I was just searching the internet when I came across some fantastic how to challenge yourself quotes. These quotes will push you to be an even better and successful person as you push your boundaries.
All the major discoveries in history have been made by people who thought creatively. People who looked beyond the limits placed by others and dared to do the impossible.
There are so many examples I can think of but one that comes to mind is the journey to the moon. This was the very first time that man ever stepped foot on another body away from earth.
Every time I think of the moon landing, I am reminded of US President John F Kennedy’s speech at Rice University. Part of his speech had these words,
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too”.
When Kennedy made this speech, American appeared to be losing the race to go to the moon. The USSR had been winning the the races before then such as the race to put the first man in space.
President Kennedy challenged Americans to achieve something that was not easy to do. No man had set foot on the moon. To achieve this they had to create new technologies and equipments.
As he pointed out it was not because the challenge was easy as it was clearly not but because it was hard. They stretched themselves technologically until they achieved their aim.
We too can learn something here. We need to set even higher goals. Let’s not underrate our capabilities.
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Table of Contents
More Challenge Yourself Quotes
Below are more quotes on challenging yourself
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered. You will never grow” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In order to grow you need to challenge yourself with goals that are higher than whatever you have attempted before. If aim for low you will achieve little too.
“Challenge yourself; it’s the only path which leads to growth.” – Morgan Freeman.
Morgan Freeman is spot on here, challenging yourself is the only path to growth. Never settle for little. Aim high. You may not always achieve your goals but you will have learned something that will hold you in good stead in future.
“Keep challenging yourself to think better, do better, and be better.” – Robin S Sharma.
This should indeed be the goal for all of us. We ought to work towards making ourselves better in all areas of our life. It is these achievements that make life exciting.
“Challenge yourself every day to do better and be better. Remember, growth starts with a decision to move beyond your present circumstances.” – Robert Tew.
Everything starts in your mind. You first have to convince yourself first and then follow up with actions. If you don’t trust your abilities you will not be able to focus on big goals.
“If the material is challenging, it forces you to challenge yourself when handling it.” – Joel Coen.
Never settle for easy things in life. Go for those things that people say are impossible. Those are more exciting than doing whatever everyone else is doing.
“I am not the bravest or smartest person, but I’m courageous enough to dream big, challenge myself and take bold risks.” – Richard Branson.
Isn’t it surprising that some of the people with the highest IQ possible don’t make it in life. It is not about being the smartest person but being someone who is willing to not only dream but to take action too.
“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” – Sheryl Sandberg.
That is the spirit that we all need to have when opportunities are offered to us. We need to take advantage of these opportunities. Be willing to take risks.
“Challenges are what makes life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J Marine.
Life would really be boring if there were to be no challenges.
“Unless you challenge yourself, you cannot grow. Mindful leadership is the art of growing by challenging the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual imposed limits on the self.” – Amit Ray.
Just like a car has to work against forces that it faces moving forward, man too cannot grow without friction or challenges. We, therefore, need to be thankful for the challenges we have to encounter.
“Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew.” – Cicely Tyson.
I remember a number of years ago I saw someone who had memorised a number of passages and I decided to try it too even though I thought I would not succeed. Surprisingly I discovered that I was underestimating my capabilities.
“When faced with a challenge, look for a way, not a way out.” – David Weatherford.
Most times we usually look for a way out of challenges instead of keeping on the fight. As a result we end up achieving little in life.
“I think in life, if you continue to challenge yourself, you can pride yourself in what you continuously accomplish.” – J.R. Martinez.
There is nothing as sweet as winning the fights that we face in life.
“Confidence is something you create when you believe in yourself.” Anonymous.
We all need confidence in our abilities and those around us to achieve big things. If you have no confidence in your abilities you may not work hard to achieve some goals.
“Set goals, challenge yourself, and achieve them. Live a healthy life… and make every moment count. Rise above the obstacles, and focus on the positive.” – Robert H Goddard.
