Jon Acuff > Quotes

“You don't need to go back in time to be awesome; you just have to start right now. Regretting that you didn't start earlier is a great distraction from moving on your dream today, and the reality is that today is earlier than tomorrow.”
― Jon Acuff, Start.: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

“If you’re going to risk and maybe fail, fail at something that matters. Fail gloriously so that even in failure, lives change.”
― Jon Acuff

“Don't compare your beginning to someone else's middle, or your middle to someone else's end. Don't compare the start of your second quarter of life to someone else's third quarter.”
― Jon Acuff

“God found Gideon in a hole.

He found Joseph in a prison.

He found Daniel in a lion’s den.

He has a curious habit of showing up in the midst of trouble, not the absence. Where the world sees failure, God sees future.

Next time you feel unqualified to be used by God remember this, he tends to recruit from the pit, not the pedestal.”
― Jon Acuff

“90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head.”
― Jonathan Acuff, Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job

“Sometimes when jerks become Christians, it's like a bully learning karate. Instead of having Christ transform our hearts and attitudes, we now have a new method with which to beat you up....what was once just 'forcing everyone to agree with my opinion' is now 'forcing everyone to agree with my opinion in the name of God.”
― Jonathan Acuff

“I don't want you to wake up at sixty-five and realize, 'I spend forty of my best years doing something that just funded my life.”
― Jonathan Acuff, Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job

“Pitting your dream against someone else's is a fantastic way to get discouraged and depressed.”
― Jon Acuff, Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job & Your Dream Job

“People are mistaken when they think chasing your dream is a selfish thing to do. As if perhaps being average is an act of humility. As if perhaps wasting the talents you were given is proof that you're a considerate individual.

It's not.”
― Jon Acuff, Start.: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

“That's why I always keep a handful of silver glitter in my pockets. If I get pushed into a conversational corner I throw the glitter into the air, and while the person I'm talking to is distracted, I run away. An additional benefit is that I look like a cool magician, so I've got that going for me.”
― Jonathan Acuff

“Fear would have told the Wright brothers not to fly. Fear would have told Rosa Parks to change seats. Fear would have told Steve Jobs that people hate touchscreens.”
― Jon Acuff, Start.: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

“Regardless of what you want to do or who you are, fear will always see you as wholly unqualified for anything you ever dream or attempt.”
― Jon Acuff, Start.: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

“developing tolerance for imperfection is the key factor in turning chronic starters into consistent finishers.”
― Jon Acuff, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done

“God is an early bird; satan is a night owl. Everyone knows that.”
― Jonathan Acuff

“I want the peace in knowing that is wasn’t for lack of hustling that I missed a target for my dream. I want to know that the one thing in my control was under control.”
― Jon Acuff, Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job

“Hustle isn't just doing the things you love all the time. Hustle is doing the things you don't enjoy sometimes to earn the right to do the things you love.”
― Jonathan Acuff, Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job

“More often than not, finding out what you love doing most is about recovering an old love or an inescapable truth that has been silenced for years, even decades. When you come to your dream job, your thing, it is rarely a first encounter. It's usually a reunion.”
― Jonathan Acuff, Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job

“This is the first lie that perfectionism tells you about goals: Quit if it isn’t perfect.”
― Jon Acuff, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done

“In order to survive, I came up with a five-step secret to getting it all done. If you're busy too, feel free to use it:

1. Admit that you can't possibly get it all done.”
― Jon Acuff, Start.: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

“Generosity is always cheaper than greed.”
― Jon Acuff, Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck

“All you have to do is win more today than you did yesterday and repeat the whole thing tomorrow.”
― Jon Acuff, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done

“Joy is an incredible alarm clock. It will wake you up and keep you up and pick you up and gently pull you through a thousand rejections along the way.”
― Jon Acuff, Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters

“Choose your attitude every day until eventually it chooses you right back.”
― Jon Acuff, Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck

“Pastors are starting to get wily. When people tell my friend, 'I'm not being fed,' he replies, 'I'm prefectly happy to spoon feed my one-year-old. But if I'm still spoon-feeding him when he's five, we've got a problem. Here's a fork. Feed yourself.”
― Jonathan Acuff

“Don't climb a single rung up the entitlement ladder. Demanding something you haven't truly earned is a great way to get stuck in the land of Learning for decades, even an entire lifetime. Kick those ladders over and keep on walking.”
― Jon Acuff, Start.: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

“We didn't try to force God's hand or do the "I just heard a sermon about David and Goliath so I need to quit my job right this second" leap of faith that's so popular in Christian circles. We took our time with the decision, like another guy in the Bible, named Jesus. He spent thirty years in obscurity before he started his adventure. Often, we're not willing to spend thirty minutes in preparation, never mind thirty years, especially when we come home from a conference and find our day jobs waiting for us on Monday morning. I'm not sure why Christians sometimes think the maturation of our own missions will be radically shorter than that of Jesus. But it happens and in the past I've certainly wanted to take wild, unplanned, possibly-not-inspired-by-God leaps of faith.”
― Jonathan Acuff, Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job

“People who can't be questioned often end up doing questionable things.”
― Jon Acuff, Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck

“But more than just analysis, perfectionism offers us two distinct distractions: Hiding places Noble obstacles A hiding place is an activity you focus on instead of your goal. A noble obstacle is a virtuous-sounding reason for not working toward a finish. Both are toxic to your ability to finish.”
― Jon Acuff, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done

“I’m not a fan of “finding your purpose.” I’m a fan of “living with purpose.”
― Jon Acuff, Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters

“I like being a beginner. I like the moment where I look at everyone and say, “I have no idea how to do this, let’s figure it out.”
― Jon Acuff, Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck