Because I’ve been focused on getting my business on track, I’ve been a poor steward and haven’t added any value for you here in a while. I needed some motivation, so I’ve collected some of my favorite quotes here to check back and get my ass in gear when rough times have me frustrated or down. Hopefully you’ll find these inspiring and useful as well:

“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. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

—Mark Twain

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”

—Stephen Covey

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

—Zig Ziglar

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

—Seneca

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”

—Napoleon Hill

“Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic.”

—Tim Ferriss

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

—Henry Ford

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.”

—Tony Robbins

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.”

—Napoleon Hill

“A good plan vigorously executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

—George S. Patton

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

—Lao Tzu

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

—Mark Victor Hansen

“Too many of us wait to do the perfect thing, with the result we do nothing. The way to get ahead is to start now. While many of us are waiting until conditions are ‘just right’ before we go ahead, others are stumbling along, fortunately ignorant of the dangers that beset them. By the time we are, in our superior wisdom, decided to make a start, we discover that those who have gone fearlessly on before, have, in their blundering way, traveled a considerable distance. If you start now, you will know a lot next year that you don’t know now, and that you will not know next year, if you wait.”

—The William Feather Magazine (thanks to Steve Pavlina for this gem)

“First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.”

—Dale Carnegie

“It’s not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better, the credit belongs to the man of the arena who’s face is marred by dust, sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who knows the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid soles who have never known neither victory nor defeat”

—Theodore Roosevelt (props to Andrew at Personal Hack for finding this one)

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

—Winston Churchill

“Uncertainty and the prospect of failure can be very scary noises in the shadows. Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”

—Tim Ferriss (Don’t be one of those people!)

“Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.”

—Wayne Dyer

“Reality is negotiable.”

—Tim Ferriss

“All achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea!”

—Napoleon Hill

“Today, I have the opportunity to change everything. My whole life hinges on today’s actions. If I do not act today, if I do not grab control of my fate today, my life will take a completely different trajectory. One path leads to greatness, and the other path leads to a life where I will look back on today as the day where I could have spoken up, today as the day where I could have reached out. I will look back realizing that today was the one chance I had to change everything. I will not let this moment pass me by. I will act decisively, today.”

—Sid Savara

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”

—Ayn Rand

What are your favorite quotes? What inspires you when you’re busy, frustrated, or need a boost in motivation?

Feature photo by Diego Cupolo

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 22 Inspirational Quotes for Living the Rockstar Life

Everyone has had difficulty with goal-setting – it’s a rough part of life. A lot of people try to do too many things at once, or they simply have a huge, ambitious goal that is too much for one person to accomplish alone – and eventually you experience burnout. As creatures of habit, it is frequently difficult for us to make the necessary changes on our own, and we give up on our biggest dreams and desires and slink back into regular behavior. It’s easier. But deep down inside you know you can do better. You undermine your self-worth when you constantly give up on what you want to achieve most.

But don’t beat yourself up! As Leo Babauta of Zen Habits recently said, when it comes to forming new habits, “It’s not a lack of discipline, it’s a lack of motivation. The most powerful motivators are logging your habit and public pressure.” Now as a budding entrepreneur, trying desperately to start my own web design and consulting company, I know how hard it can be to stay motivated! School and traditional workplaces train us SO well to depend on our superiors to tell us what to do, how to prioritize, and when to get it done. But when you go to work for yourself, or you go off into the world to accomplish some personal goal of your own, no one is telling you what to do, and often times no one is setting hard deadlines for you! It’s a new skill you have to learn to do these things yourself.

So today I’m writing to advocate that if you want to achieve those big dreams (and we ALL have them…maybe you want to go meet Al Gore and help stop global warming…or be the next CEO at Apple…or start your own business…or write a book!…or simply lose 20 pounds) – I encourage you to set up a strong accountability structure for yourself. I created a group with my peers about 10 months ago that we call Career MasterMinds, to provide a place to talk about our career and personal development goals. Every week, about six to eight of us meet at a local coffee shop and share about our weekly goals and accomplishments. This support structure is based on proven techniques that many highly successful individuals have used to achieve great things, and it provides a perfect opportunity each week to log your progress and participate in a friendly yet professional environment for public accountability.

