25 short quotes that will make you a better writer
(and might just change your life)
All of these short quotes originate from one of the wisest people I ever had the pleasure of meeting: Jim Rohn.
Take a minute or two and read all twenty-five. I know you’ll read at least one that will help you either change your direction or arrive at your destination.
1. I used to say, “I sure hope things change. “ Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change.
2. Pay attention. Don’t just stagger through the day.
3. The more you know, the less you need to say.
4. Motivation alone is not enough. If you have an idiot and you motivate them, now you have a motivated idiot.
5. We all must suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.
6. Measure your emotions. You don’t need an atomic explosion for a minor point.
7. Don’t operate on the heart with a hatchet.
8. Be like a sponge when it comes to each new experience. If you want to be able to express it well, you must be able to first absorb it well.
9. Failure is not a single cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
10. I used to say, “Things cost too much.” Then my teacher straightened me out on that by saying, “The problem isn’t that things cost too much. The problem is that you can’t afford it.” That’s when I finally understood that the problem wasn’t “it” — the problem was “me.”
11. It isn’t what the book costs; it’s what it will cost you if you don’t read it.
12. Don’t set your goals too low. If you don’t need much, you won’t become much.
13. Make sure the outside of you is a good reflection of the inside of you.
14. I remember saying to my mentor, “If I had more money, I would have a better plan.” He quickly responded, “I would suggest that if you had a better plan, you would have more money.”
15. If you wish to find, you must search. Rarely does a good idea interrupt you.
16. There are three things to leave behind: your photographs, your library, and your personal journals. These things are certainly going to be more valuable to future generations than your furniture.
17. If you share a good idea long enough, it will eventually fall on good people.
18. Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you’ve signed up for a season, see it through. You don’t have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.
19. It is not what happens that determines the major part of your future. What happens, happens to us all. It is what you do about what happens that counts.
20. Life asks us to make measurable progress in reasonable time. That’s why they make those fourth grade chairs so small — so you won’t fit in them at age twenty-five.
21. Don’t wish it was easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom.
22. One of my good friends always says, “Things don’t just happen. Things happen just.”
23. Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.
24. Something will master and something will serve. Either you run the day or the day runs you; either you run the business or the business runs you.
25. Here’s what is exciting about sharing ideas with others: If you share a new idea with ten people, they get to hear it once, and you get to hear it ten times.
There are many more quotes from Jim Rohn in his “Treasury of Quotes” (Amazon affiliate link). It’s a book of wisdom you’ll cherish and can leave behind for future generations.
