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.

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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

“People will not bear it when advice is violently given, even if it is well founded. Hearts are flowers; they remain open to the softly falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain.”
– John Paul Richter

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heav’n of hell and a hell of a heav’n.”
– John Milton, poet

“It’s the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.”
– J. Willard Marriot

“Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”
– Mary Bethune, educator

“The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.”
– Henry Ford, carmaker

“It is not enough to fight. It is the spirit that we bring to the fight that decides the issue. It is morale that wins the victory.”
– George Marshall, general

“The most important thing about goals is… having one.”
– Geoffry F. Abert

“Without ambition, one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

“The majority of men meet with failure because (they don’t create) new plans to take the place of those that fail.”
– Napoleon Hill, motivational expert

“The barrier (to) success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.”
– Franklin Roosevelt, 32nd U.S. President

“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
– Donald Trump, Real Estate Magnate

“When you find yourself stressed, ask yourself one question: Will this matter five years from now? If yes, then do something about the situation. If no, then let it go.”
– Catherine Pulsifer, writer

“Once men are caught up in an event, they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery, aviator

“The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.”
– Plutarch, historian

“Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use.”
– Ruth Gordon, actress

“To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.”
– Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister

“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”
– Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, CEO

“When a man dies, if he can pass enthusiasm along to his children, he has left them an estate of incalculable value.”
– Thomas Edison, inventor

“It’s the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.”
– J. Willard Marriot

“If you don’t like the situation you’re in, you don’t have to settle for it. ”
– Macy Gray, Singer

“The ability to summon positive emotions during periods of intense stress lies at the heart of effective leadership.”
– Jim Loehr, psychologist

“Being miserable is a habit. Being happy is a habit. The choice is yours.”
– Tom Hopkins, sales trainer

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. president

“All glory comes from daring to begin.”
– Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor

“Believe you will be successful and you will.”
– Dale Carnegie, motivational speaker

“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”
– Malcolm Forbes, Publisher

“I’ve felt that dissatisfaction is the basis of progress. When we become satisfied in business, we become obsolete.”
– J. Willard Marriott Sr., hotel executive

“Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.”
– Erica Jong, Author

“The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

“Seek to do good and you will find that happiness will run after you.”
– James Freeman Clarke

“Long-range goals keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.”
– J.C. Penney, Retailer

“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.”
– Douglas MacArthur, General

“The making of friends who are real friends is the best token we have of a man’s success in life.”
– Edward Hale, theologian

“In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.”
– Hank Aaron, Baseball Player

“I have always been driven to buck the system, to innovate, to take things beyond where they’ve been.”
– Sam Walton, Wal-Mart founder

“The majority of men meet with failure because (they don’t create) new plans to take the place of those that fail.”
– Napoleon Hill, motivational expert

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
– William Faulkner, Author

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Related Content

• Index to Great Quotes
• Trivia Index

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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.

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“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
– Henry Ford, Industrialist

“My father taught me that reputation, not money, was the most important thing in the world.”
– William Rosenberg, Dunkin Donuts founder

“I think there’s a great beauty to having problems. That’s one of the ways we learn.”
– Herbie Hancock, musician

“Every time we’ve moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block and try something new.”
– Thomas J. Watson, executive

“He who hesitates is poor.”
– Mel Brooks, director

“I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.”
– Samuel Goldwyn, movie executive

“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.”
– Isaac Newton, scientist

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”
– Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder

“Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will and be judged by only one thing: the result.”
– Vince Lombardi, football coach

“We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.”
– Dwight Eisenhower, 34th U.S. president

“It’s no accident that things are more likely to go your way when you stop worrying about whether you’re going to win or lose, and focus all your full attention on what’s happening right at this moment.”
– Phil Jackson, basketball coach

“Investment decisions or personal decisions don’t wait for the picture to be clarified.”
– Andrew Grove, executive

“We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.”
– Buddha

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.”
– Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor

“Learning is not compulsory, but neither is survival.”
– W. Edwards Deming, quality expert

“If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.”
– Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Philosopher

“Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.”
– Henry Kissinger, secretary of state

“The one word that makes a good manager – decisiveness.”
– Lee Iacocca, Auto Executive

“The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself.”
– Bo Bennett, Author

“Not being in tune with your customers is like living in an alternate reality; the way you think your customers feel about your product is not always the same as what your customers really think about your product.”
– Bo Bennett, Author

“I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”
– John D. Rockefeller

“The greatest lesson of life is that you are responsible for your life.”
– Oprah Winfrey, talk show host

“I don’t believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.”
– Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. president

“It’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”
– Mario Andretti, Race Car Driver

“I have failed over and over again in my life. And that’s precisely why I succeed.”
– Michael Jordan, basketball player

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”
– Henry David Thoreau, Author

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who sought and found out how to serve.”
– Albert Schweitzer, Humanitarian

“Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.”
– Napolean Hill, Motivational Writer

“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.”
– Arnold Bennett, Novelist

“A good plan is like a road map: It shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.”
– H. Stanley Judd, Writer

“The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

“Without a compelling cause, our employees are just putting in time. Their minds might be engaged, but their hearts are not. Meaning precedes motivation.”
– Lee J. Colan

“You make the world a better place by making yourself a better person.”
– Scott Sorrell

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt, Former First Lady

“In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.”
– Robert Heinlein

“If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.”
– Bruce Barton, Author and Politician

“Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement.”
– Claude M. Bristol, Author

“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
– Henry David Thoreau, Author

“For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”
– John F. Kennedy, 35 President of the United States

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