Quotes to Inspire You to Great Things

Sometimes we need an extra push to follow our dreams in the new year. Great quotes can inspire us, motivate us, and help us get through hard times. In 2014, it’s time to take your career to a whole new level.

No more making excuses for why you can’t go after your dream job or the title you know you deserve. Let these quotes from some great thinkers inspire you to pursue your dreams and make them a reality in 2014:

1. “Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength.” – Corrie ten Boom

Lesson: Identify what has been holding you back from your career success. Most likely, it’s been worry and fear. In the new year, it’s time to leave fear behind. The things you are afraid of are often the things most worth doing.

2. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay

Lesson: You can’t wait around for good things to happen this year; you need to make them happen yourself.

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

Lesson: Bringing value to your company is the best way up the corporate ladder. Don’t play office politics, just make sure you bring as much value as you possibly can to your organization.

4. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth

Lesson: You can learn and grow from your mistakes if you see them not as mere errors, but as opportunities to grow as a professional and as a person.

5. “If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

Lesson: Honest Abe’s productivity hack is a good one. Before you start a job hunt or a new project, make sure you’ve sharpened your skills so you can succeed.

6. “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne

Lesson: In 2014, you should try to frequently do things which scare you and push you outside your comfort zone. Take on a complicated new project, offer to do some public speaking, or learn a new skill. You’ll never rise in your career if you don’t take the chance to fall.

7. “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” – Henry Ford

Lesson: Sure the bottom line is important, but it’s not the only thing. A business should be more than dollar signs, it should give something back to the world and inspire passion in employees.

8. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

Lesson: In the new year it’s important not to let the little things get you down. You won’t hit a home run every time, but if you bounce back you’ll come back stronger.

9. “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.” – Margaret Thatcher

Lesson: You might sometimes dream about a slow day in the office, but you know you thrive when things get crazy. In 2014, don’t rest on your laurels when you could be challenging yourself to do and be better.

10. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

Lesson: Nothing is ever impossible, even if it often feels that way. If you give up too soon, you’ll never know if you could have actually achieved your dream.

11. “Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” – John Maxwell

Lesson: Don’t write yourself off before you actually try. If you put in the hard work and effort this year, you’ll be closer to achieving your dream.

12. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” – Helen Keller

Lesson: There will always be negatives in your professional life. If you focus on the negative instead of the positive, you’ll miss out on great opportunities.

13. “Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lesson: The best way to succeed in 2014 is to marry pie-in-the-sky ambition with hard work. If you dream big and work hard, you’ll be able to make those dreams a reality.

14. “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” – Roger Staubach

Lesson: Going the extra mile in 2014 is really the best way to arrive at your dream destination. No one ever made it to their dream career, got their dream job, or started a business without going above and beyond.

15. “Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem

Lesson: It’s hard to get anywhere in your professional or personal life without a little bit of dreaming. You need a destination in mind to start the new year out right, so don’t be afraid to dream big in 2014.

What are some of your favorite inspirational quotes? Share in the comments!

Originally published on Forbes