Defy The Odds Quotes

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There will be a few times in your life when all your instincts will tell you to do something, something that defies logic, upsets your plans, and may seem crazy to others. When that happens, you do it. Listen to your instincts and ignore everything else. Ignore logic, ignore the odds, ignore the complications, and just go for it.
Judith McNaught (Remember When (Foster Saga, #1))
I hope you defy the odds of most dreams and actually accomplish yours.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us #1))
You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
I can take two people, throw a world of obstacles at them, defy the odds, and still give them a happily-ever-after. Together. I am a romance author. What's your superpower?
Kelly Moran
Friendship, companionship: it so often defied logic, so often eluded the deserving, so often settled itself on the odd, the bad, the peculiar, the damaged.
Hanya Yanagihara (A Little Life)
No one is going to come help you. No one's coming to save you.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
In the military we always say we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training,
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
It's a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
I thought I’d solved a problem when really I was creating new ones by taking the path of least resistance.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
It won’t always go your way, so you can’t get trapped in this idea that just because you’ve imagined a possibility for yourself that you somehow deserve it. Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn!
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
We’re either getting better or we’re getting worse.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Be more than motivated, be more than driven, become literally obsessed to the point where people think you're fucking nuts.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Denial is the ultimate comfort zone.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
I don't stop when I'm tired. I stop when I'm done
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Tell yourself the truth! That you’ve wasted enough time, and that you have other dreams that will take courage to realize, so you don’t die a fucking pussy.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Our culture has become hooked on the quick-fix, the life hack, efficiency. Everyone is on the hunt for that simple action algorithm that nets maximum profit with the least amount of effort. There’s no denying this attitude may get you some of the trappings of success, if you’re lucky, but it will not lead to a calloused mind or self-mastery. If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you’ll have to become addicted to hard work. Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Everything in life is a mind game! Whenever we get swept under by life’s dramas, large and small, we are forgetting that no matter how bad the pain gets, no matter how harrowing the torture, all bad things end.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
The Buddha famously said that life is suffering. I’m not a Buddhist, but I know what he meant and so do you. To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
When you think that you are done, you're only 40% in to what your body's capable of doing. That's just the limits that we put on ourselves.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Only you can master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments most people consider beyond their capability.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
REMEMBER YOUR GREATNESS Before you were born, And were still too tiny for The human eye to see, You won the race for life From among 250 million competitors. And yet, How fast you have forgotten Your strength, When your very existence Is proof of your greatness. You were born a winner, A warrior, One who defied the odds By surviving the most gruesome Battle of them all. 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. Poetry by Suzy Kassem
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
Heraclitus, a philosopher born in the Persian Empire back in the fifth century BC, had it right when he wrote about men on the battlefield. “Out of every one hundred men,” he wrote, “ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior…
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Always be willing to embrace ignorance and become the dumb fuck in the classroom again, because that is the only way to expand your body of knowledge and body of work. It’s the only way to expand your mind.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
If you want to be one of the few to defy those trends in our ever-softening society, you will have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity, which requires an open mind.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
From then on, I brainwashed myself into craving discomfort. If it was raining, I would go run. Whenever it started snowing, my mind would say, Get your fucking running shoes on. Sometimes I wussed out and had to deal with it at the Accountability Mirror. But facing that mirror, facing myself, motivated me to fight through uncomfortable experiences, and, as a result, I became tougher. And being tough and resilient helped me meet my goals.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
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.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
it’s possible to transcend anything that doesn’t kill you,
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Analyze your schedule, kill your empty habits, burn out the bullshit, and see what’s left.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
You are giving up instead of getting hard! Tell the truth about the real reasons for your limitations and you will turn that negativity, which is real, into jet fuel. Those odds stacked against you will become a damn runway!
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Mel.” “Hmm?” “Don’t leave me again, okay?” Clay whispered in a voice choked with emotion as he pulled her tighter against him and tilted his head to rest his cheek on top of her head. “’Cause that ’bout killed me.
Kele Moon (Defying the Odds (Battered Hearts, #1))
It was nice meeting you, Lily Bloom. I hope you defy the odds of most dreams and actually accomplish yours.” I
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us #1))
People's capacity for turning dogmatic stupidity into political movements never ceased to amaze me. We've knocked off 99.9% of the human race and somehow the crazies still manage to survive. It just defies the odds.
Dennis E. Taylor (We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1))
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.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
By the time I graduated, I knew that the confidence I’d managed to develop didn’t come from a perfect family or God-given talent. It came from personal accountability which brought me self respect, and self respect will always light a way forward.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
We live in a world with a lot of insecure, jealous people. Some of them are our best friends. They are blood relatives. Failure terrifies them. So does our success. Because when we transcend what we once thought possible, push our limits, and become more, our light reflects off all the walls they’ve built up around them. Your light enables them to see the contours of their own prison, their own self-limitations. But if they are truly the great people you always believed them to be, their jealousy will evolve, and soon their imagination might hop its fence, and it will be their turn to change for the better.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
We all need small sparks, small accomplishments in our lives to fuel the big ones. Think of your small accomplishments as kindling. When you want a bonfire, you don’t start by lighting a big log. You collect some witch’s hair—a small pile of hay or some dry, dead grass. You light that, and then add small sticks and bigger sticks before you feed your tree stump into the blaze. Because it’s the small sparks, which start small fires, that eventually build enough heat to burn the whole fucking forest down.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
The vast majority of us are slaves to our minds. Most don’t even make the first effort when it comes to mastering their thought process because it’s a never-ending chore and impossible to get right every time.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
You can be born in a fucking sewer and still be the baddest motherfucker on earth.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
But what put distance between me and almost everybody else in that platoon is that I didn’t let my desire for comfort rule me.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
You are stopping you, you are giving up instead of getting hard.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
the human body can withstand and accomplish a hell of a lot more than most of us think possible, and that it all begins and ends in the mind.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
There is no more time to waste. Hours and days evaporate like creeks in the desert. That’s why it’s okay to be cruel to yourself as long as you realize you’re doing it to become better.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
REMEMBER YOUR GREATNESS Before you were born, And were still too tiny for The human eye to see, You won the race for life From among 250 million competitors. And yet, How fast you have forgotten Your strength, When your very existence Is proof of your greatness. You were born a winner, A warrior, One who defied the odds By surviving the most gruesome Battle of them all. 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.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
This life is all a fucking mind game. Realize that. Own it!
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
I hope you defy the odds of most dreams and actually accomplish yours
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us #1))
Yes,” he assured her without hesitation. “I thought I was broken too, that I’d never trust women, but I had it all wrong. I wasn’t broken at all. I was just waiting for you. It’s always been yours; even before we met, it belonged to you.
Kele Moon (Defying the Odds (Battered Hearts, #1))
no matter who you are, who your parents are or were, where you live, what you do for a living, or how much money you have, you’re probably living at about 40 percent of your true capability.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Spending time with Savannah made me wonder whether it was possible to defy the norm. I wanted more of her, and no matter what happened between us, I already knew I'd never forget anything about her. As crazy as it sounded, she was becoming part of me, and I was already dreading the fact that we wouldn't be able to spend the day together tomorrow. Or the day after, or the day after that. Maybe, I told myself, we could beat the odds.' - John
Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)
We could return from sand if we had to--form into a beautiful mosaic of glass that told our story in colors.
Addison Moore (Vex (Celestra, #5))
Let's get outta here. Or I'm gonna put my mouth on you right here. I’ve been fantasizing ‘bout tasting you since Thanksgiving.” ~ Clay
Kele Moon (Defying the Odds (Battered Hearts, #1))
The hard part is getting to that point, because the ticket to victory often comes down to bringing your very best when you feel your worst.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
And if you fail again, so the fuck be it. Take the pain. Repeat these steps and keep fighting.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn! I
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
It may be satisfactory, but that's another word for mediocrity.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Everyone fails sometimes and life isn’t supposed to be fair, much less bend to your every whim.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. You wake up with them, you walk around with them, you go to bed with them, and eventually you act on them. Whether they be good or bad. We are all our own worst haters and doubters because self doubt is a natural reaction to any bold attempt to change your life for the better. You can’t stop it from blooming in your brain, but you can neutralize it, and all the other external chatter by asking, What if?
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
The Buddha famously said that life is suffering. I’m not a Buddhist, but I know what he meant and so do you. To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss. That’s just nature. Each specific life comes with its own personalized portion of pain. It’s coming for you. You can’t stop it. And you know it.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Here was a man who defied all odds, lived by himself, worked, created beautiful art. A complex mind stumped by some of the simplest tasks. If he could, he would keep trying until there was only absolute failure or success. How many people could say that?
Adrienne Wilder (In the Absence of Light (Morgan & Grant, #1))
Control your mindset. Dominate your thought process. This life is all a fucking mind game. Realize that. Own it!
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
You must recognize what you are about to do, highlight what you do not like about it, and spend time visualizing each and every obstacle you can. I
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
I understand the temptation to sell short, but I also know that impulse is driven by your mind’s desire for comfort, and it’s not telling you the truth.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Wyatt gave him a look, making it obvious he thought Clay had lost his mind. “You telling me you think a piece of pie’s gonna fix my problems?” “Why not?” Clay laughed. “Fixed mine.
Kele Moon (Defying the Odds (Battered Hearts, #1))
What if is an exquisite fuck-you to anyone who has ever doubted your greatness or stood in your way. It silences negativity. It’s a reminder that you don’t really know what you’re capable of until you put everything you’ve got on the line. It makes the
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
No matter what you or I achieve, in sports, business, or life, we can’t be satisfied. Life is too dynamic a game. We’re either getting better or we’re getting worse. Yes, we need to celebrate our victories. There’s power in victory that’s transformative, but after our celebration we should dial it down, dream up new training regimens, new goals, and start at zero the very next day.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
As anyone who starts a business knows, it is a fantastic race. There is a statistic that hangs over your head - over 90 percent of all new businesses fail in the first three years. For anyone with even a bit of competitive spirit in them, especially for someone who defines himself or herself as an entrepreneur, these overwhelming odds of failure are not intimidating, they only add fuel to the fire. The foolishness of thinking that you're a part of the small minority of those who actually will make it past three years and defy the odds is part of what makes entrepreneurs who they are, driven by passion and completely irrational.
Simon Sinek (Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action)
A true leader stays exhausted, abhors arrogance, and never looks down on the weakest link. He fights for his men and leads by example. That’s what it meant to be uncommon among uncommon. It meant being one of the best and helping your men find their best too.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
A lot of us surround ourselves with people who speak to our desire for comfort. Who would rather treat the pain of our wounds and prevent further injury than help us callous over them and try again. We need to surround ourselves with people who will tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear, but at the same time not make us feel we’re up against the impossible.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
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.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
The most difficult step ever is the first step. It comes with doubts, uncertainties, and all sort of fears. If you defy all odd and take it, your confidence will replicate very fast and you'll become a master!
Israelmore Ayivor (Leaders' Frontpage: Leadership Insights from 21 Martin Luther King Jr. Thoughts)
He hadn't spent a lifetime pushing women away only to be taken down by a piece of pumpkin pie.
Kele Moon (Defying the Odds (Battered Hearts, #1))
That’s when I first realized that not all physical and mental limitations are real, and that I had a habit of giving up way too soon.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
I was the sum total of the obstacles I'd overcome.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
The only way we can change is to be real with ourselves.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
life is one long motherfucking imaginary game that has no scoreboard, no referee, and isn’t over until we’re dead and buried.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
You know that my refrigerator is never full, and it never will be because I live a mission-driven life, always on the hunt for the next challenge. That mindset is the reason I broke that record, finished Badwater, became a SEAL, rocked Ranger School, and on down the list. In my mind I’m that racehorse always chasing a carrot I’ll never catch, forever trying to prove myself to myself. And when you live that way and attain a goal, success feels anti-climactic.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
But you don’t have to let your doubt into the cockpit! You can tolerate doubt as a backseat driver, but if you put doubt in the pilot’s seat, defeat is guaranteed. Remembering that you’ve been through difficulties before and have always survived to fight again shifts the conversation in your head. It will allow you to control and manage doubt, and keep you focused on taking each and every step necessary to achieve the task at hand.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
But visualization isn’t simply about daydreaming of some trophy ceremony—real or metaphorical. You must also visualize the challenges that are likely to arise and determine how you will attack those problems when they do. That way you can be as prepared as possible on the journey.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Most wars are won or lost in our own heads, and when we’re in a foxhole we usually aren’t alone, and we need to be confident in the quality of the heart, mind, and dialogue of the person hunkered down with us. Because at some point we will need some empowering words to keep us focused and deadly.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
She had two choices. One was to continue lying there, doing nothing. The other was to get up and defy all odds. To reach and try for something that the world didn’t think she should have.
