemingly impossible becomes simply challenging, the laborious becomes purposeful resistance, the difficult loses its edge and is trampled by your progress.
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Steve Maraboli (Life, the Truth, and Being Free)
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One word of encouragement can be enough to spark someone’s motivation to continue with a difficult challenge.
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Roy T. Bennett
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Rejection is a challenge.
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Veronica Purcell
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We love being mentally strong, but we hate situations that allow us to put our mental strength to good use.
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Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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CONCERNED BUT NOT CONSUMED!
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Ron Sanders
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Never believe for a second that your weak, within all of us we have a reserve of inner hidden strength,
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Victoria Addino
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Don't live the same day over and over again and call that a life. Life is about evolving mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.
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Germany Kent
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Changes are inevitable and not always controllable. What can be controlled is how you manage, react to and work through the change process.
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Kelly A. Morgan
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Every challenge you encounter in life is a fork in the road. You have the choice to choose which way to go - backward, forward, breakdown or breakthrough.
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Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha (Overcoming the Challenges of Life)
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You don't have to be a hero to accomplish great things---to compete. You can just be an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.
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Edmund Hillary (High Adventure: The True Story Of The First Ascent Of Everest)
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Firestarters are flexible. They recognize situational needs and are able to flow into the accessible role identity most relevant to overcome emergent challenges.
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Raoul Davis Jr. (Firestarters: How Innovators, Instigators, and Initiators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life)
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Should happiness and success be hidden, in view of the misery and poverty around. Would it be a sign of selfishness and un-intellectual behavior, if we admit to a pursuit of happiness? Could it, on the contrary, not work out as a motivation and an incentive? When giving voice to our happiness, could it not be perceived as a positive challenge? Could happiness not be contagious and become a salutary infectious syndrome? A beneficial infection. ( "Happy days are back again" )
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Erik Pevernagie
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You can't hang around waiting for somebody else to pull your strings. Destiny's what you make of it. You have to face whatever life throws at you. And if it throws more than you'd like, more than you think you can handle? Well then you just have to find the heroism within yourself and play out the hand you've been dealt. The universe never sets a challenge that can't be met. You just need to believe in yourself in order to find the strength to face it.
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Darren Shan (Hell's Heroes (Demonata, #10))
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The hallway led me to the stairway of a million steps. My leg screamed in protest. I sighed and started climbing. I just had to keep from limping. Limping showed weakness, and I didn’t need any enterprising, career-motivated shapeshifters trying to challenge me for dominance right about now. I had once mentioned my desire for an elevator, and His Majesty asked me if I would like a flock of doves to carry me up to my quarters so my feet wouldn’t have to touch the ground. We were sparring at the time and I kicked him in the kidney in retaliation.
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Ilona Andrews (Magic Slays (Kate Daniels, #5))
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...no way through it but through it," I tell myself.
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Gayle Forman (Just One Day (Just One Day, #1))
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I challenge you to make your life the masterpiece you want to paint, the novel you want to read, the day you want to wake to.
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Toni Sorenson
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Everything is easier said than done. Wanting something is easy. Saying something is easy. The challenge and the reward are in the doing.
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Steve Maraboli (Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience)
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With every challenge you face, there is an opportunity hidden that will lead you towards the path of wealth and abundance.
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Stephen Richards (Be First: Achieve Every Dream)
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You were born a winner, a warrior, one who defied the odds by surviving the most gruesome battle of them all - the race to the egg. And now that you are a giant, why do you even doubt victory against smaller numbers and wider margins? The only walls that exist are those you have placed in your mind. And whatever obstacles you conceive, exist only because you have forgotten what you have already achieved.
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Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
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When you encounter obstacles, don’t turn your back on them. Face them, confront them and your will see them dissolving in front of your eyes.
