Year-Long Motivation for Health & Fitness

Be Motivated to Make Time for Your Health This Year

Your Health and Fitness Life is the physical aspect of life’s seven key elements. Without a healthy body, you will simply not be able to achieve all that you want to achieve. Your mind may be willing, but if your body is not fit or if you are living an unhealthy lifestyle, then achieving what you want to accomplish in life becomes a harder struggle. 

Not being ill or stricken by disease does not equate to health or wellness. We agree with this definition from the World Health Organization: health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. 

As obesity levels continue to climb, and stress levels continue to escalate across the globe, there is an old Irish saying that is very apt for today's world: “No time for your health today; no health for your time tomorrow.”

Unfortunately, as a human race, we are rapidly eating our way into a global state of unhealthiness. In fact, we have now reached the point where in some countries there are more people dying from causes related to overeating than there are deaths attributed to under eating and starvation.

Our whole thinking about our system of healthcare needs to change. Medicine is not healthcare — food is healthcare. Medicine is sick care. 

As soon as you incorporate this thinking into your individual life, your whole approach to eating will fundamentally change. Healthy eating is as pleasurable and fun as unhealthy eating, with better long-term consequences and benefits. 

To help you remain motivated to increasing your health and fitness all year long, we have recently released 365 Motivational Quotes for Health & Wellness. The book is now available on Amazon in both paperback ($4.88) and Kindle ($2.99) formats. 

Best wishes for making 2018 your healthiest and fittest yet. 

Achieving Personal Success in 2018

Motivational Quotes to Help You Achieve Your 2018 Goals 

Thanks to the self-help and personal development industries, there are probably more words written on success than any other subject. 

We added to the literature on success with our book Project You: Living A Determined Life in which we explored various tips and techniques for achieving success across all seven key elements of life (those depicted in the image below).

The best definition of success undoubtedly comes from legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” 

Thus, success is the ongoing process of becoming better...of striving to become the best that you are truly capable of being, in whatever endeavors you choose. Successful people are always expanding themselves — intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, or even physically (or at least health wise). 

The road to success is also a journey that is always under construction. As you pass each milestone and marker along the way, and overcome the hurdles and obstacles placed before you, the journey becomes easier ─ provided the lessons of experience are learned and followed. 

To help you remain motivated on your personal success journey in 2018, we have compiled a year's worth of motivational quotes in our new book 365 Motivational Quotes for Success. Get your copy today in paperback ($4.88) or Kindle ($2.99) formats. 

Best wishes for continued success throughout 2018. 

Motivational Quotes for Emotional & Mental Happiness

Inspirational Quotes to Improve Emotional and Mental Health 

What you are and who you are today is not necessarily what you ought to become.

In fact, it is almost assuredly not so. Otherwise, you would have no room for further growth and development, nor any need for further human experiences. 

Success in Living A Determined Life comes mostly through developing a deeper self-understanding and honing your "inner talk" skills and the conversations you hold with yourself. This also requires you to know, understand, and accept the reality of the way you are at any given point in time, starting with now. 

Once you fully know yourself, you are better able to be true to who you truly are by striving to become what your soul wants you to be across all elements of your. This is the path to emotional and mental happiness. 

We all occasionally struggle with controlling our emotions and dealing with down periods in our lives. It is not possible to always be emotionally up and mentally strong. And we all need motivational pointers to help us overcome our emotional weights and negative thoughts. That's why we wrote 365 Motivational Quotes for Emotional & Mental Happiness. 

Here are some of our favorite quotations you'll find in the book:

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.

Swedish Proverb

Guilt is anger directed at ourselves.

Peter McWilliams

Loving people live in loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world.

Wayne Dyer

He who angers you conquers you.

Elizabeth Kenny

Life reflects your own thoughts back to you.

Napoleon Hill

We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what's wrong in your life, or you can focus on what's right.

Marianne Williamson

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; they can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by them.

Epictetus

Make it a rule of life never to regret. Regret is an appalling waste of energy — you can't build on it; it's only for wallowing in.

