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Quotes and Verses to Kickstart 2024

The first week of 2024 has already come and gone. How is your new year starting out? If you were one of the many making New Year's Resolutions, would you still feel empowered and ready to achieve those promises you made to yourself? If you haven't done so yet, you might like reading 10 Steps to Sticking with Your New Year's Resolution.

Whether or not you regularly make resolutions to begin the year, it is still a great opportunity to leave the baggage behind on the carousel of the past, grab new luggage, and set your sights on a brand-new destination. 

A new outlook and the willingness to believe in a better you are the only requirements to start this trip. A strong mind and sound discipline are the day passes needed to visit and enjoy all the beautiful ports of call along the way.

How far do you want to go? How high is the mountain top you wish to scale? Before the first set of rough waves dampens your spirits, I want to give you some quotes and bible verses I've chosen for the new year that will help you calm the seas and face the obstacles that lie ahead.

Strengthen your mind and your resolve with positive affirmations so that you stay the course. The most beautiful of destinations often take some effort to reach. Don't give up. The view you're looking for maybe just over the next horizon.

Quotes and Verses to Kickstart 2024

"The way I look at it, every day that I'm moving forward is a day I'm not moving backward."

-Bobby Bones

"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness."

-Allen Ginsberg

"And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that never have been."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

"The most important step a man can take. It's not the first one, is it? It's the next one. Always the next step."

-Brandon Sanderson

"You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, love like you'll never be hurt, sing like there's nobody listening, and live like it's heaven on earth."

-William W. Purkey

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." 

-Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

"I hope you realize that every day is a fresh start for you. That every sunrise is a new chapter in your life waiting to be written."

-Juansen Dizon

"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."

-Carl Jung

"The tighter you cling to your current identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it."

-James Clear

"Find your place on the planet. Dig in and take responsibility from there."

-Gary Snyder

"The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power."

-Mary Pickford

"Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." 

-Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

-Abraham Lincoln

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

-John Lennon

"You have within you, right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you."

-Brian Tracy

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

-Khalil Gibran

"Get busy living or get busy dying."

-Stephen King

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." 

-Lamentations 3:22 ESV

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?"

-Charles Bukowski

"What is coming is better than what is gone."

-Arabic Proverb

"The future starts today, not tomorrow."

-Pope John Paul II

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new."

-Dan Millman

"And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great." 

-Job 8:7

"You have those moments where you reflect and say, 'No matter what I'm going through at the moment, you know what? Life ain't bad.'"

-Dwyane Wade

"Whatever it is you're scared of doing, do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever."

-Neil Gaiman

"A person can change his future by merely changing his attitude."

-Earl Nightingale

"Be the person your dog thinks you are."

-Ricky Gervais

"To help yourself, you must be yourself. Be the best that you can be. When you make a mistake, learn from it, pick yourself up and move on."

-Dave Pelzer

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." 

-Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

"Accept right now that you are magnificent. Being your real, true, authentic self is what's most awesome about you."

-Gabby Bernstein

"To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself."

-Bindi Irwin

"The best way to predict your future is to create it."

-Peter Drucker

"You cannot change your future. But you can change your habits. And surely your habits will change your future."

-A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." 

-Isaiah 40:31

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game."

-Babe Ruth

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come."

-Joseph Campbell

"There are more people doing good stuff and moving us forward than there are people sowing division. I surround myself with people who have faith."

-Maria Shriver

"I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will."

-Clint Eastwood

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

-Steve Jobs

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." 

-Philippians 4:6 ESV

"You are you. Now, isn't that pleasant?"

-Dr. Seuss

"So whatever you want to do, just do it...Making a damn fool of yourself is absolutely essential."

-Gloria Steinem

"Always remember that the future comes one day at a time."

-Dean Acheson

"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."

-Victor Hugo

"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things."

-Albert Einstein

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" 

-Romans 8:31 ESV

"The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything."

-Frank Sinatra

"Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise."

-Kobe Bryant

"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or the life of another."

-Helen Keller

"Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about."

-Marilyn Monroe

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

-Michael Jordan

"You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance." 

-Psalm 65:11 ESV

"I think the more unexpected something is, the more there is to learn from it."

-Michael J. Fox

"Whenever it feels uncomfortable to tell the truth, that's often the most important time to tell it."

-Jennifer Lopez

"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice."

-T.S. Eliot

"Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas."

-Charles Kettering

"There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind."

-C.S. Lewis

"The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts." 

-Haggai 2:9 ESV

"If you can do what you do best and be happy, you're further along in life than most people."

-Leonardo DiCaprio

"It is better to hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."

-Andre Gide

"Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else."

-Judy Garland

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

-Mae West

"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears."

-Les Brown

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:" 

-Ecclesiastes 3:1

"Life is short, and it is here to be lived."

-Kate Winslet

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

-Anais Nin

"Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve."

-Mary Kay Ash

"Each day is a new beginning, the chance to do with it what should be done and not to be seen as simply another day to put in time."

-Catherine Pulsifer

"I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine."

-Neil Armstrong

"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable."

-Mary Oliver

"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it on my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead." 

-Philippians 3:13

"Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over, she became a butterfly."

-Unknown

Final Thoughts on the New Year

To resolution or not to resolution, that is the question. But whether you make resolutions or set goals, your life deserves a plan. This life you're living is not a practice run. You get one shot to make the best of it. There won't be any do-overs.

The future will arrive regardless of your preparation, but you can greatly affect it depending on what you do here and now. The habits you form and the actions you take today create your tomorrows so please wisely use your time.

I believe in you, now you believe in you. Toss aside all the reasons you can't succeed and take the first step toward the life you dream of.

It's never too late. I read an article this week that gives a perfect example.

According to Guinness World Records, a 92-year-old man named Alfredo Aliaga Burdio, just broke the world record for the oldest person to hike the Grand Canyon from rim to rim. Alfredo completed the 24-mile trek in less than 24 hours last October.

I hope that story inspires you the way that it did me. I admire people pushing their limits no matter their age. 

I hope this story and the quotes and verses above inspire you to work hard to achieve your dreams. Just don't forget to appreciate the present every step of the way.

Skip the Quit!

Now go live your best life,

Dan