When I went on Twitter in January 2016, I did it with the sole purpose of wanting to send Patrick some encouragement. He had had a rough and tumble comeback season, with the triumph of Skate Canada followed by despair at the Grand Prix Final. I thought maybe if I sent him some motivational quotes it might help him, and many times I had to squeeze and edit a brilliant quote down to 140 characters.
Following are the quotes and other motivators that I sent him, but in their complete form. They inspire me. I hope they encourage you, too.
“Innovators, artists, creators and free thinkers listen to their own source being.
They can flourish when they are free of dependency on approval.
They can win competitions if it is their desire,
and they retain their happiness when they don’t win.”
Naomi Aldort
“Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.”
Phillips Brooks
“It’s not about ‘what can I accomplish?’ but ‘what do I want to accomplish?’ Paradigm shift.”
Brené Brown
“20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”
Martin Buber
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”
Tim Cahill
“You are enough.
You have a right to be here.
You are worthy of love.
You are allowed to fail.
You have what it takes to survive your mistakes.
You have a right to make mistakes.
You are not your mistakes.
You don’t need to know all the answers.
You can say ‘I don’t know’ and it’s OK.
You are strong enough to be vulnerable.
You have a right to ask for help.
You are normal to feel the range of human emotions.
You will survive feeling the most intense emotions.
You deserve a good life.”
Jane Chin
“Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when
you have overcome all difficulties.”
Frédéric Chopin
“Time is still the best critic, and patience the best teacher.”
Frédéric Chopin
“To get away from one’s working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one’s self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change.”
Charles Cooley
“The ultimate victory in competition is derived from
the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best
and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give.”
Howard Cosell
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
“Practice saying: I have the right to say no without feeling guilty.
I have the right to pursue happiness.”
Beverly Engel
“The advantage of automation has been proven to beat more skilled opponents.”
Jonny N
“Petit à petit, l’oiseau fait son nid.”
French proverb
“Freedom helps us become the person we’re intended to be. Perfectionism keeps us paralyzed by fear and stunts our growth.”
Holley Gerth
“We are paying you the difficult emotional labor of looking people in the eye and telling them the truth. Telling them the truth in a way that makes them change. Change in a way that creates more beauty. Change in a way the creates more difference.”
Seth Godin
“The job isn’t to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.”
Seth Godin
“In any peak performance, the athlete is totally oblivious to the outcome and instead is completely absorbed in the here and now of the actual performance. An outcome focus will almost always distract and tighten up the athlete insuring a bad performance. Furthermore focusing on the outcome, which is completely out of the athlete’s control will raise their anxiety to a performance inhibiting level.”
Dr. Alan Goldberg
“Concentrate on the action, not your thoughts. The mental energy you’re NOT WASTING on negative thoughts can instead be applied to your performance and help you close the margin of loss, even if you still don’t win.”
Dr. Alan Goldberg
“Don’t worry about the other guy. Focus on what YOU’RE doing.”
Dr. Alan Goldberg
“…it’s not about the winning or the losing…It’s not about the competition…It’s about YOUR pursuit of excellence…about getting as good as YOU possibly can!”
Dr. Alan Goldberg
“A TRUE winner isn’t necessarily the very best athlete out there,
He/she is often someone who flies under the radar,
Never calling attention to themselves,
Making those around them better,
Encouraging and lifting up those who are down,
Maintaining a positive attitude in the face of adversity,
Going for it without hesitation,
And playing with class.
That is a winner!”
Dr. Alan Goldberg
“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
Robert Henri
“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.”
Babs Hoffman
“Smile, it’s free therapy.”
Douglas Horton
“The glory of sport comes from dedication, determination and desire. Achieving success and personal glory in athletics has less to do with wins and losses than it does with learning how to prepare yourself so that at the end of the day, whether on the track or in the office, you know that there was nothing more you could have done to reach your ultimate goal..”
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
“Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition —
in having to put forth the best within you.”
Henry J. Kaiser
“When I look around, I always learn something: to be always yourself, and to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”
Bruce Lee
“Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Be Brave. Be Seen. Be True.”
MarlaHB., Wise Introvert
“What the path to success REALLY looks like.”
Demetri Martin
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
Henry Miller
“You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
A.A. Milne
“A man of superior talent will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“When you lose something in your life, stop thinking it’s a loss for you… it is a gift you have been given so you can get on the right path to where you are meant to go, not to where you think you should have gone.”
Suze Orman
“When you learn to love and value yourself, and to define your own intrinsic worth that isn’t based on looks, achievements or others’ approval, you will find yourself no longer even thinking about whether or not people are rejecting you… you will feel full and happy inside, with a lot of love to share with others. You will find that others are drawn to you when you love yourself and are full of love to share, whereas the more you reject yourself, the more you will feel rejected by others.”
Dr. Margaret Paul
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”
Pelé (quote suggested by Happylife)
“Being kind to yourself is much harder than being kind to others (or being mean to yourself). But when you change places every few days or weeks… being kind to yourself is a must if you want your body and mind not only to stay healthy, but to thrive.”
Nathalie Sejean
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength. When you make an impasse passable, that is strength.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
Seneca
“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.”
Seneca
“It is not always possible to be the best,
but it is always possible to improve your own performance.”
Jackie Stewart
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Muriel Strode
“If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time,
because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.”
Ed Sullivan
“Your uniqueness is your greatest strength, not how well you emulate others.”
Simon S. Tam
“True life is lived when tiny changes occur.”
Leo Tolstoy
“Many people are afraid to fail, so they don’t try. They may dream, talk, and even plan, but they don’t take that critical step of putting their money and their effort on the line. To succeed in business, you must take risks. Even if you fail, that’s how you learn. There has never been, and will never be, an Olympic skater who didn’t fall on the ice.”
Donald Trump
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
Mark Twain
“To finish first, you must first finish.”
Unknown
“Remember @Pchiddy, you are more than how you skate.
Your worth as a person does not depend upon the number of points you win. #GoPchiddy”
Viv, AKA @PCSkatingFan
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Neale Donald Walsch
“The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”
John Wooden
“Don’t be afraid to try something scary and new, because you never know who you might help.”
Cali Williams Yost
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
Zig Ziglar
“You are who you are and what you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change who you are and what you are by changing what goes into your mind.”
Zig Ziglar
“The person who dumps garbage into your mind will do you considerably more harm than the person who dumps garbage on your floor, because each load of mind garbage negatively impacts your possibilities and lowers your expectations.”
Zig Ziglar
“Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be. If we do our best, we are a success.”
Zig Ziglar
“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”
Zig Ziglar
“There will always be competition, especially in showbiz. There’s always someone younger and hungrier standing behind you; there’s always someone with more contacts; there’s always someone whose grandfather or father is a filmmaker. I think your job is just to be there 100% – you work hard, and there are no shortcuts to success.”
Preity Zinta