Personal Growth Quotes to Inspire and Motivate

Personal growth. Sometimes it comes easy for us and we barely need to make an effort to advance in our personal lives—whether that be our career, our integrity, our natural talents, or our character.

It’s as if we just take a beginning step and that first move that we make propels us forward. Other times, however, in our pursuit for personal growth we need some encouragement or words of wisdom to spur us on and feed our motivation.

May these personal growth quotes from iconic people and the narrative I’ve included with them provide you with the encouragement and wisdom to either get started or keep you advancing in your personal growth.

Personal Growth Quotes to Help You Advance

“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.” — Robin Sharma

Personal growth often comes at a cost. Yes, sometimes that cost is financial, such as when you’re paying tuition to learn at a university. But in this case I’m not talking so much about money when I refer to cost. I’m referring to all those intangibles that are part and parcel of growing.

Change requires getting out of one’s comfort zone. That’s hard. Why? Because we’re exchanging comfort for discomfort. The familiar with the unfamiliar. It often requires mental calisthenics—casting down the “what-ifs,” giving yourself a pep-talk, discerning lies from truth. Physical exercise can be hard, but mental calisthenics can be just as hard! Once that hurdle is jumped over, the middle comes along, and the middle can get messy. The middle, however, is where the real growth occurs.

If you’re a gymnast practicing a floor routine, the mess might be losing your balance, lack of gracefulness, or repeated falls. After all, growth comes from trial and error, practice, and learning from mistakes.

But then! After the messy middle comes the gorgeous end—something beautiful, fulfilling, and gratifying. In the case of the gymnast, it’s a floor routine exuding grace, every aerial move with a solid landing, and a gymnast experiencing an internal, glorious sense of mastery.

If you are in the beginning or middle stage of your personal growth journey, don’t give up by thinking that it’s too hard or too messy. These are normal stages as you navigate to the “gorgeous” part.

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for that which he has.” — Epictetus

Growth can be stunted by what we are focusing on and the type of attitude we have. If we visualize the growth process as us walking forward down a path, focusing on what we don’t have is analogous to rolling a giant heavy boulder in the very center of that path we’re on. It’s a major blockage to where we are trying to go and at minimum, it’s a time-consuming hindrance.

When only looking at what we don’t have, we end up stopping ourselves from embarking on a journey before ever getting started. Yes—that’s a pure set-up for grief, don’t you think? That wise man, though, sees what he does have and rejoices. Why? Because he knows he has something and as long as he has something, there is hope and possibility. Remember, all it takes is a spark to start a flame. So, I encourage you to check yourself and identify where your focus is and what your attitude is.

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” — Buddha

As mentioned earlier in this article, as we move forward in our quest for personal growth, things can get messy. And sometimes that mess comes in the form of someone making us angry. Maybe that person was careless, ruthless, or intentional in what they said or did to make us angry. Or perhaps it was just the opposite; completely unintentional or innocent on their part. Nonetheless, the result remained the same: anger on our part.

Anger that rises up and is felt by us is not so much the issue here. We didn’t ask to feel the anger—it just came. What is the issue, however, is whether we hold on to it. As Buddha so succinctly stated, when we do, we get burned (not the other person).

Holding on to anger hardens our spirit; translated, that means it can cause us to be cynical, jaded, less sensitive towards others, untrustworthy, and the list goes on. None of these things are helpful to us with regard to personal growth. Personal growth is much easier to attain when we are joyful, appreciative, calm people.

We can often be blinded to the effects that something can have in our lives — in this case, the effects of holding on to anger. Our mind can’t compute that holding on to anger could really be hurtful to us as opposed to the other person. That’s why personal growth quotes can be so helpful. They help us take a step back and look at the issue in a concrete way that helps us comprehend the reality of the matter in question.

If you think anger may be stunting your personal growth, don’t despair. It can be worked through. It may take some time and effort, but it is most certainly possible to move beyond unresolved anger.

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” — Carol Burnett

Oooooh . . . how nice would it be if we could delegate the responsibility for changes we want to see in ourselves to someone else? Carol wasn’t pussy-footing around, though, in speaking the truth—we are the only ones who can bring about the change we are wanting.

Others may be able to assist us, influence us, encourage us, but bottom-line, the impetus and the action must come from within. If you are wanting change, personal growth, a new start, but you are having difficulty doing that by yourself, please know that there are professional counselors who can help you achieve your goals. It is an admirable thing to want to grow on a personal level. Please don’t let the need for some support or assistance stop you from moving forward. God bless you!