By Cailin Reiff, LUX1 S2ENA
Sometimes you wake up without any motivation to start your day. You ‘zombie’ your way through the week. You get up, go to school, get back home and fall asleep. An endless routine with no excitement, devoid of motivation. When I feel this way, I need to be reminded of my duties and the rewards of working hard. I’ve felt myself falling into the same trap every day, especially during lockdown. The “I don’t want to do it” and ‘It doesn’t really matter how good it turns out’ trap. Lockdown served as an excuse to not work as hard as I did in school. So I searched for things to keep me motivated. And I found something… Quotes. I view them as short poems, but perhaps even more meaningful. They manage to say so much with a brief sentence or two. I found that most of the following quotes quite inspiring to me. So, here are some of my favorites, and what they mean to me.
‘The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.’ – Nelson Mandela. In life there are ups and downs. Most think failure is a down. But does it have to be? I think failure is just a bump in the road. A detour. When you fail, you get back up again and move on. There’s no point in dwelling on your mistakes when you can come back better, reach higher. A common saying goes ‘If at first you don’t succeed try again.’ This is exactly right; you have to keep at it.
‘When you focus on the good, the good gets better.’ Instead of thinking about what you don’t have, remember, and cherish the things you do have. Once you appreciate something, it gets better. It’s worth to you grows, and makes you realize how lucky you are to have it.
‘Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.’ – Suzy Kassem. If you try your hardest and fail, naturally, you start to doubt yourself. But if you let the doubt get to you, you seal your own fate. Do you want to be a singer? If you do, you have to get on that stage and hit those high notes the best you can. Give it your all. If you doubt yourself, others will too. If you fall, get back up. Go for it! If you fail at least you know you tried. You gave it your best. Because in the end the best is all we can do. It’s all we can give.
‘Perfectly imperfect.’ Everyone has their quirks and bad habits. What’s the point of trying to be the same when everyone is born different? There no use trying to be perfect when perfect people don’t exist. If you have all A marks, are close to your family and feel happy, that doesn’t mean you’re perfect; it means your situation is perfect. Everyone is ‘perfectly imperfect.’ You will always love and hate different parts of yourself, be it your character or looks. You will always judge. You will always make mistakes. Being ‘imperfect’ isn’t bad. It’s normal. Whether you’re trying or not, you’ll never become perfect. So let yourself fail, let yourself relax.
‘Some things break your heart but fix your vision.’ Whether it’s a mistake, a betrayal, or something else entirely, you will be sad sometimes. You will have your heart broken at least once too. Some things hurt, tear you down. But you will be better for it. You will have learnt from it. To quote Dolly Parton, ‘The way I see it, if you want the rainbow you have to deal with the rain.’