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Roopleen (Words to inspire the winner in YOU)
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The wish of death had been palpably hanging over this otherwise idyllic paradise for a good many years. All business and politics is personal in the Philippines. If it wasn't for the cheap beer and lovely girls one of us would spend an hour in this dump. They [Jehovah's Witnesses] get some kind of frequent flyer points for each person who signs on. I'm not lazy. I'm just motivationally challenged. I'm not fat. I just have lots of stored energy. You don't get it do you? What people think of you matters more than the reality. Marilyn. Despite standing firm at the final hurdle Marilyn was always ready to run the race. After answering the question the woman bent down behind the stand out of sight of all, and crossed herself. It is amazing what you can learn in prison. Merely through casual conversation Rick had acquired the fundamentals of embezzlement, fraud and armed hold up. He wondered at the price of honesty in a grey world whose half tones changed faster than the weather. The banality of truth somehow always surprises the news media before they tart it up. You've ridden jeepneys in peak hour. Where else can you feel up a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl without even trying? [Ralph Winton on the Philippines finer points] Life has no bottom. No matter how bad things are or how far one has sunk things can always get worse. You could call the Oval Office an information rain shadow. In the Philippines, a whole layer of criminals exists who consider that it is their right to rob you unhindered. If you thwart their wicked desires, to their way of thinking you have stolen from them and are evil. There's honest and dishonest corruption in this country. Don't enjoy it too much for it's what we love that usually kills us. The good guys don't always win wars but the winners always make sure that they go down in history as the good guys. The Philippines is like a woman. You love her and hate her at the same time. I never believed in all my born days that ideas of truth and justice were only pretty words to brighten a much darker and more ubiquitous reality. The girl was experiencing the first flushes of love while Rick was at least feeling the methadone equivalent. Although selfishness and greed are more ephemeral than the real values of life their effects on the world often outlive their origins. Miriam's a meteor job. Somewhere out there in space there must be a meteor with her name on it. Tsismis or rumours grow in this land like tropical weeds. Surprises are so common here that nothing is surprising. A crooked leader who can lead is better than a crooked one who can't. Although I always followed the politics of Hitler I emulate the drinking habits of Churchill. It [Australia] is the country that does the least with the most. Rereading the brief lines that told the story in the manner of Fox News reporting the death of a leftist Rick's dark imagination took hold. Didn't your mother ever tell you never to trust a man who doesn't drink? She must have been around twenty years old, was tall for a Filipina and possessed long black hair framing her smooth olive face. This specter of loveliness walked with the assurance of the knowingly beautiful. Her crisp and starched white uniform dazzled in the late-afternoon light and highlighted the natural tan of her skin. Everything about her was in perfect order. In short, she was dressed up like a pox doctor’s clerk. Suddenly, she stopped, turned her head to one side and spat comprehensively into the street. The tiny putrescent puddle contrasted strongly with the studied aplomb of its all-too-recent owner, suggesting all manner of disease and decay.
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John Richard Spencer
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God can deliver you so well that some people won’t believe your testimony.
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Shannon L. Alder
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Cowards shrink from challenges, weaklings flee from them, but warriors wink at them.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated. That’s why I loved PT in BUD/S and why I still love it today. Physical challenges strengthen my mind so I’m ready for whatever life throws at me, and it will do the same for you.
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David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
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When people try to bury you, remind yourself you are a seed.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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When all seems to be against you, remember, a ship sometimes has to sail against the current, not with it.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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When something poses as obstacle to you,surmount it and use it as a miracle to move on to greater height.
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Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha (Overcoming the Challenges of Life)
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Without being push to the wall, we will have remained in our comfortable zone. But this circumstance challenges us to find the courage to move on.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (On Eagles Wings:Rise)
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Every adversity brings new experiences and new lessons.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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When you start something, make sure that you're willing to take the time to finish it right because, honey, the work you put into it will be more than worth it in the end. The best things always are.
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C.M. Stunich (Losing Me, Finding You (Triple M, #1))
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I’m not saying it will always be easy because we are human. Two people in love will always have uphill battles but it’s how you handle those challenges that truly matter.
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Kathryn Perez (Love and Truth)
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Achieving success is a challenge but so is struggling so you may as well choose success. 

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Rob Liano
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Every challenge, every adversity, contains within it the seeds of opportunity and growth.
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Roy Bennett
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Overcoming what frightens you the most strengthens you the most.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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The life thatI touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.
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Frederick Buechner (The Hungering Dark)
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Today if anything is trying to hold you back, give no attention to it. Get your hopes up, get your faith up, look up, and get ready to rise up.
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Germany Kent
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Inbetween yesterday's regret and tomorrow's dream is today's opportunity. Seize the chance!
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Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha (Overcoming the Challenges of Life)
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Be like seeds; do not see dirt thrown at you as your enemy, but as ground to grow.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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I'll take that challenge. It's a dead hand against a living will.
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Isaac Asimov (Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2))
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Sometimes it's like: If something terrifies you, you should totally do it BECAUSE it terrifies you. And then you'll do it and you'll realise what you're capable of.
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Jonathan Saccone-Joly
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The challenge of life is regretless decision making, relentless pursuit of vision with faith, forgiving others, enduring pain with a smile & achieving goals with an extra MILE
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Sujit Lalwani (Life Simplified!)
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The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it's in the arts, sciences, or business.
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Teresa Amabile
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When life hands you dirt plant seeds.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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You have to prepare physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to conquer any mountain.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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7 keys to getting more things done: 1 start 2 dont make excuses 3 celebrate small steps 4 ignore critics 5 be consistent 6 be open 7 stay positive
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Germany Kent
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A new challenge keeps the brain kicking and the heart ticking.
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E.A. Bucchianeri (Brushstrokes of a Gadfly (Gadfly Saga, #1))
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The pursuit of excellence with unrestrained passion can lead to the accomplishment of wonders with unsurpassed joy.
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Aberjhani (Splendid Literarium: A Treasury of Stories, Aphorisms, Poems, and Essays)
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What would have become of Hercules do you think if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar - and no savage criminals to rid the world of? What would he have done in the absence of such challenges? Obviously he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. So by snoring his life away in luxury and comfort he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules. And even if he had, what good would it have done him? What would have been the use of those arms, that physique, and that noble soul, without crises or conditions to stir into him action?
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Epictetus (The Discourses)
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For artists, scientists, inventors, schoolchildren, and the rest of us, intrinsic motivationβ€”the drive do something because it is interesting, challenging, and absorbingβ€”is essential for high levels of creativity.
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Daniel H. Pink (Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us)
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The victory over our inner self is a daily struggle. Be strong and do not give up.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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A flower blooming in the desert proves to the world that adversity, no matter how great, can be overcome.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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Stars do not hide from darkness. Roses do not hide from thorns. Diamonds do not hide from pressure.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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If beautiful lilies bloom in ugly waters, you too can blossom in ugly situations.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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children who are praised for β€œbeing smart” often believe that every encounter is a test of whether they really are. So to avoid looking dumb, they resist new challenges and choose the easiest path. By contrast, kids who understand that effort and hard work lead to mastery and growth are more willing to take on new, difficult tasks.
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Daniel H. Pink (Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us)
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Use your anger for good. Anger to people is like gas to the automobile - it fuels you to move forward and get to a better place. Without it, we would not be motivated to rise to a challenge. It is an energy that compels us to define what is just and unjust.
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Arun Gandhi (The Gift of Anger)
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You don't fight the battles you know you will win, its the ones that everyone says you will lose.
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Chris Burkmenn
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How can you motivate yourself to continue to follow a leader when he appears to be going around in circles?
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Andrew S. Grove (Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company and Career)
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We all have problems. Or rather, everyone has at least one thing that they regard as a problem.
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Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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You were born to dream. You were born to strive. You were born to conquer. You were born to rise.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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On the job people feel skillful and challenged, and therefore feel more happy, strong, creative, and satisfied. In their free time people feel that there is generally not much to do and their skills are not being used, and therefore they tend to feel more sad, weak, dull, and dissatisfied. Yet they would like to work less and spend more time in leisure. What does this contradictory pattern mean? There are several possible explanations, but one conclusion seems inevitable: when it comes to work, people do not heed the evidence of their senses. They disregard the quality of immediate experience, and base their motivation instead on the strongly rooted cultural stereotype of what work is supposed to be like. They think of it as an imposition, a constraint, an infringement of their freedom, and therefore something to be avoided as much as possible.
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MihΓ‘ly CsΓ­kszentmihΓ‘lyi (Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience)
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as it may beβ€”matters. How you feel about your abilitiesβ€”your academic β€œself-concept”—in the context of your classroom shapes your willingness to tackle challenges and finish difficult tasks. It’s a crucial element in your motivation and confidence.
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Malcolm Gladwell (David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants)
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Every time you try and fail, Every time your hope gets stuck in the deeps, And you wonder just how you'd get through the sail- Don't forget that underneath your pain, Is an anchor of great strength and fortitude Keep digging until you find it... And when you do, RISE!
