Bill Crawford Quotes

#1. To truly be of service to others, we must first serve the server. The ability to bring an enlightened presence to those in need is the ability to light a candle without burning ourselves out.

Bill Crawford

#2. It's not simply what we feel, but what we feed, that determines what we do and how we live.

Bill Crawford

#3. We can't always choose how we feel. We can, however, choose what we do about it, which ironically can change how we feel!

Bill Crawford

#4. Making changes isn't about stopping the problem, it's about starting the solution.

Bill Crawford

#5. Regardless of the problem, as long as our solution requires someone else to change, we will never know the power and promise of self-determination.

Bill Crawford

#6. Remembering the past should help you create a purposeful future, not cause you to be afraid of it.

Bill Crawford

#7. To be influential in our conversations, we must first be aware of two things, (1) what do we want to bring to the conversation and (2) what do we want to bring out in others.

Bill Crawford

#8. When stress and anxiety have your system stuck in a brainstem loop? Reboot. It's I.T. for life!

Bill Crawford

#9. When our worries and fears just don't make sense, it's possible we are trusting the part of the brain that doesn't make sense ... it just reacts.

Bill Crawford

#10. To spank or not to spank isn't the question the question is whether whether we are teaching a quality we want our kids to have as adults?

Bill Crawford

#11. Freedom isn't about having permission to do whatever we want ... it's about having the courage to do whatever fills our life with meaning.

Bill Crawford

#12. Creating a meaningful life has less to do with how we feel about our past than what we do about our future.

Bill Crawford

#13. Holding on to painful images of the past in order to avoid painful experiences in the future serves only to color the present with pain.

Bill Crawford

#14. Life is not a means to an end but a series of experiences. Are you creating your series 'on purpose' ?

Bill Crawford

#15. One key to successful relationships is learning to say "no" without guilt, so that you can say "yes" without resentment.

Bill Crawford

#16. There are two ways to make someone important in our lives ... we can either love them or hate them.

Bill Crawford

#17. You can't use stress, anxiety, frustration, and worry to deal with your stress, anxiety, frustration, and worry. It's like pulling up to a burning building with a flame thrower. The energy of the problem can't be the energy behind a successful solution.

Bill Crawford

#18. Want to change your experience of life? Change the problem to the practice field.

Bill Crawford

#19. Nothing will sabotage our happiness and success more thoroughly than the fear that we are not enough.

Bill Crawford

#20. The journey of life is both too short and too precious to be sidetracked by guilt trips.

Bill Crawford

#21. You can't use anxiety to deal with your anxiety it only makes you more anxious.

Bill Crawford

#22. The key to being with family is to engage with those we love in a way we would teach to those we love.

Bill Crawford

#23. Sleep is simply a chemical change in our brain and body (melatonin) - It?s not a place we go, it is a state of being that we fall into.

Bill Crawford

#24. When we take no responsibility for any aspect of our past, we limit our ability to respond in the present and the future.

Bill Crawford

#25. A process for discernment: God is my ultimate source of truth and wisdom, and dwells forever at the center of my being. Therefore, any thought, emotion, or action that takes me further from my center can be neither truthful, nor wise.

Bill Crawford

#26. Our success and happiness depends not on simply knowing where we stand, but in where we are wanting to go.

Bill Crawford

#27. The problem with lethargy is that doing nothing validates the fear that nothing can be done.

Bill Crawford

#28. Everything that happens in our lives is "good information" about the degree to which our choices are working for us. We can, however, choose to believe that we are a victim of the world we see, and have no choices. And, of course, we will receive "good information" about this belief as well.

Bill Crawford

#29. As long as we define stress as how some person or situation is making us feel, we will have to change the world around us to find peace of mind.

Bill Crawford

#30. The past exists not as a factual recounting of what happened, but as an experience that we are constantly recreating in our mind which means we CAN change the past!

Bill Crawford

#31. When people feel criticized, they almost always defend the behavior you want them to change.

Bill Crawford

#32. Many people would rather be certain of their worries and fears, than risk the uncertainty of hope and optimism.

Bill Crawford

#33. One barrier to being a great parent is the mistaken belief that we are raising kids.

