What Works Quotes

“The beautiful thing is that, as we debug our own code, we find ourselves in community with others, free from the competition and self-judgment we've taken on. And that community can act collectively to change the code at higher and higher levels.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“We work hard—and harder still. And when stress or burnout or the reality of an economy that only works for a few becomes too much to bear? We step back, knowing we weren't good enough or strong enough. We didn't want it bad enough. We didn't think the right thoughts or manifest the right results. We blame ourselves because that's what we've been taught to do.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“adrienne maree brown, who reminded us that we need not assume misery is required for satisfaction, is a major influence to me on strategic change and growth.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“What they discovered is that the reason it's so hard to make a change you genuinely want to make is that beneath that desire for change there's a competing commitment. There is something else that we're more committed to than the change we want to make.79”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“Commitments, on the other hand, are the basic building blocks of practice-oriented structure. Commitments give direction to personal values, create a presence of mind, and help you connect to the evolution of your core identity. Commitments help you reorient without reintroducing striving.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“Earlier, I looked at the question: Who am I without the doing? For many of us, a sense of alienation—otherness—is what's left when we contemplate the essence of our selves without the doing we identify with. Strip away the shoulds and supposed-tos and it can be difficult to know who you are underneath.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“Similarly, not all of us approach goal-setting in a striving manner, but we've probably all had the experience of feeling like “everything is riding on this.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“Recently, Barry told me that, while her accomplishment might have looked fairly effortless on the outside, on the inside, she was a bundle of stress and anxiety.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“I'm way more concerned with what activities (or nonactivities) renew you. What ways of using your time help you feel satisfied and fulfilled? What activities reenergize you?”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“We have as many shoulds and supposed-tos about when to work, eat lunch, sleep, or take a walk as we do about life milestones.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting

“is it fair to myself or others to assume these negative identities when what I'm really identifying is simply how I'm different? Of course not. And is it really an act of personal growth or self-improvement to set a goal to change these traits in favor of ones that conform to cultural expectations? Of course not—it's an act of personal violence and self-negation.”
― Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting