Life-defining moments are everywhere in our lives, though often times we associate these moments to specific events. Things like achieving something after spending a year or more working on it. Or maybe things that cause a dramatic shift in our lives like travelling abroad, starting a business, or venturing into a new career path.
We think of life-defining moments as massive leaps in our lives, but I believe we make these changes every single day. At least in some fashion. The habits that we start doing stem from small actions that we performed for days without realizing it.
And from those small actions, we change our very way of life.
By the same logic, quotes can hold the same sort of power. They can encourage us to perform specific actions or have a particular mindset. By developing these values and principles, we further define who we are and understand ourselves.
Below are some quotes that are able to bring you closer to living a life that you’ve defined and that you’re happy with.
How To Express Yourself
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss
In the journey of exploring ourselves, one can be quick to realize that our actions and our views could be influenced by those around us. We don’t want to get people angry at us so we agree with them. We let ourselves be guided along by someone’s advice thinking they have a better understanding of our situation.
As someone who was looking for myself and aiming to define my life, I noticed how often I stumbled into those scenarios. In those moments, this quote would’ve been helpful to me.
It serves as a reminder. A reminder that the people you want in your life are those that accept you for who you are. The big question now is who do you wish to become?
Whom To Associate With
“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to level yourself up.” – Thomas J. Watson
On the same note as being around people who don’t mind who you are, it’s key that these people are doing things. For example, my friends back in high school were the types of people who did the same thing.
We all went to the same place, did the same activities, and didn’t strive for more. We were all comfortable to be around one another.
While we gravitate towards groups of people that make us feel this way, we tend to lose ourselves in those. From my experiences, I wasn’t able to properly express my own emotions or talk about difficult subjects until later in life. Part of the reason was my comfortable group of friends always suppressed emotions.
Instead, you want those that I spend time with now. My roommate is determined to finish school and pursue a career beyond a convenience store clerk. I have a personal trainer who is pushing me constantly to perform more. I’ve also been chatting with other members of the gym who have dreams and ambitions too.
There’s even my marketing team who is working hard on my business which encourages me to step up my business strategy.
These people are either directly or indirectly pushing me to step up my game in many aspects of my life. You want these kinds of people in your life. After all, these help you to define more about your life and where you want to go in life.
Life-Defining Way To View Excuses
“If you really want to do something you’ll find a way, if you don’t you’ll find an excuse.” – Jim Rohn
When you are looking to do something life-defining, it requires you to take action. The things that define your life will be the things that you go to achieve – however big or small they may be.
By that logic, if your goal is to find some identification in your life, you need to start changing your way of excuses. Why? Because no matter the opportunity to change your life, you’ve probably come up with an excuse.
I didn’t become a successful businessman in network marketing because I came up with excuses.
The same can be said about accounting as well. I created excuses to discourage myself from applying to jobs and trying to make it work.
I eventually became a writer because it was the first time I didn’t bog myself down with excuses.
As soon as you let go of excuses and focus on finding a way to make something work, it’ll eventually become part of your life. You can hold that same logic to working out. The reason so many people can’t exercise is they have so many excuses and can’t see themselves going to the gym.
Nine times out of ten, there is a silly excuse that’s holding you back from doing something.
Life-Defining Perspective
“You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.” – Anonymous
“Your life is your message to the world. Make sure it’s inspiring.” – Anonymous
The sad reality with life is that we only have this one life. Our actions and in-actions define the type of person we are. It’s the things that people will remember the most about us.
But the one thing that I love about life is that we are free to change these things while we are alive. It’s all a matter of taking different actions and seeing life in a different perspective.
If you want to define yourself, be in the mindset that you wish to do good and inspire people. It doesn’t always have to be as pure as my approach – writing to inspire others. You can allow yourself to inspire people in your own unique way.
Handling Obstacles & Challenges
““Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” ― Joshua J. Marine
“You cannot control everything that happens to you; you can only control the way you respond to what happens. In your response is your power.” – Anonymous
Taking actions in life are the things that will define who you are and will become over time. The more you indulge in those habits, the more they become part of your life.
But along the way, you’re going to run into obstacles or challenges. During those times, reminding yourself of these quotes can help you to push through them. They can also help you to realize that those tough moments are what also define you too.
Furthermore, pay attention to how you respond to your problems. Your overall approach to them also says a lot about who you are too.
Life-Defining Quote For Life Meaning
“Life is without meaning. You bring meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” – Joseph Campbell
“Whatever we are, whatever we make of ourselves, is all we will ever have – and that, in its profound simplicity, is the meaning of life.” – Philip Appleman
To further drive home that life-defining moments stem from actions I have these quotes to share. Even though I encourage people to strive for actions, you can use this quote to remind yourself that inaction is an option too.
Though I personally think of inaction as something temporary and not something you want to do long-term.
We’re all here for a purpose and we all have lessons to pass along in our ways to others that are within our circle of influence. How you define that is through your actions.
Life-Defining Gift
“The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.” – David Viscott
The last quote to help you with life-defining is about your gift. I’m not much of a religious guy, but I do believe that we all have some kind of unique talent. We all have this one thing that people can’t do like we can.
Writing is in the same sort of vein where one’s writing style isn’t the same. It’s usually a combination of several writing styles mashed together.
Anyway, if you want to be furthering your life and discovering who you are really are, it’s key for you to find your gift. Something that you know you can offer to those around you.
Finding something like that is no small task, but I find our gifts tend to spring out at various times throughout our lives. Sometimes it’s one thing, and in many cases there are several. The idea is to focus on one of those things and really make it your own.
Define Your Life
Your life is yours to be defining. How you go about that is entirely up to you. But through that process, you slowly begin to define and identify what kind of person you are. Knowing what that is will help you in identifying yourself.
And remember that even if you don’t quite like how you’re shaping up to be right now, you are allowed to change it. Life is malleable and we can change from a single decision.
To your growth!
Eric S Burdon