Bill Crawford

#34. The key to self-confidence is knowing that you would choose you ... and why. In this way the chosen becomes the chooser, and love versus fear becomes the energy of choice.

Bill Crawford

#35. A meaningful life is composed of a series of meaningful moments. If this is what we want, then the ability to infuse each moment with meaning would seem to be a skill worth practicing.

Bill Crawford

#36. One key to success is knowing the difference between knowledge and wisdom. One is information from the past while the other is the key to the future.

Bill Crawford

#37. Perspective is what allows us to step back and see the entire forest instead of just the same old tree we keep running into again and again.

Bill Crawford

#38. Let's not let our fear of dementia deepen our fear of dementia.

Bill Crawford

#39. There's no such thing as a 'stressful' situation.

Bill Crawford

#40. Problems occur when we tie our peace of mind to another's state of mind.

Bill Crawford

#41. Family is the place where acceptance and validation are most needed, but often the hardest to find.

Bill Crawford

#42. Living exclusively in the land of the head or the heart will always be a limiting, limited experience. The most successful among us have dual citizenship.

Bill Crawford

#43. Mistakes are just 'mis-takes,' or an action that we took that missed.

Bill Crawford

#44. Autonomy, Purpose, & Mastery: If you are having difficulty creating the life you want, chances are one or more of these are missing.

Bill Crawford

#45. You can't 'cope with' change anymore than you can 'manage' stress.

Bill Crawford

#46. The most successful form of correction is when the "other" feels informed versus chastised.

Bill Crawford

#47. The only time a mistake becomes a failure is when we look for someone to blame.

Bill Crawford

#48. The most powerful times in our lives can be the time between times, or life's transitions that give us the opportunity to choose.

Bill Crawford

#49. Diversity, or the state of being different, isn't the same as inclusion. One is a description of what is, while the other describes a style of interaction essential to effective teams and organizations.

Bill Crawford

#50. There are only three things we 'have to' do in this world we have to be born, we have to die, and we have to live until we die. Everything else is a choice!

Bill Crawford

#51. True 'magic' is simply the ability to transcend what seems to be and, thus, transform one's experience. Maybe we could all use a little 'Harry Potter' in our lives.

Bill Crawford

#52. In order to become more influential with those who are resistant to our point of view, we must be willing to start with what is influencing them.

Bill Crawford

#53. Realistic optimism allows us to experience the best until we have to deal with the worst ... which often, never comes.

Bill Crawford

#54. How do you keep people from jerking your chain? Don't give your chain to jerks!

Bill Crawford

#55. When dealing with problems, seek not to "change" some aspect of your life but instead, choose who you want to become as a path to what you want. Transformation and healing then take place as a process of becoming versus avoiding.

Bill Crawford

#56. Leaders should interact with everyone in their organization as if the interaction is being recorded and will be used as a training film on how to treat colleagues, coworkers, and customers.

Bill Crawford

#57. One key to creating a meaningful life, is choosing what we want to feel, and for how long.

Bill Crawford

#58. Trusting fear, while fearing trust and happiness often creates a less than happy life.

Bill Crawford

#59. Never define yourself in terms of how you are negatively affected by others.

Bill Crawford

#60. In our lives, we can either be a reflection of the world around us ... or a beam that enlightens the lives of others.

Bill Crawford

#61. To influence others to change, you must be able to frame that change in terms of the future, and in a way that has value to all concerned.

Bill Crawford

#62. Meaning isn't something we discover, it is what we bring to life, either by choice or by chance.

Bill Crawford

#63. To find the true cause of how you think and feel, find the 'sponsoring thought' that created the interpretation that created your experience of life.

Bill Crawford

#64. Nothing destroys a relationship quicker than our fears of inadequacy and loss.

Bill Crawford

#65. We limit our success when we mistake the limits of our perception for reality.

Bill Crawford

#66. Images of resentment and revenge only have us spending the precious moments of our lives imagining the 'other' as both dangerous and important!

Bill Crawford

#67. Change isn't about what you are stopping ... it's about what you are starting.

Bill Crawford

#68. The problem with righteous indignation is that even when you're right, you're still left feeling indignant.

