The Achievement Habit Quotes

“we don’t realize how many of our fixed views of the world are based on limited samples of reality.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Getting to know someone can take somewhere around forever. People are always changing and evolving for both good and bad, and we are all capable of reinvention.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Part of working well in any group is the ability to have hard conversations.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“you can’t find the answer, it is often because you are not asking the correct question.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Reasons are bullshit. I know it sounds harsh, however, it’s a good categorical stand to take, as you’ll see. Reasons exist because if people didn’t explain their behavior, they would seem unreasonable.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Let people see you as human. Be real. Ask yourself, Who would you rather see at your door, a friend or a door-to-door salesman?”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Unfortunately, many people are in the same trap—and not only in academia. We are influenced by our teachers and parents to the extent that we spend our lives trying, as best we can, to mimic them, and all too often we end up being second-rate replicas.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“It’s a very good idea to have a general sense of your goals in life, and an equally good idea not to get too rigid about your path. Stay open to possibility: let other people in, and listen when new opportunities present themselves.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Next time you find yourself playing right and wrong, remember: You give everything in your life its meaning, so you can choose to end the game. It does not matter how right you are or how wrong they are; you lose just by playing.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“The inference is that people are more concerned with reinforcing their self-image than with their actions; thus, to change behavior, you first change self-image.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“achievement can be learned.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“SIMILARLY, YOU CAN MODIFY the way you react to experiences. One little trick is that by exaggerating your reaction, you can make the experience better. For example, if you are at a boring meeting, just tell yourself that it is the most boring meeting you have ever attended. It is in fact so boring that it is amazing. If you are depressed, do not get depressed at the idea of being depressed. Get off on it. Admire the fact that you are having this amazing depression.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“The question of intention lies behind all communication. What is it that you intend to communicate?”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“The next step—the harder step—is the doing,”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“The role unquestioned assumptions play becomes obvious if we look back at sociopolitical norms of the past, things like the absolute power of royalty, political participation only for men, property passed to the eldest son, slavery, serfdom, a prohibition on divorce, only men being allowed to file for divorce, only property holders being allowed to vote, child labor, colonization, and the “white man’s burden.” For a long time each of these was assumed to be an intrinsic part of the given culture, and passed unnoticed and uncontested until its presence was brought into the foreground and its legitimacy questioned.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“THERE ARE MANY FACTORS at play in determining your self-image, and you can shape and redesign that image at will whenever it doesn’t suit you. Whether that includes physical things like getting a haircut or losing weight, personality-based things such as correcting bad habits or improving skills, or changing pieces of your identity outright (like changing a name), it’s important to know that your self-image doesn’t have to stay stagnant. If you’ve defined yourself as lazy, a bad speller, messy, easily distracted, or selfish, that doesn’t have to be an eternal part of your self-concept. You can make a decision right now to see yourself differently, and then to become different.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Imagine you have only ten minutes to live. What would you do? Imagine you have only ten days to live. What would you do? Imagine you have only ten months to live. What would you do? Imagine you have only ten years to live. What would you do? Imagine you have only the rest of your life to live. What would you do? Looking at your answers to these questions, you have a lot of information about yourself. In this exercise we are talking about your endgame. Can you think of any changes you would like to design into your self-image? Start designing and changing! None of the friends I just told you about knew when they would enter the final countdown. I don’t know when mine will come, and you don’t know yours either. One thing for sure—it is closer today than it was yesterday, and it will be closer still tomorrow. So now is the time to develop into the person you want to be.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Causing our behavior to fall in line with our self-image requires telling ourselves the truth, not lying to ourselves or rationalizing our behavior. Our self-image evolves and changes as we go through life.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“If in doubt, go back to the earlier exercise where you asked yourself three questions: “Who am I?” “What do I want?” “What is my purpose?” It’s a good idea to revisit that exercise frequently. Now I’d like you to do it once more and add a new word: “What do I really want?” Keep asking it, over and over, until you feel you have gained insight into your own desires so you’re no longer at the mercy of society’s ideas of what is good for you.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“A successful marriage results when both partners can just be happy being who they are and in so doing add to the enjoyment of each other. As the Putneys point out, “Each is seeking candor and warmth, and the exploration of self-potential (sexual capacities and many others), all of which is facilitated by cooperation of someone else engaged in a similar development. Such persons are not preoccupied with being loved or with maintaining romantic illusions. They are trying to enjoy life—together.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“In life, typically, the only one keeping a scorecard of your successes and failures is you, and there are ample opportunities to learn the lessons you need to learn, even if you didn’t get it right the first—or fifth—time.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Harvard University neurology professor Rudy Tanzi recommends a four-step process to handle situations in which we are in the thrall of a limbic abduction: •      Stop yourself from doing what your initial reaction dictated. •      Take a deep breath. •      Become aware of how you are feeling. •      Recall a past event that gave you a feeling of happiness and peace.6”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Be honest and notice the differences between your self-image and the ways you actually act. Notice the difference between intention and attention, between trying to do something and actually doing it. Finally, notice how the habit of acting on your dreams builds from direct experience, and from overcoming the fear of failure.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“Reasons are often just excuses, however. We use them to hide our shortcomings from ourselves. When we stop using reasons to justify ourselves, we increase our chances of changing behavior, gaining a realistic self-image, and living a more satisfying and productive life.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“We all have the same twenty-four hours in a day, and yet what Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, and Martin Luther King Jr. accomplished in their days is a lot more than what many others have. The difference comes back to intention and attention.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“You give everything in your life its meaning, so you can choose to end the game. It does not matter how right you are or how wrong they are; you lose just by playing.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“No matter what work any of us does or what background we come from, we get to decide how to see ourselves and our world.7 When you hold yourself in high esteem and keep a positive outlook on your future, others usually follow suit. By choosing the meaning we give to the people and things in our environment, ultimately we control our own experiences, no matter what work we are doing.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

“La idea es no paralizarte frente a la incertidumbre. Si haces algo y funciona ¡bien! Si haces algo y fracasa, quizá habrá que mejorarlo. Haces, fracasas, aprendes. Vuelves a hacer, vuelves a fracasar y aprendes algo más. Si estás consciente de lo que has hecho, el fracaso es un maestro. Con un poco de suerte, después de suficientes fracasos tendrás éxito. En muchos casos, éste es un método mucho mejor que una investigación larga e interminable sobre la manera correcta de proceder.”
― Bernard Roth, El hábito del logro: Alcanza tu máximo potencial y toma el control de tu vida

“Oprah Winfrey fue despedida de su primer empleo como conductora de televisión. Es algo bueno, ¿te imaginas lo que se hubiera perdido si se quedaba muy a gusto como reportera en Baltimore? El primer libro de Dr. Seuss fue rechazado por docenas de editores y salió a la luz sólo porque un amigo aceptó publicárselo. Thomas Edison falló tantas veces tratando de producir la bombilla eléctrica que dijo la famosa frase: “No fracasé. Sólo encontré diez mil formas en las que no funciona”.”
― Bernard Roth, El hábito del logro: Alcanza tu máximo potencial y toma el control de tu vida

“Please don’t be a smart-ass; just fix yourself.”
― Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life