09 Jun 80+ Inspirational Quotes w/ Images [Updated 2018]
Finding inspiration can lift our productivity, strengthen our spirits, and give us some peace on an otherwise painful time. We’ve put together a list of inspirational quotes and images along with motivational tips to help get you through a rough day!
If you’re stuck in a rut or having a bad day, don’t worry! It happens to all of us. Knowing that you’re not alone and having some encouraging insight can help get you through some of life’s challenges and set-backs. You can choose to push through the storm with some friends or to focus through it yourself. We’ve collected the best motivational images and quotes to help you push past adversity and find success!
Related Post: See our ever-growing list of the best life quotes
The best inspirational quotes
We’ve collected a list of our favorite motivational quotes from over the years and created accompanying images for them. Try to keep a few of these thoughts in your mind because they can help pick you up on a bad day. Happiness, motivation, and creativity often come from within so keeping a positive mindset can help achieve that.
1. Believe in yourself. People often have a much lower view on themselves than others. Work yo build yourself up!
– A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
Wake up earlier: There is an incredibly inspirational TED Talk on “How waking up everyday at 4:30 AM can change your life” by Filipe Castro Matos. He documents the many positive benefits of waking up before the world does. Being awake earlier than the rest of the world allows you to be more productive – working without interruptions such as phone calls or emails.
What was a time when you were stronger or smarter than you gave yourself credit for?
2. Our biggest failure manifests when we decide to give up.
Making a to-do list can help you prioritize your day and also help visualize getting those things done. Sometimes tasks can seem overwhelming and breaking them down into small to-do items can really help you get started and destroy procrastination. You can see a list of motivational quotes from business owners in our related post.
3. Impossible is purely subjective
Start your day with 5 minutes of exercise. I’ve felt a big difference throughout the day if I can get some exercise out in the morning. I’ve been able to stay better focused and motivated with less burnout. This is a personal experience so you may want to experiment yourself to see if it works.
4. Make today your masterpiece.
“You will never have this day again, so make it count.” – unknown
If you notice you have trouble waking up even to an alarm, try setting two. Set one alarm for the time you’d like to wake up and another five minutes later. We definitely agree that waking up can suck some days and it takes some effort to pull yourself out of bed. You can see this and our list of good morning quotes with tips for waking up happier here.
5. Celebrate progress instead of focusing solely on your destination.
Our prime time is the time of day where you do your best work. Once you find this period, always schedule time during this period to work uninterrupted. Experiment to see if you are more creative in the morning than the evening and plan your work accordingly.
6. Start now because there will never be a perfect time to begin.
Beginning a new project can be difficult, and it can be especially hard when we have so many distractions around us. Turn off devices that can distract you such as phones and pop-up notifications. Removing distractions is helpful because it allows us to focus on what’s important.
Wish your friends a happy journey with this list of quotes and sayings!
7. Don’t let the world bring you down. Be a force that brings them up.
Find music that pumps you up and jam it throughout your day for good vibes. Try to find songs that don’t have any lyrics. These songs help you build your focus, block out pesky distractions, and could even enhance creativity. Our favorites include music from the Final Fantasy franchise and classic piano.
8. Don’t look back in anger.
Turn off all notifications on your smartphone if possible. When you get notifications from your phone or computer, you can get easily distracted. Once you experience the initial distraction, it can take minutes or hours to get you back into your original working groove.
9. Forgive yourself and move forward. You deserve it.
Block every site that easily distracts you while you’re working. Not only will this help with self-control, but it will also stop you from continuing a bad habit that is costing you productivity. We’ve definitely gone down the Facebook rabbit many times – you’re not alone.
10. Dr. Seuss says to weird your way to the top.
While most of us are taught to blend in and make friends, remember that it’s the weird outcasts who usually come up with astonishing ideas and successes.
Try the Pomodoro Technique. For 25 minutes, you will work on only one task. Once the 25 minutes are up, you take a 5-minute break, then repeat. After you do 3 sessions of the Pomodoro technique, take a break for a larger amount of time. You can use the free “tomato timer” here
11. Start small with grand intentions.
Break a project down to small steps. Sometimes a large task can feel overwhelming. Break a task down into smaller steps to make it more manageable. Furthermore you’re going to feel good as you progress since each step will be a small victory.
