Inner Excellence Quotes

“I’ve learned that what we really want, beyond our tangible goals and pursuits, is to feel totally alive. We crave great experiences and meaningful relationships and we long to reach our full potential. We want to be challenged and creative. We want to grow. We want freedom to live with passion and pursue our dreams regardless of what people think, how much money we make, or what level of status we acquire. Ultimately, we want the best possible life—absolute fullness of life.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“Five powerful ways to stay present in pressure situations: Get out of your head—and into your heart—and soul. Focus on your routines and only what you can control. Be grateful. Focus on a mantra. Ruthlessly eliminate hurry.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“(you don’t have to like someone to love them).”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“You can’t get caught up in the negativity and irritations of little lollipop lives if you want to live the best possible one for you.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“The purpose of your life should always be what’s guiding your life—in every single moment—not letting the ego push purpose aside for some temporary circumstance or event. If you want to live an extraordinary life, you cannot let other people’s words or actions take you out of your rhythm or flow.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“Most of us have had it backwards, trying to be successful in order to be happy. If we focus on improving our inner world, however, we’ll achieve far more. We can have joy and peace, purpose and power—which will maximize our performance as well. But we need to get the order right if we want extraordinary performance over the long term—and an amazing life: heart first, performance second. Inner world first, outer world follows. Besides, an extraordinary outer world is worthless without a meaningful inner one, is it not?”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“Every circumstance and every person you encounter is here to teach you and help you—it’s all working for your good.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“expect nothing… I can handle anything.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“I compete to raise the level of excellence in my life, to learn and grow, in order to raise it in others.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“The greatest freedom you have is where to place your thoughts.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“it”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“Attachment to something you’re not in complete control of makes you needy and brings with it the fear of not getting what you want. Concern for self and self-consciousness kicks in, scattering your energy and dividing your power. Back and forth it goes, between the quest to win and fear of losing; tension rises as the pressure mounts. But beneath those constraints lies an undivided heart, the heart of a warrior—your true self. Remove what isn’t you, and like Michelangelo unveiled David, you’ll discover tremendous strength and poise.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“Life is full of moments that can steal our focus and freedom. It’s easy to let some person or event hijack your emotions. When that happens, you’ve gotten consumed by the circumstance; some words or event unrelated to your true self took away your options and got you out of your flow.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. —Aristotle, Greek philosopher, 384-322 BC”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“Use your journal to record your attachments and how you can pursue your goals without letting doubts, fears, and neediness stall your growth.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“The Fearless Four Daily Process Goals Give my best (100% of what I have today). Be present. Be grateful. Focus on my routines and only what I can control.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“I’ve discovered three adversaries that have a dramatic impact on our ability to be focused and confident. The name of each adversary describes its effects: the Critic, the Monkey Mind, and the Trickster. The Critic is that judgmental voice in your head. It delivers a negative verdict on some thing (or circumstance) or some person (often yourself), and then reacts emotionally to that judgment. (In our discussion, we define the word judge as “to deliver a negative verdict,” whereas to discern is “to use wisdom to consider the best course of action.”) The Monkey Mind is that noisy presence in your head. It clutters your mind with too many (often negative or unproductive) thoughts on too many things, frequently leading to overanalysis and anxiety. Finally, the Trickster is that deceptive voice in your head that lies to you. The Trickster always tries to trick you into believing in your limitations, and constantly accuses you of not being worthy of living your dreams.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“If you cling to your life, you’ll lose it; but if you give up your life for others, you’ll find it.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“holding nothing back.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“courage, and how they form the basis for the three pillars of extraordinary performance: lead with your heart, expand your vision, and be fully present.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“(gives a negative verdict) and reacts emotionally to it. The Monkey Mind overanalyzes and gets cluttered with too many unproductive thoughts. The Trickster lies to us and tricks us into settling for less.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“In the desert I had an astonishing insight. I realized that the pursuit of extraordinary performance and the pursuit of the best possible life are the same path.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“I’m not a mess but a deeply feeling person in a messy world. I explain that now, when someone asks me why I cry so often, I say, ‘For the same reason I laugh so often--because I’m paying attention.’ I tell them that we can choose to be perfect and admired or to be real and loved. We must decide. —Glennon Doyle Melton, Love Warrior”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“We Western people are apt to think our great problems are external, environmental. We are not skilled in the inner life, where the real roots of our problems lie. The outer distractions of our interests reflect an inner lack of integration of our own lives. We are trying to be several selves at once, without all our selves being organized by a single, mastering life within us. —Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“The biggest obstacle we face, in performance and in life, is self-centeredness.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“A grateful person is a powerful person, for gratitude generates power. All abundance is based on being grateful for what we have. —Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Life Lessons”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“A grateful person is a powerful person, for gratitude generates power. All abundance is based on being grateful for what we have.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“Everyone has a story. You’re the author and narrator of your story; you choose which moments of life have meaning and how meaningful they are.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

“The soul is that aspect of your whole being that correlates, integrates and enlivens anything going on in the various dimensions of the self.”
― Jim Murphy, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life