Defining our goals

Robert Ingersoll - American writer and orator

We rise by lifting others.

Napoleon Hill - American self-help author

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Les Brown - American motivational speaker and author

When you're not pursuing your goal you are literally committing spiritual suicide.

Winston Churchill - Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 

He who fails to plan, plans to fail.

Denis Waitley - American motivational speaker, writer and consultant

“Winning" is taking the talent or potential you were born with, and have since developed, and using it fully toward a goal or purpose that makes you happy.

Brian Tracy - Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.

Brian Tracy - Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

Albert Einstein - Theoretical physicist

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

Bill Copeland - American poet, writer and historian

The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.

Chris Guillebeau - American author

Value is created when a person makes something useful and shares it with the world.

Thomas Abreu - Author

Goal setting is similar to traveling from point A to point B within a city. If you clearly understand what the goal is, you will definitely reach the destination because you know its address.

T. Harv Eker - Author, businessman and motivational speaker known for his theories on wealth and motivation

Keep your eye on the goal, keep moving toward your target.

Richard Wiseman - Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom

We do not love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we do them. 

Neil A. Fiore - Renowned psychologist, lecturer, trainer, and bestselling author

...I’ve discovered that if you want to reach your true potential, it’s much more effective to ignite a new passion for life than to dwell on past problems.

David Joseph Schwartz, Jr. - American motivational writer and coach, best known for authoring The Magic of Thinking Big in 1959

Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.

Russ Harris - Internationally acclaimed acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) trainer and author of the best-selling ACT-based self-help book The Happiness Trap

If you’re living a goal-focused life, then no matter what you have, it’s never enough.

Stephen Guise - International bestselling author, blogger, and entrepreneur

Be the person with embarrassing goals and impressive results instead of one of the many people with impressive goals and embarrassing results.

Sonja Lyubomirsky - American professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and author of the bestseller The How of Happiness

It turns out that the process of working toward a goal, participating in a valued and challenging activity, is as important to well-being as its attainment.

Napoleon Hill - American self-help author. He is known best for his book Think and Grow Rich which is among the 10 best selling self-help books of all time

Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass.

Abraham Harold Maslow - American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization

It isn't normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.

Maxwell Maltz - American cosmetic surgeon and author of Psycho-Cybernetics, which was a system of ideas that he claimed could improve one's self-image leading to a more successful and fulfilling life

Emptiness is a symptom that you are not living creatively. You either have no goal that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts in a striving toward an important goal.

Ralph Waldo Emerson - American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Wayne Walter Dyer - American self-help and spiritual author and a motivational speaker

Love is a word that has as many definitions as there are people to define it. Try this one on for size. The ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves, without any insistence that they satisfy you.

Alberto Villoldo - Cuban-born psychologist, medical anthropologist and author, writing primarily in the field of neo-shamanism

Unlike longings, hopes, or even concrete goals, these affirmations can manifest in every moment when you hold them in your heart. Then you naturally and easily behave in accordance with your dream, accessing the tremendous power of courage.

Wayne Walter Dyer - American self-help and spiritual author and a motivational speaker

It’s through giving that we receive; it’s through acts of kindness directed toward others that our immune systems are strengthened and even our serotonin levels increased!

Brad Stulberg - Internationally known expert on human performance, well-being, and sustainable success

The process of setting a goal on the outer boundaries of what we think is possible, and then systematically pursuing it, is one of the most fulfilling parts about being human. It’s also a good thing that we want to take our game to the next level because, more than ever, we have no other choice.

Albert Ellis - American psychologist and psychotherapist who founded Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Life is indeed difficult, partly because of the real difficulties we must overcome in order to survive, and partly because of our own innate desire to always do better, to overcome new challenges, to self-actualize. Happiness is experienced largely in striving towards a goal, not in having attained things, because our nature is always to want to go on to the next endeavor.

Albert Ellis - American psychologist and psychotherapist who founded Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.

Wayne Walter Dyer - American self-help and spiritual author and a motivational speaker

When you come to another with love in your heart, asking nothing, only offering that love, you create miraculous relationships.

Denis E. Waitley - American motivational speaker, writer and consultant

Virtually nothing on earth can stop a person with a positive attitude who has his goal clearly in sight.

