Life is as good as you make it

The opportunity of living life is a very special, fleeting thing and the time we have to live our lives is relatively short. Often, rather tragically, it seems we only realise this when at the end of our lives.

It's a special realisation to appreciate our chance at life and grasp that opportunity with both hands - living a full, vibrant & flourishing life, doing more of the things we wish to do and having no major regrets at the end of it all.

Some think we just have to put up with the cards we are dealt with in life and accept our fate, but we really can improve our lot in life, and with that realisation, and with effort and determination we can lead a life we wish to lead. 

Inspiring quotes:

Life is what you make of it.


Anonymous

The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

William James

OUR life is the creation of OUR mind.

Buddha

Your ability to make things happen, increases in direct proportion to your awareness that you have the ability to make things happen.

Tycho

This is your life.
Do what you love and do it often.

The Holstee Manifesto

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.

Christopher Morley

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants.

Bob Dylan

Life is simple - You get out what you put in.

Stuart Hodgson

When you grow up you, tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

Steve Jobs

The hard truth seems to be this: We live in a vast and awesome universe in which, daily, suns are made and worlds destroyed, where humanity clings to an obscure clod of rock. The significance of our lives and our fragile realm derives from our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life’s meaning. We would prefer it to be otherwise, of course, but there is no compelling evidence for a cosmic Parent who will care for us and save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

Carl Sagan

The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.

Neil de Grasse Tyson

People often say that motivation doesn’t last, well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.

Zig Ziglar

Destiny is not a matter chance, it is a matter of choice

W.J. Bryan

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

Flora Whittemore

You have to come to your closed doors before you get to your open doors... What if you knew you had to go through 32 closed doors before you got to your open door? Well, then you’d come to closed door number eight and you’d think, ‘Great, I got another one out of the way’... Keep moving forward.

Joel Osteen

Opportunity dances with those who are already on the dance floor.

 Jackson Brown

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Oscar Wilde

Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.

Sachs, A

The tragedy of life is not in dying. 
It's in not, truly, living.

SH

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?

Bob Marley

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

Carl Jung

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is a great accomplishment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To thine own self be true

Shakespeare

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. 

Dr. Seuss

The minute you begin to do what you want to do, it's a different kind of life.

Buckminster Fuller

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

George Eliot

Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something, find it and keep it lit!

Marry Lou Retton

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things.

Morrie Schwartz 

Work/career quotes:
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Work/Life balance? It's all life, don't waste it

Unknown

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

Confucius

Not sure what you are doing with your life? Feel like you are spending most of your time wasting a way in job you don't really want to do? Watch this video. It really will help you change your life.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

Steve Jobs

When you find a job that causes you to be excited everyday - forget about the pay - with people you love, doing what you love, it doesn't get better than that.

Warren Buffet

Want to find your purpose in life? Your life's work? Combine your passion and talents to do something positive about an issue you really care about.

Action For Happiness

That thing that you do, after your day job, in your free time, too early in the morning, too late at night. That thing you read about, write about, think about, in fact fantasize about. That thing you do when you’re all alone and there’s no one to impress, nothing to prove, no money to be made, simply a passion to pursue. That’s it. That’s your thing. That’s your heart, your guide. That’s the thing you must, must do.

Unknown

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Howard Thurman

Trust not what inspires other members of society to choose a career. Trust what inspires you. From this decision alone will come over a third of your satisfaction or misery in your life.

The Lazy Person’s Guide to Success

Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.
Aristotle

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.

Steve Jobs

The most dangerous risk of all - The risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later

Unknown

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.

Seth Godin

Doing good work:
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Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

Henry Ford

Today i will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t. ​

Jerry Rice

The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.

Elbert Hubbard

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Henry Ford

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

Henry Ford

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses.

Henry Ford

Make hay while the sun shines.

Proverb

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Life Goals:

People do not wander around and suddenly find themselves at the top of Mount Everest. If you don't know where you are going, you're never going to get anywhere. Set yourself goals.

Anoymous

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

Bill Copeland

The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.

Benjamin Mays

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal

Viktor Frankl

Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.

Denis Waitley 

There is no one giant step that does it - it’s a lot of little steps.

Peter Cohen

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.

Robert Collier

Take calculated risks.
That is quite different from being rash.

George S. Patton

The world your born into, the society your born into - doesn't owe you anything - you are not guaranteed anything. Those who expect & demand everything handed to them on a plate will never achieve or do anything worthwhile. Too many of us have had parents who have provided a lot to their mollycoddled kids - which has resulted in an impotant group of people who don't don't realise that to get anywhere worthwhile in life - to experience anything good - it means getting up off your arse and working hard towards the life you wish to create for yourself.

Stuart Hodgson

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

Paulo Coelho

The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences.

Christopher McCandless

You can't beat experience.

K. Hodgson

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

Andre Gide

The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before.

Albert Einstein

If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.

Win Borden

If you only do what you know you can do - you never do very much.

Tom Krause

When faced with a decision or choice, when a change or opportunity comes up - just ask yourself - "which of these things fills me with most energy and enthusiasm?" Then choose to do that thing, whatever it is.

Mark Williamson

Your limitations are created by what you believe your limitations are.

Tycho

This is your life. Do what you love, and do it often. If you don’t like something, change it. If you don’t like your job, quit. If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV. If you are looking for the love of your life, stop; they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love. Stop over analyzing, life is simple. All emotions are beautiful. When you eat, appreciate every last bite. Open your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people, we are united in our differences. Ask the next person you see what their passion is, and share your inspiring dream with them. Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself. Some opportunities only come once; seize them. Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them, so go out and start creating. Live your dream, and wear your passion. Life is short.

The Holstee Manifesto

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Albert Einstein

Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.

Unknown

Live the Life you want to Live. Be the Person you Want to Remember. Make decisions. Take action. Make mistakes. If you fall Down, so what. At least you will know you Tried.

Author Unknown

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Wayne Gretzky

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.

George Bernard Shaw

Even when opportunity knocks, a man still has to get off his feet and answer the door

Unknown

Your ability to make things happen, increases in direct proportion to the awareness that you have the ability to make things happen

Tycho

A successful Life doesn't require that we be the best, only that we try our best.

 H. Jackson Brown

You'll never change your life until you change something you do every day. the secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

John C.Maxwell

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Steve Jobs

I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it.

Rosalia de Castro

Holstee manifesto by www.holstee.com

​Love life, engage in it, give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.

Maya Angelou

After a while you learn that what you really are is all the experiences and all the thoughts you've ever had and all the people who have touched your life, no matter how briefly.

Unknown

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.

 Anthony Robbins

Fortune favours the brave.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Proverb

If you only do what you know you can do- you never do very much.

Tom Krause

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Steve Jobs

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

Lao Tzu

All our life we jump through hoops.
Often without asking why.
It’s easy to feel stuck — a small cog in a big machine.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Don’t waste your life living someone else’s.
Don’t wait for permission.
Life is too short to do work that doesn’t matter to you.
Want your memoirs to be worth reading?
Make your choices your own. Be brave. Be inquisitive.
Stop using lack of money or experience as an excuse.
You don’t have to risk it all to explore new options.
You owe it to yourself to find work that makes you tick.
Our world is changing. Careers are changing.
Take advantage or keep your head down. You choose.
The winners are building lives on their own terms.
Take small leaps. Meet people. Ask for help. Save. Plan.
Change jobs. Build businesses. Go on BIG adventures.
Start Something You Love. It’s not easy. Push. Sweat.
No one ever changed the world by toeing the line.
You are capable of more than you realise.
This is no dress rehearsal. Make it count.
There will never be a perfect time.
And the first step is often the hardest.
So Stop Dreaming and Start Planning.
Do Something Different!

The Escape the City Manifesto

You'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done.
It is what you haven't done that will torment you.
The message, therefore, is clear.  Do it! .

Wayne Dyer

If you do something that turns out wrong, you can almost always put it right, get over it, learn from it, or at least deny it. But once you’ve missed out on something, it’s gone. There will be the [person] you never got to say the right words to, the band you never got to see live, the winning streak you never got to cheer on, the brilliant retiring professor whose class you never took, the relative you never got very close with. It’s a long list no matter what. Try to keep it as short as possible. 

Gordon Drizschilo

Better to have regrets about doing something, than to have regrets about doing nothing and always wonder.

Unknown

Remember one day you will die. 
This is not meant to be sombre, but instead make us realise that we are alive, here and now, relatively fit & healthy - so go and live life to the absolute fullest while you can. Have no regrets.

S.H

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

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

Mark Twain

Life whizzes by - it goes so fast and changes all the time. You may not realise it at the time - but what your doing now, who your with, will one day become a distant memory, and despite what your currently feeling, in the future you'll probably look back with fondness at most of your life's experience, and realise that momentary challenges often don't last that long and aren't that big of a deal really (and maybe you may have a tinge of regret that you didn't allow yourself to fully enjoy & savour some of your life's experiences due to worry). So savour every last drop of your life in this very moment and appreciate what you do have - enjoy the last sap of every single good time - live life fully - its an enormous opportunity. Don't get bogged down in worry & procrastination, especially for things outside of your control. Love every single second of the time you spend with people you love, because one day they won't be around. Live your life according to your views and be true to yourself - because you are ultimately responsible for the life you end up with through the choices and actions you take. Figure out what is truly important to you and focus on that. Above all - just enjoy every single second of this roller-coaster ride because it doesn't last long.

S.H

Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.

Henry Ford

I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.

Carl Jung

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To create one’s own world takes courage.

Georgia O’Keeffe

In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away

shing xiong

Imagine on your deathbed you were able to see two films of your life: One showed highlights of what you actually achieved. And then the other showed highlights of what you could have achieved with your ability, your talent, the opportunities that came your way etc. It would probably bring you to tears to know what else you could have done. The heights you could have climbed. The people you could have met. The ideas you could have made happen. The change you could have made. If only when you had come to the edge, you hadn’t taken that step back to safety. If you had just kept going after failing that one time. If only you had believed in that crazy dumb idea enough to tell the world about it. Yes, if only you hadn’t, well, played so damn small.

David Hieatt

My one aim in life is to get to my death bed with no regrets. It's truly, sincerely the only thing that scares me.

Dan Robinson

As men grow old enough to look back on their lives, any pain they have does not come from the things at which they failed, but the things they never tried.

Antwan McLean

One day your life may flash before your eyes. Make sure its worth watching.

Unknown

You are living as if destined to live for ever; your own frailty never occurs to you; you don’t notice how much time has already passed, but squander it as though you had a full and overflowing supply — though all the while that very day which you are devoting to somebody or something may be your last. You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire… How late it is to begin really to live just when life must end! How stupid to forget our mortality, and put off sensible plans to our fiftieth and sixtieth years, aiming to begin life from a point at which few have arrived.

Seneca

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.

Seneca

We don't beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully – for the reaper will come for all of us. The question is: what do we do between the time we're born and the time he shows up?​

Randy Paunch
​

It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.

Hugh Laurie

At the end of it all, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born, and the day you find out why...

Mark Twain

One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you' ve always wanted. Do it now.

Paulo Coelho

Your future is created by what you do today - not tomorrow​.

Unknown

Stop wanting for things to happen - go out and make them happen.

Unknown

One Life. Live It.

Anonymous

Image from The Escape the City Manifesto