13 Power Phrases For A Successful Life
It’s impossible to always feel motivated. When it comes to reaching your goals, staying disciplined despite your lack of motivation is KEY. However, it is possible to tap into that motivation at any time. With some mental effort and powerful thoughts, you can create motivation from within whenever you feel stuck, discouraged, tired, and, of course, unmotivated. One of my favorite ways to do this is through power phrases or quotes!
The Power Within
I start out many blogs by talking about the power you hold. The reason I talk about it SO much is because we truly do have a lot of say in our lives. Of course I believe there are things out of our control, circumstances, and forces of nature that we can’t possibly have any say in what happens or its impact. However, most of our life’s situations are brought on by our own doing (or lack thereof).
The things you want out of life are in your reach. You are capable of being the person you want to be and achieve the goals you want to attain. So if you feel hopeless, like your life will never be what you hope for, tap into that inner power and make the changes that thrust you forward into that life you want to create for yourself. You are more than capable, and your better life is waiting on you.
13 Power Phrases For A Successful Life
1.) Whatever It Takes
The things you want out of life: who you want to become, the things you want to acquire, the life and reputation you want to build, all require effort on your part to achieve them. You have to decide for yourself if they are important enough to put in the time, money, effort, and resources to make them happen. Success comes when you move from learning what you need to do to make things happen, to then actually taking the steps. You have to be willing to do the things that need to happen to make your dreams flourish. You need to do whatever it takes.
2.) Nothing Will Work Unless You Do - Maya Angelou
I love this reminder to not remain stagnant. Goals don’t reach themselves. Staying comfortable, skipping workouts, avoiding my fears and weakness, and getting comfortable with mediocrity will get me absolutely nowhere. If anything, it will throw me further back from what I want out of life. If you’re not willing to work, you’re not willing to reach your goals. Period. Nothing works unless you do.
3.) All You Have To Do Is Start
So simple, yet it’s the hardest part of every step. The hardest part of the workout video is pressing play. The hardest part of therapy is to start talking. The hardest part of writing a book is to sit down and start writing. As I’ve said in previous posts, momentum will carry you, but in order for there to be momentum, you have to create it. To create momentum, you need energy. To create energy, you need to move; you need to start.
We get stuck right off the bat when we overcomplicate the steps or throw ourselves in a tizzy thinking about how much work it will be. Don’t overcomplicate it, just do the first thing in front of you. Once that is done, do the next step in front of you. Eventually, you reach the top of the steps, and you can look out at the magnificent mountaintop view, and say to yourself, “I’ve done it.” If you never allowed yourself to take the first step, you would’ve never made it. All you really did was start climbing at each step you got to. All you have to do is start.
4.) It's Supposed To Be Hard
If your goals are easy to reach, you aren’t making big enough goals. Working out is supposed to be hard. Building your website is supposed to be tough. Raising kids is extremely difficult. Maturity and growth require mental effort. When it comes to achieving greatness, expect it to be hard, and know that if it is, you’re doing it right.
I love coming back to this quote, because it is natural for me to hit a roadblock and feel like I’m messing things up. This concept encourages the idea that getting to a hard part in your goal reaching process is necessary to success. It’s in the hard places where the real growing and flourishing begin to happen. It’s supposed to be hard.
5.) Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room. - Dwayne Johnson
Are you the hardest worker when you get to your job? Are you the most hungry to learn at jiu-jitsu, school, or church? Do you walk into life with humility? Be that person, and don’t settle for less. Don’t fall for mediocrity by going through the motions. Show up with intention, with fire, with humility, hunger and determination to be the hardest worker there. * This one is my FAVORITE! I like to read this before I go anywhere that I plan to learn or work: jiu-jitsu, church, women’s group, my work, etc.
6.) Wake Up Excited, Go To Bed Exhausted
I don’t know who said this one, but it wasn’t me so I cannot take credit for this one. I heard it on a podcast months ago during a time where I was struggling with the mundane everyday life tasks. Everyday and every week blurred into one of the same, and I didn’t love what I was doing. I have absolutely no idea what that podcast was about now, but that line stuck with me and has come up in my head multiple times since first hearing it, because I want that. I want to create and live a life that I wake up genuinely excited for what the day holds, and go to bed completely exhausted from living the day to its maximum potential.
