Maeve A Olson > Maeve's Quotes

“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do.

At the end of hours of train-dreaming, we may feel we have been returned to ourselves - that is, brought back into contact with emotions and ideas of importance to us. It is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestice setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, but who may not be who we essentially are.

If we find poetry in the service station and motel, if we are drawn to the airport or train carriage, it is perhaps because, in spite of their architectural compromises and discomforts, in spite of their garish colours and harsh lighting, we implicitly feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world.”
― Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel

“Every broken heart has one time or another asked, "What is important to me now?”
― Shannon L. Alder

“The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve.
Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An
important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative
thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will
change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you
to stay where they are. Friends that don't help you climb will want you to
crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that
don't increase you will eventually decrease you.

Consider this:
Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems
with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who
never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has
a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the
bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don't follow anyone
who's not going anywhere.

With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it. Be careful
where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life. Wise is the
person who fortifies his life with the right friendships. If you run with
wolves, you will learn how to howl. But, if you associate with eagles, you
will learn how to soar to great heights.
"A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the
kind of friends he chooses."

The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you
closely associate - for the good and the bad.

Note: Be not mistaken. This is applicable to family as well as friends.
Yes...do love, appreciate and be thankful for your family, for they will
always be your family no matter what. Just know that they are human first
and though they are family to you, they may be a friend to someone else and
will fit somewhere in the criteria above.

"In Prosperity Our Friends Know Us. In Adversity We Know Our friends."

"Never make someone a priority when you are only an option for them."
"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things,you develop the habit in little matters.
Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.."..”
― Colin Powell

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
― Mark Twain

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
― Confucious

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
― Maya Angelou

“I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.”
― Maya Angelou

“There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.”
― Maya Angelou

“When you learn, teach, when you get, give.”
― Maya Angelou

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
― Nelson Mandela

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

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
― Robert Frost

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”
― Elbert Hubbard

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

“I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.”
― George Washington

“Few things will pay you bigger dividends in life than the time and trouble you take to understand people and build relationships. As”
― John C. Maxwell, Good Leaders Ask Great Questions: Your Foundation for Successful Leadership

“There are no perfect leaders.”
― Max McKeown, Adaptability: The Art of Winning In An Age of Uncertainty

“Don’t strive to be a well-rounded leader. Instead, discover your zone and stay there. Then delegate everything else.

Admitting a weakness is a sign of strength. Acknowledging weakness doesn’t make a leader less effective.

Everybody in your organization benefits when you delegate responsibilities that fall outside your core competency. Thoughtful delegation will allow someone else in your organization to shine. Your weakness is someone’s opportunity.

Leadership is not always about getting things done “right.” Leadership is about getting things done through other people.

The people who follow us are exactly where we have led them. If there is no one to whom we can delegate, it is our own fault.

As a leader, gifted by God to do a few things well, it is not right for you to attempt to do everything. Upgrade your performance by playing to your strengths and delegating your weaknesses.

There are many things I can do, but I have to narrow it down to the one thing I must do. The secret of concentration is elimination.

Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing.

My competence in these areas defines my success as a pastor.

A sixty-hour workweek will not compensate for a poorly delivered sermon. People don’t show up on Sunday morning because I am a good pastor (leader, shepherd, counselor).

In my world, it is my communication skills that make the difference. So that is where I focus my time.

To develop a competent team, help the leaders in your organization discover their leadership competencies and delegate accordingly.

Once you step outside your zone, don’t attempt to lead. Follow.

The less you do, the more you will accomplish.

Only those leaders who act boldly in times of crisis and change are willingly followed.

Accepting the status quo is the equivalent of accepting a death sentence. Where there’s no progress, there’s no growth. If there’s no growth, there’s no life. Environments void of change are eventually void of life. So leaders find themselves in the precarious and often career-jeopardizing position of being the one to draw attention to the need for change. Consequently, courage is a nonnegotiable quality for the next generation leader.

The leader is the one who has the courage to act on what he sees.

A leader is someone who has the courage to say publicly what everybody else is whispering privately. It is not his insight that sets the leader apart from the crowd. It is his courage to act on what he sees, to speak up when everyone else is silent. Next generation leaders are those who would rather challenge what needs to change and pay the price than remain silent and die on the inside.

The first person to step out in a new direction is viewed as the leader. And being the first to step out requires courage. In this way, courage establishes leadership.

