99 Notes For a Focused Life

1. Focus on living your dreams instead of living your fears. 

2. Questions are the building blocks of great relationships.

3. “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t…you’re right.” — Henry Ford

4. Hard work…works.

5. Be Flawsome.

6. Unless your name is Atlas, the world doesn’t need to rest on your shoulders.

7. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

8. Fail fast, fail forward, fail better.

9. Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

10. Sleeping isn’t for wimps. It’s for warriors.

11. Spend time with who you love, doing what you love. Life is too short.

12. If what I’m doing doesn’t eventually lead to producing smiles, then why am I doing it?

13. Show me your calendar and bank account, and I’ll show you your priorities.

14. Despite what others say and despite what you say to yourself, you are more than enough. 

15. “Everything seems impossible until it is done.” — Nelson Mandela

16. The most important things we learn in life are learned in kindergarten. 

17. You’ve got to know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em.

18. With great power comes great responsibility.

19. Serving others is the best medicine.

Our children might not listen to what we say, but they always watch what we do.

21. Innovation is simply a series of failures.

22. When walking, walk. When eating, eat. — Zen Proverb

23. The exact opposite of a known truth is also often true.

24. A life well-lived is one lived on your own terms helping others to get to live on their own terms. 

25. The days are long, but the years are short.

26. Being early is a sign of respect for the person you're meeting. 

27. The more people you thank, the more you will have to be thankful for.

28. Embrace an attitude of gratitude.

29. Being organized has so many positive benefits.

30. The best things in life aren’t things. 

31. If you lend someone $100 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

32. Losers are overly busy.

33. Planning makes the difference between relaxing and rushing.

34. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.

35. Real change is real hard. 

36. Respect capacity, especially your own.

37. It’s impossible to be grateful and upset at the same time. 

38. If you say yes to everyone, you are saying no to everyone.

39. Giving is the real gift.

Less, but better.

41. We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.

42. Regret in the future weighs tons, while focusing today only weighs ounces.

43. Act like the mirror in Snow White…make those around you feel the fairest of them all. 

44. Traffic sucks, but being in the accident sucks even more. #perspective

45. Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

46. Run your race today, because nobody knows when the finish line will appear.

47. Above all else…balance.

48. We can learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty, and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all are able to live in the same box.

49. Failing to plan is planning to fail. 

The best productivity tool is the word NO.

51. It’s funny, but the gift you receive for answering all your email is more email.

52. Success is measured by the quality of people at your funeral.

53. Teachers are underpaid, yet they are the richest among us.

54. I once felt ashamed about my tattered shoes, then I met a man with no feet and I felt even more ashamed.

55. The band Journey got it right…Don’t Stop Believing!

56. “Find a way.” — Diana Nyad

57. Living doesn’t cost much, but showing off does. 

58. “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.” — Mark Twain 

59. Half of life is simply showing up.

60. T-I-M-E is how kids spell L-O-V-E.

61. A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

62. You can never get back on track if you never go off it. Forge a new trail.

63. If you're trying to pull someone else down, that means you feel beneath them. 

64. Leap, and the net will appear. 

65. Being kind is allowing a person with a stutter to finish his or her own sentences.

66. It’s healthy to remember that you will die, Memento Mori. 

Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present. Make sure to unwrap it. 

68. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” — Albert Einstein

69. Defaulting to no on the small things will allow you to say yes to the big things. 

70. If you want to go fast, do it yourself. If you want to go far, do it together. 

71. Success is a choice. 

72. If you help people get what they want, you will get what you want. 

73. Life is a journey, and sometimes it forces you to take a scary road to get to a better destination.

74. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney

75. Leaders know let’s get started beats let’s get ready.

76. The best view is always after a tough climb. 

77. Accept the fact that some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

78. Pioneers get pushback. It’s a sign you're actually pioneering. 

79. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Nobody else does. 

80. Your brain is like a TV. There are good channels and bad channels; the key is remembering that you have the remote control. 

81. Human-Kind…be both.

82. People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.

83. Live for your eulogy more than your resume.

If it were easy, it would already be done.

85. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? YES. It’s 100% full of good things: half oxygen and half water. 

86. You can have it all, just not all at once.

87. Be quick to listen, slow to speak.

88. Perfect is the enemy of great.

89. When you teach someone, two people learn.

90. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the issue. We all have twenty-four-hour days.” — Zig Ziglar

91. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought into focus. 

“The successful warrior is the average person, with laser-like focus.” — Bruce Lee

93. Life is tough, but so are you.

94. When you can’t find the sunshine, be the sunshine.

95. The most important thing is always doing the most important thing. 

96. If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.

97. Successful people focus on goals, not obstacles.

98. Life is like a roll of toilet paper: the closer we get to the end, the faster it goes.

Have fun. Help people.

These quotes and more can be found in The Focus Project.

Now available on Amazon.