The goal is to change your response to what you can’t control — to gradually grow stronger on the inside, so less on the outside affects your inner peace and happiness without your conscious permission.

The mind is the biggest battleground. It’s the place where the greatest conflict resides. It’s where we all develop thinking habits that put us in direct opposition with reality — where the things we fear drain us but never actually happen. It’s where our expectations get the best of us, and we fall victim to our own trains of thought, again and again.

Truth be told, in the game of life we all receive a unique set of unexpected limitations and variables in the field of play. The question is: How will you think about and respond to the hands you’ve been dealt? You can either focus on the lack thereof, or you can empower yourself to play the game sensibly and resourcefully, making the very best of each outcome as it arises, even when it’s hard to accept.

The bottom line is that when you can’t control what’s happening in the world around you, you must challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what’s happening, by better managing your habits of mind. Of course that’s much easier said than done though, because it’s hard to change the thinking habits we engage in mostly at a subconscious level. But we can get better by bringing more awareness to what we’re doing…

So today let’s take a look at three thinking habits Angel and I have seen draining hundreds of coaching clients and live event attendees of their inner peace and happiness, consistently over the past 15 years…

1. The habit of expecting things to be a certain way.

Imagine you had a ripe, juicy tangerine sitting on the table in front of you. You pick it up eagerly, take a bite, and begin to taste it.

You already know how a ripe, juicy tangerine should taste, and so when this one is a bit tarter than expected, you make a face, feel a sense of disappointment, and swallow it, feeling cheated out of the experience you expected.

Or perhaps the tangerine tastes completely normal — nothing special at all. So, you swallow it without even pausing to appreciate its flavor as you move on to the next unworthy bite, and the next.

In the first scenario, the tangerine let you down because it didn’t meet your expectations. In the second, it was too plain because it met your expectations to a T.

Do you see the irony here?

It’s either not good or not good enough. This is how many of us live our lives… unhappily and unsuccessfully. It’s why so many of us feel let down, drained, and unexcited so often…

Because nothing really meets our expectations.

Now imagine you try this instead: remove your expectations of how the tangerine “should” taste. You don’t know, and you don’t expect to know, because you haven’t even tried it yet. Instead, you’re genuinely curious, impartial, and open to a variety of possible flavors. You taste it, and you truly pay attention. You notice the juiciness, the texture of the pulp, the simultaneously tangy, tart, and sweet flavors swirling around on your tongue, and all the other complex sensations that arise in your awareness as you chew. You didn’t know how this tangerine would taste, but now you realize it’s different from the rest, and it’s remarkable in its own way. It’s a totally new experience — a worthwhile experience — because you’ve never tasted this tangerine before.

Mindfulness experts often refer to this as “beginner’s mind,” but really, it’s just the result of a mind-set free of needless, stifling expectations.

The tangerine, of course, can be substituted for almost anything in your life: any event, any situation, any relationship, any person, any thought at all that enters your mind. If you approach any of these with expectations of “how it should be” or “how it has to be” in order to be good enough for you, they will almost always disappoint you in some way, or be too plain and unexciting to even remember. And you’ll just move on to the next disappointment or unworthy life experience, and the next, and the next, and so on and so forth, until you’ve lived the vast majority of your life stuck in an habitual cycle of experiences you barely like or barely even notice.

2. The habit of inner resistance.

You might be surprised by how often you subconsciously resist life. If you evaluate your body and posture right now, I bet you can find some kind of tension. For me it’s often in my neck, but sometimes it’s in my back and shoulders.

Where does this tension we feel come from? We’re resisting something — perhaps we’re annoyed by someone, frustrated at life, overwhelmed by all our obligations, or just bored. And our inner resistance creates a tension in our bodies and weakness in our lives. Therefore, Angel and I often recommend this simple strategy to people who are struggling to relieve themselves of their resistance and tension:

• Locate the tension in your body right now.
• Notice what you’re resisting and tensing up against — it might be a situation or person you’re dealing with or avoiding.
• Relax the tense area of your body — deep breath and a quick stretch often helps.
• Face the same situation or person, but with a relaxed body and mind.

Repeat this practice as often as needed. Face each day with less tension and more presence. Change your mode of being from one of struggle and resistance to one of flow and acceptance.

3. The habit of focusing only on what’s wrong.

The bottom line is that almost every situation imaginable has hidden beauty in it if we are willing to open up to it. For example, in the past, even as Angel and I coped with the death of loved ones, we discovered opportunities for us to appreciate life more, to celebrate the lives of those we’ve lost, and to tune in to the priceless time we’ve had, and still have, with people we love.

We do our best to embody this same mindset in every difficult life situation we encounter. When we get ill, it’s a chance for us to rest. When some unforeseeable event postpones one of our business projects, we spend more time with family. When our adolescent son throws a temper tantrum, we see that he’s expressing himself, asserting his individuality, and being human.

We choose to find what’s right, even when it’s hard to see. And we can all practice this on the average day. Try to use frustration and inconvenience to motivate you rather than annoy you. You are in control of the way you look at life.

Instead of getting angry, find the lesson. In place of envy, feel admiration. In place of worry, take action. In place of doubt, have faith. Remind yourself that your response is always more powerful than your present circumstance. Because while a small part of your life is decided by completely uncontrollable circumstances, the vast majority of your life is decided by your responses. Again, where you ultimately end up is heavily dependent on how you play the hands you’ve been dealt.

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to not fall back into old habits of mind simply because they’re more comfortable and easier to access right now. It’s your turn to remember that you’re leaving certain thinking habits behind today for a reason: to improve your life — because you can’t move forward if you keep going back. And it’s undoubtedly your turn to reclaim your inner peace and happiness, and make your time count going forward!

But before you go, please leave Angel and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this essay. Your feedback is important to us.

Which one of the points above resonated the most today?

Also, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

Success is a difficult thing to measure, perhaps because it means something slightly different for everybody. For some, success is all about financial security while for others it could be about climbing to the top of your game in your chosen career. For others, success might be defined by work/life balance. 

Once you know what success looks like for you, the next hurdle is making success happen for yourself. One important step in that process is to cultivate your own success mindset. This mindset can help you visualize a life where you have achieved the goals that will make you successful and follow a path to make that happen. After all, once you figure out how to change your mindset, you can accomplish just about anything.

What Is a Success Mindset?

A success mindset is one that helps people achieve, personally or professionally. It can include many facets, including positivity, goal-setting, self-discipline and resilience. Developing a success mindset involves retraining your brain to approach life in a way that will help you realize your full potential. 

This type of mindset can help you develop habits and attitudes to help you stay focused, resilient and motivated as you work towards your goals, especially when it comes to facing setbacks and roadblocks. With a success mindset, people are able to believe in their own potential for growth. They also strive for genuine clarity of goals, as well as consistent positive self-talk. It also involves holding yourself accountable when it comes to the decisions you make along the way. 

A success mindset can help you foster a clear vision of what you want, stay open to continuous learning along the road and see failures as teachable moments. Ultimately, a success mindset can help you see yourself growing and set goals for how you are going to become successful.

Why Mindset Matters for Success

You set a firm foundation for your future when you take steps to develop a success mindset. This success mindset will help you reframe your failures as opportunities to change and grow, and it can help you build confidence in yourself and your goals. This can help you stay motivated on the journey toward your desired results. If you train your brain to believe in yourself and your own future success, you are also combating one of the greatest threats to success: comparison. 

You can learn to celebrate your own progress rather than following someone else’s journey. Comparison can sometimes lead to beliefs that you are simply not as good, not as successful or not as worthy. Putting your energy into changing your mindset can help you be successful not just in business but in relationships and other areas of life as well. You can learn to communicate effectively and with emotional intelligence, build strong teams and work well with others to achieve goals. 

