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Molly Struve (she/her)
Molly Struve (she/her)

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What's your goto motivational quote?

Yesterday was one of those days...

By the end of the day I was stressed and crabby. Usually when this happens, I like to reach for a quote to help put things back into perspective. Yesterday I remembered this one that my cousin, who works in hospice, shared with me.

When I'm stressed I try to remember something a patient much too young told me right before he died. He said that he missed being stressed and when I asked why, he stated "Being stressed means that you have a purpose. That you are needed and relied on."

Obviously, that straightened me out real quick. Another one of my favorite quotes, which is a little more light, is the one in the cover image! What's your favorite goto quote when you need a pick me up?!

Top comments (60)

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

This is a famous Bill Gates quote but it wouldn't shock me if he was quoting someone else:

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.

I've been using that a lot lately, in advice to myself and others. I think it's got a lot of truth and helps put progress and time into perspective.

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Joe Doss

This is one of my favorites from Michael Scott...

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

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Tim Smith

Dang! Beat me to it!

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LyAVALE95

This one is really good.

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Kenneth Olsen

My all-time favorite quote...

" Don't say you don't have enough time.
  You have exactly the same number of hours per day
  that were given to Helen Kellar, Pasteur, Michaelangelo,
  Mother Theresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and
  Albert Einstien. "

      - H. Jackson Brown Jr.
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Sam Rose

This is fantastic. Thanks for sharing!

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Molly Struve (she/her)

THIS!!!! 😍

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Cécile Lebleu

Amazing. And, may I add, a very likely longer lifespan with modern medicine being a thing.

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beernutz

Here is mine:

Let's think of the positives as personal, general, and permanent.
Let's think of the negatives as impersonal, specific, and temporary.
Let's actually go out of our way to inject these things into our discussions.

-Original author unknown

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I like that.

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molly profile image
Molly Struve (she/her)

Love it! This reminds me of something my grandma always used to say,

If they aren't talking about you, then you aren't doing anything

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Ben Sinclair

When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, is what the client's getting.

- me.

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Harsh Saglani • Edited

I see what you did there!
Me thinking how to insert a sherlock reference in a coding post

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Molly Struve (she/her)

😂 I LOVE this!

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Charles D. Villard

There was a comic called Zen Pencils that ran a strip quoting writer Charles Bukowski. The artist was asked to take down the strip by Bukowski's publishers, but the Internet never forgets.

Charles Bukowski's quote on air and light and time and space as presented by Zen Pencils before the artist was asked to take it down

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Exequiel Beker

When I'm facing a really difficult bug, I remember a phrase from one of my favorite videogames, Final Fantasy X: "This is it. (...). It all begins here".

In the same way, if I'm losing hope, I repeat another one from the same videogame series, Final Fantasy XIII:


"(...) We live to make the impossible possible. That's our focus"

It's been a hard few months and those phrases are still giving me strength to move forward

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Tyler V. (he/him)

I'm a huge John Green fan and these two are often what I reach for when I need to remember that it's all going to be OK.

Every Year, many, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you.

I'm on a Roller Coaster that only goes up, my friend

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Ryan Smith

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea." Often wrongly attributed to Buddha, but is from Edward de Bono. My shortened version of it is "Saying vs. doing."

I like this one because in development there can be strong ideas or regular meetings to brainstorm/generate ideas. Sometimes there is too much emphasis placed on what is the "best" idea. At the end of the day, if the best solutions are never implemented, what good are they? Talking about ideas can be fun, but consistently leaving those discussions without any follow up actions is draining in the long run. Time spent preparing and talking about ideas can sometimes be better spent on doing something to make progress.

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Molly Struve (she/her)

Could not agree more!

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Anna Simoroshka • Edited
  1. "I am enough" - to battle the imposter syndrome.
  2. "You don't fail only if you aren't doing anything".
  3. This is not exactly motivational but helps me a lot with the anxiety caused by other's expectations and disapproval (for example, online criticism): "What other people think of you is none of your business"
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Molly Struve (she/her)

I am someone who struggles with other's opinions as well and caring about them, I REALLY like that last one!

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Anna Simoroshka

I don't even know where I picked it up but it was almost life-saving :)

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Erick Navarro • Edited

No gods or kings
Only man

It is from Bioschock, I got it on the door of my office, so before entering to work I get a reminder that we build software, no special people, but all of us

bioschock quote

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Ankur Biswas

Well I'm a huge fan of The Dark Knight: Trilogy and the quotes that drives me crazy is from this series. These quotes keeps me motivated no matter what.

"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up." - Alfred in Batman Begins

"If you’re good at something, never do it for free." - The Joker in The Dark Knight

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Tobias SN

I basically live my life by this:

Go try! Even if you fail, you’ll now be smarter, and either know what you did wrong, or see that you shouldn’t be doing this. Besides, it’s way easier to live knowing that you tried.

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Christian Gill

This one is not for getting the mood up bot for getting motivated to work on things that matter (at least to me).

Don’t be a boilerplate programmer. Instead, build tools for users and other programmers. Take historical note of textile and steel industries: do you want to build machines and tools, or do you want to operate those machines?

— Ras Bodik