INSPIRED THOUGHTS: OVERVIEW

When you’re ready to make a change, words of wisdom have the power to shift your thinking and galvanize you into action.

Many of these quotes inspired the creation of Inspired Leap. May they inspire you to make positive changes at work and at home and help you be a source of inspiration to others.

Accessing Intuition and Aha! Moments

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
—Albert Einstein

Intuition tells the thinking mind where to look next.
—Dr. Jonas Salk

The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you, and you don’t know how or why.
—Albert Einstein

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
—Steve Jobs

Numerous studies have shown that the use of intuition in a number of fields is often what separates the men from the boys—that is, the experts from the amateurs. It’s the quantum quality that gives an individual an edge over others in his field and boosts him into the “expert” stratosphere.
—Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz

Rather than seeking perfection or improvement, let us begin by trusting ourselves, by trusting the promptings of our inner being, and by increasing that trust through action.
—Rick Jarow

The process of animating genius most commonly involves first formulating a question, and waiting an indefinite interval for consciousness to work with the problem; then suddenly the answer appears in a flash, in a form which is characteristically non-verbal.
—David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD

If you want to live in the zone of intuition rather than just visit it, cultivate the skill of letting go of control.
—Gay Hendricks

Today, the defining skills of the previous era—the “left brain” capabilities that powered the Information Age—are necessary but no longer sufficient. And the capabilities we once distained or thought frivolous—the “right brain” qualities of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning—increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders. For individuals, families, and organizations, professional success and personal fulfillment now require a whole new mind.
—Daniel Pink

Along with developing a basic trust in the rhyme and reason of life itself, I advise you to trust your intuition. It is a far better guide in the long run than your intellect.
—Henry Miller

Motivation to Change Your Life

This is the true joy in life: The being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. The being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die—for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
—George Bernard Shaw

If being organized allows you to accomplish anything that you want, and you have a deep-seated fear either of success or of failure, then you may be using disorganization as a convenient way of holding yourself back.
—Julie Morgenstern

To be generous is to generate endless creative energy, energy that comes back and supports you and affects your life in countless ways.
—Marc Allen

If growth and development take place from the bottom up—from physical to emotional to mental to spiritual—change is powered from the top down.
—Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

In human beings, thinking is not split off from emotion and spirit—our creativity and uniqueness depends upon these more complex sides of the self.
—Danah Zohar

Being thankful has changed my life, and the energy of “thank you” is one of my most powerful sources of energy. Over the last few years I have learned that there is so much to be thankful for and the more we thank the more energy we bring into our lives.
—Jon Gordon

How we relate to fear determines how we do in life, and maybe it is the essence of who we are.
—Thom Rutledge

Always move toward your demons; they take their power from your retreat.
—Thom Rutledge

Our inherent beauty lies in trusting our deepest natures and authentically expressing who we are in the world in wise and life-affirming ways.
—Angeles Arrien

The real reality is we have come here to thrive, and prosper, and live this grand human experience in lighthearted joy, not in struggle and pain. We have come here to have fun while we learn, to grow without suffering, and to harvest our desires in the absolute knowledge that we can have it all once we learn how to handle our energies . . . meaning . . . our emotions.
—Lynn Grabhorn

Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks—we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.
—Parker J. Palmer

To become more conscious is the greatest gift anyone can give to the world; moreover, in a ripple effect, the gift comes back to its source.
—David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD

Know that your first responsibility is not to others, but to yourself. As you hoist yourself to a state where you validate the divine potential of your being, you will elevate others simply by your presence.
—Valerie V. Hunt

Your divine potential is the fullest expression of your spirit; it is discovering the depths of your capacity to create and to express love, compassion, forgiveness, generosity, and wisdom.
—Caroline Myss

Living in the Present Moment

The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.
—Julia Cameron

Accepting the present moment does not mean that you cannot change your life. On the contrary, it allows you to see clearly what needs to be changed.
—Gary Zukav and Linda Francis

Your past has no role in your future—the trail that you’ve left behind cannot drive your life today, unless you convince yourself that this is the case, and that is why I call it the greatest illusion.
—Wayne W. Dyer

Corporate Life

A business organization whose employees are happy is more productive, has a higher morale, and has a lower turnover. Consequently, any manager who wants his or her organization to prosper should understand what makes people happy, and implement that knowledge as effectively as possible.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In our interviews with exemplary business leaders these same themes kept reappearing: To be successful you have to enjoy doing your best while at the same time contributing to something beyond yourself.
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

To make right choices is to align our will with the great forces of life, not to separate decision-making from our feelings, energies, heart, or soul.
—Rick Jarow

Think of it [life] as a big game! Games have players, rules, boundaries, opponents, goals, and even spectators. They’re meant to test the best of you and your team. If you aren’t celebrating wins, hanging out with people you like, learning, growing and laughing, stop now! Either do something else or change the way you’re playing the game. You were meant to be happy!
—Blair Singer

Despite the American myth, I cannot be or do whatever I desire—a truism, to be sure, but a truism we often defy. Our created natures make us like organisms in an ecosystem: there are some roles and relationships in which we thrive and others in which we wither and die.
—Parker J. Palmer

If the company has no principles other than maximizing profit, or if its values are unstated, workers will limit themselves to the least creative principle in business: Please the boss.
—Tom Chappell

We refuse to accept that whole organizations cannot learn ways to foster soul and spirituality in the workplace. We believe not only that they can but also that they must.
—Ian Mitroff and Elizabeth Denton

Take a Break!

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
—Plato

No matter how much pressure you feel at work, if you could find ways to relax for at least five minutes every hour, you’d be more productive.
—Dr. Joyce Brothers

A learning, creative brain uses more energy than the whole rest of the body put together. Out-of-the-box, at-the-edge thinking uses as much energy as a game of rugby football.
—Danah Zohar

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
—Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

In creative recovery, it is far easier to get people to do the extra work of the morning pages [journal writing] than it is to get them to do the assigned play of an artist date. Play can make a workaholic very nervous. Fun is scary. “If I had more time, I’d have more fun,” we like to tell ourselves, but this is seldom the truth.
—Julia Cameron

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
—Katherine Hepburn

How can we ever hope to grasp the deeper possibilities of life, and lead invigorated or meaningful days, if we’re all dashing around nonstop like water bugs on the surface of a swirling river?
—Robert K. Cooper

Making Your Own Inspired Leap

The jump is so frightening between where I am and where I want to be. Because of all I may become, I will close my eyes and lap.
—Mary Anne Radmacher

It’s critical that you focus on the result and not get attached to any particular process for achieving the result. When we are in the process of creating something, we must have the flexibility of mind to move with what needs to be done. What allows this to happen is precisely the fact that we’re not attached to how things should be done.
—Joseph Jaworski

A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation: “As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.”
—Joseph Campbell

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds;
Your mind transcends limitations,
Your consciousness expands in every direction, and
you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world.
Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and
you discover yourself to be a greater person by far
than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
—Patanjali (quote sourced from Wayne W. Dyer, Wisdom of the Ages)