Katherine Mansfield 

The motivational quotations in this book will provide you with a wealth of beliefs and ideas for overcoming emotional and mental challenges, enabling you to live a life framed through self-awareness, mindfulness, authentic happiness, being present, peace and peacefulness, love, attaining goals, and being connected with your spiritual self. 

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Emotional & Mental Happiness is available on Amazon in paperback ($4.88) and Kindle ($2.99) formats. 

Motivational Quotes for Health & Wellness

Inspiration and Motivation for Living a Healthy Life 

As obesity levels continue to climb, and stress levels continue to escalate across the globe, there is an old Irish saying that is very apt for today's world:  "No time for your health today, no health for your time tomorrow." 

Without a healthy body you will simply not be able to achieve all that you want to achieve. Your mind may be willing, but if your body is not fit or if you are living an unhealthy lifestyle, then achieving what you want to accomplish in life becomes a much harder struggle. 

We all need continuous motivation when it comes to our health and wellness. That's why we have published our new book 365 Motivational Quotes for Health & Wellness. 

Here are some of our favorite health and wellness quotations that you'll find in the book: 

He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.

Thomas Carlyle

So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health.

A. J. Reb Materi 

Fitness — if it came in a bottle, everybody would have a great body.

Cher

If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want.

Elbert Hubbard 

Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.

Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby  

As I see it every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself. 
Adelle Davis 

We do not stop exercising because we grow old ─ we grow old because we stop exercising.

Kenneth H. Cooper

I concentrate on exercises from the waist down since that is the laziest part of a woman's body.

Tina Louise 

Almost all of us have difficulty staying motivated when it comes to healthy eating, proper exercise, and stress-relieving techniques. This book is written to spark inspiration in readers that motivates positive personal change throughout the year. 

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Health & Wellness is available at Amazon in both paperback ($4.88) and Kindle ($2.99) formats. Get your copy today and make 2018 your healthiest year yet. 

Motivational Quotes for Success

The road to success is also a journey that is always under construction.

As you pass each milestone and marker along the way, and overcome the hurdles and obstacles placed before you, the journey becomes easier -- provided the lessons of experience are learned and followed. 

Success is the on-going process of becoming better...of striving to become the best that you are truly capable of being, in whatever endeavors you choose. 

Successful people are always expanding themselves -- intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, or even physically (at least in terms of health and fitness). 

Successful people also find ways to motivate themselves, which is why we have written our new book 365 Motivational Quotes for Success. We hope these motivational quotations will breathe new meaning, courage, and action into your life, resulting in both continued personal and professional success.

Here are some of our favorite quotations from 365 Motivational Quotes for Success: 

Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming. 

John Wooden 

Do not be afraid of failure. Be afraid of not learning from failure.

Anonymous

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

Helen Keller

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.

Buddhist Proverb

Success is deciding from the start what end result you want and creating the circumstances to realize that result.

Mark Victor Hansen 

The twin killers of success are impatience and greed.

Jim Rohn

What is success? It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace.

Paulo Coelho

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Ayn Rand 

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Success is now available on Amazon in both paperback ($4.88) and Kindle ($2.99) formats 

Motivational Quotes on Living A Determined Life

Motivational Quotations To Spark Inspiration and a Fulfilled Life 

Words and thoughts are often the great seeds that lead to personal change. They are the building blocks that touch, provoke, arouse, and stir the individual passions and desires that stimulate personal inspiration and motivation. 

That’s what we hope to accomplish in our Project You 365 Motivational Quotes series of books — spark inspiration in our readers that motivate positive personal change efforts and results in more people Living A Determined Life.

More specifically, the quotations in 365 Motivational Quotes on Living A Determined Life, have been collated to provide you with a wealth of beliefs and ideas to spark your own personal inspiration for Living A Determined Life, a life framed through self-awareness, mindfulness, being present, peace and peacefulness, love, attaining personal goals, and being connected with your spiritual self.  

Here are some of our favorite quotes from 365 Motivational Quotes on Living A Determined Life: 

I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to live the width of it as well.

Diane Ackerman

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.

W. M. Lewis 

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

Mae West

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. 