In order for this to happen you have to start by asking yourself this question: What do your days need to look like for you to wake up EXCITED to live it out? Then, make those things happen! Do those things with all your heart, soul, mind and strength so that you can go to bed with a satisfying exhaustion. Whenever I find myself getting bored or unsatisfied with life, I am inspire by this phrase: Wake up excited, go to bed exhausted.
7.) You can do hard things-Glennon Doyle
You can. I 100% believe that the hard thing in front of you is achievable. Maybe it is hard. Like we noted earlier, it’s supposed to be hard. Luckily for you, you can do hard things. You can have hard conversations, do intense workouts, make tough decisions, graduate college, and learn how to start up a website or business from home. Use your abilities and resources to do the hard things! Remember: You can do hard things!
8.) No Excuses
Cut them off. Immediately. Right when your mind starts to give you “reasons” to quit, slack, or skip; NO EXCUSES. You can try to justify your excuse by labeling it as a reason, it’s not; it’s an excuse. Every time you use an excuse to justify your poor decisions, whatever that may be for what you are trying to accomplish, you are deciding that the excuse you just made is more important than your goal.
When you are on your phone in front of your child, you are making the choice that at that moment, looking at your phone is more important than interacting with your child. (Or spouse) When you show up to work late, you are deciding that whatever you were doing at home before work is more important than your work reputation and the respect towards other people’s time.
Excuses are like seeds, the minute they enter your head, if you don’t immediately toss them out, they grow. The more they grow, the harder it is to weed them out. This makes it substantially harder to get done what is necessary to achieve the best version of you. Not only that, but every time you allow an excuse to “win,” you normalize it more and more. The excuse turns into a habit- something you grow comfortable with.
No more normalizing excuses. We will NOT be comfortable with or accept excuses.
Get to where you want to go in life with NO EXCUSES.
9.) Do It Tired. Do It Hurt. Do It Busy.
Some time ago, I made a list of non-negotiable tasks for me to do everyday for me to get to the end of the day feeling like it was a success, even if all I did was what I wrote on that list. At the top of the page before I wrote those things, I wrote, “Do it tired. Do it hurt. Do it busy.”
I might wake up tired, but that’s not going to stop me from doing educational work with my kids. I might be emotionally hurt from last night’s fight, but that’s not going to stop me from showing my husband love. I might be SO busy I can’t possibly workout, but I’m not going to let myself skip. I am going to do those non-negotiables no matter what, because they are things that matter the most to me.
I want you to take those things that are a priority to you, and do them everyday. Talk is cheap. We can say they are a priority to us, but if they aren’t incorporated into our everyday lives, they aren’t truly a priority; you just want them to be.
Do them. Do what you need you to do. Do it tired. Do it hurt. Do it busy.
10.) Make it happen
So simple to say, so hard to do. I am a list girl, if you can’t tell. I love making lists, planning and scheduling. I love knowing what to expect and always having the next thing on my list to do so I can continue full speed in productivity without having to stop to figure out what I should do next.
Sometimes, however, my planning can be counterproductive. Sometimes, I sit down to make my list, and waste time coming up with allllll the things I could do, should do, and maybe will do but probably won’t because now I’ve put so much on my list that it’s impossible to get it all done in the day.
I can write out what I will do all day long, but the truth is nothing gets done until you do it. Nothing happens unless you make it happen. The blog post won’t write itself, the bathroom won’t get cleaner on its own, and your mindset won’t change without your help.
You have goals. You have things you want to do in life and things you want to achieve. We all do, but only the ones who put in the work get to experience the gratification of their hard earned achievement. Don’t waste too much time on the list. Figure out what you need to do, and go make it happen.
11.) Discipline Equals Freedom - Jocko Willink
Reaching your goals requires discipline; there’s no question about it. Reaching your goals also allows you freedom. So although discipline and freedom seem to contrast each other, it’s through discipline that you can live in the freedom that achieving your goals provides.
