Would you like to learn the secrets of
motivating others? Sorry: there are no secrets. But, the following quotations
should be helpful in your quest to become a more inspirational leader:
Lasting Motivation Starts
From Within
"Enduring motivation must always come,
ultimately, from within the individual."
Denis Waitley
"All great players are self-motivated."
Kevin McHale
"Where do you find motivation? You find
it within yourself."
Michael Jordan
"Great effort springs naturally from a great attitude."
Pat Riley
"It’s so hard when I have to, And so easy
when I want to."
Sonda Anice Barnes
"I don’t think you can teach desire; I think it is a gift."
Larry Bird
"Nobody is going to wind you up every morning and give you a pep talk. So
be a self-starter."
Lou Holtz
"Never mind what others do, do better than yourself, beat your own record
from day to day, and you are a success."
William J. H. Boetcker
On Motivating Others
"Motivation is everything. You can do
the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to
inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people."
Lee Iacocca
"If you’re a positive person, you’re an automatic motivator. You can
get people to do things they don’t think they’re capable of."
Cotton Fitzsimmons
"Ten pats on the back for every kick in the shin is a very good ratio for a
commander."
General Bruce C. Clarke
"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their
personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can
accomplish."
Sam Walton
"Once your players get a taste of where they want to go, motivation takes
care of itself."
Chuck Daly
Great Leaders Have Big Dreams
"A leader is a dealer in hope."
Napoleon
"It may be those who do most, dream most."
Stephen Leacock
"If you can dream it, you can do it."
Walt Disney
"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become."
John Ruskin
"I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances
confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which
he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours."
Henry David Thoreau
"Ask yourself this question: 'How big can I dream?'”
Conrad Hilton
Great Motivators Communicate a Message
"A good orator is pointed and impassioned."
Cicero
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."
George Orwell
"Put your information across slowly and repeat it over and over again! Take
a difficult point and make it so simple that it will become clear even to the
dullard."
Knute Rockne
"Short words are best and old words, when short, are best of all."
Winston Churchill
"A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout
life."
Winston Churchill
And Finally
"Necessity makes the best soldiers."
Josephus
"You can motivate by fear. And you can motivate by reward. But those
methods are temporary. The only lasting motivation is self-motivation."
Homer Smith
"Motivation is simple: You eliminate those who aren’t motivated."
Lou Holtz
This page was compiled by
Criswell Freeman, Psy.D.
