It’s always important to keep perspective and see the positive sides of a situation. But it’s just as important to embrace life’s obstacles — to lean into them and learn from them. As parents, we try to make our kids’ lives easier, but it also becomes clear pretty fast that preparing them for hardship and teaching them how to cultivate motivation to push through difficult times is even more important. Sometimes life sucks, and that’s okay. One way to help them learn this without bringing them down is to focus on the getting-through-it part, on staying motivated through struggle, and the reward that can come from a rough slog. These motivational quotes for kids from powerful thinkers (and parents) such as Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Atul Gawande are a good way to keep your children motivated, moving forward and pushing through whatever comes their way.
- “Better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try.” —Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal
- “Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.” —Michelle Obama
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” —Mark Twain
- “Nothing that’s worth anything is easy.” —Barack Obama
- “Trying to do it all and expecting it all can be done exactly right is a recipe for disappointment. Perfection is the enemy.” —Sheryl Sandberg
- “If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.” —Tom Hanks
- “Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.” —George Lucas
- “If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn’t anything you can’t do if you want to.” —Jim Henson
- “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” —Ruth Bader Ginsberg
- “Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.” —Mae Jemison
- “The best way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” —Walt Disney
- “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” —Henry Ford
- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” —Thomas Edison
- “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” —Lance Armstrong
- “You never fail until you stop trying.” —Albert Einstein
- “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” —Confucius
- “Dig deep to finish what you start. Because no matter how hard it feels to push through adversity at the time, once you’re done, you’ll own the experience for the rest of your life.”― Aaron Lauritsen
- “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.” — Henry Ford
- “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.” ― J.K. Rowling
- “Good words are worth much, and cost little.” ― George Herbert
- “Dream big and dare to fail.” — Norman Vaughan
- “Success is when preparation meets opportunity.” — Zig Ziglar
- “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!'”— Audrey Hepburn
Originally Published: www.fatherly.com