Steve Chandler - Author of 30 books that have been translated into over 25 languages. His personal success coaching, public speaking and business consulting have been used by CEOs, top professionals, major universities, and over 30 Fortune 500 companies

If you help others, you will be helped.

Matthew Syed - British journalist, author, broadcaster and former table tennis player. He competed as an English table tennis international, and was the English number one for many years

Studies have shown that we are often so worried about failure that we create vague goals, so that nobody can point the finger when we don’t achieve them. We come up with face-saving excuses, even before we have attempted anything.

David Bayles - Accomplished photographer, author, workshop leader, and conservationist. He has studied with Ansel Adams and Brett Weston, among others, and has taught and written extensively in the arts for over thirty years

It’s easy to imagine that artists doubted their calling less when working in the service of God than when working in the service of self.

Cal Newport - American non-fiction author and associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University

If you want to love what you do, abandon the passion mindset (“what can the world offer me?”) and instead adopt the craftsman mindset (“what can I offer the world?”).

Cal Newport - American non-fiction author and associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University

If your goal is to love what you do, you must first build up “career capital” by mastering rare and valuable skills, and then cash in this capital for the traits that define great work.

Brian Tracy - Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author. He is the author of over eighty books that have been translated into dozens of languages. His popular books are Earn What You're Really Worth, Eat That Frog!, No Excuses!

Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement. The bigger your goals and the clearer they are, the more excited you become about achieving them. The more you think about your goals, the greater becomes your inner drive and desire to accomplish them.

Robert Greene - American author known for his books on strategy, power, and seduction. He has written six international bestsellers: The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature

It is in fact the height of selfishness to merely consume what others create and to retreat into a shell of limited goals and immediate pleasures.

Austin Kleon - New York Times bestselling author of five books: Steal Like an Artist; Show Your Work!; Keep Going; Steal Like An Artist Journal; and Newspaper Blackout. Kleon's works focus on creativity in today's world

But now I realize that the only way to find your voice is to use it. It’s hardwired, built into you. Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow.

Tony Robbins - American author, coach, speaker, and philanthropist. Robbins is known for his infomercials, seminars, and self-help books including the books Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within

Every day, work harder on yourself than anything else. ‘Cause if you become more intelligent, more valuable, more skilled, you can add more value to other people.

Daniel H. Pink - American author. He has written six books, four of them New York Times bestsellers. He was a host and a co-executive producer of the 2014 National Geographic Channel social science TV series Crowd Control. From 1995 to 1997, he was the chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore

Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining mastery are usually healthy. But goals imposed by others--sales targets, quarterly returns, standardized test scores, and so on--can sometimes have dangerous side effects.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognised and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity

Second, to have a good life, it is not enough to remove what is wrong from it. We also need a positive goal, otherwise why keep going?

Jason Selk - One of the premier performance coaches in the United States, with dozens of professional athletes and Fortune 500 executives as his clients

David Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech University, has found that individuals who write down their goals will have nine times the success of those who don’t put their goals on paper.

Rory Vaden - One of the top 100 leadership speakers in the world according to Inc. Magazine

You were put here on earth to do something that no one else can do. It is yours and yours alone to complete. It requires you to be your highest self and if you don’t do that thing, you are going to inhibit those around you from doing theirs. As a Multiplier, it is your obligation to spend time on things today that create more opportunity for those around you tomorrow. It is to do the things that are right, not only for now, but for the future.

Darren Hardy - American author, keynote speaker, advisor, and former publisher of SUCCESS magazine. Hardy is a New York Times best-selling author, who wrote The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, Living Your Best Year Ever and The Compound Effect

If you are not making the progress that you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.

Darren Hardy - American author, keynote speaker, advisor, and former publisher of SUCCESS magazine. Hardy is a New York Times best-selling author, who wrote The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, Living Your Best Year Ever and The Compound Effect

When you define your goals, you give your brain something new to look for and focus on. It’s as if you’re giving your mind a new set of eyes from which to see all the people, circumstances, conversations, resources, ideas, and creativity surrounding you.

Albert Schweitzer - Alsatian polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician

One thing I know; the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

Roy F. Baumeister - Social psychologist who is known for his work on the self, social rejection, belongingness, sexuality and sex differences, self-control, self-esteem, self-defeating behaviors, motivation, aggression, consciousness, and free will

For most of us, though, the problem is not a lack of goals but rather too many of them.