Elise Kova (A Trial of Sorcerers (A Trial of Sorcerers, #1))
From this point forward, accept the following as Goggins’ laws of nature: You will be made fun of. You will feel insecure. You may not be the best all the time. You may be the only black, white, Asian, Latino, female, male, gay, lesbian or [fill in your identity here] in a given situation. There will be times when you feel alone. Get over it!
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
It hurts, but that’s all it does. The most difficult part of the training is training your mind. You build calluses on your feet to endure the road. You build callouses on your mind to endure the pain. There’s only one way to do that. You have to get out there and run.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Anyone who is of sound mind and body can sit down and think of twenty things in their life that could have gone differently. Where maybe they didn’t get a fair shake and where they took the path of least resistance. If you’re one of the few who acknowledge that, want to callous those wounds, and strengthen your character, its up to you to go back through your past and make peace with yourself by facing those incidents and all of your negative influences, and accepting them as weak spots in your own character. Only when you identify and accept your weaknesses will you finally stop running from your past. Then those incidents can be used more efficiently as fuel to become better and grow stronger.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
But it’s not the external voice that will break you down. It’s what you tell yourself that matters. The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. You wake up with them, you walk around with them, you go to bed with them, and eventually you act on them. Whether they be good or bad.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
This one’s for the unusual motherfuckers in this world. A lot of people think that once they reach a certain level of status, respect, or success, that they’ve made it in life. I’m here to tell you that you always have to find more. Greatness is not something that if you meet it once it stays with you forever. That shit evaporates like a flash of oil in a hot pan.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
In life, there is no gift as overlooked or inevitable as failure. I’ve had quite a few and have learned to relish them, because if you do the forensics you’ll find clues about where to make adjustments and how to eventually accomplish your task.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
To develop an armored mind—a mindset so calloused and hard that it becomes bulletproof—you need to go to the source of all your fears and insecurities. Most of us sweep our failures and evil secrets under the rug, but when we run into problems, that rug gets lifted up, and our darkness re-emerges, floods our soul, and influences the decisions which determine our character.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
In week two, build an optimal schedule. Lock everything into place in fifteen- to thirty-minute blocks. Some tasks will take multiple blocks or entire days. Fine. When you work, only work on one thing at a time, think about the task in front of you and pursue it relentlessly. When it comes time for the next task on your schedule, place that first one aside, and apply the same focus.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
How’d this happen?” Melody asked in a stunned whisper. She never expected to fall in love and certainly not this swiftly or with this much finality. “We just met.” “I don’t believe that,” Clay argued as he turned her palm over in his and traced the lines of it with the pad of his finger. “I’m pretty sure we’ve known each other forever. Seeing you the first time was like coming home, and there ain’t been anything to happen since that’s disabused me of the notion.” “Yeah,” Melody agreed, the bright skyline blurring to a sea of vibrant color. She remembered seeing Clay in Hal’s Diner the first time. Alone and eating his turkey, she’d been compelled to reach out to him. “Do you really believe in soul mates?” “I do now.
Kele Moon (Defying the Odds (Battered Hearts, #1))
Everything in life is a mind game! Whenever we get swept under by life’s dramas, large and small, we are forgetting that no matter how bad the pain gets, no matter how harrowing the torture, all bad things end. That forgetting happens the second we give control over our emotions and actions to other people, which can easily happen when pain is peaking.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
From the time you take your first breath, you become eligible to die. You also become eligible to find your greatness and become the One Warrior. But it is up to you to equip yourself for the battle ahead. Only you can master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments most people consider beyond their capability.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
Everyone is on the hunt for that simple action algorithm that nets maximum profit with the least amount of effort. There’s no denying this attitude may get you some of the trappings of success, if you’re lucky, but it will not lead to a calloused mind or self-mastery. If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you’ll have to become addicted to hard work. Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
You can push yourself to a place that is beyond the current capability or temporal mindset of the people you work with, and that’s okay. Just know that your supposed superiority is a figment of your own ego. So don’t lord it over them, because it won’t help you advance as a team or as an individual in your field. Instead of getting angry that your colleagues can’t keep up, help pick your colleagues up and bring them with you!