Despite concerns about issues like inflation and rising fuel costs, many entrepreneurs feel optimistic about the future, according to the JPMorganChase Business Leaders Outlook Survey. John Simmons, JPMorganChase Head of Commercial Banking, asserts that business leaders have focused on turning “obstacles into opportunities.” In other words, their ability to succeed can be at least partially attributed to their adoption of a success mindset. 

Stress can have negative impacts on our health. Negative self-talk can be damaging to creativity and productivity. Life is going to get in your way, and there’s not much you can do to stop that. However, you can change your mindset to set yourself up to be resilient in an unpredictable world.

How to Change Your Mindset to be Successful

There are several different practices you can implement into your life to foster a success mindset.

1. Visualization

Being able to see yourself as a success is the first step. You might want to consider creating a vision board with a collage of quotes, images, dreams and symbols to remind you of the future you are working toward when times get difficult. If vision boards aren’t your thing, you can get a bit of daily inspiration through daily affirmations or mantras. You can buy affirmation cards if you struggle to come up with some yourself and place them on your mirror to repeat at will. You might also benefit from repeating mantras like “I grow through every challenge,” or even simply “This day is my day” when you are having a difficult time.

Keeping a daily journal is an excellent practice both to monitor your progress and sort out your thoughts, and it should help you map out a visual timeline of milestones you hope to meet.

2. Self-Reflection

Being honest with yourself is all about asking “why” you are doing something to find the real motivation. Why are you growing your business, for example? To take care of your family, financial freedom, creative outlet… whatever the answer might be, you are the one who needs to ask it. 

You should never underestimate the importance of self-reflection, according to the Harvard Business Review. It also needs to be a daily practice. Check in with yourself in the morning to see what sort of mindset you need for the day. Consider keeping a weekly win and lessons learned log to document both successes and setbacks. 

3. Goal-Setting

Set yourself clear, actionable goals, like reframing negative self-talk by committing to positive affirmations for 30 days to help your success mindset. You can also set financial goals, like saving $5,000 over a period of time by tracking weekly expenses and getting rid of unwanted subscriptions to see results. If you’re hoping to benefit from a new learned experience, try setting a goal, like joining a networking organization or improving your public speaking by taking part in a Toastmasters club for a short period of time.

The key ingredient here is being realistic about your goals. Setting an unattainable goal for yourself will only harm you in the long run.

4. Cognitive Reframing

Learning how to reframe the way you interpret events is no easy feat. We all have lifelong training from the people in our lives and our own histories, but sometimes seeing the world through that old framework holds us back from a more positive future. Cognitive reframing is all about changing the way you look at the facts in front of you rather than changing them. 

Certainly therapy can help you with cognitive reframing, but there are other useful daily tools you can implement as well. If, for example, you find yourself thinking, “I’m never going to be successful,” you can catch that thought as it happens by asking, “Why am I thinking like this?” Then you can challenge that thought by asking, “Is this true? Will I never be successful?” before reframing the answer. “This isn’t true. I’m just suffering from a setback. I have the tools to build a successful life.” Repeat as needed.

5. Lean on the Experts

We are fortunate to live in a time when we have so much access to research, and there are some incredible tools that have been created by experts along the way. If you want to dig deeper into the timeless philosophies of success and mindset mastery, check out the master himself at JimRohn.com. Rohn shares tips on how to cultivate an environment for success by surrounding yourself with positive influences, shares great tips on how to set goals that work and more. If you’re a podcast person, consider listening to this episode of Unscripted to hear how mindset plays out in real life.

The Power of a Success Mindset in Everyday Life

There are so many factors to finding success in your everyday life, and some factors are simply beyond our control. Which is why it is so important to develop a success mindset over time even if it doesn’t come naturally to you. Using tools like visualization, achievable goal-setting, positive self-talk and cognitive reframing can help you stay on track with your business and your life. Remember that a success mindset is a practice. It’s something you can come back to every day as you work towards your dreams.

Photo from PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock.com

It takes roughly 66 days to form a habit. So for the next 9 weeks look at the bright side of your life, and you will rewire your brain.

If the grass looks greener on the other side…

Stop staring.

Stop comparing.

Stop complaining.

And START watering the grass you’re standing on…

Truly, the most powerful weapon against stress on the average day is our ability to choose one thought or response over another. I was reminded of this today when a reader named Sarah sent me the following in an email (I’m sharing this with permission):

“I sat down with my two daughters, ages six and eight, this afternoon to explain to them that we have to move out of our four-bedroom house and into a two-bedroom apartment for a year or two until I can find another job and build our savings back up. It’s a conversation I’ve been avoiding for over a month, as I’ve struggled with the doubts and regrets of not being able to provide a financially stable household for us. But my daughters just looked at each other after I told them, and then my youngest daughter turned to me and asked, ‘Are we all moving into that apartment together?’ ‘Of course,’ I immediately replied. ‘Oh, so no big deal then,’ she said.”

Is that not the most mindful, optimistic response imaginable?

I hope it inspires you to train your mind to see the good in everything, even when it’s hard. The peace and happiness of your life in the long run heavily depends on the quality of your daily thoughts and responses. Optimism is your choice today. It’s not an inborn trait bestowed on a lucky few — it’s a skill that can be learned and honed. Let those two little girls be your guides, and allow this short read to fill in the gaps…

Since there’s no one-size-fits-all, step-by-step guide to being more optimistic, I’ve compiled a short list of habits that we’ve successfully implemented with our course students, coaching clients, and live event attendees over the past 15 years. Here are some key things they now do differently, often on a daily basis, that you can implement in your own life:

1. Optimists make optimal use of the available options.

Most people get irritated by those who seem “too optimistic,” but this is often just an unfortunate misinterpretation of the difference between an optimist and an idealist. An optimist is really just a positive realist who is neither naive, nor in denial, nor blind to the realities of life.

An optimist believes in the optimal usage of all the available options no matter how narrow the supply. As a result, optimistic people are able to better see the bigger picture. They can more accurately visualize and mange the present possibilities. For comparison’s sake: An idealist focuses only on the absolute best aspects of situations, a pessimist sees no positive possibilities at all, and an optimist strives to see all the possibilities so they can find the best possible option among them.

So when picking lemons off a lemon tree, an idealist reaches for the ripest looking lemon and expects it to be the tastiest, a pessimist settles for whichever one is closest, while an optimist picks all the lemons in sight and makes lemonade. (Note: Angel and I further discuss this habit of optimism in our New York Times bestseller, “Getting Back to Happy”.)

2. Optimists give themselves grace and acceptance.

As a child you impressed and inspired yourself on a daily basis. You ran, jumped, swung, sang, and danced openly without a care in the world — without worrying about what everyone else thought of you. You didn’t need anyone else’s constant approval, because deep down you knew you were amazing.

But as you grew into adulthood the pressure from peers, popular media, and society as a whole began to wear on you. You started comparing yourself to everyone around you. You judged and measured your body, your lifestyle, your career, and your relationships against other people’s lives. And when you realized that many of these people have things that you do not, bitterness set in and you gradually stopped appreciating all the great things you do have in your life.

Optimists defend themselves against this self-dislike in two primary ways. First, they get back to trusting their own intuition when it comes to their daily activities. They stop asking for everyone else’s approval and simply do what they know in their heart feels right. Second, optimists don’t judge themselves against a set of unrealistic, third-party ideals. They let go of the ideals and instead hold on to the belief that they are always good enough just the way they are, even as they grow into stronger, wiser versions of themselves.

3. Optimists disconnect contentment from long-term achievement.

In order to be optimistic you have to be generally content with your life. In order to find this contentment, you have to look within yourself. Happiness after all is mostly an inside job.