This reminds me of Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb. To achieve this goal he had to face so many obstacles and failures but he kept on and did not give up. That is the kind of spirit we need to have to grow. We need to ignore the negatives and focus on the positives.
“You’re not meant to do what is easy. You’re meant to challenge yourself.” – Justin Timberlake.
You can achieve big things by doing easy things. You need to set your targets higher than thought possible.
“I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.” – Charlotte Bronte.
It should always be forward ever backward never. That should be our goal always. Setbacks should instead motivate us to move forward.
“Challenge yourself, jump off the deep end and learn to swim.” – Carson Kressley.
Life is indeed like swimming. You cannot learn to swim by avoiding water. One needs to jump into the water.
“Challenge yourself with something you know you could never do, and what you’ll find is that you can overcome anything.” – Anonymous.
This reminds me of the time I decided to seriously start blogging. I literally forced myself to do something I have never enjoyed doing and i.e. to write. And yet you cannot achieve much in blogging when you have thin content.
I have therefore had to learn how to write. We all have to come out of our comfort zones to be able to achieve big things.
“If you view everything through the lens of fear, then you tend to stay in retreat mode. You can just as easily see a crisis or problem as a challenge, and opportunity to prove your mettle, the chance to strengthen and toughen yourself, or a call to collective action. By seeing it as a challenge, you will have converted this negative into a positive purely by a mental process that will result in positive action as well.” – Robert Greene.
Fear is what keeps many people from taking action. Fear is common to all of humanity but the successful have learned how to succeed past their fears. Don’t fear hold you back
“I really do believe that if you don’t challenge yourself and risk failing, that it’s not interesting.” – Julie Taymor.
I agree life without challenges is not interesting at all.
“If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” – Fred Devito.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Not known to us.
Normal or times of comfort do not reveal much about ourselves. It is ony when we are outside of our comfort zone that we may know exactly where we stand and how others see us.
“The only way to grow is to challenge yourself.” – Ashley Tisdale.
“Always challenge yourself for getting the best in you.” – Anas Khan.
“My mother taught me that to maximize your philanthropic potential, you need to constantly challenge your capabilities and put yourself in situations that are not always comfortable. Through her example, I discovered that there is no more beautiful way to live a life than to live a life of service.” – Author: Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen.
That is what we all need as we help those that need our help. We can challenge ourselves even in philanthropy. We need to thinks outside the box if we are to reach more and more people.
“I’m functioning on a lung and a half, but I have proved that it’s possible to challenge yourself.” – Stefanie Powers.
“You can take your fitness seriously, but not yourself. That’s the most difficult part: not to relax. That’s the most difficult challenge I’m facing every fight.” – Wladimir Klitschko.
“Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, push past the apathy, and laziness and fear. Otherwise, the next day you’re going to have two things you don’t want to do, then three and four and five, and pretty soon, you can’t even get back to the first thing.” Tim S Grover.
“Begin with your daily life. Take your life as a challenge and try to bring yourself into harmony with each thing in your life.” – Frederick Lenz.
“Life is much more fun when you think of your efforts and how it can change the world! Challenge yourself!” – Michael Teoh.
“Once in a while it’s good to challenge yourself in a way that’s really daunting.” – Alan Cumming.
“There is a fine line between challenging yourself and overwhelming yourself.” – Brittany Burgunder.
There is always a need for balance in life. You need rest and plenty of it regardless of the challenges you are facing.The moment you start going to bed late then you must know that you are overdoing things. Once that happens you need to review everything, otherwise your health will be affected. We work so that we can enjoy life and not to mess up with our lives.
“If the material is challenging, it forces you to challenge yourself when handling it.” – Joel Osteen.
This is what we all need. Without it you may never know your limits and capabilities.
“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” – Roger Crawford.
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela.
“Embrace each challenge in your life as an opportunity for self-transformation.” – Bernie Siegel.
“There is good in everything; it’s just how you choose to look at it. Everything that’s worth it has a price. For me to be a model – I had to leave my family. Do you think I liked that? No! There are sacrifices. Life is meant to be a challenge, because challenges are what make you grow.” – Gisele Bundchen.
“Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.” – George S Patton.
“While he did not have faith and passion he had many challenges to overcome. It was not an easy ride to success, but his through his faith and a passion he did make it.” – Catherine Pulsifer.
“Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” – Author unknown.
As is true of roads, it is also true of life too. If grow up being “spoon fed” we will struggle when we have to handle things ourselves. We have to learn to love the difficult.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King Jr
It is really difficult to understand a person in times of nolmalcy when everything is perfectly aligned. Only a crisis will reveal our true self when we cannot hide anymore.
“Challenges are an opportunity to test you and rise to to the next level.” – Angelica Montrose.
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’t just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein.
A surprising statement from someone who is considered to be one of the greatest scientists ever to have lived. He was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity. It is therefore surprising that he emphasized the fact that he stayed with problems longer.
Even then most people regarded him to be a genius. It, therefore, shows that even when you are smart you still need to put in the hours if you are to achieve great things.
“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.” – Oprah Winfrey.
We need to learn to love the challenges of life. When we do that we will be able to use them as stepping stones to success.
Not long ago I heard a famous Christian musician, Wintley Phipps, talking about a saying he heard from an African American senior citizen. The saying said if the mountain was smooth we will not be able to climb it. We need challenges to succeed in life.
“Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can.” – Henry Drummond.
It is a fact of life that if you do little you will achieve little most of the times. You therefore need to challenge yourself in terms of the volume or number of challenges.
“There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet.” – William Frederick Halsey Jr.
The people we consider great have learned to live with the challenges of life. They use those problems or challenges to achieve more. They don’t run away from challenges and that is the lesson we all need to learn.
“Life is all about facing new challenges.” – Kostya Tszyu.
There are challenges everywhere we look and our duty should be to face them until we succeed.
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“Your calm mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges. So relax.” – Bryant McGill.
“A trap is only a trap if you don’t know about it. If you know about it, it’s a challenge.” – China Melville.
“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life forever.” – Amy Poehler.
If you sorround yourself with people who won’t challeng you then you will not go far. You need people of like mind with you to be near you so that you can challenge each other.
“I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run towards it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your foot.” – Natalie Comaneci.
“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change.” – Paulo Coelho.
“Our ability to handle life’s challenges is a measure of our strength of character.” – Les Brown.
Life is full of challenges and it is these challenges that make us better persons. We need challenges if life is to be worth living. And meeting the challenges of life successfully is what separates the haves and the have nots.
“A new challenge keeps the brain kicking and the heart ticking.” – EA Bucchianeri.
If you cannot find any reason to challenge yourself then you need to remember this challenge yourself quote from EA Buccianeri. A challenge will will keep your brain kicking and that is what you need for the health of your brain especially as you age. And even when you are young exercising your brain power will help you develop some new skills in life.
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
In life you need to fight on and never give up regardless of your situation. You need to be the best you can do even in the little things. It is by being better in the little things that you can be able to be enstrusted with bigger things. As Martin Luther King says, whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.
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Conclusion
I hope you have liked these 60 inspirational challenge yourself quotes. May they help you as you fight your daily battles.
If you are to achieve big things you need to start challenging yourself by setting big goals. Ideally goals that will test your mental and physical stamina.
That is how America was able to send people to the moon. They set what were almost impossible dreams and set to work towards achieving them.
If you set lower goals your achievement will also be low. However if you set higher goals and miss them you will still achieve something.
For example, if I set up a blog to earn $100k a month I may not reach that goal but earn $5k which is still alright even though it is not what I intended to achieve. They are therefore no downsides when it comes to higher goals as you will still achieve something that betters your life.
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