Geoff Colvin - Author of Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will; Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else; and The Upside of the Downturn: Management Strategies for Difficult Times

The best performers set goals that are not about the outcome but about the process of reaching the outcome.

Geoff Colvin - Author of Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will; Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else; and The Upside of the Downturn: Management Strategies for Difficult Times

The best performers set goals that are not about the outcome but about the process of reaching the outcome.

Geoff Colvin - Author of Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will; Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else; and The Upside of the Downturn: Management Strategies for Difficult Times

If you set a goal of becoming an expert in your business, you would immediately start doing all kinds of things you don't do now.

Warren G. Bennis - American scholar, organizational consultant and author, widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies

...once you recognize, or admit, that your primary goal is to fully express yourself, you will find the means to achieve the rest of your goals...

Orison Swett Marden - American inspirational author who wrote about achieving success in life and founded SUCCESS magazine in 1897. His writings discuss common-sense principles and virtues that make for a well-rounded, successful life. Many of his ideas are based on New Thought philosophy

We must give more in order to get more. It is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest.

Daniel J. Siegel - Clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and executive director of the Mindsight Institute

When we spend money on others, for example, we feel more content than when we spend money on ourselves. This is a kind of well-being rooted in meaning, connection, and equanimity—called eudaimonia by the ancient Greeks and in modern times perhaps called “inner” or “true” happiness.

Morgan Scott Peck - American psychiatrist and best-selling author who wrote the book The Road Less

Love is the total commitment to the full development of the potential of the other.

Alberto Villoldo - Medical anthropologist and best-selling author who has studied the shamanic healing practices of the Amazon and Andes for over 30 years. He is the founder of the Four Winds Society, and his most recent book is The Heart of the Shaman: Stories and Practices of the Luminous Warrior

It’s in bringing others the healing gifts we’ve received that the benefits of these gifts become truly ours.

Dave Ramsey - American personal finance personality, radio show host, author, and businessman 

You must sell benefits, not products. 

Dave Ramsey - American personal finance personality, radio show host, author, and businessman 

Goals convert vision into energy. When you lay out exactly what you want to do in detail, you immediately start feeling the room move and the earth shake. You are pulled into your new life like some scene from a movie. Goals help make great men. J. C. Penney once said, “Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal and I will give you a stock clerk. 

Muhammad Ali - American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet, and philanthropist 

What keeps me going is goals. 

Stephen Covey - American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker. His most popular book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 

Great minds have taught ‘know thyself,’ ‘control thyself,’ and ‘give thyself,’ and I would emphasize that there is power in that sequence. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. - American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the American civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him? 

Eknath Easwaran - Indian-born spiritual teacher, author and translator and interpreter of Indian religious texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads

Live only for yourself and you will never grow; live for the welfare of all those around you and you will grow to your full stature.

Eknath Easwaran - Indian-born spiritual teacher, author and translator and interpreter of Indian religious texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads

….You are an exalted creature, with a spark of the divine within you that nothing you do can extinguish; and you have been granted life in order to give, because it is in giving that we receive....

William H. McRaven - Retired United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command from August 8, 2011 to August 28, 2014

Our goal, which we believed to be honorable and noble, gave us courage. And courage is a remarkable quality. Nothing and nobody can stand in your way. Without it, others will define your path forward. Without it, you are at the mercy of life's temptations. Without courage, men will be ruled by tyrants and despots. Without courage, no great society can flourish. Without courage, the bullies of the world rise up. With it, you can accomplish any goal. With it, you can defy and defeat evil.

Gay Hendricks - Psychologist, writer, and teacher in the field of personal growth, relationships, and body intelligence

The goal in life is not to attain some imaginary ideal; it is to find and fully use our own gifts.

Fred Rogers - American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001

Real strength has to do with helping others.

Grant Cardone - Businessman and writer, the author of the bestsellers and influential expert in the sphere of SEO international company. He founded the first online university for the sellers, where they are taught how to sell goods and services effectively, how to promote them, and achieve success in this as well

Ask yourself whether the goals you have set are equal to your potential.

Twyla Tharp - American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1966 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often uses classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music

In the end all collaborations are love stories.