Jeff Goins Quotes

#1. We picture someone who just knew what they were supposed to do with their lives and, at the right time, did it. But a calling doesn't always work like that. Sometimes, perhaps often, it is messy.

Jeff Goins

#2. Sensible people reinvent themselves every ten years.

Jeff Goins

#3. We've been conditioned to think of work as drudgery, a chore you endure in exchange for a paycheck. And this is a problem. When

Jeff Goins

#4. Each wrong choice grows your character and strengthens your resilience, readying you for what comes next.

Jeff Goins

#5. A calling may be many things, but it is not fair. Still, you must answer it.

Jeff Goins

#6. Sometimes, your ideas aren't as good as you think. Other times, the world just isn't ready for them.

Jeff Goins

#7. When the passion goes away, it's the practice that sustains us. This is the fruit of commitment, the reason it's worth the hardship. When you commit to something, anything, it allows you to practice what you love.

Jeff Goins

#8. Real artists risk failure every time they release their work into the world. If your words are going to matter, you will have to do the same. You will have to let go. Until you do, you're not creating art. You're just screwing around.

Jeff Goins

#9. a healthy fear of death drives a person to continue creating until the very end, but with that fear must come the acceptance that even your life's work will, in some ways, remain unfinished.

Jeff Goins

#10. To create your best work, you'll have to make room for it. You'll have to cut out the excess noise and focus on what really matters:

Jeff Goins

#11. As you begin to see the patterns, don't move too quickly. Just take one step at a time, trusting that opportunities will open at the right time.

Jeff Goins

#12. And when you are presented with an opportunity, you may not just know.

Jeff Goins

#13. Struggle shapes our character. And character dictates what we will become.

Jeff Goins

#14. Handy then encourages what he calls "portfolio people" to organize their time not based on hours in a week, but rather days in a year. For example, if you need to make $50,000 per year and can figure out a way to make $250 a day, then you only need to work 200 days a year.

Jeff Goins

#15. You will have to step out into the unknown, listening for direction as you go.

Jeff Goins

#16. When you pursue a calling, you will find a community of supporters to champion you along the way. It's not up to you where these people come from or even how to locate them.

Jeff Goins

#17. Where does motivation come from? "It starts with a spark," Daniel Coyle told me in an interview. "You get a vision of your future self. You see someone you want to become ... It's a very mysterious process.

Jeff Goins

#18. I used to think that your calling was about doing something good in this world. Now I understand it's about becoming someone good - and letting that goodness impact the world around you.

Jeff Goins

#19. True abundance is about giving away your life, about letting go and giving up.

Jeff Goins

#20. Work, it seems, was never meant to be something we do just to make a living. It was meant to be a means of making a difference - in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Jeff Goins

#21. Life is too short to do what doesn't matter, to waste your time on things that don't amount to much.

Jeff Goins

#22. Pivoting isn't plan B; it's part of the process.

Jeff Goins

#23. I meant what I said, and I said what I meant." - DR. SEUSS

Jeff Goins

#24. What if the purpose of my life is not about me? Am I willing to give up all my dreams, my aspirations and comfort to find it/ Are you willing to pay the cost? This is the pearl of great price, the abundant life we are all seeking and, at the same time, petrified to find.

Jeff Goins

#25. Write something that's worth fighting over. Because that's how you change things. That's how you create art.

Jeff Goins

#26. If you're not feeling a little insecure about taking such a leap, then you probably haven't considered the cost.

Jeff Goins

#27. Pining for what could have been only holds people back from living their lives now. Life is full of surprises, and it doesn't help us to fixate on regrets or try to recover what has been lost.

Jeff Goins

#28. As we step into our life's work, we discover that we have been preparing for this our whole lives, even though in that very moment we feel insufficient.

Jeff Goins

#29. All is not lost, all is not lost. Become who you are It happens once in a lifetime. - SWITCHFOOT

Jeff Goins

#30. Believe you already are what you want to be. And then start acting like it.

Jeff Goins

#31. Writing is about space. It's about what's not said. About showing rather than telling. About making every word count.

Jeff Goins

#32. Such findings do not prove that talent doesn't exist," he wrote. "But they do suggest an intriguing possibility: that if it does, it may be irrelevant.

Jeff Goins

#33. We find our vocations not by focusing on ourselves, but by focusing on others.

Jeff Goins

#34. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments . . .

Jeff Goins

#35. Your journey, though unique, is full of fellow sojourners, as well as teachers who will help along the way. Your job is not to find them but to recognize them when they appear.

Jeff Goins

#36. This is the secret to mastering any discipline: as you conquer one, you'll find it easier to tackle another.

Jeff Goins

#37. Serving people is the best way to earn influence.

Jeff Goins

#38. Hanging out in coffee shops and talking about one day being a writer or an activist or an entrepreneur is just about the worst thing you can do.

Jeff Goins

#39. Before others will believe what is true about you, you'll have to believe it yourself. LET'S

Jeff Goins

#40. We are either becoming more of our true selves or drifting into a false self. In

Jeff Goins

#41. We have been raised to believe that anything is possible, that our potential is unlimited, and that we are entitled to our dreams.

Jeff Goins

#42. Answering a call will sometimes feel that way. It won't make sense and may even open you up to rejection and criticism, but in your heart you will know it's right. How? There will be confirmation. You will take a step, and things will happen.

Jeff Goins

#43. Find what you love and what the world needs, then combine them.

Jeff Goins

#44. Writing is active. It requires your fully conscious self. You need to show up and show us your gift. Until you do that, you're just practicing in private. Playing around. Kidding yourself. Don't do that.

Jeff Goins

#45. It's not enough to be good. You have to be great.

Jeff Goins

#46. We all want to begin with ability, with what we can do. But when have you ever been a good judge of what you're capable of? People are always doing things that amaze themselves.

Jeff Goins

#47. A calling isn't something new and shiny. Often it's something old and predictable, a familiar face that's easily taken for granted, an old habit or hobby that comes back into our lives.

Jeff Goins

#48. When a person is determined to not just succeed but to do work that matters, the world makes room for such ambition.

Jeff Goins

#49. We always assume someone else will come to the rescue, but it's never us. Surely somebody will have the decency to be the hero. Right? It doesn't work like that. Not when everyone assumes someone else will do the right thing.

Jeff Goins

#50. Look, it's easy to dump words on a page and tuck it away in a drawer. But to be a real writer, you have to take some risks. You have to put your work out there. Throw it against the wall, and see if it sticks.

Jeff Goins

#51. Nobody reaches expert status without intense preparation. Excellence, then, is a matter of practice, not talent.6

Jeff Goins

#52. Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get. - MARK TWAIN

Jeff Goins

#53. Every day, somewhere, a writer is born. She comes into the world with a destiny: to share her words and proclaim a message.

Jeff Goins

#54. The paradox of vocation. We think that passion comes first, that our desire is primary; but if we are truly called, the work always comes before we are ready. We will have to act in spite of feeling unprepared.

Jeff Goins

#55. Sometimes we don't pivot in the direction of personal success but toward even greater pain. But here's the catch: a calling will always lead you to a life that matters, one you can be proud of.

Jeff Goins

#56. brave words: speak, for your servant is listening. It's as much an act of vulnerability as it is one of availability.

Jeff Goins

#57. The basic idea of a portfolio life is that instead of thinking of your work as a monolithic activity, what if you chose to see it as the complex group of interests, passions, and activities it is?

Jeff Goins

#58. In an era of human history in which we prize comfort above nearly every other virtue, we have overlooked an important truth: comfort never leads to excellence.

Jeff Goins

#59. If you can do something when it's not fun, even when you're exhausted and bored and want to give up, then it just might be your calling.

Jeff Goins

#60. Discovering your calling is not an epiphany but a series of intentional decisions. It looks less like a giant leap and more like building a bridge.

Jeff Goins

#61. It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.

Jeff Goins

#62. This idea was first coined by Charles Handy in his book The Age of Unreason

Jeff Goins

#63. Discomfort is the sign, you are on right track.

Jeff Goins

#64. But for now, if you are intentional and willing to appreciate the fact that you don't see the whole narrative, you can enjoy more of the journey.

Jeff Goins

#65. If you're "one in a million", and the world is full of seven billion people, that means there are seven thousand people just like you.