13. Keep pushing forward, we’ve still got forever to go.
“We didn’t come this far to only come this far.” – unknown
Invest in some good headphones. When you wear headphones, you tell people that you are busy and do not want to be disturbed. Having a good pair of headphones can insulate you from the distractions of the world.
14. No one moves forward perfectly.
“If you stumble, make it part of the dance” – unknown
Put up a do not disturb sign. This technique simply involves locking your door and putting up a sign that says you’re not to be disturbed. Uninterrupted work could simply be a matter of telling people that you should not be disturbed for a certain period of time. This can save you a distraction in advance.
15. Take care of yourself. We often hurt ourselves more than we ever would to others.
Save articles you like and read them later when you have more time and attention. During the course of work, you may come across articles that you want to read later. Save them with apps like Pocket so you can get back to work.
16. Oprah says being grateful is a key to success and abundance.
Doodle strategically to work through tough challenges. Most complex problems can be difficult to solve since we often think of things in a set, linear way. We’ve found that doodling often helps us get over mental blocks and find connections between problems. There are also online programs that offer a similar solution in forms of mind-mapping.
17. Have confidence that things are coming together.
“Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place.” – unknown
Make a list of all your time-wasting habits. This way you can preemptively shut down bad habits and distractions in the future. Furthermore, you can work to replace those habits with activities that will be productive instead.
18. Don’t let your past hold you back.
“Never let the sadness of your past and the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your present.” – unknown
Make a list of the things, activities, and people that you think about while you’re trying to work. You can sometimes take care of some tasks quickly and prevent them from being a mental distraction. If you need to make a short phone-call, maybe its best to take care of it before you start on a project. If you need to tend to something more time consuming, write it down so that you will know to start on it after your more pressing tasks.
19. Use obstacles to guide you to success.
Plan days with no meetings. Have at least one day a week where you and your team don’t have any meetings. This allows everyone to have a good chunk of uninterrupted work time.
20. Mistakes aren’t always a bad thing, learn to embrace them.
– Samantha Snyder
Use sticky notes often to remember keep tasks. Sticky notes will give you a visual reminder of the things you need to remember and will keep your focus on the correct things. We often like to leave uplifting notes for each other too to help ourselves through the day. Small messages can help inspire and motivate others.
21. Be optimistic and let it guide you towards your dreams.
Unplug from things that hold you back. To avoid most distractions, turn off your mobile phone, stop checking your email, and route all of your calls to voicemail. You can download all research material needed and unplug your WiFi as a more extreme measure to protect yourself from distractions.
22. Look for the good in things and you will find them.
“When it rains, look for rainbows; when it’s dark, look for stars.” – unknown
Schedule some time in your day specifically for emails and similar types of replies. Set a specific time to read your email and spend the rest of your day doing more efficient tasks. Most emails are never emergencies, let people call you if they need to.
23. If you aim high enough, even a failure will be a spectacular achievement.
Eat a healthy breakfast. It will give you energy, which will help you concentrate and stay positive. We like preparing something the night before (think breakfast tacos) so that we don’t make a mess of the kitchen first thing in the morning.
24. Your goals are always in reach if you keep moving.
– Barry Finley
Cross the worst task off your list first. This will give you some much-needed energy for the rest of the day. Leaving a dreaded task in the back of your mind can really suck the energy and affect how you perform other projects.
25. It’s always darkest before the dawn right?
Make a verbal commitment to your friends. When you do this, you have an extra kick of motivation to actually get the job done. You will be socially accountable once you’ve told your friends you’re about to do something. Let your friends help support and keep you motivated through tough challenges.
26. Make someone feel incredible today. It’s in your power.
Love and reward yourself from time to time. When you reward yourself, it gives you the motivational boost to keep going. People, especially driven people, can often be too hard and negative on themselves.
27. Pick yourself up – you can always try again.
“The comeback is always stronger than the setback.” – unknown
Make your bed every morning. Making your bed lets you have at least one win every single day. This motivates you and helps you develop good habits.
28. Have the confidence to follow your dreams.
Do something fun this weekend. When you have something fun that you can do during the weekend, it will give you more motivation for the week ahead. Trying something new and different can help increase your creativity and attention span.
