I want to go back to bed.
However, a thousand different commitments and obligations are laughing cynically at me as I haphazardly apply my clumpy mascara, so going back to bed is no longer an option. If you’re anything like me, you might need a little extra inspiration in the coming weeks to make the magic happen. While I’m normally the first to string together an inspirational quote or two, I’m low on faith and caffeine, so I figure I’ll let someone else do the talking for once.
Here is a little list of quotes I lean on when things get a bit tough or I need a little extra conviction in myself:
1. “Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.” – Niel Gaiman
2. “To hell with them, nothing hurts if you don’t let it.” – Ernest Hemmingway
3. “I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.” – Edgar Allen Poe
4. “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” – Lou Holtz
5. “The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.” – Kalu Ndukwe Kalu
6. “You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That’s the only thing you should be trying to control.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
7. “Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” – J.K. Rowling
8. “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Sharon Salzberg
9. “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Zora Neale Hurston
10. How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. – George Washington Carver
11. “I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” – Kurt Vonnegut
12. “Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” – Robert Schuller
13. “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” – Steve Maraboli
14. “We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” – David Mamet (speaking the truth)
15. “I was a little excited but mostly blorft. “Blorft” is an adjective I just made up that means ‘Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.’ I have been blorft every day for the past seven years.” – Tina Fey
16. “It’s a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.” – Paulo Coehlo
17. “Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.” – Nelson DeMille
18. “Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.” – Robert Eliot
19. “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Paul Boese
20. “The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.” – Margaret Chase Smith
Whatever it is that haunts you this week, this month, or even this year, just remember that you are the most capable person for the job. Smile, even when you’re tired. Be gentle with yourself, you’re doing the best you can.