The manner in which an author chooses to quote others can be intriguing. Why did he choose this particular quote? Did he agree with the quote or was he using it to make a comparison? Why quote this person instead of someone else? The answers to all of these questions, and many others, can be fascinating.

The quotes below come from Wayne Cordeiro’s book Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion. Cordeiro pastors the largest church in Hawaii. That might seem like the perfect place to relax and enjoy ministry, but after thirty years at the helm he was burned out and ready to quit. In Leading on Empty he shares what he learned on the path back to a focused, balanced, joyous life.

__________

I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.
~ Mother Teresa

I am told that God loves me—and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.
~ Mother Teresa

Succeeding in business and failing at home is a cop-out. For no success in the workplace will ever make up for failure at home.
~ Howard Hendricks

To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious.
~ Samuel Butler

It is the space between the notes that makes the music.
~ Noah Benshea

Quietude, which some men cannot abide because it reveals their inward poverty, is as a palace of cedar to the wise, for along its hallowed courts the King in His beauty deigns to walk.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the Book widens and deepens with our years.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The ministry is a matter which wears the brain and strains the heart, and drains out the life of a man if he attends to it as he should.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

As sure as God puts His children in the furnace He will be in the furnace with them.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Fiery trials make golden Christians.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I wonder how much more effective our churches would be if we made the pastor’s spiritual health—not the pastor’s efficiency—our number one priority.
~ Philip Yancey

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
~ Michael Jordan

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
~ John Powell

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.
~ William Hazlitt

When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.
~ May Sarton

Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.
~ Corrie Ten Boom

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Write you injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Energy and persistence conquer all things.
~ Benjamin Franklin

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.
~ Benjamin Franklin

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Those things that hurt, instruct.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
~ William James

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kites rise highest against the wind—not with it.
~ Winston Churchill

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
~ Winston Churchill

Never, never, never give up! And never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.
~ Winston Churchill

Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.
~ Winston Churchill

There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened, and maintained.
~ Winston Churchill

The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
~ Winston Churchill

We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them.
~ Charles C. West

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
~ Helen Keller

I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.
~ Helen Keller

To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.
~ j. Willard Marriott

What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.
~ J. Sidlow Baxter

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up.
~ Anne Lamott

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
~ Epicurus

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.
~ Moliere

The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
~ Allan K. Chalmers

Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.
~ Bill Cosby

It is important to become aware that at every moment of our life we have an opportunity to choose joy . . . . It is in the choice that our true freedom lies, and that freedom is, in the final analysis, the freedom to love.
~ Henri Nouwen

The happiest people I know are the ones who have learned how to hold everything loosely and have given the worrisome, stress-filled, fearful details of their lives into God’s keeping.
~ Charles Swindoll

God gave burdens, also shoulder.
~ Yiddish saying

I seem forsaken and alone, I hear the lion roar; and every door is shut but one, and that is Mercy’s door.
~ William Cowper

Sorrow comes to all . . . . Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better and yet you are sure to be happy again.
~ Abraham Lincoln

I am the most miserable man living . . . . Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not.
~ Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to John T. Stuart, January 23, 1841

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering.
~ Ben Okri

It is in the quiet crucible of your personal, private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born and God’s greatest gifts are given in compensation for what you have been through.
~ Wintley Phipps

Adrenaline arousal can be compared to revving up a car engine, then leaving it to idle at high speed.
~ Archibald D. Hart, in The Hidden Link Between Adrenaline and Stress

Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life—learn some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
~ Robert Fulghum

God will one day hold us accountable for all the things He created for us to enjoy, but we refused to do so.
~ rabbinic saying

I find that doing the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.
~ George MacDonald

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

Whatever the struggle, continue the climb. It may be only one step to the summit.
~ Diane Westlake

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
~ Thomas Edison

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seem to be no hope at all.
~ Dale Carnegie

There is no failure except in no longer trying.
~ Elbert Hubbard

To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.
~ A. W. Tozer

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
~ Alexander Graham Bell.

You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Where are you now?… Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.
~ Anthony Robbins

By: Brian Tracy

Many years ago a retiring executive gave me an old pamphlet he had carried throughout his career. It was entitled, “Take Time Out for Mental Digestion.”

He told me that this little pamphlet had been one of the most helpful things he had ever read in his business life. At the time I spoke to him he was the president of a corporation with more than 10,000 employees.