29. Life sucks sometimes – learn to adjust and make good outcomes out of bad situations.
For many people, starting is half the battle. Just tell yourself that you will work for 5 minutes only. You’ll often find that you’ll get a lot more done than you originally thought.
30. Hardships make us stronger. Embrace defeat and grow from it.
Get a mentor. Look for someone who has already found success at what you are doing. Finding someone to look up to is highly motivating. It’s likely that successful people who are passionate about their craft will be happy to guide you if you can bring positive energy to the conversation.
31. We bring ourselves up when we encourage others.
Make it a task to practice positivity. It will boost your energy level and make your performance levels rise at work. There are many ways you can exercise positivity including meditation, choosing good friend circles, and keeping positive reminders throughout the day.
32. Be inspired by journeys and not destinations.
“Your speed doesn’t matter, forward is forward.” – unknown
Set a deadline. When you set a deadline for each task, it gets you to focus and do your tasks at a faster pace. Remember that missing your deadline isn’t the end of the world and that progress is the most important part of most puzzles.
33. Start working towards your dreams today.
Setting a weekly goal keeps you focused and motivated throughout the week. Having a marker to know whether or not you need to adjust your strategies and effort from week to week can be invaluable. It’s OK if you miss your weekly goal as long as you can reflect on how to improve.
34. Whatever you do, give it your all.
Plan the day ahead of time. When you start the day with a concrete plan in mind, it not only reduces the stress in your life. It also helps you focus on the required things you need to think about during the week.
35. Let your heart and positivity guide you to happiness.
Set a specific end time for meetings. By doing this, it forces your team to focus only on the important topics. Setting up guidelines and boundaries can really help you and your team stay grounded on what’s truly important.
36. Plan for a future far, far away and take actions to get there today.
Batch similar tasks together. Instead of switching between similar tasks all day, do them all in one sitting to optimize time.
37. Strive to be your best self, and don’t try to compete with others.
Batch your email responses. Select a time to answer your emails. Throughout the day, either erase spam or respond to urgent email.
38. Your mindset is everything.
– Norman Vincent Peale
Your mindset is everything. It determines whether or not you’re happy and satisfied with your life, career, and relationships. You can have all the money in the world and still feel that it’s never enough. You can have the best friends in the universe and not appreciate them at all. Having your mind in the right place will allow you to be at peace and motivated to move in a positive direction.
39. Dream big to keep yourself inspired.
Play brain games. Playing brain games on your phone or laptop can help your memory and focus. While most games have not been proven scientifically, they can still give you a break and create a stimulating experience.
40. Be content with your efforts and not your results.
Sometimes we can be caught up with results and even worst, short term results. It’s best to remember that great things take time to build and it’s often better to focus on progress than outcomes.
41. You can’t pick where you start, but you can definitely choose where you’re headed.
They say it’s not where you’ve been it’s where you’re going. You can’t change your current situation and often your environment is not something you can totally control. You are, however, in complete control of your decisions and next actions. Move in a positive direction no matter where you are.
42. Be inspired by those around you.
In a competitive society, we often think that there must be a loser for there to be a winner. This doesn’t have to be the case at all. Building up those around you and giving your friends and co-workers a pat on the back can help improve your own morale and motivation. Build up others and they will often return the energy to you tenfold.
43. Spread happiness around, it’s completely free.
A positive attitude is infectious. We can’t count the times where we’ve come to work feeling down to have a co-worker or friend cheer us up. Staying optimistic can help bring the spirits of those around you up along with your own.
44. Play the cards you’re dealt.
It’s easy to count all the set-backs and lack of resources we may have. However, successful people can often make the best out of a bad situation and turn the tides when failure seems inevitable. Being resourceful and creating your own opportunity is often the only path to success.
45. Find heroes that fire you up.
Remember that we are often given the opportunities in the present from the countless sacrifices of those before us. Stay humble and remember that the path available to us have likely been paved by the effort of others.
46. Change starts with you.
There’s no reason to stay a bystander when much of the world affects your quality of life. Be a positive change in the life of your friends and family. It really doesn’t take much to nudge the world to a happier plane – just call up a friend and wish them a happy day.
47. Start something wonderful right now. Why wait?
Try something new today by doing a random act of kindness. It can be something small like an anonymous donation, calling up a friend and wishing them well, or supporting someone on Facebook with their endeavors.