Jeff Goins

#66. It's about making a contribution to the world. Which is why when we are in the midst of pursuing our calling, we must not only ask if this is something that we are good at, but if it is something good.

Jeff Goins

#67. Slicing down your fluff to the core essentials is how you get to genius.

Jeff Goins

#68. A brand will happen whether you like it or not. Either you intentionally choose one for yourself, or one will be given to you.

Jeff Goins

#69. Anything less than such proactivity is a cheap imitation of the life you were meant to live. It's stalling.

Jeff Goins

#70. Your mentor may not be the teacher you dreamed of, and that's the point. This is your education of what is, not what you think should be.

Jeff Goins

#71. To be wrecked begins with an experience that pulls you out of your comfort zone and self-centeredness, whether you want it or not.

Jeff Goins

#72. When we don't give ourselves fully to the work we were born to do, we do the world - and ourselves - a disservice.

Jeff Goins

#73. Everything is practice. Every word you write and action you take is a chance to get better.

Jeff Goins

#74. Think of it this way: if the practice is enjoyable, then you aren't growing.

Jeff Goins

#75. A calling is that thing that you can't not do, an answer to the age-old question, "What should I do with my life?

Jeff Goins

#76. Take time to look back at all you've experienced, and listen to what your life is saying.

Jeff Goins

#77. Finding your vocation is less about grand moments of discovery and more about a habit of awareness.

Jeff Goins

#78. You have to imagine your own death. When your time comes, what will you regret not doing? What will you wish you had more time to do, and what will have seemed trivial? Think of what you fear losing - those are the things that matter most.

Jeff Goins

#79. In spite of what we say, we don't want happiness. It's simply not enough to satisfy our deepest longings. We are looking for something more, something transcendent - a reason to be happy.

Jeff Goins

#80. You are a creator of content, a wizard of words. They need you. Act like it.

Jeff Goins

#81. When you are in doubt, just remember to drive toward water. You can always change directions once you get in the car.

Jeff Goins

#82. Treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention. - SETH GODIN

Jeff Goins

#83. When the right people advocate for your work, your success becomes more likely. Being good is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Skill is a prerequisite for creative success, but talent is only part of the equation. The rest is network.

Jeff Goins

#84. You are not just waiting on your calling; your calling is waiting on you.

Jeff Goins

#85. Excellence, then, is a matter of practice, not talent.

Jeff Goins

#86. The truth was much simpler. When do you become a writer? "When you say you are," he said. I

Jeff Goins

#87. More people are watching your life and ... are gaining strength in their own lives and in their own challenges because of what you're going through. I promise you: your life matters, your life is significant, and things are happening that you don't even fully understand yourself.

Jeff Goins

#88. It's time to stop waiting to be asked and start creating.

Jeff Goins

#89. Are you committed to the craft, or will you quit when it gets too hard?

Jeff Goins

#90. Life is not an inconvenience to the work we dream of; it's the reason we do it in the first place. A calling does not compete with or even complement your life.

Jeff Goins

#91. The challenge for any artist - and we are all creating something on the canvas of our lives - is to do our work well while letting go of the result.

Jeff Goins

#92. We can distract ourselves with pleasure for only so long before beginning to wonder what the point is.

Jeff Goins

#93. What you leave behind for posterity isn't a decision you make on your deathbed. It's a choice that happens right now with the resources available at this very moment.

Jeff Goins

#94. Sometimes failure is the best thing that can happen to you if you learn to listen to the lessons in it.

Jeff Goins

#95. Samuel didn't know God was speaking to him until his mentor Eli helped him understand what was happening.

Jeff Goins

#96. If you're trying to serve someone in need and it doesn't hurt a little, you're doing something wrong.

Jeff Goins

#97. We who were born into privilege and opportunity were given these gifts with an expectation: to give them away.

Jeff Goins

#98. But if you hear the call to make your life about more than you and what you can contribute, you will have peace, not anxiety, when facing mortality.

Jeff Goins

#99. The big moments are the tiny moments. The breakthroughs are often silent, and they happen in the most unassuming places.

Jeff Goins

#100. It's a choice, writing is. One that belongs to you and me. We get to choose it (or not) every single day. So whether or not the world hears your message - whether you leave the impact you were born to make - is entirely up to you.

Jeff Goins