The message of this pamphlet was simple. It said that people always resist new ideas and new courses of action, even if the ideas are good for them. However, if they have an opportunity to think about them for a few days, very often they will come around to the new way of thinking with both agreement and enthusiasm.

The pamphlet said that an individual needs about 72 hours to absorb a new idea. Effective executives are those who present their ideas in very casual way, rather than as a decision or a fact engraved in stone. They present their thoughts as ideas for consideration. Effective executives encourage the other person to take the new idea or new way of doing things and think about it for a few days. They say that “we can discuss this later” and they just leave the idea with the other person.

Over the years, I have found this to be a remarkable piece of advice and a very important insight to communicating effectively with others.

People Will Resist Change
It is normal and natural for people to resist change of any kind, even and including a change that they will benefit from. So, allow them to take time out for mental digestion. Present your new idea in a low keyed, non-threatening way and just encourage the individual to think about it for a while and then discuss it later.

Present Ideas As Possibilities
In my early executive career, I was continually frustrated by trying to get my ideas, which I had thought through and which I, of course, thought were wonderful, accepted by my seniors and my co-workers.

When I started taking time out for mental digestion and just presented my ideas as possibilities, I was astonished at how much more readily people turned around and came to see the validity of the ideas. I also found that, if you present an idea with too much enthusiasm, you trigger natural resistance which soon becomes ego-based, irrespective of the validity of the ideas.

Present Ideas in a Low-Keyed Manner
On the other hand, if you present your ideas in a low-keyed manner and just leave them for consideration, people can come around to accepting them in their own time and embracing your new ideas without any loss of face or without any ego problems.

The next time you have a great idea, mention it casually and ask other people what they think about it. Give people time to digest the idea, even if they are totally opposed to it at the beginning.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to use this principle in practice.

First, think your ideas through on paper before you present them to others. Expect natural resistance. When you do present your ideas, do it in a low keyed, almost indifferent manner so that it stirs up no resistance.

Second, expect your ideas to be rejected initially. When this happens, simply ask open ended questions to get feedback and then present your ideas again at a later time in a different form. It is amazing how effective this strategy will be.

By: Brian Tracy

The one quality that all leaders have in common is that they have a clear and exciting vision for the future. This is something that only the leader can do. Only the leader can think about the future and plan for the future each day.

Take the Time to Think

Excellent leaders take the time to think through and develop a clear picture of where they want the organization to be in one, three and five years. Leaders have the ability to communicate this vision in such a way that others “buy in” and eventually see the vision as belonging to them.

Motivate People to Give of Their Best

It is the vision of the future possibilities, of what can be, that arouses emotion and motivates people to give of their best. The most powerful vision is always qualitative, aimed at and described in terms of values and mission rather than quantitative, which is described in terms of money and numbers.

Money is Important

Of course, money is important, but the decision and commitment to “be the best in the business” is far more exciting.

Keep Your Cool

Another key to leadership success is for you to “keep your cool.” A study at Stanford Business School examined the qualities that companies look for in promoting young managers toward senior executive positions, especially the position of Chief Executive Officer. The study concluded that the two most important qualities required for great success were, first, the ability to put together and function as part of a team. Since all work is ultimately done by teams, and the managers’ output is the output of the team, the ability to select team members, set objectives, delegate responsibility and finally, get the job done, was central to success in management.

Practice is Everything

The second quality required for rapid promotion was found to be the ability to function well under pressure, and especially in a crisis. Keeping your cool in a crisis means to practice patience and self-control under difficult or disappointing circumstances.

People Are Watching

The character and quality of a leader is often demonstrated in these critical moments under fire, when everyone is watching, observing and privately taking notes. As Rudyard Kipling once said, “If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, then the world is yours and all that’s in it”.

Your job as a leader is to have a clear vision of where you want to go and then to keep your cool when things go wrong, as they surely will.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, project forward 3-5 years and imagine your ideal future vision. What does it look like? What steps can you take immediately to begin turning your future vision into your current reality?

Second, resolve in advance that, no matter what happens, you will remain calm and cool. You will not become upset or angry. You will take a deep breath and focus on the solution rather than on the problem.

__________

Advice for setting and keeping your New Year resolutions . . .

“Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.”
~ Thomas J. Watson Sr.

“I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success, but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.”
~ Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State

* * *

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
~ Dale Carnegie

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
~ St. Francis of Assisi

Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you’re not giving it all you’ve got.”
– Larry Bird