48. Don’t let failure get you down, it happens to everyone.
Try something new that you might not be good at. Learning how to fail will let you push your limits with more comfort. Step out of your comfort-zone and learn something new!
49. Try something new today – step out of your comfort zone.
Step out of your comfort zone today. Call up a friend who enjoys a hobby that you know you’re bad at. Being terrible at something just means you have the most potential to improve. It’s OK to look silly from time to time – don’t be so hard on yourself!
50. We often learn best by doing. Don’t be afraid to try new things.
We all learn in very different ways. Some of us learn best through prepared study and methodology while others learn very well by doing. Some people are visual learners while others much prefer audio lectures. Be sure to experiment and find out what works for you.
51. Strong people are built for tough times.
– Dr. Robert Schuller
It’s amazing when we hear countless stories of champions persevering through difficult times. Tom Brady was passed up on the draft and picked up late as a back up. FedEx was nearly on the brick of going broke when the owner took the last of their money to Vegas to gamble for their survivor. Steve Jobs was fired from the very company he founded and came back years later to help develop the iPod.
Related Post: Uplifting Quotes for Hard Times
52. Happiness is a choice.
Sometimes it’s good to get some perspective on our problems. Remember that however bad your day is, its likely that there’s someone else out there in much worse condition than you. Be thankful for the opportunities that you have and make the best of your situation.
53. Make the most of each day.
Here is an amazing YouTube clip of Muhammad Ali to get you fired up.
54. Setbacks are a part of success.
Focus on success rather than failure. Our brains are wired to focus on danger and negative consequences in order to protect us. However, we can often be too negative and let fear paralyze us from making any decision at all. Try to balance out negative thoughts with some warm memories.
55. Today’s pain will be tomorrow’s strength.
Failure is just a part of success. If we are to do anything great, we’re bound to have setbacks and roadblocks along the way. Understand that setbacks are hard but will make you stronger for future challenges.
56. Push past your limits to grow.
For just 5 minutes a week, try something completely new. Getting use to failing at a new skill will allow you to better face setbacks in general. Additionally, trying something new will likely lead you to interacting with new people and groups that you usually wouldn’t connect with.
57. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Learn from your past mistakes and don’t let them control you. Just because you’ve failed or done badly in the past doesn’t mean you’re bound by failure. Take failure as a well earned lesson and move on stronger.
58. Find the diamond in the rough.
It’s often easy to be confident and composed when things are going well, but it’s perhaps a better measure of character to see how someone reacts when things fall apart. Really great entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs for example, have found greatness through horrible setbacks (like getting fired from your own company.)
59. A positive mindset will point you towards success.
How you view a situation will be a big factor on whether or not it will end in a win. Often our perspective on a situation will determine it’s very outcome. Stay positive and fight on!
60. The biggest successes all start from scratch.
Take a break from your difficult task and doodle something. Our minds can wander onto solutions from time to time if we let it relax. Try drawing something for fun to give your brain some rest.
61. Education is a known path to success.
Accumulating useful knowledge allows us to make the most of our time here. Embrace each day to the fullest because you’ll never know when it will be your last. Hold on to your experiences and lessons dearly though as they will guide you on a long journey.
62. Your outlook matters, perhaps more than your reality.
Just because you’re in bad shape today doesn’t mean that’s going to last forever. Keep your chin up and understand that things will usually get better. Don’t stop believing!
63. It’s not too late to follow your dreams.
You’re never too old to be happy. Keep chasing after your dreams and don’t let people or circumstances so you from trying. Keep learning and striving towards your goals.
64. Build yourself up.
Stop waiting for the world to tell you who you are or what you should be. Take some time to decide what you do and don’t like and be yourself. Everyone is a work in progress and we hope that you’re working hard towards your goals.
Positive quotes about life, failure, and work
Finding the positive side of setbacks and difficulties in your career can help you both advance and be happier. Life doesn’t abide by your expectations and hardships are inevitable. If you can stay optimistic then you’ll have a better chance of winning in the end.
65. Have the courage to push forward.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Remember that life is long and there’s going to be a lot of bumps along the way. Have the courage and ambition to keep moving forward to what’s important in your life.
66. Be a source of happiness and joy for those around you.
We all have a choice to nudge the universe to a happier, healthier place.