Bill Crawford

#69. All of life presents itself as a cycle of cause and effect. When this cycle is negative, there are three ways to change. You can change the cause, change the effect, or choose the most powerful option become the cause!

Bill Crawford

#70. We've all heard that in life, when one door is closed, another is opened. Unfortunately, many of us are so focused on the darkness left by what has been lost, we never see the light coming through the newly opened door.

Bill Crawford

#71. Just because we have a thought, doesn't mean it is a thought worth having.

Bill Crawford

#72. If you want to change your life, you must change your mind and change your brain? on purpose.

Bill Crawford

#73. Becoming critical in the face of criticism, only inspires more criticism.

Bill Crawford

#74. When 'Being Rushed' is the problem ... Rushing is never the solution.

Bill Crawford

#75. When we take care of ourselves like we would take care of someone we love, the quality of our living and our giving goes up.

Bill Crawford

#76. The true measure of our belief in the validity of our values is our willingness to act upon them.

Bill Crawford

#77. A relationship is like life. It isn't a process of preservation, but of change and growth. Unless you grow and change together, you will change ... and grow apart.

Bill Crawford

#78. When the question is either/or, the answer is almost alwaysboth/and.

Bill Crawford

#79. Trust is simply a set of expectations about the present and the future. The key is to ensure that these are chosen and evaluated based upon awareness versus fear.

Bill Crawford

#80. Until we become clear about our own worth and value, we will forever be searching for it in the eyes of others.

Bill Crawford

#81. Worry, shame, and fear can't be the energy with which we deal with food and weight. It only spurs us to eat more food and produce more glucose/sugar which gets stored as fat.

Bill Crawford

#82. Never define people or situations in terms of their effect on you, unless you want to give them the power to make you feel that way.

Bill Crawford

#83. Peace of Mind? Don't leave home (or go home) without it.

Bill Crawford

#84. Serenity is not just an escape, but a precursor to acceptance, courage, wisdom, and change.

Bill Crawford

#85. The difference between self-confidence and conceit is as simple as love and fear. Jesus was self-confident ... Hitler was afraid.

Bill Crawford

#86. You can't fight fire with fire, or fear with fear.

Bill Crawford

#87. Children don't know that they are lovable until they are loved. They need to see it in our eyes before they can accept it in their hearts.

Bill Crawford

#88. There are two ways to look at most problems ... 'Oh Crap!' or, 'Good Information!,' and our choice will give us good information on how to deal with problems in the future.

Bill Crawford

#89. Sometimes knowing what to do is knowing when to stop.

Bill Crawford

#90. Love will keep us safe when we commit to choosing the kind of qualities, characteristics, and relationships that we would recommend to someone we love.

Bill Crawford

#91. There are two ways to respond to the trials and tribulations of our present and past ... 'Ain't it awful?' ... or ... 'Good information!' Our choice of responses will determine our experience of life.

Bill Crawford

#92. The cooperative, creative, and flexible parts of your children reside in the joyful part of their brain.

Bill Crawford

#93. Selfish is caring for ourselves at others' expense ... Self-care is taking care of ourselves so that we can be there for others.

Bill Crawford

#94. The key to changing our past, present, and future is to create our piece of the PIE (our Perceptions, Interpretations, & Expectations) on purpose.

Bill Crawford

#95. Many of us go from being taken care of as children to taking care of others as adults. Shouldn't there be a time when we learn to take care of ourselves?

Bill Crawford

#96. The way to encourage people to be accountable is to engage the responsible, accountable, trustworthy part of their brain.

Bill Crawford

#97. Change isn't always easy, but with purposeful practice, any old habit can be replaced with a way of being we would recommend to those we love.

Bill Crawford

#98. When a loving, meaningful experience is our goal, we must trust an energy that is congruent with that goal as our guide along the way. Bottom line, trust love over fear if love is what you're after.

Bill Crawford

#99. When faced with conflicting thoughts and emotions, we must decide what to trust, what we fear, or what we know. What's important is that this decision be made by the knowledgeable versus the anxious part of who we are.

Bill Crawford

#100. To understand ourself, we must understand our "selves," or the parts of us that motivate our thoughts, decisions, and behaviors.

Bill Crawford