If you constantly look for happiness outside yourself, by tying it to a specific achievement you must reach for example, you have two big problems:

1. You may never succeed. – If you feel like something is wrong with you and absolutely needs to be fixed ASAP, but you continuously fall short of fixing it, you will start yourself on a downward spiral where every time you fail to fix it you feel even worse. Eventually you will be unable to succeed simply because you no longer believe in your ability to do so.
2. You may succeed and decide you want even more. – If you feel like something is wrong with you and absolutely needs to be fixed, and you succeed at fixing it, you will likely find something new about yourself that needs fixing too. Maybe you’ve lost 20 pounds, but now you want tighter abs. Maybe you’ve paid down your debt, but now you want a bank account with a million dollars in it. You get the idea. It’s a never-ending cycle for your entire life. You never reach it, because you’re always looking for happiness from external achievements. You don’t find the happiness from within so you look to other sources.

Optimists set boundaries and disconnect long-term achievement from daily contentment and happiness — they give themselves permission to enjoy each moment without the need for anything more. This isn’t to say that they are complacent. They still set goals, build habits, help others, and grow, but they learn to indulge joyously in the journey, not the destination.

4. Optimists keep good company (and become good company).

In the long run you are only as good as the company you keep, and misery loves company. So do yourself a favor and dodge other people’s negativity as often as you can. Remember that optimism is a learned habit and it is positively contagious. Surround yourself with positive, emotionally supportive friends and family — people who could infect you with their optimism, so you can then pay it forward…

How can you pay it forward?

Be kind and positive right now, right here, in your own life, in whatever way you can. Just be kind and positive. There’s so much going on that we cannot solve — so many people we can’t help. But your kindness and optimism can make a significant difference, in your own life above all, and in the lives you touch. (Note: Angel and I discuss this in more detail in the Relationships chapter of “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently”.)

5. Optimists embrace life’s ups and downs.

Just because you’re an optimist doesn’t mean you’re not going to have bad days. You will have plenty of bad days, that’s reality. Life isn’t always rainbows and butterflies. A foundation of realism keeps things in perspective and helps prevent things from being blown out of proportion.

Expecting life to be wonderful all the time is wanting to swim in an ocean in which waves only rise up and never come crashing down. However, when you recognize that the rising and crashing waves are part of the exact same ocean, you are able to let go and be at peace with the reality of these ups and downs. It becomes clear that life’s ups require life’s downs.

Bottom line: Prepare for the downs but capitalize on the ups; the former makes you sensible and the latter makes you an optimist. (Read “Learned Optimism”.)

6. Optimists use positive language and gestures.

It’s not always what happens that determines your mood, but how you express what happens that counts. For instance, when an optimist experiences a bout of success she might say, “That’s just as I had anticipated; I studied hard and my diligence paid off,” while a pessimist might say, “Wow, was I lucky to get such a good grade on that test,” not giving herself any credit and literally snatching her own defeat from the hands of victory.

If an optimist encounters a do-it-yourself project she can’t figure out, she’s likely to say something like, “Either the instructions I’m following are unclear, or this project is going to require a bit more effort than I thought… or maybe I’m just having a rough moment here.” In other words, an optimist uses positive self-talk to keep the struggle outside herself (“the instructions”), specific (“more effort”), and temporary (“a rough moment”), while the pessimist would likely get down on herself and interpret the same struggle as internal, widespread, and everlasting.

Go ahead and follow in the optimist’s footsteps by speaking to yourself in a more positive way regardless of whether you succeed or fail, and you’ll gradually become more optimistic.

Physical body language is also important. Your smile actually influences your mood in a positive way. When you feel down, your brain tells your face that you’re sad, and your facial muscles respond by putting on a frown, which in turn conveys a message back to your brain that says, “Yep, we’re feeling unhappy.” On the average day (when nothing extreme is happening) you can flip the switch on this internal reaction by adjusting your facial muscles into a smile so they don’t correspond to what you’re feeling. This is a clever way of sending a different message back to your brain: “Hey, life is still pretty good and I’m doing OK.” And you’ll actually begin to feel a little better, gradually.

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to declare this day a worthy one! So let’s start the rest of the day off right with renewed energy and an attitude that things will keep flourishing and getting better. Let’s be hopeful, optimistic, and focused on taking consistent positive action…

And before you go, please leave Angel and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this essay and it’s ideas for creating optimism. Your feedback is important to us.

Which one of the points above resonated the most today?

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

Like many of you I’ll be listening to Taylor Swift’s brand new album The Life of a Showgirl while working today.

So I thought this would be a good day to share 101 of the most inspirational, positive and empowering short Taylor Swift quotes.

I hope you’ll find something relatable here that makes you think. Something uplifting if you’re having a tough day.

And something to help you have a great week ahead.

Short and Inspirational Taylor Swift Quotes About Life

“No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.”

“Be yourself, chase your dreams, and just never say never.”

“In life you learn lessons. Sometimes you learn them the hard way and sometimes you learn them too late.”

“I think the tiniest little thing can change the course of your day, which can change the course of your year, which can change who you are.”

“Never believe anyone who tells you that you don’t deserve what you want.”

“In life and love, you learn that there comes a time to let go and move on.”

“You are not the opinion of someone who doesn’t know you.”

“People are going to judge you anyway, so you might as well do what you want.”

“This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.”

“Life isn’t how to survive the storm, it’s about how to dance in the rain.”

“The lesson I’ve learned the most often in life is that you’re always going to know more in the future than you know now.”

“We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.”

“I’m intimidated by the fear of being average.”

“I never want to change so much that people can’t recognize me.”

“If they don’t like you for being yourself, be yourself even more.”

“Unique and different is the new generation of beautiful. You don’t have to be like everybody else.”

“I’ve always been a hugger. If we all hugged more, the world would be a better place.”

“If you’re lucky enough to be different, never change.”

“You can never forget the people who were always there for you from the beginning.”

“We’re just entertaining people, and it’s supposed to be fun.”

“People haven’t always been there for me but music always has.”

“Just be yourself, there is no one better.”

Short and Relatable Taylor Swift Quotes from Her Songs

“Gold was the color of the leaves when I showed you around Centennial Park.”
(“Invisible String” from Folklore)

“It takes everything in me just to get up each day, but it’s wonderful to see that you’re OK.”
(“Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor’s Version)” from Fearless (Taylor’s Version))

“I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me.”
(“New Romantics” from 1989)

“I took a chance, I took a shot and you may think I’m bullet-proof, but I’m not. You took a swing, I took it hard. And down here from the ground I see who you are.”
(“Tell Me Why” from Fearless (Taylor’s Version))

“It’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair.”
(“Change” from Fearless (Taylor’s Version))

“So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it.”
(“You’re On Your Own, Kid” from Midnights)

“The way you walk, way you talk, way you say my name; it’s beautiful, wonderful, don’t you ever change.”
(“Hey Stephen” from Fearless (Taylor’s Version))

“I’ve loved you three summers now, honey, but I want ’em all.”
(“Lover” from Lover)

“Turns out freedom ain’t nothing but missing you.”
(“Back to December” from Speak Now (Taylor’s Version))

“I don’t let nobody see me wishin’ he was mine.”
(“I’d Lie” from Fearless (Taylor’s Version))

“I’m a mess, but I’m the mess that you wanted.”
(“Dancing With Our Hands Tied” from Reputation)

“Nothin’ lasts forever, but this is gettin’ good now.”
(“Wildest Dreams,” 1989 (Taylor’s Version))

“Please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere.”
(“New Year’s Day” from Reputation)

“Barefoot in the kitchen, sacred new beginnings, that became my religion, listen.”
(“Cornelia Street” from Lover)

“Sorry, I can’t see facts through all of my fury.”
(“Happiness” from Evermore)

“I could wait patiently, but I really wish you would.”
(“Sparks Fly” from Speak Now)

“I had a marvelous time ruining everything.”
(“The Last Great American Dynasty” from Folklore)

“Long were the nights when my days once revolved around you.”
(“Dear John” from Speak Now)

“I might be okay, but I’m not fine at all.”
(“All Too Well” from Red (Taylor’s Version))

“You drew stars around my scars but now I’m bleeding.”
(“Cardigan” from Folklore)

“From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes. I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this. I hosted parties and starved my body. Like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss.”
(“You’re On Your Own, Kid” from Midnights)

“Back then we didn’t know we were built to fall apart.”
(“The Very First Night (Taylor’s Version)” from Red (Taylor’s Version))

Short and Motivational Taylor Swift Quotes for Success and Graduation

“Anytime someone tells me that I can’t do something, I want to do it more.”

