14 Motivational Thoughts to Counteract Blue Monday

Congratulations! You survived “The Most Depressing Day of the Year” or “Blue Monday” (this year it was on January 15th).

If you’re not familiar with Blue Monday, it’s the name given to the Monday in January that can for some be very depressing (for the reasons listed below). As an optimistic proactive person, here are a few thoughts to counter any negativity you might be experiencing at this time of year.

I’ve compiled 14 motivational thoughts from Mark Twain to help you focus your attention in a positive and growth oriented direction. Mark Twain’s wisdom inspires me and I hope it does the same for you. I created the headings, but the quotes all belong to Mark Twain.

14 Motivational Thoughts to Keep you Going in 2018

1. Just Start.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

2. Follow other worthy examples.

Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.

3. Take a few steps every day towards your goal.

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.

4. Make what you do fun.

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

5. Turn your experience into focused action.

A person who has had a bull by the tail once has learned sixty to seventy times as much as a person who hasn’t.

6. Focus on action not talk.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.

7. Stop whining and get to work.

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

8. Stay motivated by serving others.

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.

9. Don’t wait for no fear — be courageous in spite of fear.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

10. Focus on what you can control — not what might happen.

I have spent most of my life worrying about things that have never happened.

11. Choose your commitments carefully.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

12. Hang out with encouraging ambitious people.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

13. Live with the end in mind.

Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

14. Don’t let the urgent crowd out the important.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

Which of these motivational thoughts resonates with you the most?
What will you do differently as a result of what you just read?