Favorite Inspirational Quotes

My competitive spirit didn’t stop because I became physically disabled. I never said, “Why me?” After my car accident, I still said, “Now, what’s my purpose?”

Joseph Russell (Paralympian, Powerlifting)

Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Shakespeare

Isn’t so much of life in how we look at it? How we respond to what happens to us or around us is what makes it good or bad. Russell could have sat back and whined and become depressed after his car accident. I confess I think I would have gone through a spell of that. I admit to having a spell of crying and “What now?” after receiving various diagnoses from doctors even though they simply meant some adjustments.

But you come out the other side learning how to work with or around whatever has happened. You go ahead and pursue your purpose, whatever it might be now. If we just continue to think the circumstance is bad and we just lay down, then we might as well die. It’s what is in our minds, how we react and respond, that makes a situation good or bad.

Our daughter keeps talking about moving to another town thinking that such a move will miraculously make her life better. But as her father told her, “It doesn’t matter where you move, you will still be there with the same old baggage unless you change. You will still attract the same type of people and the same old problems will reappear.”

It is our thinking and how we respond to life that makes our lives good or bad. So maybe it is very worthwhile to keep our thoughts positive and encouraging and keep our lives that way as well.

Tags: Shakespeare