Are you looking to boost your motivation and develop ways to foster more for your work?
There’s nothing worse than understanding what you have to do to accomplish a goal or objective but not having the oomph to do it.
It can make you feel like you’ve lost all spark for your work or it can turn even small tasks into insurmountable mountains. This is something that affects us all but especially impacts our professional lives.
Why You Should Read Motivation Quotes for Work
Motivation is a tricky, ephemeral thing – there’s no go-to strategy that will fix all your motivational issues. Depending on your personality or the situation you’re in what worked once can totally backfire.
For example, if you’re procrastinating then the best bet is to just jump in and start. However, if you’ve been working on something for a long time then forcing yourself to output more may work in the short term but you risk complete burnout and morale loss in the future.
Motivation for work requires us to analyze the situation and start looking at what the biggest priorities are. It requires developing a strategy that enables you to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.
This is why organizations that have clear, understandable missions that ignite the passions of their workforce can achieve outstanding success.
Sometimes we demotivate ourselves because instead of focusing on delivering the best we can do today, we compare to what someone else is doing or to some imagined ideal.
Motivation is often about understanding yourself and being in tune with your emotions and thoughts. The language surrounding motivation is almost like listening to a weightlifter psyche themselves up before deadlifting twice their body weight.
However, this creates a mindset that is very counterproductive in the long term – motivation is not forced, it’s nurtured. Motivation is about working smarter and not harder!
95 Motivational Quotes for Work to Boost Your Productivity
- “Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of—that’s the metric to measure yourself against. Your standards are. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.” – Ryan Holiday
- “If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” – Banksy, artist
- “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.” – Joyce Brothers
- “We can’t take any credit for our talents. It’s how we use them that counts.” – Madeleine L’Engle
- “We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.” – John Newton
- “Be sure when you step, step with care and great tact. And remember that life is a great balancing act.” – Dr. Seuss
- “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
- “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
- “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
- “Don’t aim for success if you want it, just do what you love and believe in and it will come naturally.” – David Frost
- “Life is a balance between holding on and letting go.” – Rumi
- “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” – Lucille Ball
- “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Neil Gaiman
- “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” – Harry Golden
- “I’m not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey
- “I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.” – Maya Angelou
- “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.” – Henry Ford
- “You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” – Charles Buxton
- “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius
- “You will never always be motivated, so you must learn to be disciplined.” – Unknown
- “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
- “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie
- “There is no such thing as work-life balance. It is all life. The balance has to be within you.” – Sadhguru
- “Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” – Thomas Jefferson
- “Motivation may be what starts you off, but it’s habit that keeps you going back for more.” – Miya Yamanouchi
- “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
- “Success only comes to those who dare to attempt.” – Mallika Tripathi
- “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” – Stephen Covey
- “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” – Robin Williams
- “Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki
- “Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you someone who has never achieved much.” – Joan Collins
- “It’s not what you say out of your mouth that determines your life, it’s what you whisper to yourself that has the most power.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki
- “Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right.” – Walt Disney
- “As long as they are well-intentioned, mistakes are not a matter of shame, but for learning.” – Margaret Heffernan
- “Fall 7 times, stand up 8.” – Japanese Proverb
- “Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.” – Leonardo Da Vinci
- “If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off… no matter what they say.” – Barbara McClintock
- “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Denis Waitley
- “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
- “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
- “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
- “Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.” – Arthur Christopher Benson
- “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
- “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville
- “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” – Helen Hayes
- “The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” – Mike Murdock
- “Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.” – Gertrude B. Elion
Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.” – Gertrude B. Elion
- “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.” – Peter Marshall
- “What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “If you are not growing, you are dying.” – Tony Robbins
- “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” – Charles Darwin
- “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela
- “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.” – Tina Fey
- “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson
- “Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.” – Tony Robbins
- “Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That's what you do when life is short.” – Paul Graham
- “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson
- “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote
- “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie
- “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
- “Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.” – Nikola Tesla
- “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers
- “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.” – Charlie Munger
- “Everything is hard before it is easy.” – Goethe
- “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” – Richard Branson
- “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.” – Anne Lamott
- “A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.” – Sonia Sotomayor
- ”Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.” – Brian Tracy
- “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
- “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” – William Faulkner
- “Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.” – Cheryl Strayed
- “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
- “If it makes you nervous, you’re doing it right.” – Childish Gambino
- “Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” – Peter Drucker
- “If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti
- “There is no traffic jam along the extra mile.” – Roger Staubach
- “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” – Conan O’Brien
- “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” – Dolly Parton
- “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” – Muhammad Ali
- “If you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your path.” – Buddha
- “Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat is accepted as a reality.” – Bruce Lee
- “Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.” – Cormac McCarthy
- “Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well as now.” – Margaret Fuller
- “The more I want to get something done the less I call it work.” – Richard Bach
- “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
- “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates
- “Strength shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.” – Thomas Aquinas
- “Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there.” – Haile Gebrselassie
- Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress: Working hard for something we love is called passion.” – Simon Sinek
- “Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart
- “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London
Final Thoughts on Motivational Quotes for Work
Motivating yourself for hard work is something that every man, woman, child, and human has to do. The struggles are as much a part of life as the triumphs, and taking the time to learn how to motivate yourself is an incredibly rewarding journey to take.
For more on motivation, check out how to get motivated: the science of achievement through motivation.
And if you want more motivational quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- 55 Motivational Exercise Quotes to Inspire Your Next Workout
- 71 Tony Robbins Motivational Quotes on Life, Love & Leadership
- 77 Motivational Teamwork Quotes for Work in 2023
Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then watch this free video that details the 7-minute habit for planning your day to focus on what's truly important to you..
Tom Smith is a creative writer with over 6 years of professional experience. He discovered the joy of writing after covering some furniture in his childhood home with graffiti. In later years, he got himself a BA in creative writing and hasn’t looked back. After discovering the power of positive thinking and discovering the spiritual side of life, he believes it's a huge privilege to be able to write about all things personal development.
