Byrne Rhonda - Hero (The Secret)

MASTIN KIPP

Dreams are like a seed; it takes time to plant it. It doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve forgotten that we have to earn it. We’re in this instant gratification, give it to me now, and by the way, I don’t have to do anything for it, just give it to me. And dreams are earned. They’re earned. If it hasn’t happened yet, keep trying. Never, Never, Never Give Up

LAIRD HAMILTON

It’s too easy just to give up. Giving up is a cop-out. To go, “I’m old, I’m this, I’m that.” That’s just a disclaimer to not really put out the effort.

PETE CARROLL

If you feel like you’re done, then you are, because that’s hopeless. We don’t want to ever get to the point where we’re totally hopeless. There is always hope. To me, something good is always going to come your way.

LIZ MURRAY

Even if you get a rush of determination, you can still encounter a day where you want to give up. I got rejected quite a bit, to the point of almost depression. On one particular day, I’d been rejected for the millionth time, and I’m crossing off these schools and I’m getting to the bottom of the list, and I’m running out of any schools that would take me. I came to one moment where I had to make a choice. In my pocket I had enough money to either take the subway and go to the next school interview, or I could give up right there and I could go get a slice of pizza. Pizza or interview… which one? I just felt, “I’m homeless and hungry. They’re going to reject me.” All of a sudden the part of me that dreams thought, “What if that’s the school that lets me in?” I had to ditch the idea of the pizza and get on the subway and go to the school. And that was the school that let me in – that very next school. You never know when you’re about an inch away. You have to do it one more time. Even if the one more time didn’t work, then do it one more time.

You live in a world of duality, and so there are going to be both ups and downs. You will have experienced those days when for whatever reason you feel really down, and every simple thing feels like an effort, as though you’re wading through mud with every step. On those days you probably didn’t feel like you had very much or any determination.

You will also have experienced those days when you feel incredibly happy and energized, when you feel on top of the world, and like you can achieve anything. Well, that joyful, blissful feeling is one of the highest and most powerful human emotions you have, because with it you not only feel invincible, you are invincible. When you’re full of joy you are also full of determination, because from the perspective of joy, everything seems easy. Seek your joy – follow your bliss – and you will find all the determination you need to achieve your dream.

LAIRD HAMILTON

The journey itself will never be as you think. You have an idea of the destination, but you never know the route.

Many people give up on their dreams or don’t even begin to pursue them because from where they are standing they can’t see the whole path to their dream. You will never see the whole path ahead, and so you will never know how your dream is going to come true. No successful person has ever known how his or her dream would happen. They simply believed that it would happen, and did not give up until it had.

MASTIN KIPP

I never thought my life would look like it does now. I knew it would feel this way, but I never knew it would be this way.

The path to your dreams is like being in a labyrinth. All you can see is the next few feet ahead of you. You can’t see what’s around the next turn until you go around it, and then you see the next few feet after that. Sometimes there are dead ends and you have to turn back, and sometimes there are shortcuts that you stumble upon as if by magic and which accelerate your passage. The path to your dreams unfolds in exactly the same way.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

No one can see the whole way. You’ve just got to be willing to put your first foot forward and go on that journey.

MASTIN KIPP

The process of living your dreams is all about the adventure – to see what’s next. No one you look up to, no person who inspires you, started a journey with a certain outcome. They may have had an idea, intention, or end goal, but they had no idea how they were going to get there.

Being in a labyrinth is the very adventure you wanted to have. You didn’t want to see everything, know everything ahead, and be able to make your dreams come true with a snap of your fingers. You wanted the challenge of the journey, because only through overcoming the challenges would you have the real happiness and fulfillment that every human being is searching for.

ANASTASIA SOARE

There are things that will not work the way you put it down, and you have to be prepared through your strategy to change – to take another road. It’s like a labyrinth. You go and you find a dead-end. Well, you turn back and you find another one. But it will still take you to point Z to finish your dream.

When you are on the path to your dreams, a wall might suddenly appear, and you feel like you’ve hit a dead end and you’re finished. But just like being in a labyrinth, no matter how things appear, there is always another path you can take. When you know that the success of your dream is at the center of the labyrinth, you will not be in the least bit daunted by any unexpected twists and turns, because you will know that your success could be around the very next corner. And that’s exactly how dreams come true.

JOHN PAUL DEJORIA

Realize that it may not come all at one time, but if you really want something it’s a cinch by the inch, it’s hard by the yard. Little steps along the way.

LIZ MURRAY

I understand people are up against a lot. But even in circumstances of great constraint you can still do one thing. It’s like that Theodore Roosevelt quote, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” You can pick one thing and dedicate yourself to that, and even if it takes a long time, inch by inch and choice by choice you will carve out a new life for yourself. It doesn’t have to be the Hollywood, turn-on-a-dime, dramatic thing that happens. One Step at a Time

Along your journey, remind yourself that one step at a time is all you need to take. One step at a time is all you can ever take. And no matter where you find yourself or in what situation, you can always take one step. You can make yourself feel overwhelmed if you let your mind get carried away with all of the possibilities of what could be ahead. The path to your dream will never unfold in the way you think anyway, so just keep bringing yourself back to “one step at a time.” Those words helped me enormously when we were making The Secret film. When my dream seemed to be going way off the path that my human mind thought it should take, I brought myself back to just taking the next step, and by taking one step at a time, my dream came true.

LIZ MURRAY

If you think you can see every step you’re mistaken. That’s the mistake we make thinking we need to – or even that we could – control everything. My mother went to Narcotics Anonymous, and all these people do the serenity prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” And that is everything. I couldn’t bring my mother back. I could not change my father’s HIV diagnosis. I couldn’t control the weather. You could make a list of all the things you can’t control, and if you put your energy into those it’ll go to the wind. Instead, you say, “Okay, what can I do?”