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Chinonye J. Chidolue
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Is your life story the truth? Yes, the chronological events are true. Is it the whole truth? No, you see and judge it through your conditioned eyes and mind - not of all involved - nor do you see the entire overview. Is it nothing but the truth? No, you select, share, delete, distort, subtract, assume and add what you want, need and choose to.
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Rasheed Ogunlaru
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The greatest Emotion is Love. The greatest quality is seeking to serve others. The greatest gift is your own Life. The greatest pleasure is CHOCOLATE! The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is that there's always something new to learn. The greatest virtue is temperance. The greatest meditation is a peaceful mind. The greatest practice is to be Kind. education. The greatest challenge is to let go. The greatest wisdom is to be in the NOW
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Pablo
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I know focusing on myself won’t be easy. It will take continuous effort, time, and attention. It will mean working on my issues, facing them head-on instead of letting them serve as distractions or trying to pretend they’re less than they are. It will mean doing THE WORK. The soul-scraping introspection it takes to understand where bad habits and insecurities and self-sabotaging patterns come from and why, plus the motivation to challenge and change those bad habits and insecurities and self-sabotaging patterns even as they continue to get triggered over and over again by various life events.
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Jennette McCurdy (I'm Glad My Mom Died)
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Always choose to be smart There are two types of people in the world, the seekers of riches and the wise thinkers, those who believe that the important thing is money, and those who know that knowledge is the true treasure. I, for my part, choose the second option, Though I could have everything I want I prefer to be an intelligent person, and never live in a game of vain appearances. Knowledge can take you far far beyond what you imagine, It can open doors and opportunities for you. and make you see the world with different eyes. But in this eagerness to be "wise", There is a task that is a great challenge. It is facing the fear of the unknown, and see the horrors around every corner. It's easy to be brave when you're sure, away from dangers and imminent risks, but when death threatens you close, "wisdom" is not enough to protect you. Because, even if you are smart and cunning, death sometimes comes without mercy, lurking in the darkest shadows, and there is no way to escape. That is why the Greek philosophers, They told us about the moment I died, an idea we should still take, to understand that death is a reality. Wealth can't save you of the inevitable arrival of the end, and just as a hoarder loses his treasures, we also lose what we have gained. So, if we have to choose between two things, that is between being cunning or rich, Always choose the second option because while the money disappears, wisdom helps us face dangers. Do not fear death, my friend, but embrace your intelligence, learn all you can in this life, and maybe you can beat time and death for that simple reason always choose to be smart. Maybe death is inevitable But that doesn't mean you should be afraid because intelligence and knowledge They will help you face any situation and know what to do. No matter what fate has in store, wisdom will always be your best ally, to live a life full of satisfaction, and bravely face any situation. So don't settle for what you have and always look for ways to learn more, because in the end, true wealth It is not in material goods, but in knowledge. Always choose to be smart, Well, that will be the best investment. that will lead you on the right path, and it will make you a better version of yourself.
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Marcos Orowitz (THE MAELSTROM OF EMOTIONS: A selection of poems and thoughts About us humans and their nature)
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No matter what challenges or obstacles we experience, we must make a CHOICE to become better or bitter because of it. Will and pray your way through it. In my opinion, the difference between those who are considered strong and those who are seen as weak are what they DECIDE to focus on. But, having down moments don't make someone weak, it makes them human. We wouldn't be human if we don't "feel", but at some point we MUCH force ourselves to get up!
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Yvonne Pierre (The Day My Soul Cried: A Memoir)
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Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news β€” things which on their own merits would get the big headlines-being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that β€˜it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is β€˜not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was β€˜not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.
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George Orwell (Animal Farm)
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The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter. The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don't really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music. We made the iPod for ourselves, and when you're doing something for yourself, or your best friend or family, you're not going to cheese out. If you don't love something, you're not going to cheese out. If you don't love something, you're not going to cheese out. If you don't love something, you're not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.
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Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs)
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Assembling a coherent portrait of Muhammad’s life required piecing together scattered fragments and structuring them in an organized manner. What emerged from the reconstruction was the realization that Muhammad had endured terrible setbacks and traumatic suffering, only to turn his brokenness into an asset, unlocking latent abilities to improve the world around him. Moved by his own experience in overcoming challenges, Muhammad dedicated himself to inspiring others to see their imperfections as the very source of their potential. Despite all the pain, Muhammad refused to see himself as a victim. His nickname al- Badr Laylat At-Tamam (the fullest moon) referred to illumination of the darkness by his bright shining face.