For example, when you are disciplined with your finances, you will have financial freedom. If you are disciplined in raising well mannered children, you will enjoy the emotional freedom of well mannered adults. Be disciplined with time management, and in turn you will have more free time. If you are feeling strapped and stuck, grit your teeth, make a plan, work hard, and stay disciplined. Discipline equals freedom.
12.) You Choose Who You Become
I’ve also put this into a question for myself, “Who do I want to be right now?” This has been a powerful phrase for me, especially when it comes to raising my young children. I have been on the verge of screaming at the top of my lungs to a two year old child. Why? Because I was annoyed and was (am) emotionally immature. It sounds dramatic, but this is an almost daily battle with myself, and I know I’m not the only one. I’ve tried lots of techniques and tricks to help me not yell at my kids, some have been effective, some haven’t been. However, asking myself this question when I get to that point has always been effective for me. Do I want to be the person who teaches their child to scream when they are mad? Do I want to be an out-of-control parent? No.
So in that moment, I decide to choose to be who I want.
At any moment in time, you can choose who you become. You get to decide to be a loving friend. You get to decide if you are going to be in shape. You get to decide if you want a career that makes more money. You get to decide to be a person of character when you find yourself in moral or ethical conflicts. You get to choose at any moment to be the person you want to be.
You are in control. You are in the driver seat of your life. There is no, “Well, that’s just how I was raised” or “I am incapable of losing weight” or “I am a people pleaser” or “I just don’t know how to do this skill that is keeping me from doing it.” All of those are garbage excuses to keep yourself stuck or rolling down the wrong path.
I know I sounds like a broken record, but I want you to really hear me on this. You are who you choose to be, you do what you choose to do- no matter your upbringing, your current mental state, your current knowledge, your current physical ability, or any other excuse. You, and only you can make the calls on what you do with your life. You choose who you become.
13.) Consistency Over Perfection
This phrase eliminates the validity of almost all excuses when it comes to follow-through. What often stops us from starting, producing, or continuing in progress is knowing that we won’t be able to do it to the best of our ability. Which, I must note, is a very poor way to live, because most days we aren’t at our very best; just as most days we aren’t at our very worst.
If we only do a workout when we feel super energetic, we would hardly workout- I probably never would 😅 If we only went to work when we were inspired to do so, we wouldn’t have much of a paycheck (or a job at all). If you only worked towards your goal when you felt motivated, you’d probably only make progress once a week at the very most.
The point is, to fulfill your ambitions, achieve success, or reach your goals, you need to be consistent in your progression towards them. Period. You don’t have to beat your mile time every time you run. You don’t need to eat salad for dessert to enjoy a healthy eating lifestyle. You don’t need to provide your husband with some incredible acrobatic sexual favor every night to have an amazing marriage. You don’t need to give it all or nothing. (See how the All or Nothing Mindset keeps you from reaching your goals here!😊)
You just need to be consistent and show up for what you have to do to make progress; even if it’s just a baby step forward. If you aren’t moving at least a little bit towards your goals everyday, you are moving backwards. Even if you miserably fail at what you are trying to do, if you show up with intentionality and put in the work, you are growing.
You are not expected to be perfect. Your goals and dreams and future you aren’t asking you to do every step right, but they are needing you to move forward. What will make you successful is prioritizing consistency over perfection.
Here's Your Challenge:
I want you to look back at those power phrases and choose at least one that encourages and inspires you to your bones.
Once you’ve got one picked out, write it down and stick it somewhere you will see everyday: your mirror, the back of the front door, the dash of your car, the fridge, the counter, posted on your social media account, wherever you will see it regularly.
Once it’s become engrained into you, come back and do the same with another power phrase. It’s important to fuel yourself with consistent motivation to remain inspired. Although motivation as a feeling is not always going to be there, it’s extremely helpful in thrusting you forward into everyday actions that help you achieve a successful life.
What are some power phrases you tell yourself?
Maybe it’s a verse, mantra or quote- I would LOVE to know and be inspired by you! Share them in the comments below ⬇️
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