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
I’m not sure what prime numbers have to do with anything,” I say in a gentle voice. “Prime numbers have to do with everything. But to clarify, that’s what I imagine falling in love is like and then staying married. You start out as low twin primes and as time goes on, if you manage to defy the statistical odds and not get divorced, you become like those rarer twin primes, still only separated by two. That’s an amazing feat.” “How romantic
Julie Buxbaum (What to Say Next)
Since the day he was born, he'd been defying the odds. Today was not the day to stop that trend. Unlike Ambrose, he wasn't about to give up or give in. So long as there was breath in his body, there was life. So long as there was life, there was hope. And so long as there was hope, there was the possibility of victory. Life wasn't about just getting by. It was about getting through, no matter what, and making the most of every minute. A chill went down his spine as he remembered what his father had said to him. <>. Nick Gautier would not be remembered as a coward or a villain. He was going out a hero and a champion. And he would not go down without a vicious, vicious fight.
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Instinct (Chronicles of Nick, #6))
Is there not genius in the villain? In the criminal? A magic born in the beginnings of the tiniest of rebellions? When I think of someone who has to create a masterplan to rob a store, the valor of a pirate, or a malicious CEO trying to tear down competition, at least they have a point of view. They are uninhibited by the parameters of previous motion. They are electric imaginers. And they make their money by thinking. The originality of a criminal’s thoughts requires a freedom so rare to attain—and from there, brilliant masterplans, blueprints, trajectories, and other devices are employed. No one owns them and they defy odds with every offense. To have the mind of a criminal, but the heart of an angel would be ideal, but who promised ideal? It’s too bad the cleverest of things were corrupt and have made us call geniuses stupid. Maybe it’s circumstance, maybe it’s hereditary, but the greatest criminals have the creativity and courage like no other.
Kristian Ventura (The Goodbye Song)
He leaned forward, eyes gleaming with enthusiasm. As he spoke, he lifted the kettle from the oil flame and poured steaming water into the cup and a bowl. Ginger and cinnamon wafted toward me. “All of time, every sliced instant of it, is rich with vertices of choices. One becomes accustomed to that, to the point at which sometimes even I have to stop and remind myself that I am making choices, even when I do not seem to be. Every indrawn breath is a choice. But sometimes one is reminded of that forcibly, sometimes I meet a person so laden with possibilities and potential that the mere existence of such a being is a jolt to reality. You are like that, still, to me. The sheer improbability of your existence took my breath away. … Yet here you are, with me still, defying the odds by existing. And by your existence, with every breath you take, you change all time. You are like a wedge driven into dry wood. With every beat of your heart, you are pounded deeper into ‘what might be’ and as you advance, you crack the future open, and expose a hundred, a thousand new possibilities, each branching into another hundred, another thousand.” p. 264 The Fool to Fitz
Robin Hobb (Fool's Fate (Tawny Man, #3))
When you make a mistake with metal, you can melt things down and start afresh. It is irritating, and it costs in time and soot and sweat, but it can be done. There is a comfort in iron, knowing that a fresh start is always possible. But a city is not a sword. It is a living thing, and living things defy simple fixing. Roots cannot be reforged. They scar, and broken branches must be cut and sealed with tar, and this makes me angry, as it always has, and my anger has no place to go. It was easier when I was young. I could use my anger like a hammer against the world. I was so sure of myself and my friends and my rightness. I would hammer at the world, and breaking felt like making to me, and I was good at it. And while I was not wrong, neither was I entirely right. Nothing is simple. I do not work in wood. I am not brave enough for that. There is a comfort in iron, a promise of safety, a second chance if mistakes are made. But a city is more a forest than a sword. No, it needs more tending than that. Perhaps a city is like a garden, then. So these days, it seems I have become a gardener. I dig foundations in the earth. I sow rows of houses. I plan and plant. I watch the skies for rain and ruin. I cannot help but think that you would be better at this, but circumstance has put both of us in our own odd place. You are forced to be a hammer in the world, and my ungentle hands are learning how to tend a plot of land. We must do what we can do. Did you know that there are some seeds that cannot sprout unless they are first burned? A friend once told me that. She was– she was a bookish sort. I think of gardening constantly these days. I wear your gift, and I think of you, and I think it is interesting that there are some living things that need to pass through fire before they flourish. I ramble. You have the heart of a gardener, and because of this, you think of consequence, and your current path pains you. I am not wise, and I do not give advice, but I have come to know a few things: sometimes breaking is making, even iron can start again, and there are many things that move through fire and find themselves much better for it afterward.
Patrick Rothfuss