Leadership requires the courage to walk in the dark. The darkness is the uncertainty that always accompanies change. The mystery of whether or not a new enterprise will pan out. The reservation everyone initially feels when a new idea is introduced. The risk of being wrong.

Many who lack the courage to forge ahead alone yearn for someone to take the first step, to go first, to show the way. It could be argued that the dark provides the optimal context for leadership. After all, if the pathway to the future were well lit, it would be crowded.

Fear has kept many would-be leaders on the sidelines, while good opportunities paraded by. They didn’t lack insight. They lacked courage.

Leaders are not always the first to see the need for change, but they are the first to act.

Leadership is about moving boldly into the future in spite of uncertainty and risk.

You can’t lead without taking risk. You won’t take risk without courage. Courage is essential to leadership.”
― Andy Stanley, Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future

“Leaders instill courage in the hearts of those who follow. This rarely happens through words alone. It generally requires action. It goes back to what we said earlier: Somebody has to go first. By going first, the leader furnishes confidence to those who follow.

As a next generation leader, you will be called upon to go first. That will require courage. But in stepping out you will give the gift of courage to those who are watching.

What do I believe is impossible to do in my field, but if it could be done would fundamentally change my business?

What has been done is safe. But to attempt a solution to a problem that plagues an entire industry - in my case, the local church - requires courage.

Unsolved problems are gateways to the future. To those who have the courage to ask the question and the tenacity to hang on until they discover or create an answer belongs the future.

Don’t allow the many good opportunities to divert your attention from the one opportunity that has the greatest potential. Learn to say no. There will always be more opportunities than there is time to pursue them.

Leaders worth following are willing to face and embrace current reality regardless of how discouraging or embarrassing it might be.

It is impossible to generate sustained growth or progress if your plan for the future is not rooted in reality.

Be willing to face the truth regardless of how painful it might be. If fear causes you to retreat from your dreams, you will never give the world anything new.

it is impossible to lead without a dream. When leaders are no longer willing to dream, it is only a short time before followers are unwilling to follow.

Will I allow my fear to bind me to mediocrity?

Uncertainty is a permanent part of the leadership landscape. It never goes away.

Where there is no uncertainty, there is no longer the need for leadership. The greater the uncertainty, the greater the need for leadership. Your capacity as a leader will be determined by how well you learn to deal with uncertainty.

My enemy is not uncertainty. It is not even my responsibility to remove the uncertainty. It is my responsibility to bring clarity into the midst of the uncertainty.

As leaders we can afford to be uncertain, but we cannot afford to be unclear. People will follow you in spite of a few bad decisions. People will not follow you if you are unclear in your instruction. As a leader you must develop the elusive skill of leading confidently and purposefully onto uncertain terrain.

Next generation leaders must fear a lack of clarity more than a lack of accuracy. The individual in your organization who communicates the clearest vision will often be perceived as the leader. Clarity is perceived as leadership.

Uncertainty exposes a lack of knowledge. Pretending exposes a lack of character. Express your uncertainty with confidence.

You will never maximize your potential in any area without coaching. It is impossible.

Self-evaluation is helpful, but evaluation from someone else is essential. You need a leadership coach.

Great leaders are great learners. God, in His wisdom, has placed men and women around us with the experience and discernment we often lack.

Experience alone doesn’t make you better at anything. Evaluated experience is what enables you to improve your performance.

As a leader, what you don’t know can hurt you. What you don’t know about yourself can put a lid on your leadership. You owe it to yourself and to those who have chosen to follow you to open the doors to evaluation. Engage a coach.

Success doesn’t make anything of consequence easier. Success just raises the stakes. Success brings with it the unanticipated pressure of maintaining success. The more successful you are as a leader, the more difficult this becomes. There is far more pressure at the top of an organization than you might imagine.”
― Andy Stanley

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”
― Norman Vincent Peale

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
― Norman Vincent Peale

“I finally figured out that not every crisis can be managed. As much as we want to keep ourselves safe, we can't protect ourselves from everything. If we want to embrace life, we also have to embrace chaos.”
― Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Breathing Room

“Losing your head in a crisis is a good way to become the crisis.”
― C.J. Redwine, Defiance

“It is refreshing, and salutary, to study the poise and quietness of Christ. His task and responsibility might well have driven a man out of his mind. But He was never in a hurry, never impressed by numbers, never a slave of the clock.”
― J. B. Phillips

“It is better to be alone than in bad company.”
― George Washington

“People do not seem to realise that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
― Plato

“Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.”
― Ann Landers