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Mohamad Jebara (Muhammad, the World-Changer: An Intimate Portrait)
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For this reason a prince ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the above-named five qualities, that he may appear to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious. There is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality, inasmuch as men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result.
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NiccolΓ² Machiavelli (The Prince)
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Never let failure discourage you. Every time you get to the base of a mountain (literal or metaphorical), you're presented with a new opportunity to challenge yourself, to push your limits beyond what you thought possible, to learn from climbers on the trail ahead of you, and to take in some amazing views. Your performance on the mountain you climbed last week or last month or last year doesn't matter - because it's all about what you are doing right now.
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Alison Levine (On the Edge: The Art of High-Impact Leadership)
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If we’re absolutely sure that our beliefs are right, and those of others wrong; that we are motivated by good, and others by evil; that the King of the Universe speaks to us, and not to adherents of very different faiths; that it is wicked to challenge conventional doctrines or to ask searching questions; that our main job is to believe and obeyβ€”then the witch mania will recur in its infinite variations down to the time of the last man.
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Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark)
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I don’t understand hospital chaplains that try to rob my patients of their anger. Sometimes anger is a key motivator that gets people to take action. Anger can push a cancer patient to jump out of his hospital bed, walk down to the nurses station and scream, β€œI am getting the hell out of here!”. There is a misconception that God is simply sweet and passive. Actually, God can be quite cunning, manipulative and relentless with his children. What we consider as negative traits are actually helpful in molding us. He will use a negative emotion if needed to push people to do things that will change them for the better. He will allow people or situations to derail us if there is a chance that those interactions will push us forward. Personally, I don’t want a God that is going to send some church member to my deathbed with a plate of cookies and tell me to have faith. Actually, I rather have a God that screams, β€œGet the hell off your ass, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Walk down the hall with that Physical Therapist so you can get on with your life!" A little anger in a person can push them to do amazing things.
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Shannon L. Alder
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It's a simple choice! We can all be good boys and wear our letter sweaters around and get our little degrees and find some nice girl to settle, you know, down with... Take up what a friend of ours calls the hearty challenges of lawn care... Or we can blaze! Become legends in our own time, strike fear in the hearts of mediocre talent everywhere! We can scald dogs, put records out of reach! Make the stands gasp as we blow into an unearthly kick from three hundred yards out! We can become God's own messengers delivering the dreaded scrolls! We can race satan himslef till he wheezes fiery cinders down the back straight away... They'll speak our names in hushed tones, 'those guys are animals' they'll say! We can lay it on the line, bust a guy, show them a clean pair of heels. We can sprint the turn on a spring breeze and feel the winter leave our feet! We can, by god, let out demons loose and just wail on!
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John L. Parker Jr. (Once a Runner)
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I personally believe mavericks are people who write their own rulebook. They are the ones who act first and talk later. They are fiercely independent thinkers who know how to fight the lizard brain (to use Seth Godin’s term). I don’t believe many are born, rather they are products of an environment, or their experiences. They are usually the people that find the accepted norm does not meet their requirements and have the self-confidence, appetite, independence, degree of self reliance and sufficient desire to carve out their own niche in life. I believe a maverick thinker can take a new idea, champion it, and push it beyond the ability of a normal person to do so. I also believe the best mavericks can build a team, can motivate with their vision, their passion, and can pull together others to accomplish great things. A wise maverick knows that they need others to give full form to their views and can gather these necessary contributors around them. Mavericks, in my experience, fall into various categories – a/ the totally off-the-wall, uncontrollable genius who won’t listen to anyone; b/ the person who thinks that they have the ONLY solution to a challenge but prepared to consider others’ views on how to conquer the world &, finally, the person who thinks laterally to overcome problems considered to be irresolvable. I like in particular the third category. The upside is that mavericks, because of their different outlook on life, often sees opportunities and solutions that others cannot. But the downside is that often, because in life there is always some degree of luck in success (i.e. being in the right place at the right time), mavericks that fail are often ridiculed for their unorthodox approach. However when they succeed they are acclaimed for their inspiration. It is indeed a fine line they walk in life.
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Ziad K. Abdelnour (Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics)