My Top 7 Favorite Sayings For Overcoming Obstacles In Life And Work

When you think about the successful people in your life or those you admire, it’s easy to forget that the people we admire and look up to also have the same challenges in life and work to overcome.

When I think of the people I admire, and the quotations they inspire or coin themselves, I’m always drawn to perseverance. The writer Kurt Vonnegut once famously said he wanted two simple words etched into his tombstone: “He Tried”. It’s both funny and profound, those two words. “Trying” has been said in different ways throughout human history. To inspire you any day of the week, these are some of my favourite quotations on perseverance that help me see the forest for the trees during the most challenging times in my own life.

These are 7 of my favorite sayings that celebrate adversity and the individual who strives to achieve despite life’s obstacles:

“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”
Molière

“We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.”
– Barbara De Angelis

“Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.”
– Lou Holtz

“There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.”
– Woody Hayes

“Every flower must grow through dirt.”
– Proverb

“Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.”
– Josh Billings

“The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”
– Chinese Proverb

What are some of your favourite, inspiring, and strengthening sayings? You can submit them to beprofound@profoundtalent.com for fututre postings to share with and motivate others in the ProFound universe. Your name and email address will be withheld for privacy; we just want to hear what drives you to achieve every day despite the mountain ranges you need to climb to get to where you want to be.

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