Now many businesspeople, world leaders, and other successful individuals have set up similar accountability groups for themselves. In the book Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill discussed MasterMind groups, where individuals coordinate their knowledge and effort for the attainment of a common purpose, and how these groups could multiply an individual’s brain power and continually motivate positive emotions. Andrew Carnegie, Charles Schwab and others used the principles of the MasterMind group to become hugely successful businessmen and philanthropists. Benjamin Franklin had a similar group centuries earlier that he called a Junto. Tom Peters, one of the most respected experts on business management practices, best-selling author of In Search of Excellence and Re-Imagine!, also proposes similar support groups for wage slaves tired of “Dilbert nation,” calling them a great “place to discuss your fears…your hopes…and your plans with work and non-work colleagues.”

Besides the proven success of such systems, peer accountability groups are an intuitive win because they also give you an important chance to review your progress each week and brainstorm your next actions. You can meet with your colleagues as frequently as you choose, but for me, meeting once per week has proven to be the most effective accountability tool in meeting my day-to-day goals. I recommend that you keep a binder just for your goals, and in preparing to meet with your peer group you set aside a predefined time to reflect on your achievements each week and then spend some critical thinking time about what your most important tasks (MITs) should be for the next week. Which 3 or 5 things that you can accomplish in the next seven days are most instrumental in getting closer to the lifestyle and achievements you desire? Write them down, and be sure they are specific and measurable. You can reference this list throughout the week to provide guidance each day. As you track your progress, checking off those three most-important tasks each day, it will give you the motivation to keep pressing for your desired outcome.

The second major benefit of a peer group besides having a written record of your progress is having the support and accountability of others. Answering to someone else is absolutely key in achieving those difficult goals. Knowing that someone else will hold you accountable gives you the added fuel not to let them down. And they’ll also share in celebrating your achievements each week! The most rewarding trend we have found with our group is that each week we continue to learn new things about each other – common interests we share, projects and tasks we can help each other achieve together, or maybe someone has a contact they can connect you with to help attain your goals quicker. Our members have connected each other with key contacts on several occasions…I connected one of my peers with the VP of Engineering at a company he wanted to interview with (it just happened to be where my step-mother worked!)…one student was plugged in to the Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency to share his brilliant foreclosure research…and so on. Not only will your peers give you support and accountability, but they will also help you out a TON by sharing their knowledge, networks, and resources with you.

Nobody can achieve great things alone, but together we can help each other find great opportunity. When you network closely with your peers, and get to know the things that they are interested in and passionate about, you learn what sort of people and opportunities you can connect them with. And if you do this in a spirit of collaboration and teamwork, they will do the same thing for you. As Zig Ziglar said, “You can get everything in life you want, if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.” You know deep down inside, we all wanted to be great, noteworthy people when we were kids – cowboys and astronauts! Well don’t give up the dream. Many respected and celebrated individuals throughout history have relied on their peers for motivation to become the great, noteworthy people they were! A formal group will give you a structure to track your written goals and progress, and it will provide a synergistic group dynamic where you can share your successes and challenges with others. So talk with your friends each week about your goals, start your own MasterMind group, or use a similar club as your accountability group! Just remember that to achieve great things, many heads are better than one.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How To Use Your Peers For Fun And Profit!

Rajesh is the president of Foresight Plus, a management consulting firm that helps businesses get the most leverage out of their pre-existing relationships and resources and extend their reach with new media communications. The same concepts apply to your personal life, and this e-book can help teach you how to form the most valuable kind of relationships, as well as maintain a productive list of contacts—helping them achieve their goals as they help you achieve yours—like Zig Ziglar said, “You can get everything in life you want, if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.”

Raj notes how many professionals consider spending lots of money on precious MBA programs for the built-in social networks they seem to offer, because as he states, “To succeed well—what many call making the dream a reality—you need help.” But luckily, you can build a great network without a degree from Harvard or Wharton.

Rajesh shares many insights he has learned throughout his business and entrepreneurial life:

• Number one is that no one can succeed alone. Networks are necessary to ensure success.
• Some people might approach networking with a great attitude and have something of value to offer, but if you don’t develop your communication skills, you may leave the other party guessing how to assess your value.
• Even quality business relationships require the proper time and energy to invest in. “If you don’t have the bandwidth to foster a relationship, you are better off not starting one.”
• When you meet a new contact, take time to listen first, and understand what they are trying to accomplish, or what goals they are trying to reach. If you know these things, then maybe you will know how you can be useful to the person!

Rajesh has made his ebook available to everyone for free, and I highly recommend that you invest time in learning the value of interpersonal communication and building great relationships. This is a quick, easy read, and it teaches some invaluable lessons.

Lasting Relationships ebook at LifeBeyondCode.com

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The #1 Skill You Need to Succeed at Anything