Taking back control of your life might not always feel easy, but it is always possible. Sometimes the biggest roadblock is just believing that we can do it because we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s not possible anymore. But this is your reminder that you get to write your own life story; this is your reminder that you decide the direction of your life path, that you can walk away from what is no longer serving you and start moving in a whole different direction.
Here are 40 quotes that will remind you that you have the power in your life, and that you are the keeper of your own destiny:
1.
“In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.”
— Francis Bacon
2.
“You are as amazing as you let yourself be. Let me repeat that. You are as amazing as you let yourself be.”
— Elizabeth Alraune
3.
The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
4.
“Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.”
— Kyle Chandler
5.
“When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them.”
— Evelyn Waugh
6.
“Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.”
— Francesca Reigler
7.
“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”
— Arnold Glasgow
8.
“Don’t settle. Don’t finish crappy books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.”
— Chris Brogan
9.
“Adventure is not outside man; it is within.”
— George Eliot
10.
“We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.”
— Oscar Wilde
11.
“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
— J.K. Rowling
12.
“If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining.”
Guy Finley
13.
“If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it.”
— Jonathan Winters
14.
“You get older and you learn there is one sentence, just four words long, and if you can say it to yourself it offers more comfort than almost any other. It goes like this: At least I tried.”
— Ann Brashares
15.
“Whether you say you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
— Walt Disney
16.
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
— Vincent Van Gogh
17.
“Never despair. But if you do, work on in despair.”
— Edmund Burke
18.
“You can’t just hope for happy endings. You have to believe in them. Then do the work, take the risks.”
— Nora Roberts
19.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker
20.
“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
21.
“I found that every single successful person I’ve ever spoken to had a turning point and the turning point was where they made a clear, specific, unequivocal decision that they were not going to live like this anymore. Some people make that decision at 15 and some people make it at 50 and most never make it at all.”
— Brian Tracy
22.
“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.”
Steve Maraboli
23.
“Stop fighting yourself and start fighting for yourself.”
— The Revolutionary Impact
24.
“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask yourself if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.”
— Deepak Chopra
25.
“Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.”
— Emory Austin
26.
“We have a choice:
To plow new ground, or let the weeds grow.”
— Virginia Department of Agriculture brochure, 1959
27.
“Stand up and walk out of your history.”
— Dr. Phil McGraw
28.
“You’ve got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.”
— Steven D. Woodhull
29.
“If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.”
— Mo Williems
30.
“Being single means getting over the illusion that there is somebody out there who will complete you and (finally) taking charge of your own life.”
— Omkar Phatake
31.
“Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.”
Robin Sharma
32.
“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back because if you can look up, you can get up.”
— Eric Thomas
33.
“We are who we choose to be. Nobody is going to come and save you. You’ve got to save yourself.”
— Barry Manilow
34.
“You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt with. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding.”
— Cheryl Strayed
35.
“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.”
— Robert Tew
36.
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”
— Albert Camus
37.
“I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.”
— Joshua Graham
38.
“The best thing you can possibly do with your life is to tackle the motherf*cking shit out of it.”
— Cheryl Strayed
39.
“You don’t know anyone at the party, so you don’t want to go. You don’t like cottage cheese, so you haven’t eaten it in years. This is your choice, of course, but don’t kid yourself: it’s also the flinch. Your personality is not set in stone. You may think a morning coffee is the most enjoyable thing in the world, but it’s really just a habit. Thirty days without it, and you would be fine. You think you have a soul mate, but in fact you could have had any number of spouses. You would have evolved differently, but been just as happy.
You can change what you want about yourself at any time. You see yourself as someone who can’t write or play an instrument, who gives in to temptation or makes bad decisions, but that’s really not you. It’s not ingrained. It’s not your personality. Your personality is something else, something deeper than just preferences, and these details on the surface, you can change anytime you like.
If it is useful to do so, you must abandon your identity and start again. Sometimes, it’s the only way. Set fire to your old self. It’s not needed here. It’s too busy shopping, gossiping about others, and watching days go by and asking why you haven’t gotten as far as you’d like. This old self will die and be forgotten by all but family, and replaced by someone who makes a difference.
Your new self is not like that. Your new self is the Great Chicago Fire—overwhelming, overpowering, and destroying everything that isn’t necessary.”
— Julien Smith
40.
“It is never too late to be who you might have been.”
— George Eliot