If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers“, you’ll come to know that it takes 10,000 hours of hard work and training to become an expert in your field. Staying motivated, and continuing strong on your road to success, however, is difficult. What follows are hard work quotes and sayings that can help keep, kick start, or inspire you to stay motivated.

Hard Work Quotes to Help You Stay Motivated

Hard work is such a broad term and encompasses many different aspects of pursuing and achieving your goals. This post is broken down into categories that either contribute to, or are a part of, developing good work ethic.

Working Hard

There are no secrets to success, or to doing well. There are no short cuts you can take. If you want to achieve something, you have to put in the effort.

So basically, hard work beats talent.

If you embrace hard work and develop a good work ethic, you’ll succeed. Some may phrase this as “paying your dues”. I think it means that through hard work you’ll learn everything you need to as well in order to achieve what you’re aiming for.

Working Smart

On the flip side, achieving success isn’t just about hard work and ambition. You can work hard and sweat and still make little progress. You also have to work smart – you have to find ways to be productive and make progress without killing yourself. There is something to be said about efficiency.

You also have to keep your eyes open for opportunities. With each step you take in life, or in your career, you should be expanding your network, learning new skills, and looking for ways to move up, or improve. While these efforts provide more abstract results, they are just as important for progress.

Dedication and Focus

I interpret this as doing your very best. You can’t do your best if you aren’t focused and don’t give it your all.

Perseverance

Having it in you to keep going and to keep trying…to never give up, is key.

I’ll add to Oprah’s quote that there will be parts of doing what you love, that you will have to do what you hate. Being able to get through the parts you hate can be your proof that you truly love the rest.

Sacrifice

To gain something, you will have to give up something….or maybe divide your attention. Priorities shift when you are pursuit of something you want. Unfortunately, this shift can last a long time.

I think these two sums it up nicely. Most quotes I’ve read on sacrifice also allude to taking chances and taking risks. Sometimes the sacrifice is you leaving your comfort zone for the unknown.

Working Through Imposter Syndrome

This affects both men and women. I think in some ways it may even be a natural part of growing and learning, which is exactly what hard work and sacrifice teach you. At some point on our path, we experience that feeling that we just aren’t good enough…imposter syndrome. That feeling can be suffocating and make you want to quit. However, it’s important to remember that what you’re feeling isn’t necessarily what people see and that if you keep going you will come out on the other side much better for having experienced it.

I think that’s the best quote I’ve found that relates to imposter syndrome. We get so fearful of making mistakes, or being perceived as not good enough, that we miss the opportunity to look for the silver lining. Maybe we don’t know enough, and maybe that’s an opportunity to think outside the box. Maybe what we perceive as weakness is actually a strength.

Failure

Whenever you try anything new, or aim for something that no one has ever done, you may fail. In fact, you probably will. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continue on.

Failure is not just a part of life, it’s a part of experiencing life. I was raised to avoid failure; however, I’ve come to see that it’s not necessarily a bad thing, so long as you take it as a chance to learn and do better next time. Adjust your mindset so that you aren’t afraid to fail, and you’re ready to get back up if you do!

Final Thoughts on Hard Work Quotes

The whole idea behind reading some quotes is that you’ll hopefully find it inspiring and motivating. It can be really difficult to keep trucking along. Life gets in the way, obstacles come in front of us, countless people will tell you that you can’t do it, and you yourself may find it difficult to continue to believe in yourself.

Part of success though is to deal with all of that. As I mentioned before, there are no short cuts. Hard work and determination are the only way to achieve what you want. Quitting isn’t an option if you want to succeed.

Bear in mind that everyone’s definition of success is also different! Don’t compare your journey to anyone else, or your goals to that of others.

No matter where you are in life, it’s also never too late to start.

—

This post was previously published on The Female Professional.

***

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.

Register New Account

Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—

Photo credit: iStock