“You can be accidentally successful for three or four years. Accidents happen. But careers take hard work.”

“I really like to explore the edges of what I’m allowed to do.”

“If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.”

“Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.”

“I love having a goal, feeling like I’m on a mission. I love trying to beat what I’ve done so far.”

“FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over again even though every time you’ve tried before you’ve lost.”

“You have to not only live your life in spite of people who don’t understand you, you have to have more fun than they do.”

“If you’re being met with resistance, that probably means you’re doing something new.”

“If you’re experiencing turbulence or pressure, that probably means you’re rising.”

“Words are everything to me. Words can build me up and make me feel so good.”

“Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important things are valuable.”

“I’ve always known that writing was the main pillar holding up my career.”

“Your feelings are so important to write down, to capture, and to remember.”

“I’m so lucky that I get to write my own music and write my own stories.”

“All I think about are metaphors and cats.”

“I’m a songwriter. Everything affects me.”

“If something happens to me, you’re going to hear about it. I only know how to write songs about my life.”

“I feel like, as a songwriter, I can’t develop thick skin.”

“Creativity is getting inspiration and having that lightning bolt idea moment.”

“When you hear people making hateful comments, stand up to them.”

Short Taylor Swift Quotes on Love and Relationships

“When we’re falling in love or out of it, that’s when we most need a song that says how we feel.”

“My experiences in love have taught me difficult lessons.”

“I want to be the girl who, like, when she falls in love, it’s like a big deal and it’s a rare thing.”

“I think the perfection of love is that it’s not perfect.”

“Getting a great idea with songwriting is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is.”

“I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.”

“I think who you are in school really sticks with you.”

“Being fearless isn’t being 100 percent not fearful; it’s being terrified but you jump anyway.”

“I haven’t had that one great love, which is good. I don’t want that to be in the past, I want it to be in the future.”

“We should love, not fall in love, because everything that falls, gets broken.”

“I’ve learned that you can’t predict love or plan for it.”

“To truly love is to have the courage to walk away and let the other person who wishes to be free go no matter how much it hurts.”

“Love will find you when you least expect it.”

“If somebody hurts you, it’s okay to cry a river, just remember to build a bridge and get over it.”

“I think I am smart unless I am really, really in love, and then I am ridiculously stupid.”

“There are two different categories of love. The first category is called a fairytale. The second category of love is called just another lesson.”

“If love is worth it, if it’s that good that it’s worth fighting for, then you know that it’s the right love.”

“I’m fascinated by love. I love studying it and watching it.”

“No matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it.”

Deep and a Bit Longer Taylor Swift Quotes

“I still think it’s important to be polite, but not at all costs. Not when you’re being pushed beyond your limits, and not when people are walking all over you.”

“There’s so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to.”

“When I was a little girl I used to read fairy tales. In fairy tales you meet Prince Charming and he’s everything you ever wanted. In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is always wearing a black cape so you always know who he is. Then you grow up and you realize that Prince Charming is not as easy to find as you thought. You realize the bad guy is not wearing a black cape and he’s not easy to spot; he’s really funny, and he makes you laugh, and he has perfect hair.”

“A lot of the best things I ever did creatively were things that I had to really fight – and I mean aggressively fight – to have happen.”

“The bigger your career gets, the more you struggle with the idea that a lot of people see you the same way they see an iPhone or a Starbucks.”

“When I listen to a song, I don’t say, ‘Oh my gosh, that vocal line she sang was the best thing I ever heard.’ I’m thinking, ‘That lyric just moves me.’”

“I think songwriting is the ultimate form of being able to make anything that happens in your life productive.”

“The bad stuff was really significant and damaging. But the good stuff will endure. The good lessons – you realize that you can’t just show your life to people.”

“Social media can be great, but it can also inundate your brain with images of what you aren’t, how you’re failing, or who is in a cooler locale than you at any given moment.”

“Grow a backbone, trust your gut, and know when to strike back. Be like a snake – only bite if someone steps on you.”

“A man writing about his feelings from a vulnerable place is brave; a woman writing about her feelings from a vulnerable place is oversharing or whining.”

“I’ve come to a realization that I need to be able to forgive myself for making the wrong choice, trusting the wrong person, or figuratively falling on my face in front of everyone.”

“Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it’s on both ends of the spectrum.”

“Real life is a funny thing, you know. In real life, saying the right thing at the right moment is beyond crucial.”

“I write a lot of songs about love and I think that’s because to me love seems like this huge complicated thing.”

“For too long, the projected opinions of strangers affected how I viewed my relationships.”

“Since I was 15 years old, if people criticized me for something, I changed it.”

“You don’t always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the delivery service, that is life. You get what you get, and you should be proud of what you’ve done with it.”

Want more helpful inspiration? Then check out these positive quotes for life, the short love quotes here and also this post with lots of relatable and positive breakup quotes.

It’s Friday morning. The weekend is calling your name.

Perhaps you feel energized by that and are ready to go to finish this week strong. Or maybe you’re running on fumes by now.

No matter what situation you’re in, I think today’s post can be helpful. In it I’d like to share 101 of the most positive, funny and motivational short Friday morning quotes.

I hope you’ll find something here that’ll make you smile or laugh and give a you a jolt of new energy and motivation.

Short Friday Morning Quotes for a Great Day

“Music always sounds better on Friday.”
– Lou Brutus

“Work starts on Monday. Life begins on Friday.”
– Ozama Yasin

“I don’t care if Monday’s blue, Tuesday’s gray and Wednesday too. It’s Friday I’m in love.”
– The Cure

“This Friday, finish your work and be done. Look forward to the weekend and have some fun!”
– Kate Summers

“Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.”
– Maya Angelou

“It’s Friday morning, mankind! Good vibe, don’t frown and let the monster see you smile!”
– Napz Cherub Pellazo

“Friday. The golden child of the weekdays. The superhero of the workweek.”
– Unknown

“Let Friday show you where the smiles are in life.”
– Anthony T. Hincks

“Friday is about hanging out with friends, having fun.”
– Rebecca Black

“Oh! It’s Friday again. Share the love that was missing during the week.”
– S. O’Sade

“Weekends welcome warriors for social fun that starts on Friday.”
– David Chiles

“It’s finally Friday, I’m free again. I got my motor running for a wild weekend.”
– George Jones

“Hello, Friday, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time…”
– Flo Rida

“Friday is a day to celebrate work well done.”
– Byron Pulsifer

“It’s Aloha Friday, no work ’til Monday.”
– Kimo Kahoano & Paul Natto

“Gotta get down on Friday. Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend.”
– Rebecca Black

“Friday sees more smiles than any other day of the workweek.”
– Kate Summers

“May today be the Fridayest Friday that ever Friday!”
– Vinay Agarwal

“Who cares about Thursday’s happy hour when Friday is upon us?”
– Unknown

Short Friday Morning Quotes for Motivation at Work or School

“The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.”
– Henry Ward Beecher

“Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.”
– Richard Whately

“Today is life – the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today.”
– Dale Carnegie

“Employers are at their happiest on Mondays. Employees are at their happiest on Fridays.”
– Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“When you leave work on Friday, leave work. Don’t let technology follow you throughout your weekend.”
– Catherine Pulsifer

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
– Dalai Lama

“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.”
– George Horace Lorimer

“If every day at work feels like a Friday, then you are doing what you were meant to do.”
– Alan W. Kennedy

“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.”
– Sam Levenson

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
– Steve Jobs

“On Monday morning, I look forward fearlessly to Friday’s eve.”
– Ellen Wittlinger

“When you start to do the things that you truly love, it wouldn’t matter whether it is Monday or Friday.”
– Edmond Mbiaka

“Friday afternoon feels like heaven.”
– El Fuego

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”
– Albert Schweitzer

“The best career choice you can make is one in which you hate to see Friday come because you love your work.”
– Catherine Pulsifer

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
– Albert Einstein

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
– Mark Twain

“Make a Friday a day to celebrate work well done that you can be proud of.”
– Byron Pulsifer

“Dream big, work hard, stay focused and surround yourself with good people.”
– Debbie Moore

Funny and Short Friday Morning Quotes to Relieve Stress

“Happy Friday! Here’s to all of us who made it through another week of faking adulthood.”
– Nanea Hoffman

“It’s 4:58 on Friday afternoon. Do you know where your margarita is?”
– Amy Neftzger

“I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. If my name is not on it, I get up.”
– Benjamin Franklin

“Everyone wants me to be a morning person. I could be one, only if morning began after noon.”
– Tony Smite

“If you must have motivation, think of your paycheck on Friday.”
– Noel Coward

“Although I understand that all days are equal with 24 hours each, most of us agree Friday is the longest day.”
– D.S. Mixell

“If my boss knew how unproductive I am on Fridays, he wouldn’t want me here either.”
– James Johnson

“Why is Monday so far away from Friday but Friday is so close to Monday?”
– Unknown

“It’s Friday. Any plan of being a productive member of society is officially thrown out the window.”
– Ronald Wilson

“Today’s goals: Coffee and kindness. Maybe two coffees, and then kindness.”
– Nanea Hoffman

“Weekends don’t pay as well as weekdays but at least there’s football.”
– S.A. Sachs

“Life is like Friday on a soap opera. It gives you the illusion that everything is going to wrap up.”
– Stephen King

“Its always difficult to keep Fridays confined within themselves – they tend to spill over.”
– Parag Tipnis

“Fridays are the hardest in some ways: you’re so close to freedom.”
– Lauren Oliver

“Every Friday, I like to high five myself for getting through another week on little more than caffeine.”
– Nanea Hoffman

“The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own.”
– Chuck Palahniuk

“There’s just one legitimate synonym for Friday: Boom Shakalaka.”
– Unknown

“Tuesday just called and wants to know what happened to Friday!”
– Neil Leckman

“Anybody have plans to stare at their phone somewhere exciting this weekend?”
– Nitya Prakash

“Morning comes whether you set the alarm or not.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin

“Good morning is a contradiction of terms.”
– Jim Davis

Short and Positive Friday Morning Quotes for a Happy and Fun Weekend

“I believe that it is a mandatory Law of the Universe that on Fridays, you have to do something a little fun.”
– Hanna Rhoades

“Hands up if you’re ready to do something you’ll regret this weekend. Go forth! You have my blessing.”
– Florence Welch

“A wild and crazy weekend involves sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, reading a book.”
– Robert M. Gates

“I like my coffee black and my mornings bright.”
– Terri Guillemets

“The morning is good because we remember that no matter what went wrong, we have a perfect opportunity.”
– Unknown

“Making food is a wonderful way to spend a Friday night.”
– Chrissy Teigen

“You know you’re doing what you love when Sunday nights feel the same as Friday nights.”
– Donny Deutsch

“Without the weekend, where would the week be?”
– Anthony T. Hincks

“Fridays are like grandparents – everyone takes them lightly.”
– Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“The weekend is a time for rest, but Friday is a time for triumph.”
– Unknown

“Let’s finish strong and make it a great Friday!”
– Unknown

“I count their hours, minutes too. So glad it’s Friday!”
– Bell and James

“Friday afternoon feels like stepping into a beautiful vacation. I love that feeling of freedom.”
– Bob Simmons

“It’s Friday night. Time to be a hero and rescue some wine trapped in a bottle.”
– Unknown

“Celebrate the small wins as they lead to bigger victories.”
– Unknown

“But it’s Friday” is a valid excuse for almost anything today.”
– William Anderson

“Friday is a state of mind. Of freedom. Of the soul soon getting some nourishment.”
– Sarah Kelly

“Sometimes just lie in bed, don’t rush off into the morning, listen to the Earth rouse from sleep.”
– Unknown

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
– Henry David Thoreau

“Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.”
– Glen Cook

“End this week with a win. Even a small one. Then ride that feeling into the weekend.”
– Jim Harper

Short Inspirational Friday Morning Quotes to Share with Friends

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.”
– Rumi

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.”
– Lao Tzu

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

“Don’t count the days. Make the days count.”
– Muhammad Ali

“People wait all week for Friday, all year for summer, all life for happiness.”
– Abhysheq Shukla

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive.”
– Marcus Aurelius

“Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.”
– Mark Twain

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”
– Buddha

“Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life.”
– Yoko Ono

“The sun is a daily reminder that we too can rise again from the darkness.”
– S. Ajna

“Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning tells you what kind of day you’ll have.”
– Lemony Snicket

“Every day brings new choices.”
– Martha Beck

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
– Confucius

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
– Anne Frank

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
– Napoleon Hill

“Make each day your masterpiece.”
– John Wooden

“Friday is my second favorite F word. Food is my first.”
– Unknown

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
– Zig Ziglar

“Dream big, start small.”
– Simon Sinek

“Friday is a reminder that life is short, so go do something fun!”
– Unknown

Want more inspiration for your Friday? Then check out these funny Friday quotes, the positive quotes for life here and also the uplifting Friday quotes in this post.

Attitude isn’t just a mood, it’s the undercurrent of how we think, act and move through the world. It shapes our response to setbacks, our ability to work with others and our willingness to keep going when things get tough. A strong, positive attitude doesn’t mean we have to pretend everything’s perfect. It means choosing to show up with confidence and mental strength, even when life throws us the unexpected. The attitude quotes we’ll explore below are more than about just the moment. Rather, they touch on what’s beneath the surface that can lead us to be unstoppable. 

Maybe you’re working on personal growth, chasing a big goal or just trying to stay grounded in a noisy world. In any case, your mindset matters. It can be the thing that shifts your energy, lifts your focus and keeps your feet moving when motivation fades. If that sounds familiar, you might also find value in changing your mindset for success or learning how to overcome a can’t-do attitude. In order to help, we’ve curated these attitude sayings to help you build a mindset that can help lead you to success. 

From positive mental attitude quotes to sayings about effort, leadership and grit, the sections below offer encouragement for wherever you’re at. You might be leading a team, building something from the ground up or just simply trying to speak to yourself more kindly. In any situation, these quotes are a reminder: a strong attitude won’t make life easy, but it will help you handle it better.

Positive Mental Attitude Quotes to Help You Be Unstoppable

Your attitude shapes everything; how you approach problems, how you handle success, how you treat people and yourself. A positive mental attitude doesn’t mean ignoring reality, it means choosing to respond with confidence. In fact, it’s the foundation of resilience and the thing that keeps you going when things feel impossible. These strong quotes on attitude can be your reminders.

• “The power of positive thinking is the ability to generate a feeling of certainty in yourself when nothing in the environment supports you.” —Tony Robbins
• “There is very little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude.” —Napoleon Hill, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude
• “Your past does not equal your future.” —Tony Robbins
• “You are what you think.” —Napoleon Hill, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude
• “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” —Thomas Jefferson

• “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” —Maya Angelou
• “Attitude, not aptitude, determines altitude.” —Zig Ziglar
• “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” —Zig Ziglar
• “Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude.” —Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
• “Be on your own side.” —Maya Angelou, in interview with SELF magazine

Related: Powerful Perseverance Quotes to Help You Keep Going

Motivational Quotes for a Positive Attitude Toward Hard Work

Attitude and effort go hand in hand. You can be talented, smart and capable, but without the right attitude towards your hard work, your progress can stall. In addition, a positive, determined winning attitude can make the tough days count while making the good days even better. These motivational, positive attitude quotes on having a winning attitude remind us that grit, optimism and drive aren’t separate from success, they’re what fuel it.

• “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” —Vidal Sassoon
• “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” —Tim Notke
• “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.” —Helen Keller, Optimism
• “There is no substitute for hard work.” —Thomas Edison
• “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” —Thomas Jefferson
• “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” —Vince Lombardi

• “There is no substitute for hard work. Never give up. Never stop believing. Never stop fighting.” —Hope Hicks
• “Work hard in silence, let success make the noise.” —Frank Ocean
• “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” —Colin Powell
• “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” —Harry Golden

Related: Determination Quotes to Power Forward

Inspirational ‘Attitude Is Everything’ Quotes to Gain Determination & Resilience

There’s a reason so many leaders, thinkers and writers say attitude is everything. It’s not just a saying, it’s a truth that shows up again and again. When your mindset is steady and grounded, you can face setbacks, push through challenges and stay committed even when the outcome isn’t certain. Use these “attitude and effort” quotes to help you make it through anything.

• “Attitude reflects leadership, Captain.” —Julius Campbell, “Remember the Titans”
• “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” —Lou Holtz
• “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms… to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” —Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
• “Happiness depends on your mindset and attitude.” —Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
• “A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts… sparks extraordinary results.” —Wade Boggs
• “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” —Scott Hamilton
• “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” —Oprah Winfrey
• “A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.” —Jeff Keller, Attitude Is Everything: Change Your Attitude… And You Change Your Life! 
• “Life doesn’t reward those who refuse to expose themselves to difficulties and challenges.” —Jeff Keller, Attitude Is Everything: Change Your Attitude… And You Change Your Life!

• “Your attitude is something that is completely within your control” —Mark Fritz, The Truth About Getting More Done

Short Phrases to Help You Foster a Winning Attitude

Sometimes, all it takes is a short, punchy reminder to shift your mindset back into gear. This section is packed with original, short positive attitude quotes written by SUCCESS® team members. There are no clichés, just quick bursts of truth and encouragement to help you reset or recommit. In fact, you can use them like a mental sticky note. Print one. Memorize a few. Say them out loud when you need to. They’re designed to help you hold onto a strong, steady attitude when everything else feels up in the air.

• “Your mindset is your loudest voice, so make sure it speaks like someone who backs you.”
• “Attitude is the engine. Skill and luck are just passengers.”
• “Stay steady. You don’t need to shout to be strong.”
• “Quit waiting for motivation. Show up with grit instead.”
• “A good attitude won’t hand you results. It hands you the will to earn them.”

• “Keep your head high and your excuses low.”
• “The real flex is effort without complaint.”
• “You can’t fake hunger. It shows in your attitude.”
• “I’m not here to be liked. I’m here to be real, and that’s harder to fake.”
• “Respect is earned. Approval is optional.”

‘Be Unstoppable’ Quotes to Remind You the Effort Is Worth It

What does it mean to be unstoppable? It’s not about pushing blindly or acting like nothing gets to you. It’s about choosing to keep going. Even more, it’s knowing who you are, what matters to you and refusing to quit on it. These attitude quotes are for those moments when doubt creeps in, when progress feels slow or when you just need a jolt of perspective.

• “It is not the critic who counts… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena… who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming…” —Theodore Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic
• “The climb might be tough and challenging, but the view is worth it. There is a purpose for that pain; you just can’t always see it right away.” —Victoria Arlen
• “A little more persistence, a little more effort and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” —Elbert Hubbard
• “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” —Newt Gingrich
• “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” —Napoleon Hill, Napoleon Hill: Collected Works
• “No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.” —Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success 
• “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
• “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” —Jim Ryun

• “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” —Beverly Sills

The Right Attitude Makes the Hard Stuff Worth It

We don’t always feel motivated, but we can choose our mindsets. While a good attitude won’t fix everything, it can change how you face it. Let these attitude quotes stay with you when things get loud, messy or uncertain. After all, the right attitude isn’t just about being positive. It’s about being steady, focused and ready to keep going. And that’s what can make you truly unstoppable.

This article was updated in August 2025. Photo by Kinga/Shutterstock

Where you ultimately end up greatly depends on your daily attitude and response.

This morning one of our clients, Monica — a victim of a fairly recent and debilitating car accident — was smiling from ear to ear the minute our FaceTime coaching session began. “What has you in such good spirits today?” I asked her. “I’m thinking better about things today — about how lucky I am to be alive,” she replied. “I thought the injuries I sustained in that accident earlier this year signified the end of life as I know it, but now I realize they signify the beginning.”

All details aside, Monica decided to begin again, in her mind first and then in her life. It’s taken her several months of healing and practice, but she has gradually let go of the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” attachments in her head about her circumstances, and she has stepped forward with grace, determination, and a more positive mindset.

Let’s follow Monica’s lead and practice thinking better in the days and weeks ahead, so we can begin to build momentum, together, as we move forward…

Daily Reminders and Quotes on Sticky Notes

It’s all about keeping the right thoughts top of mind so they’re readily available in the moments when we need them most. For Monica, that has meant deliberately reflecting on what she needs to remember. To make this practice seamless she writes important reminders on sticky notes and then puts them up where she can see them as she moves through her days (a few of her sticky notes are up on the wall in her home office, and she has a few more on her bathroom mirror and refrigerator).

Monica’s sticky notes keep her on track by keeping her mind inspired with positive, proactive reminders, even when she’s struggling. Through this daily practice she she has ultimately learned that inner peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, chaos, or challenges to deal with; it means being in the midst of all those things and still being capable of maintaining a healthy mindset. And I’m sure you’ve learned something similar over the years from your own life experiences. I know Angel and I surely have. But just like Monica, and you, we often forget…

Which is precisely why Angel and I have sticky notes up in our house too. So my challenge to you is to start practicing alongside us for the next few weeks. To get started, copy our notes and quotes below — perhaps just the ones that resonate most — and rewrite them on physical sticky notes, so you can then stick them up where you can see them. Then pause for a few moments throughout every day, as needed, and quietly read them to yourself. See how doing so gradually changes the way you think and feel, especially in those moments that are harder than expected…

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

(Note: Most of the sticky notes and quotes above are included in “The Good Morning Journal: Powerful Prompts & Reflections to Start Every Day”.)

Let’s make the best of what’s in front of us.

We often yearn for a very small and selective range of life experiences — the fun times, the happy days, the things that make us feel calm and comfortable. And yet the full range of our daily reality is often quite different. Life gives us an extensive array of experiences that evoke feelings ranging from sadness to uncertainty to frustration to curiosity to nervousness… to happiness to excitement and more. These feelings are all part of being alive.

So we can revolt against the wide-ranging experiences life naturally provides, or we can make the very best of them. Starting today, let’s do the latter…

This means embracing every moment with our full presence, being open and vulnerable to reality, being gentle with ourselves when times are harder than expected, and practicing sincere gratitude whenever possible.

It means accepting life as it is, and accepting ourselves as we are.

It means not expecting the best to happen every time, but instead accepting whatever happens, and making the very best of it one step at a time.

And it won’t always be easy of course, but it’s worth working on.

YOU are worth working on!

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to get some inspiring sticky notes up on your walls today.  But before you go, please leave Angel and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this post. Your feedback is important to us.

Which sticky note or idea above resonates with you the most?

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

The goal is to change your response to what you can’t control — to gradually grow stronger on the inside, so less on the outside affects your inner peace and joy without your conscious permission.

The mind is the biggest battleground. It’s the place where the greatest conflict resides. It’s where we all develop thinking habits that put us in direct opposition with reality — where the things we fear drain us but never actually happen. It’s where our expectations get the best of us, and we fall victim to our own trains of thought, again and again.

Truth be told, in the game of life we all receive a unique set of unexpected limitations and variables in the field of play. The question is: How will you think about and respond to the hands you’ve been dealt? You can either focus on the lack thereof, or you can empower yourself to play the game sensibly and resourcefully, making the very best of each outcome as it arises, even when it’s hard to accept.

The bottom line is that when you can’t control what’s happening in the world around you, you must challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what’s happening, by better managing your habits of mind. Of course that’s much easier said than done though, because it’s hard to change the thinking habits we engage in mostly at a subconscious level. But we can get better by bringing more awareness to what we’re doing…

So today let’s take a look at three thinking habits Angel and I have seen draining hundreds of coaching clients and live event attendees of their inner peace and joy, consistently over the past 15 years…

1. The habit of expecting things to be a certain way.

Imagine you had a ripe, juicy tangerine sitting on the table in front of you. You pick it up eagerly, take a bite, and begin to taste it.

You already know how a ripe, juicy tangerine should taste, and so when this one is a bit tarter than expected, you make a face, feel a sense of disappointment, and swallow it, feeling cheated out of the experience you expected.

Or perhaps the tangerine tastes completely normal — nothing special at all. So, you swallow it without even pausing to appreciate its flavor as you move on to the next unworthy bite, and the next.

In the first scenario, the tangerine let you down because it didn’t meet your expectations. In the second, it was too plain because it met your expectations to a T.

Do you see the irony here?

It’s either not good or not good enough. This is how many of us live our lives… unhappily and unsuccessfully. It’s why so many of us feel let down, drained, and unexcited so often…

Because nothing really meets our expectations.

Now imagine you try this instead: remove your expectations of how the tangerine “should” taste. You don’t know, and you don’t expect to know, because you haven’t even tried it yet. Instead, you’re genuinely curious, impartial, and open to a variety of possible flavors. You taste it, and you truly pay attention. You notice the juiciness, the texture of the pulp, the simultaneously tangy, tart, and sweet flavors swirling around on your tongue, and all the other complex sensations that arise in your awareness as you chew. You didn’t know how this tangerine would taste, but now you realize it’s different from the rest, and it’s remarkable in its own way. It’s a totally new experience — a worthwhile experience — because you’ve never tasted this tangerine before.

Mindfulness experts often refer to this as “beginner’s mind,” but really, it’s just the result of a mind-set free of needless, stifling expectations.

The tangerine, of course, can be substituted for almost anything in your life: any event, any situation, any relationship, any person, any thought at all that enters your mind. If you approach any of these with expectations of “how it should be” or “how it has to be” in order to be good enough for you, they will almost always disappoint you in some way, or be too plain and unexciting to even remember. And you’ll just move on to the next disappointment or unworthy life experience, and the next, and the next, and so on and so forth, until you’ve lived the vast majority of your life stuck in an habitual cycle of experiences you barely like or barely even notice.

2. The habit of inner resistance.

You might be surprised by how often you subconsciously resist life. If you evaluate your body and posture right now, I bet you can find some kind of tension. For me it’s often in my neck, but sometimes it’s in my back and shoulders.

Where does this tension we feel come from? We’re resisting something — perhaps we’re annoyed by someone, frustrated at life, overwhelmed by all our obligations, or just bored. And our inner resistance creates a tension in our bodies and weakness in our lives. Therefore, Angel and I often recommend this simple strategy to people who are struggling to relieve themselves of their resistance and tension:

• Locate the tension in your body right now.
• Notice what you’re resisting and tensing up against — it might be a situation or person you’re dealing with or avoiding.
• Relax the tense area of your body — deep breath and a quick stretch often helps.
• Face the same situation or person, but with a relaxed body and mind.

Repeat this practice as often as needed. Face each day with less tension and more presence. Change your mode of being from one of struggle and resistance to one of flow and acceptance.

3. The habit of focusing only on what’s wrong.

The bottom line is that almost every situation imaginable has hidden beauty in it if we are willing to open up to it. For example, in the past, even as Angel and I coped with the death of loved ones, we discovered opportunities for us to appreciate life more, to celebrate the lives of those we’ve lost, and to tune in to the priceless time we’ve had, and still have, with people we love.

We do our best to embody this same mindset in every difficult life situation we encounter. When we get ill, it’s a chance for us to rest. When some unforeseeable event postpones one of our business projects, we spend more time with family. When our adolescent son throws a temper tantrum, we see that he’s expressing himself, asserting his individuality, and being human.

We choose to find what’s right, even when it’s hard to see. And we can all practice this on the average day. Try to use frustration and inconvenience to motivate you rather than annoy you. You are in control of the way you look at life.

Instead of getting angry, find the lesson. In place of envy, feel admiration. In place of worry, take action. In place of doubt, have faith. Remind yourself that your response is always more powerful than your present circumstance. Because while a small part of your life is decided by completely uncontrollable circumstances, the vast majority of your life is decided by your responses. Again, where you ultimately end up is heavily dependent on how you play the hands you’ve been dealt.

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to not fall back into old habits of mind simply because they’re more comfortable and easier to access right now. It’s your turn to remember that you’re leaving certain thinking habits behind today for a reason: to improve your life — because you can’t move forward if you keep going back. And it’s undoubtedly your turn to reclaim your inner peace and joy, and make your time count going forward!

But before you go, please leave Angel and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this essay. Your feedback is important to us.

Which one of the points above resonated the most today?

Also, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

Where you ultimately end up greatly depends on your daily attitude and response.

This morning one of our clients, Monica — a victim of a fairly recent and debilitating car accident — was smiling from ear to ear the minute our FaceTime coaching session began. “What has you in such good spirits today?” I asked her. “I’m thinking better about things today — about how lucky I am to be alive,” she replied. “I thought the injuries I sustained in that accident last year signified the end of life as I know it, but now I realize they signify the beginning.”

All details aside, Monica decided to begin again, in her mind first and then in her life. It’s taken her several months of healing and practice, but she has gradually let go of the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” attachments in her head about her circumstances. And she has stepped forward with grace, determination, and a positive mindset.

Let’s follow Monica’s lead and practice thinking better in the days ahead, so we can begin to build momentum, together, as we move through the month ahead of us…

Daily Reminders and Quotes on Sticky Notes

It’s all about keeping the right thoughts top of mind every day so they’re readily available in the moments when we need them most. For Monica, that has meant deliberately reflecting on what she needs to remember. To make this practice seamless she writes important reminders on sticky notes and then puts them up where she can see them first thing in the morning (a few of her sticky notes are up on the wall in her bedroom, and she has a few more on her bathroom mirror and refrigerator).

