There was a time when I lived as if nothing was fabulous, amazing or awesome. Now I live as if everything is. Jill Conyers

I believe in redefining my impossible. Nike

The task ahead of you is never greater than the strength within you. Unknown

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Action! Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson

There will come a point in the race, when you alone will need to decide.  You will need to make a choice.  Do you really want it?  You will need to decide.  Rolf Arands

This was the day I decided to stop beating myself up and taking away the glory that is finishing. Christie O

Because I know I gave everything means everything. Unknown

The real purpose in running isn’t to with a race, it’s to test the limits of the human heart. Bill Bowerman

Running has given me the courage to start, the determination to keep trying, and the childlike spirit to have fun along the way. Run often and run long, but never outrun your joy of running.  Julie Isphording

Do the work. Do the analysis. But feel your run. Feel your race. Feel the joy that is running. Kara Goucher

When thoughts become actions success is attainable. Unknown

If one could run without getting tired I don’t think one would often want to do anything else. C.S. Lewis

If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run. John Bingham

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish. Whatever it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get. Jim Rohn

Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be. George Sheehan

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. Stephen Brennan

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance. Unknown

Believe that you can run farther or faster. Believe that you’re young enough, old enough, strong enough, and so on to accomplish everything you want to do. Don’t let worn-out beliefs stop you from moving beyond yourself. John Bingham

You’re running on guts. On fumes. Your muscles twitch. You throw up. You’re delirious. But you keep running because there’s no way out of this hell you’re in, because there’s no way you’re not crossing the finish line. It’s a misery that non-runners don’t understand. Martine Costello

My friend, if I could give you one thing, I would give you the ability to see yourself as others see you … then you would realize what a truly special person you are. Barbara A. Billings

May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Unknown

You pretended the snooze button didn’t exist. You dragged your butt out of bed while others slept. While others ate their pancakes you had a feast of protein, glucose and electrolytes. You double-knotted. You left the porch light on and locked the door behind you. Unknown

You ran 5Ks, 10Ks, 26.2 miles. Some days more, some days less. You rewarded a long run with a short run. And a short run with a long run. Rain tried to slow you. Sun tried to microwave you. Snow made you feel like a warrior. Unknown

You cramped. You bonked. You paid no mind to comfort. On weekends. On holidays. You made excuses to keep going. Questioned yourself. Played mind games. Put your heart before your knees. Listened to your breathing. Sweat sunscreen into your eyes. Worked on your farmer’s tan. Unknown

You hit the wall. You went through it. You decided to be man about it. You decided to be woman about it. Finished what you started. Proved what you were made of. Just kept putting mile after mile on your interval odometer. For 25 years, you ran. And we ran with you. How much farther will we go? As far as you will.  Nike

You keep on concentrating on the things you wish you had, the things you wish you didn’t have and you sort of forget what you do have. Nick Vujicic

Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life. Brian Andreas

The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top. Herb Elliot

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow. Orison Marden

Everyday life is messy and chaotic and stressful and painful and wonderful and touching and beyond amazing. Ali Edwards

It is better to believe than disbelieve; in doing so you bring everything to the realm of possibility.  Albert Einstein

Photographs open the doors to the past but they also allow a look into the future.
Sally Mann

I have never taken a picture for any other reason than that at that moment it made me happy to do so.  Jacques-Henri Lartigue

It is health that is the real wealth and not pieces of gold. Mahatma Gandhi

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a  home, a stranger into a friend. Unknown

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Meattie

Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. Lou Holtz

You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face. Gatorade

Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started. Unknown

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. What the world needs is people who have come alive. Dr. Howard Thurman

Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are. Bernice Johnson Reagon

What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson

But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the  you you love, well, that’s just fabulous. Carrie – Sex and the City

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life brings us simple pleasures. It is up to us to make them wonderful memories. Unknown

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.  Mahatma Gandhi

You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.  Dr. Seuss

It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.  George Sheehan

Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth.  Mark Twain

Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.  Dean Karnazes

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s a day you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.  Margaret Thatcher