Winston Churchill

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain 

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Plato

He who knows others is learned; He who knows himself is wise.

Lao-Tzu

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.

Marcus Aurelius

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes on Living a Determined Life is available on Amazon in both paperback ($4.88) and Kindle ($2.99) formats. 

Project You 365 Motivational Quotes Series of Books

New Book Series Aims to Inspire and Motivate Personal Growth 

Quotations have long had the power to inspire. 

In fact, there is no innate, overwhelming feeling you can get like the one which arises from reading the words and thoughts of others and instinctively knowing how meaningful and applicable they are to your own situation and life. 

Thus, we are pleased to announce the launch today of our Project You 365 Motivational Quotes series of books. 

The first five books in this series are available now on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions. Additional books in the series will become available in the forthcoming months.

 


Being released today are:

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Self Motivation 

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Success 

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Health & Wellness 

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Emotional & Mental Happiness 

Project You: 365 Motivational Quotes for Living A Determined Life 

The purpose of these motivational quote books is to spark inspiration in our readers that motivate positive personal change efforts.

For, as Buddha wrote, “Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind they change our world.” 

We hope that the motivational quoteations in these books breathe new meaning, courage, action, happiness, peacefulness, and enhanced inner strength into your life, resulting in both continued and personal success. 

Be Passionate. Be Enthusiastic. About Your Life.

Ask Yourself What Makes You Come Alive 

Nido Qubein, a noted motivational speaker, often tells his audiences, "Enthusiastic people experience life from the inside out." 

When you bring your passion to life you impact your own world, rather than letting outside influences impact you.

Almost all of us have greater passion as children, or young adults, than during our later years. Fortunately it is not difficult to rekindle that youthful passion. It simply takes knowing what burns inside you and concentrating on methods for bringing your passion to the surface and into the world. 

One key to success comes from the writer John Eldredge: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who come alive."

Your passions are your inner truths. Understand this and rely on this knowledge. 

Also, as Benjamin Disraeli wrote, "Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth."

Passion is at the opposite extreme of indifference. Here is a great anonymous quote on indifference that may help you cast off the shackles of lethargy and use your inner passion to help you strive for authentic satisfaction and happiness:

Indifference never wrote great works, nor thought out striking inventions, nor reared the solemn architecture that awes the soul, nor breathed sublime music, nor painted glorious pictures, nor undertook heroic philanthropies. All these grandeurs are born of enthusiasm, and are done heartily.

Life is not a spectator sport, but a participatory one. This is what Living A Determined Life is all about. 

It matters not if you are involved in something big or small, globally grandiose or locally rooted. As long as you have a passion for it, and this passion drives you to be fully engaged and involved, you will be closer to achieving authentic satisfaction and happiness.

As Denis Waitley wrote, "Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire ─ you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away." He also wrote, "Chase your passion, not your pension." 

That is very good advice indeed.

This article is partially excerpted from our top-selling personal and professional development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback ($7.89) and Kindle ($6.88) formats. 

Striving For Authentic Happiness and Personal Satisfaction

Passion Will Help You Through the Good Times and Bad

A Project You Life is a self-driven journey for the creation of Living A Determined Life.

One of the vital ingredients of Living A Determined Life is satisfaction determined by the self, with authentic personal satisfaction resulting from living up to your personal values and being involved with something bigger and larger than yourself.

The Project You Life Journey focuses on developing a deep-seated comprehension of your principles, passions and life's purpose. Those who fully understand and acknowledge their principles and passions are more likely to determine their life's purpose. When your principles and life's purpose are aligned, passion becomes the multiplier effect that increases the probability of desired outcomes and leads to the living of Living A Determined Life.

Passion

I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don't do things half-heartedly because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.

Michael Jordan

This is what passion is all about ── putting your heart and soul into something.

With passion you will get as much pleasure ─ sometimes more ─ from doing something as you will get in achieving it. For example, a passionate artist can get as much pleasure while painting as he does from seeing his completed work.

When you put passion into your efforts to strive forward, in anything you do, you have a much greater chance of attaining authentic satisfaction and happiness, both from your actual endeavors and from whatever results occur.

Richard J. Leider, a Life Coach tells his clients, "Our world is incomplete until each one of us discovers what moves us ── our passions. No other person can hear our calling. We must listen and act on it for ourselves."

Passion and enthusiasm are nearly interchangeable words. Nearly, but not completely. Inherent within passion, though not within enthusiasm, is a deeply burning fire inside a person that provides greater self motivation and commitment. One will not easily give up that for which he or she has a passion.

When you can bring passion into a symbiotic relationship with your desires, you are well on your way to achieving your desires and dreams (assuming you put in the hard work, remain committed and do not allow setbacks to deter you).

Here's what two of the early founders of the self-development industry had to say about passion and enthusiasm:

The starting point for all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat. Napoleon Hill

The key that unlocks energy is desire. It's also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited.  Earl Nightingale

Passion will help you through good times and bad. When there is no passion the deep-down desire to do a thing is lacking. When there is passion, the desire to do something often becomes the power to do it.

We'll have more thoughts on passion in the next Project You Life Blog post. 

In the meantime, take 15 minutes with pen and paper and start a list of the things you are passionate about. Then, later today, spend another 30 minutes adding to this list and thinking of ways you can spend more time on these things.

This article is partially excerpted from our top-selling personal and professional development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback ($7.89) and Kindle ($6.88) formats. 

Last Day for Free Project You: Words of Wisdom Motivational eBook

Get Motivated to Make Your Mid-Year Resolutions

In celebration of our Mid-Year Resolutions launch last week, we have been giving away our motivational book Project You: Words of Wisdom for free.

But this free book promotion offer ends today at midnight EDT.

Project You: Words of Wisdom is one of the top-selling motivational and self-help ebooks on Amazon and is currently ranked: 

#6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Personal Growth > Motivational 

#22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Personal Growth > Self-Help

Packed with hundreds of motivational quotes, Project You: Words of Wisdom provides an overview of the Project You Life Journey and how you can positively impact and grow the seven key elements of your life:  personal life, professional life, family life, health and fitness life, emotional and mental life, spiritual life, and your interconnected life. 

Get your free personal Kindle copy of Project You: Words of Wisdom now at this link: http://amzn.to/1JnH71Q

We have also lowered the paperback price to $6.45. 

Act now as these offers end tonight. 

Project You: Words of Wisdom (Free on Kindle)

Motivational Quotes for Living A Determined Life

As part of our Mid-Year Resolutions launch celebrations, we are making our book Project You: Words of Wisdom free this weekend at Amazon.

In Project You: Words of Wisdom you will find a wide range of quotations selected to help you examine your life experiences and to aid in charting a future path that will bring your life's purpose into clearer focus and attainment. 

We have also discounted the paperback version of the book to $6.45, the lowest price ever.

Project You: Words of Wisdom is one of the top-selling motivational books on Amazon:

• #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Personal Growth > Motivational 
• 
  
• #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Personal Growth > Self-Help 
• 
  
• #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Occult

We hope you enjoy the book and the hundreds of motivational quotes it includes. Hurry, the free offer on Kindle is good only through Tuesday, July 5th. 

Here's the link: http://amzn.to/1JnH71Q

And, if it's not too much to ask, please leave a reader review at Amazon after you've had a read.

Many thanks.

Motivational Quotes on Attitude

Your Attitude is an Extension of What You Believe 

If you fill your mind with new learning you will never stagnate. 

Have an attitude of courage and you will be able to face life's varied situations with greater confidence and strength. Likewise, if you load your mind with optimistic attitudes you will always have hope.

But only you can determine how to fill your mind and what attitudes you will allow to dominate your personality. And remember, your attitude is an expression of what you believe, the values you carry within and the expectations you have for the future.

Here's what some leading thinkers have had to say about attitude:

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. ~John Homer Miller, American author

Whatever life has handed to us, whether it is one talent or a hundred, it is our responsibility to do something with what we have been given! That is how we change pennies into fortunes and obstacles into opportunity - by taking all that we have and all that we are and putting it to work. ~Jim Rohn, motivational speaker and writer

You've got to love what you're doing. If you love it, you can overcome any handicap or the soreness or all the aches and pains, and continue to play for a long, long time.  ~Gordie Howe, Hall of Fame hockey player

Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life, I find. ~ John F. Kennedy, American President

Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers. ~Anthony Robbins, author, speaker and peak performance expert

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. ~Harry S Truman, American President

The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur. ~Vince Lombardi, famed American football coach

It is not what happens to us, it is what we choose to do about what happens that makes the difference in how our lives turn out. ~Jim Rohn, motivational speaker and writer

There are two ways to face the future. One way is with apprehension; the other is with anticipation. ~Jim Rohn, motivational speaker and writer

Motivational quotes are one way to fill your mind with an optimistic attitude. There are numerous such motivational quotes in our book Project You: Words of Wisdom, which is available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

If you have your own favorite quote or quotes on attitude, please share them with us in the comments box below. 

This article is partially excerpted from the best-selling book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

Your Attitude Is Up To You (And No One Else)

You Are Responsible for the Attitude You Bring To Each Day

Attitude makes all the difference in how you approach life and what you take from your experiences in this world.

Sports coaches and leading athletes all know the right attitude makes a difference in athletic performance, and their knowledge applies directly to the game of life.

It has been said that "success is 99% attitude." While you can argue the exact percentage, there is no denying the fact that attitude does play a major role in any significant personal success. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, "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."

There are numerous aspects of attitude of which you should become aware: the motivational aspect of attitude, how attitude helps recover from failures, the impact of a negative attitude, how your attitude helps set your expectations about the future, and how the right attitude prepares you to handle challenges and tap into opportunities.

Having a strong, uplifting and reinforcing attitude is vital to keep you going through good times and bad. As Albert Einstein said, "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." Or, in the words of Brian Tracy, "An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of the superior personality."

Almost all of the self-development and motivational writers will tell you that it is not what happens to you in life that matters, but rather how you deal with your experiences and what you make of the experiences you encounter. They will also tell you that how you deal with such experiences will be primarily based on your attitude.

Think about it….for every experience you encounter your attitude will make a difference.

It is your choice what kind of attitude you bring to these encounters. But since you are going to have an attitude anyway, you might as well have a positive, uplifting and reinforcing one, no matter what the encounter or circumstances.

Your daily attitude and level of gratitude for this opportunity of life will determine the progress you make on your journey each day. A positive attitude and a high level of gratitude will help you move forward. Likewise, a negative attitude or poor gratitude level will result in setbacks, backward steps or deviation from your intended path.

So which attitude will you take into today? Into tomorrow? Into every day? 

This article is partially excerpted from the best-selling book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle and Paperback formats. 

Motivation Creates Compelling Images For Success

Real Motivation Is That Drive From Within

According to motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily."

His pithy saying on motivation is at the heart of why some people get motivated and others do not. Everybody has their moments of motivation; a time when sparks go off internally and they tell themselves (or others) "I am going to do this or that."

"Real motivation is that drive from within," believes motivational speaker Denis Waitley. "You know where you are going because you have a compelling image inside, not a travel poster on the wall."

Adds his fellow motivational speaker Brian Tracy, "The clearer you are about the consequences of your actions and the more intensely you desire to enjoy the consequences that your behaviors may lead to, the more motivated you will be."

The closer you are to self actualization on Maslow's scale, the greater will self satisfaction be as a motivating factor. Naturally, there are few greater reasons for doing anything than taking action because it fits in with your own self image or because it has importance and relevance to you.

When you combine this kind of motivation with determination and commitment, you are nearly unstoppable. You may never achieve the exact, glorious outcome you envision for yourself, but whatever you achieve through motivated action will be far greater than living a passive existence where life simply passes you by.

As Abraham Lincoln noted, "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing."

Let your personal resolution to achieve your ProjectYou Life Journey goals be your fundamental motivating factor and A Determined Life will be yours. 

This article is excerpted from Project You: Living A Determined Life, a best-selling book at Amazon available in Kindle and paperback formats. 

Know Yourself: Self Understanding

Understanding yourself helps you become more authentic

If self awareness is like putting your foot into a lake to see how cold the water is, then self understanding is diving into the lake to see how deep it is.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu placed great emphasis on self understanding. He wrote, "He who knows others is learned; He who knows himself is wise." 

Self understanding enables you to plumb the depths of your own inner spirit, and to seek out amazing discoveries about yourself. You will likely learn a lot more than you bargained for, including lessons about life, spirituality, other people, love, faith, and many other topics. As such, it's a journey well worth taking.

Here are some motivational quotes from our book Project You: Words of Wisdom to assist you in this journey of self discovery and understanding: 

Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth. Ralph Waldo Emerson 

You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you. Rwandan Proverb 

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lies comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, around him, and so loses all respect for himself and others. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky 

The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgment. Krishnamurti 

Paul Coelho wrote, "The more you understand yourself, the more you will understand the world." Centuries earlier Aristotle told his followers, "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." 

Self understanding will help you become more authentic and remain authentic in your words and in the large majority of your actions. And you want to be authentic.

Of course, you cannot be authentic if you do not know who you truly are. This is where self understanding comes into play.

Self reflection is the best school you will ever attend, and it is best that you become a lifetime student enrolled in this school.

This article is partially excerpted from the book Project You: Words of Wisdom, available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon. 

Know Yourself: Self Awareness

Understanding the promptings of your innermost heart

Self awareness is not about looking deeply within your internal chamber of secrets and trying to discover "your true self."

Rather, it is an open, honest, candid, and on-going self observation of what drives you to take the actions you take, to think the thoughts you think, and to feel the emotions that bubble up inside you.

People with high levels of self awareness have a clear and definite grasp of their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as an elevated sensitivity to observe what motivates, de-motivates, satisfies, delights, annoys, and angers them.

With a solid sense of self awareness you multiply your predisposition to go after the opportunities that are right for you -- by leveraging your strengths, values, and inner motivations. Likewise, you are also better positioned to minimize your chances of pursuing activities that are likely to have unsatisfying or potentially harmful results.

Here are some quotes from our book Project You: Words of Wisdom that might help you create such a solid sense of self awareness:

Knowing others is wisdom; knowing self is enlightenment. Tao Te Ching 

Total, unconditional acceptance of yourself is the first step in building a positive self-image. Nido Qubein 

Others can give you a name or a number, but they can never tell you who you really are. That is something you yourself can only discover from within. Thomas Menton, No Man an Island 

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Aristotle 

You are searching the world for treasure but the real treasure is yourself. Rumi 

When you know yourself you are empowered. When you accept yourself you are invincible. Tina Lifford 

Finally, as Robertson Davies, one of Canada's most distinguished men of letters, wrote, "A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart." The first step, of course, is to have a clear awareness of what reverberates in your innermost heart.

Likewise, as we quoted American actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein in the previous post Knowing Yourself / Defining Yourself, "accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself." 

Doing both of these puts you squarely on the path to Living A Determined Life. 

This article is partially excerpted from Project You: Words of Wisdom, available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

Know Thyself

Know Yourself / Define Yourself

Know Thyself.

Those words, inscribed in gold letters on the temple of Apollo at Delphi, are probably the most important two-word phrase ever written.

Know thyself is a two-step process comprising self awareness and self understanding. 

Self awareness is a heightened sense of continuous attention to one's feelings, emotions, and thoughts. 

Self understanding is being aware of your thoughts about your feelings, emotions, and thoughts -- and being mindful of the impact these are having on your contemplated, intended, or actual actions. 

When combined and integrated, these two steps lead to self definition.

Here are some quotes from our book Project You: Words of Wisdom we hope will help motivate you to better knowing and defining yourself:

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. Buddha

Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your handbrake on. Unknown 

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world. Miguel de Cervantes 

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter. Denis Diderot 

The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself. Lao-Tzu

Yes, you need not do anything but be yourself. But first, you have to know and define yourself.

And that will be one of the most fascinating journeys you ever take.

Bon voyage!  

This article is partially excerpted from Project You: Words of Wisdom, available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon.