Category: Quotes

Words to Work By

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15 quotes to stir Courageous Leadership

I’ve been collecting quotes on courageous leadership for a while now. The kind that don’t just sound good on a poster but actually rearrange how you think about showing up for the people in front of you.

Here’s the question that started this collection:

Can an individual affect their society by simply, courageously caring for the individual in front of them enough to see who they truly are and encourage them into that identity?

I believe the answer is yes. And these 15 quotes have shaped how I try to live that out.

On Seeing People

  1. How many of us are stuck in the daily grind of survival? If you were to plot yourself on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, where would you be today? Most of us live at level 3, but David Whyte challenges us to step beyond, to risk being truly seen and to see others as they really are.

  2. “The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.” – John Ruskin

  3. “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” – Simone Weil. Constant distraction makes full presence rare. Choosing to be fully present with another person is an act of courage.

On Leading with Vulnerability

  1. “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.” – Brene Brown. This applies to every hard conversation you’re avoiding right now.

  2. “The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.” – Elizabeth Gilbert. Sometimes the most courageous leadership decision is the one that costs you the most personally.

  3. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9. Courage is the decision that something else matters more.

On Doing the Hard Thing

  1. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.” – Theodore Roosevelt. Courageous leaders lead from inside the mess.

  2. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

  3. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – Ambrose Redmoon. I come back to this one regularly. Especially when I’m about to say something in a meeting that I know won’t be popular but needs to be said.

On Serving Others

  1. “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

  2. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi. The leaders who’ve had the deepest impact on my life were the ones who showed up for me when it cost them something.

  3. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.” – Philippians 2:3. This is the hardest standard of leadership I know. And the most transformative when you actually live it.

On Persistence

  1. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

  2. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” – Mary Anne Radmacher. This one resonates with anyone who’s had a week where nothing went right but showed up on Monday anyway.

  3. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” – Galatians 6:9. The most courageous thing you might do today is simply not quit.

The Thread

Courageous leadership is the daily decision to see people, serve them, and keep going when it would be easier to stop.

That’s available to anyone, in any role, at any level. You don’t need a title to lead courageously. You just need to care enough about the person in front of you to show up fully. And then do it again tomorrow.

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10 end of life quotes to inspire you today

I have been inspired recently after reading a speech that a leader gave near the end of his life. He was looking back over his years and wanted to exhort those he had led into maintaining the growth and the focus he had been guiding them in. This speech led to many others, including George Washington’s address to a young nation.

Why would I look into end of life speeches? I have currently reached mid-life (41) and as I am reading these speeches, it is incredible to see what these leaders have considered to be the errors or foundations that shaped them, their productivity, and their legacy. If I can pay attention to those, it builds a focus that can become an almost guaranteed success, so that at the end of my life, I can look back across the decades and feel like I’ve run my race well.

If neither crying nor laughing can change my circumstances, then I rather go through them laughing.

Moffat Machingura, Life Capsules

Life is like a restaurant; you can have anything you want as long as you are willing to pay the price.

Moffat Machingura, Life Capsules

In the end, if we don’t have God we don’t have anything other than an end.

Craig D. Lounsbrough

I am not afraid to fail, I am scared to death of dying and having the Lord say to me: ‘Angelica, this is what you might have done had you trust me more’.

Mother Angelica

But after my death let it be known that in my old age, at the very end of my life, there was still plenty that made me smile.

Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red

I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath, the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, and perhaps the seventh day of one’s life as well, when one can feel that one’s work is done, and one may, in good conscience, rest.

Oliver Sacks, Gratitude

At the end of life, your reward in heaven will not be proportional to the role you played on earth, but how faithful you played it. Be faithful in every little role you are to play; it’ll lead you to a greater reward! Faithfulness is key!

Israelmore Ayivor

At the end of my life I want to say, “I lived every moment of it.’

Debasish Mridha

Every Task, Goal, Race, and Year comes to an end… Therefore, make it a habit to always finish strong.

Gary Ryan Blair

George Bush had been fading in the last few days. He had not gotten out of bed, he had stopped eating and he was mostly sleeping. For a man who had defied death multiple times over the years, it seemed that the moment might finally be arriving.

His longtime friend and former secretary of state, James A. Baker III, arrived at his Houston home on Friday morning to check on him.

Mr. Bush suddenly grew alert, his eyes wide open.
“Where are we going, Bake?” he asked.
“We’re going to heaven,” Mr. Baker answered.
“That’s where I want to go,” Mr. Bush said.

Barely 13 hours later, Mr. Bush was dead. The former president died in his home in a gated community in Houston, surrounded by several friends, members of his family, doctors and a minister. As the end neared on Friday night, his son George W. Bush, the former president, who was at his home in Dallas, was put on the speaker phone to say goodbye. He told him that he had been a “wonderful dad” and that he loved him.

“I love you, too,” Mr. Bush told his son.
Those were his last words.

~ Excerpt from NY Times

Action

Because your vision always costs more than you estimated, and often takes longer than you planned, it can become blurred by your circumstances and emotions. That is why it becomes imperative to write it down and keep it in front of you! With a clear-cut written goal, you’ll always know where you are and remember where you’re going.

What is the direction, focus, or vision you have for your life?
At the end, what will your life look like as you look back?

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Thomas Huxley

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.