67. Stay a dreamer – you don’t have to be cynical to be “mature”.
Keep your beginner mindset. Try your best to stay humble and let your mind be ready for new experiences. It’s easy to build yourself in the image of the expert and a wall of protection to defend your status. Let go of titles and remain a beginner so that you can adapt to the ever-changing world.
68. Dream huge and let that lofty goal be a source of your inspiration.
Life is full of people that will want you to bend to convention. As long as you’re safe and happy, why not shoot for the moon?
69. Determination separates success from failure.
A little effort goes a long way. Remember that great things are built over long periods of time and your daily efforts will add up. We didn’t get to the moon in one day, it took years of determination and hurdles of failure for us to push the boundaries on what is and isn’t “possible”.
70. Create a habit of success.
The small things matter. What we do on a daily basis will be an accumulation of who we are in a lifetime. Take care of how you conduct yourself as you are likely nudging your entire life in that direction.
71. Don’t give up. You won’t win everyday, but you won’t lose either if you keep going.
Face your failures. Almost no champion has a flawless record. Hopefully we can take heart that significant victories often become legend while failures are often forgotten. Individually we often focus on our failures and overweight their importance in our progress.
72. You have to earn your success.
Hard work is irreplaceable. There will always be people who are smarter than you or prettier than you but you can work hard to ensure that no one puts forth more effort than you. Plan out your day and give it your best no matter what you current situation is.
73. Take pride in your work and efforts.
Remember that everything until you reach your goal is progress. That includes both small victories as well as major failures. Respect your hustle and push on!
74. Take your chances and believe in yourself.
Have some confidence in your actions and take a chance from time to time. Not every project or idea is going to be a home run, but you’re never going to know unless you try. Failure is a part of the process towards success and you just need to be comfortable “missing” from time to time.
75. Be optimistic and get your mind right.
The way you think about the world may very well be what leads you to success or failure. Your mindset is the root of all of your actions and if you start out thinking that you will fail at a task it may very well be a self fulfilling prophecy. Try to stay positive and keep people around you who inspire you to improve yourself, your work, and your relationship with the people around you.
76. Find your strength through adversity.
The world is going to test all of us. It’s going to test our endurance, our determination, and our conviction to our beliefs and our goals. Have faith that you will grow with every setback and learn from every mistake. Adversity leads to the development of grit that will help you persevere in the future when times get increasingly more difficult and more chaotic.
77. Embrace problems, they’re an essential part of what makes life worthwhile and interesting.
Problems are very subjective in life. Try viewing your “problems” as challenges instead of hardships. Imagine if you simply just got everything that you wanted… It may sound fun in the short term but would quickly become very boring. It’s like playing a video game with all the cheat codes put it – without the challenge of each stage than the game or life, in this example, would quickly become very uninteresting.
78. Be inspired by yourself and your ambition.
Learn to be at peace with yourself and conquer your own insecurities before you set out to conquer the external world. Once you can be comfortable in your own skin, it will allow you to take more risks and employ more empathy to the world around you.
79. Challenges are meant to inspire you to greater heights.
Difficulties may seem overwhelming when you’re in the middle of the storm. In the bigger picture though, most of our biggest challenges will eventually be our biggest source of strength and most memorable experiences. They will be stories that you can reach back for inspiration whether it’s for yourself or others.
80. You need resistance to develop strength.
Put your life into hard mode. We get stronger and smarter by lifting heavier weights and solving more complex problems. It’s easy to become complacent if life becomes too easy and we may need to add some adversity if we want to keep growing. Keep yourself motivated by trying something difficult that you haven’t accomplished yet.
81. Hone your craft. Each day. Every day.
Practice is essential to build your confidence and skill. You don’t have to be the best overnight. You just need to get a little better each day.
82. Find what’s worth fighting for and don’t give up.
Find a goal worth pursing. If you truly believe in it then it will make all the mundane tasks and daily grind worth it.
Use these quotes to remain inspired through life
We know that staying motivated can be a challenge with all of the negative forces present in everyday life. We hope that even more than being productive, that you can keep these positive quotes in mind to happy.
This will be an on-going and ever growing list of inspirational quotes from innovators, leaders, and visionaries. We will continue to add motivational quotes, reflections and action items continually.
Stay inspired, happy, and healthy today,
Bb