Monica’s sticky notes keep her on track by keeping her mind inspired with positive, proactive reminders, even when she’s struggling. Through this daily practice she she has ultimately learned that inner peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, chaos, or challenges to deal with; it means being in the midst of all those things and still being capable of maintaining a healthy mindset. And I’m sure you’ve learned something similar over the years from your own life experiences. I know Angel and I surely have. But just like Monica, and you, we often forget…

Which is precisely why Angel and I have sticky notes up in our house too. So my challenge to you is to start practicing alongside us for the next month or so. To get started, copy our notes and quotes below — perhaps just the ones that resonate most — and rewrite them on physical sticky notes, so you can then stick them up where you can see them. Then pause for a few moments every morning (and throughout the day as needed) and quietly read them to yourself. See how doing so gradually changes the way you think and feel…

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

(Note: Most of the sticky notes and quotes above are included in “The Good Morning Journal: Powerful Prompts & Reflections to Start Every Day”.)

Let’s make the best of what’s in front of us.

We often yearn for a very small and selective range of life experiences — the fun times, the happy days, the things that make us feel calm and comfortable. And yet the full range of our daily reality is often quite different. Life gives us an extensive array of experiences that evoke feelings ranging from sadness to uncertainty to frustration to curiosity to nervousness… to happiness to excitement and more. These feelings are all part of being alive.

So we can revolt against the wide-ranging experiences life naturally provides, or we can make the very best of them. Starting today, let’s do the latter…

This means embracing every moment with our full presence, being open and vulnerable to reality, being gentle with ourselves when times are tough, and practicing sincere gratitude whenever possible.

It means accepting life as it is, and accepting ourselves as we are.

It means not expecting the best to happen every time, but instead accepting whatever happens, and making the very best of it one step at a time.

And it won’t always be easy of course, but it’s worth working on.

YOU are worth working on, starting first thing every day for the rest of the month, and beyond.

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to get some inspiring sticky notes up on your walls today.  But before you go, please leave Angel and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this post. Your feedback is important to us.

Which sticky note or idea above resonates with you the most?

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

36 Uplifting & Motivating Quotes To Get You Through Bad Days

 

Everyone experiences those tough days when everything feels overwhelming, but here’s the exciting part: a simple, powerful quote can shift your mindset in an instant! Quotes aren’t just words—they’re distilled wisdom from people who’ve faced their own storms and come out stronger. They remind us that bad days are temporary, building resilience and opening doors to growth. Research shows that positive affirmations like these can reduce stress hormones and boost motivation, helping you bounce back faster. Get ready to feel inspired as we dive into 36 handpicked quotes, grouped to guide you through resilience, hope, and personal growth. Let’s turn that bad day around!

Quotes on Resilience: Building Strength in the Storm

Bad days test our limits, but they also forge our inner strength. These quotes highlight how embracing difficulties can make us unbreakable. Drawing from psychology, resilience isn’t about avoiding pain—it’s about adapting and thriving despite it. Get excited: each one is a tool to reframe your struggles!

1. “She could never go back and make some of the details pretty. All she could do was move forward and make the whole beautiful.” — Terri St. Cloud
2. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.” — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
3. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — J. K. Rowling
4. “You are not supposed to be happy all the time. Life hurts and it’s hard. Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it hurts for everybody. Don’t avoid the pain. You need it. It’s meant for you. Be still with it, let it come, let it go, let it leave you with the fuel you’ll burn to get your work done on this earth.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
5. “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” — Haruki Murakami
6. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” — Winston S. Churchill
7. “You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” — Anne Lamott
8. “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” — Steve Maraboli
9. “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” — Mary Oliver
10. “Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, as the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. As crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
11. “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.” — Elizabeth Edwards
12. “This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

These resilience quotes excite me because they turn pain into power! Studies from positive psychology show that viewing setbacks as growth opportunities can lower cortisol levels by 20%, making bad days feel like stepping stones.

Quotes on Hope: Lighting the Path Forward

When bad days cloud your vision, hope is the spark that reignites possibility. These quotes educate us on hope’s science—research from the American Psychological Association links hopeful thinking to better problem-solving and reduced depression. Get pumped: Hope isn’t passive; it’s a motivator that propels you through darkness!

13. “I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was shot. I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up.” — Malala Yousafzai
14. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” — Dumbledore
15. “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” — Brené Brown
16. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” — Jalaluddin Rumi
17. “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.” — Helen Keller
18. “For me, it’s not necessarily interesting to play a strong, fearless woman. It’s interesting to play a woman who is terrified and then overcomes that fear. It’s about the journey. Courage is not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it.” — Natalie Dormer
19. “Grief is love’s souvenir. It’s our proof that we once loved. Grief is the receipt we wave in the air that says to the world: Look! Love was once mine. I love well. Here is my proof that I paid the price.” — Glennon Doyle
20. “Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.” — Ralph Marston
21. “And I felt like my heart had been so thoroughly and irreparably broken that there could be no real joy again, that at best there might eventually be a little contentment. Everyone wanted me to get help and rejoin life, pick up the pieces and move on, and I tried to, I wanted to, but I just had to lie in the mud with my arms wrapped around myself, eyes closed, grieving, until I didn’t have to anymore.” — Anne Lamott
22. “Yeah, there were regrets – but mostly there was an understanding – it had all brought her to here. As Terri St. Cloud reminds us, as the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. As crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
23. “I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” — J. K. Rowling
24. “If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” — Fred Rogers

Isn’t it thrilling how hope can transform a bad day? Educational note: Hopeful quotes activate the brain’s reward centers, similar to achieving a goal, fostering optimism even in tough times.

Quotes on Growth: Turning Bad Days Into Breakthroughs

Bad days are growth opportunities in disguise! Excitingly, neuroscience tells us that reflecting on challenges builds neural pathways for adaptability. These quotes educate on embracing change, motivating you to see every setback as a setup for a comeback.

25. “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” — Brené Brown
26. “to live in this world / you must be able / to do three things / to love what is mortal; / to hold it / against your bones knowing / your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, / to let it go” — Mary Oliver
27. “If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.” — Shane Koyczan
28. “Healing depends on listening with the inner ear – stopping the incessant blather, and listening. Fear keeps us chattering – fear that wells up from the past, fear of blurting out what we really fear, fear of future repercussions. It is our very fear of the future that distorts the now that could lead to a different future if we dared to be whole in the present.” — Marion Woodman
29. “Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.” — David Richo
30. “Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived…Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation… Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.” — Anne Lamott
31. “I can tell you that it takes great strength to surrender. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, as the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. As crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
32. “Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, as the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. As crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
33. “A Prayer: Refuse to fall down / If you cannot refuse to fall down / refuse to stay down / If you cannot refuse to stay down / lift your heart toward heaven / and like a hungry beggar / ask that it be filled. / You may be pushed down. / You may be kept from rising. / But no one can keep you from lifting your heart toward heaven only you. / It is in the middle of misery that so much becomes clear. / The one who says nothing good came of this, is not yet listening. ” — Clarissa Pinkola Estés
34. “I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.” — J. K. Rowling
35. “My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.” — Paula McLain
36. “She had fouled off of the curves that life had thrown at her.” — W.P. Kinsella

What an exciting journey through growth! These quotes teach us that bad days are classrooms, fostering empathy and wisdom. With regular reflection, you can turn negativity into fuel for a brighter tomorrow.

Love always, Do

P.S. Want a printable PDF of these 36 quotes plus 10 more bonus ones with journaling prompts to make them even more impactful? Comment “BAD DAYS” below and I’ll DM you everything!

Related on LiveLaughLoveDo: → Why Dark Chocolate Might Be The Sweetest Way To Lower Diabetes Risk → Need A Sweet Treat? Try This Gooey, Protein-Packed Chocolate Chip Skillet → 5 Antioxidants That Fight Free Radicals & Reduce Cancer Risk → Want To Get The Most Benefits From Turmeric? Always Pair It With This

Let’s embrace the motivation together!