15 Effective Ways to Get on the Right Track

‘Keep in mind that, even if you are on the right track,

you can still be left behind if you just sit there.  Anon

For those of you who may be feeling overwhelmed with the new year already taking off without you having made your plans and resolutions yet, be reassured: you are not alone.

By mid January of each year, I have usually drafted up an elaborate ‘to do’ list of realistic goals and am chomping on the writing bit to get started, to get on track and get moving after the hectic Festive Season of the previous year. But this time, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by all the different directions I could choose to explore, the creative projects I could revisit that didn’t get done last year or new ideas to nurture into fruition. Yet all the while, the year is moving on and I am still sitting here, reflecting, thinking, pondering options and possibilities… when suddenly I realise this is the phase before progress.

YAY – it’s OK to just BE for a while without the DOING!

Do you feel the same?

While I reflect and intuit my next step in 2015, may I share with you the words of successful writers and deep thinkers who may help us in turn to jump aboard the New Year!


Love of words – my first cuddles with quotations

I first became aware of the magic behind a poignant quotation when I was a teenager. The wisdom captured within these gems written by others seduced and engaged my thinking: caressing my thoughts and enlivening my imagination.

I had been diagnosed with an incurable eye disease and was facing the prospect of going blind. Quotes became a lifeline to positive thinking and I began to cuddle and collect them like dear friends. The ability to read long texts in my books was an arduous task but short quotations were easy to read and to remember.

I combed through books with the aid of a magnifying glass and kept a private collection in my diary. The power within each quotation often transported my thoughts over the hurdles of doubt and helped to lift my attitude out of a negative perspective to a positive vantage point.

As a writer living within a sensory world, the gift of blindness often opens my mind to a different perspective. Here are some ‘magical’ quotes that have enhanced my positive attitude towards facing a major life challenge.

Try them, lean on them like friends for a while, and see what happens for you. Allow their wisdom to lighten your heart and pretty soon you will feel a positive shift, your confidence lift and your thoughts soar with new possibilities… until you are refreshed and invigorated and inspired to move forward again.

15 Quotations


1. 'When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.’

~ Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

2. 'Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.’

~ Albert Einstein

3. ’We must be willing to relinquish the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.’

~ Joseph Campbell

4. 'Do just once what others say you can’t do and you will never listen to their limitations again.’  ~ Anon

5. 'People of character find a special attraction in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that they can realize their potentialities.’

~ Charles De Gaulle

6. 'All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.’

~ Havelock Ellis

7. 'Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.’

~ Raymond Lindquist

8. 'Use this day to do something daring, extraordinary and unlike yourself. Take a chance and shape a different pattern in your personal cloud of probability.’

~ Vera Nazarian

9. 'Getting it "perfect" is not an act of artisanship, because the true artisan remains in a state of perfecting.’

~ Sina Mossayeb

10. 'There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.’

~ Anaïs Nin

11. 'Hold on to your dreams, for tenacity is the force that will anchor your visions, to create a reality that once seemed impossible.’

~ Barb Mayer

12. 'When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds: your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world.’

~ Patanjali

13. 'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.’

~ Helen Keller

14. 'If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible.’  ~ Soren Kierkegaard

15. 'Perhaps someday you will be thankful for some temporary failure in a particular direction. When one door closes, another always opens: as a natural law it has to. To balance.’

~ Brian Adams

How a quote a day can change your life

In 1998, a college student began sharing one enriching quote a day with his friends. Today, his website, Daily Good shares positive and uplifting news around the world to more than 100,000 subscribers...

LINK for 'Daily Good':  http://www.dailygood.org/

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Do you collect words of wisdom too? Please share them with us in the comment box, we’d love to hear how words move and empower your world too!

You might also like to read:

Being Blind is the Obstacle and the Stepping Stone (Jan 2014)
Tools of the Blind Tradie May 2013
Benefit #1 Being Blind: You are the Rose among the Thorns (March 2014)

Introduction Copyright © Maribel Steel 2015
Photographs Copyright © Harry Williamson 2015