Always concentrate on how far you have come, rather than how far you have left to go. The difference in how easy it seems will amaze you.  Heidi Johnson

I was dead until you found me, though I breathed. I was sightless, though I could see. And then you came…and I was awakened.  J.R. Ward

A room without books is like a body without a soul.  Marcus Tullius Cicero

Our lives are a flood of images and we are collectors who keep a strange assortment of images: moments of extreme emotion, pain, beauty, and fear stand out. Events we’re taught to remember: weddings, graduations, births, deaths. Then there are the millions of images that we can’t shake out of our heads, that come to us at strange times – things we can’t remember why we remember: the gold threads in an old stereo speaker, the way the light hit a thousand cars in a parking lot by the water, the face of a stranger in a restaurant, a friend standing in a pool – you can’t remember where, slapping the water with the flat of her hand. Memory is a sieve that holds curious things. A life is a trail of strange, colorful memories. Risa Mickenberg

Language does have the power to change reality. Therefore, treat your words as the mighty instruments they are – to heal, to bring into being, to remove, as if by magic, the terrible violations of childhood, to nurture, to cherish, to bless, to forgive – to create from the whole cloth of your soul, true love.
Daphne Rose Kingma

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.  Jack Kerouac

Art should make you interested in life, not in art. Art is a by-product of living.  Michael Winters

Believing in yourself is not just for you; it’s for every person who has touched your life in a significant way and for every person your life will touch the same way five minutes from now, or five centuries from now.  Jaye Miller

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children. Pablo Casals

Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that’s why I made works of art.  Felix Gonzalez-Torres

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony. William Henry Channing

Allow Events to Change You: You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them. Bruce Mau, designer  (from ”An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth”)

It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. Mahatma Ghandi

Learn to write about the ordinary. Give homage to old coffee cups, sparrows, city buses, thin ham sandwiches. Make a list of everything ordinary you can think of. Keep adding to it. Promise yourself, before you leave the earth, to mention everything on your list at least once in a poem, short story, newspaper article. Nathalie Goldberg

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Steve Jobs

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions—the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Every day, passion speaks to us through our feelings. that’s why when you allow yourself to become anesthetized by what others think, you literally block yourself from living the life you were called to live. I promise you that if you make a choice that doesn’t please your mate, your friends, your mother, or whoever, the world will not fall apart — the people who truly love you want you to love yourself. and as you become clearer about who you really are, you’ll be better able to decide what is best for you — the first time around.  Oprah Winfrey

Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air – explode softly – and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth – boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either – not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with their imagination. Robert Fulghum

The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt. Leo Buscaglia

This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind… let it be something good. Unknown

To awaken each morning with a smile brightening my face; to greet the day with reverence for the opportunities it contains; to approach my work with a clean mind; to hold ever before me, even in the doing of little things, the ultimate purpose toward which I am working; to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart; to be gentle, kind, and courteous through all the hours; to approach the night with weariness that ever woos sleep and the joy that comes from work well done – this is how I desire to waste wisely my days. Thomas Dekker

How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment, we can start now, start slowly changing the world! How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make their contribution toward introducing justice straightaway… And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness! Anne Frank

Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, ‘Did you bring joy?’ The second was, ‘Did you find joy? Dr. Leo Buscaglia

Every morning is a fresh beginning. Every day is the world made new. Today is a new day. Today is my world made new. I have lived all my life up to this moment, to come to this day. This moment – this day – is as good as any moment in all eternity. I shall make of this day – each moment of this day – a heaven on earth. This is my day of opportunity. Dan Custer

This bright, new day… complete with 24 hours of opportunities, choices, and attitudes… a perfectly matched set of 1440 minutes.This unique gift, this one day, cannot be exchanged, replaced or refunded. Handle with care. Make the most of it. There is only one to a customer. Unknown

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Earl Nightingale

Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.  Lao Tzu

...but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less. Anna Quindlen

Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth.”  Mark Twain

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.  Mahatma Gandhi

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Maya Angelou

The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at. Jesse Owens

We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort. Jesse Owens

Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer. Percy Cerutty