I stumbled across this funny but honest comic regarding inspirational quotes:
Used with permission from formalsweatpants.com
Does this look familiar? If it does, you’re not alone. I’m sure we’ve all come across inspiring quotes that stood out and made us nod in agreement or made us think, “Wow, that’s a good quote”, only to end up going back to procrastinating on whatever it was we were procrastinating on.
So are these “inspirational/motivational” quotes even worth reading if most of the people who read them don’t actually take any action after reading them? Well, that depends.
Quotes, books, articles, audio programs… all of these things are just tools and they’re only as effective as you make them. Now I don’t know about you but most quotes I read don’t do anything for me. However, every now and then, I’ll come across one that will positively affect me in some way such as reminding me to be grateful, getting me pumped to work out extra hard at the gym, or helping me to persevere when things get tough.
In my experience, reading quotes is a lot more effective when you’re actually trying to motivate yourself rather than just reading them for the sake of reading them. The second you feel the urge to take action, immediately get up off your chair and take action.
The longer you sit there and think about how awesome whatever quote you just read was, the more likely you’ll end up like the guy in the comic.
These quotes aren’t for everyone. If you’ve read tons of them and have never been inspired/motivated or had a positive change in the way you look at life or how you treat others or helped you to persist when you felt like giving up on something, then it’s probably not worth your time reading more of them.
If you’ve done something a bunch of times and it’s not giving you the results you want, don’t keep doing it. Try something else.
Now if you’ve found some value in reading these quotes in the past, continue to but try making them more effective by putting in the effort to follow through on whatever motivation, inspiration, or lesson you get out of them.
I’ll end this post with one of my favorite quotes which reminds me to constantly examine my habits.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
Have you found any value in reading inspirational quotes or do you generally find them useless?
I agree with you …
For me, there are quotes that i always find them useful & motivating …
I think if someone want to improve himself in any field, he should first read a book or two about that field, one book maybe even enough, then he MUST take action and observe, if the results weren’t as he want, then he can read another book and take action and so on …
Now if he got results, and he want to get better & better and maintain his progress, he can read quotes (and take action according to them), or if he want he can read another book or some articles.
What do you think Kevin?
Thanks for commenting, Belal.
I don’t think it’s necessary to read books in the field we want to improve on but I definitely agree about taking action on the information we gather whether it’s from books, articles, interviews, hands on experience, or anywhere else.
In my opinion, motivational tools such as quotes help mostly by changing our thought patterns. You could be beating yourself up mentally about not wanting to do what needs to be done and suddenly come across a quote that gets you to think differently such as the quote about how successful people often times don’t want to do what need to be done either but they do it anyway because they know that’s what it takes to be successful.
Another example is you could be having a bad day and not want to do much because you got a flat tire and then watch a video or read a story about someone who got in an accident and lost their ability to walk and suddenly feel grateful that all that happened to you was getting a flat tire. Now you’re in a better emotional state to get things done but of course, you actually have to get up and take action.
Kevin,
You are right. Sometimes reading motivational quotes doesn’t help and seems a waste of time.
Other times they can help you change the way you are thinking about a problem or inspire you to take action.
I say, keep reading! Even if they only helps sometimes, the times they help can really make a difference! A baseball player doesn’t stop swinging the bat because he only has a 25% chance of getting on base!
Thanks for your input, Natalie. I think reading quotes with a purpose will result in a higher chance of action being taken. There are certainly better ways to get motivated than to casually read hundreds of quotes hoping to stumble across one that will spur them into action.
Depends on the person as well. A super lazy person can read thousands of quotes and not budge while a person with intense desire can read a couple and jump right into action.
I agree. Focus and intent make the difference in everything.
It is basically take action after the inspiration you got, action is wat counts most in order to be a step closer to achieving your goal.
Right kevin.? Thats my opinion.
Yes, that’s my opinion as well.