10 Motivational Quotes To Inspire A Strong Year-End Finish

I reconnected recently with an old friend, who paid me one of the nicest compliments I have ever been given. She told me that she was out with friends and I came up in conversation.

When one of them asked her what I do, she answered, “Caroline and her husband actually do the things that the rest of us just talk about doing.”

Thanks Sarah – your words still make me blush!

Never to late to pivot

Sarah was referring to our embrace of the FIRE lifestyle — leaving our corporate jobs and jumping into real estate and launching Costa Rica FIRE. It’s funny that Sarah pointed to us as examples of the non-traditional because we came to this very recently.

For most of our lives, we were quite traditional – get good grades, go to a good college, get a good job …. It just goes to show that it’s never too late to pivot!

10 favorite quotes around encouraging change

As we move into year-end, it’s a natural inflection point to think about pivots and changes for next year.

When I need a burst of inspiration or some prompts for self-reflection, I pull out a Word document I keep of motivational quotes that is now 70 pages long!

Here are 10 of my favorites, specifically around encouraging change:

Good reminder to check-in regularly and make sure you’re on the right track

Let me ask you this: Would you want someone you love to spend a lifetime living exactly as you are right now?

– Kevin Lawrence

For a sense of urgency

“Now” is the operative word. Everything you put in your way is just a method of putting off the hour when you could actually be doing your dream. You don’t need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating.

– Barbara Sher

If you have many interests and are afraid of choosing just one

…thankfully dreams can change. If we’d all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses.

– Stephen Colbert

If you’re always waiting for the “right” time or conditions

We cannot put off living until we are ready.  The most salient characteristic of life is the coerciveness:  it is always urgent, “here and now” without any possible postponement.  Life is fired at us point-blank.

– Jose Ortega Y Gasset 

If you get too caught up in work

Don’t forget until it is too late that the business of life is not business but living.

– B.C. Forbes

Because who doesn’t love a good use of the word, “Flamboyant”

To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions.

– William James

Because too many people obsess about money and forget about time

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

– Henry David Thoreau 

Good reminder to be self-aware

Quite often we change jobs, friends and spouses instead of ourselves.

– Akbarali H. Jetha 

If you think change is risky, here’s a twist

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

– Alan Cohen

My all-time favorite quote. This one never fails to inspire me to go for a dream

The money we receive in return for our eight hours of work each day can be spent any number of ways; the only thing we cannot buy is extra time.  So, during the minutes we have, I believe it is better to live a dream rather than to simply dream it.  The dream is the start of something greater, something that impels us to make daring decisions.  And it’s true that the person who pursues a dream takes many risks.  But the person who does not runs risks that are even greater.

– Paulo Coelho  

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Do you have a favorite quote that I missed?