If you really want to break from the pack, you have to risk being perceived to be as eccentric as these people. You have to think exception-ally—a LOT!
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
In this work are exhibited in a very high degree the two most engaging powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I like to say that no one can hurt me—that’s my job. This is good news.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
If you want to move to a new level in your life, you must break through your comfort zone and practice doing things that are not comfortable.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
The physical symptoms of fight or flight are what the human body has learned over thousands of years to operate efficiently and at the highest level…anxiety is a cognitive interpretation of that physical response.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Overachievers don’t think reasonably, sensibly, or rationally.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
The best players in any high-stakes field – business, entertainment, law, surgery, as well as sport – recognize that pressure occurs at the moments when meaningful accomplishment is possible. In fact, that is the reason why performers perform: for the opportunity to tackle challenges head on, to do something significant, to demonstrate what their hard work and talent can produce.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Great performers in all fields seem immune to what outsiders think about them. Their sense of themselves never depends on the feedback—positive or negative—they get from the environment.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. He that labors in any great or laudable undertaking has his fatigues first supported by hope and afterward rewarded by joy.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Unlikely accomplishments are borne out of single-minded purposefulness. Future superstars don’t get there by keeping part of their heart in reserve.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
How novel and original must be each new mans view of the universe – for though the world is so old – and so many books have been written – each object appears wholly undescribed to our experience – each field of thought wholly unexplored – the whole world is an America – a New World.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Mysticism is: a. An advanced state of inner enlightenment. b. Union with Reality. c. A state of genuinely satisfying success. d. Insight into an entirely new world of living. e. An intuitive grasp of Truth, above and beyond intellectual reasoning. f. A personal experience, in which we are happy and healthy human beings.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
Elevated levels of confidence are omnipresent among history’s greatest overachievers. Benjamin Franklin, one of the most famous men in the world even before he signed the Declaration of Independence once lamented about humility, “I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue”.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Aristotle said, ‘Time does not exist except for change.’ The origin of the word change is the Old English cambium, which means “to become”. In other words, time does not exist except for becoming something new. What, exactly, are you choosing to become?
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Overachievement is aimed at people who want to maximize their potential. And to do that, I insist you throw caution to the wind, ignore the pleas of parents, coaches, spouses, and bosses to be “realistic”. Realistic people do not accomplish extraordinary things because the odds against success stymie them. The best performers ignore the odds. I will show you that instead of limiting themselves to what’s probable, the best will pursue the heart-pounding, exciting, really big, difference-making dreams—so long as catching them might be possible.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
She knew she could not have reached this white serenity except as the sum of all the colors, of all the violence she had known.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined! As you simplify your life, the laws of the Universe will be simpler, solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
All the great performers I have worked with are fueled by a personal dream.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Anyone who strays too far from the majority view or the conventional wisdom is bound to be labeled “arrogant,” “a maverick,” “a Wildman,” “weird,” or even “crazy”.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Is that what I want? The model family, two plus two in an easy home assembly kit? I don’t want a model, I want the full-scale original. I don’t want to reproduce, I want to make something entirely new.
—Jeanette Winterson (b.1959) English Novelist, Journalist
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
By unlinking your money motivation from anger, fear, and the need to prove yourself, you can install new links for earning your money through purpose, contribution, and joy.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
A new idea must not be judged by its immediate results.
—Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian-American Electrical Engineer, Inventor
History, though, shows us that the people who end up changing the world—the great political, scientific, social, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries—are always nuts, until they’re right, and then they’re geniuses.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower when I thought a flower would grow.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
And such should be the outward biography of man in time, a putting off of dead circumstances day by day, as he renews his raiment day by day.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There is no place in this new kind of physics both for the field and matter, for the field is the only reality.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
How would you feel if you had no fear? Feel like that. How would you behave toward other people if you realized their powerlessness to hurt you? Behave like that. How would your react to so-called misfortune if you saw its inability to bother you? React like that. How would you think toward yourself if you knew you were really all right? Think like that.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher