How you can use quotations to help you with your personal development.

One of a number of fundamental keys to making the best progress with personal growth is to have a humble mindset and recognition that there is so much more that we can learn. It is simply no good being a know it all. The more that you have a desire for, and seek after, wisdom the better your progress will be.

For more of my thoughts on seeking wisdom please see my article here:

Solving life’s problems and issues involves using and acting upon the right wisdom.

One smart method is to learn from other successful people. Looking up their quotes, thinking deeply about them and then applying the wisdom to your own situation is a straightforward method of making better progress in your own life. Quotes by their nature, tend to be richly distilled wisdom, insights or ideas – some can be very profound, using few words.

You could take the approach of looking for quotes about a particular subject or topic. Or, you might want to look up quotes by a particularly interesting individual. Another method is to review quotes from different cultures, which often provide a whole range of different insights stemming from, in some cases, a totally different way of thinking.

Quotes are easy to find, especially with the Internet these days. You can of course purchase books too if you wish.

Besides using the search terms “quotes” and “quotations”, you could see what you find by using the term “proverb” too.

Here is an example of the technique:

I have just quickly found this quote, which as it happens I’ve never seen before:

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Sir Winston Churchill

As we know, success is a key focus these days in our society. (There are of course a number of differing definitions of success but I will not be going into those here as it is beyond the scope of this article).

Many people will know that Sir Winston Churchill was a great British statesman of the 20th century. His greatest triumph was leading Britain to victory in in World War II. He was British Prime Minister more than once.

Let us examine the quote in more detail: Just because someone is or was a Prime Minister does not mean that what they have to say is necessarily any good. We have to consider the individual as a whole, and especially their results. From the study of history it is clear that Sir Winston Churchill was not just an ordinary man, but that he was exceptional. In view of this I give more weight to what he said.

So, when examining the quote we need to look at the wisdom within the quote and at times the calibre or pedigree of the author.

Sir Winston’s quote about success is very interesting, partly because it runs counter to the way that many people think.

Ask yourself whether you become less enthusiastic when you have a failure?

You might also ask yourself why this is so? You might also begin to ask yourself about what secret Sir Winston must’ve known to have been able to make such a comment. I say secret in the general sense of it being a secret from a large number of people who lose enthusiasm when they fail.

Of course, we will never know exactly what went on in Sir Winston’s mind, however I suspect that part of the rationale behind his quote stems from how he probably looked at failure. You see, failure can also be seen as a stepping stone to success or victory. If you think of top sports people for a moment, one of the reasons they are at the top is because they spend plenty of time practising and training – during this period they will make plenty of mistakes, especially when trying to gain a tiny incremental improvement. It is much easier to give up, especially if we have the wrong interpretation and understanding of failure. Failure and mistakes happen at times but it is up to us what we do about it.

I suspect that another reason for Winston’s quote is that he had a clear vision in his own mind of eventual success, which helped him to maintain his enthusiasm.

Note too that Sir Winston covers the repetitive nature of failure within his quotation. The more failure occurs the higher the number of people there are that succumb to a loss of enthusiasm.

In summary then, I could write a number of essays about all the different things that we can get out of this quote, however I will stop here and let you do your own exploring. Perhaps consider dwelling on a particularly moving quote that really speaks to you for a week or so – keep thinking about it and looking at it from different angles. You will be surprised at the inspiration that you receive.

I obtained the above quote from QuotationsPage.com

Related Posts:

• The Reality behind the Law of Attraction
• Why You Need To Make The Most Of Every Day.
• I am stupid!
• Are you a study cheat? And who are you really cheating?
• Recession is not bad! Be careful who you listen to and what you think.
• How to focus on the next economic boom.
• Solving life's problems and issues involves using and acting upon the right wisdom.
• How competitive are you? Are you aware of the new competition paradigm?
• Unsure what to do in life?
• Enjoy Your Spare Time

Tags: Personal Development, Personal Growth, Self Improvement, Success, Wisdom

Category: Personal Development