This page is dedicated to all those who love to encourage, inspire, and challenge others to rise up above mediocrity.  If any of these quotes speak to you and you would like to share them with other, please feel free to.  The only requirement in sharing or republishing them is that you please do so in their entirety as written, including the reference to the author credited with the quote.  If you would like to add your favorite quotes to this page, we would be excited to let our community benefit from it.

• Never settle for mediocrity lest it become your tomb while you yet live. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Your past, while it may be tragic, painful or even embarrassing, doesn’t have the right to control your future unless you give it that right. You have been given a voluntary will to choose LIFE over death. How much more right do you believe that you have to choose to rise above your past? Will you rise above it or remain under its control. It is your decision. Choose life! ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Imagination is more important than knowledge ~ Albert Einstein
• Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before obscure men. ~ King Solomon
• There is no greater encouragement, no greater motivator, and no greater empowering force than that of unbending faith that has locked arms with unlimited enthusiasm. Find these in whatever you aspire to do in your life, and you will not fail.” ~ Samuel David Ward (sdward.com)
• I love to dream. More than dreaming, I love to figure out whether or not my dreams are realistic enough to see come to pass. The greater your dedication is to preparation for the things you want most in life, the greater your expectation for those things you hope most for to come to pass. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Dedication to preparation in pursuit of your dreams means that you are relentless in your daily devotion to acquiring knowledge and understanding of those things that are required for you in order to see your ‘dreams’ come to pass in your life. ~ Samuel David Ward (sdward.com)
• Most people fail to see their greatest hopes and dreams come to pass because they are not willing to do the hard work of preparation – whether it be preparation in character development, emotional maturity or that of education. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. ~ Conrad Hilton
• A dream is something that occupies the mind with possibilities.  A vision is a dream with legs.  An action plan is the race you run to do it. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• It is amazing how few people there are who understand the important nature of proper preparation and how it plays significantly into the success of seeing their hopes and dreams come to pass. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Life Success Key: There is a greater perspective of hardship in the lives of those you help when you are in the trenches with them, and not soaring over them with lofty ideals. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• For those who understand the importance of preparation in any worthwhile endeavor, it always seems that these are the same people whose hopes and dreams grow feet and run quickly towards them until they are fully realized. ~ Samuel David Ward (sdward.com)
• One would be wise to look beyond the skeptic’s view of life as co-incidence to see a world of God-incidence, and then govern himself accordingly. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• The brain is an amazing thing. It has the ability to release healing chemicals into your body and set into motion all sorts of healing properties that can literally cure 80% of all internal illnesses, JUST by changing the way you think and act. Of course, although medical science is just figuring this out, the Book of Proverbs has clearly spoken of these things with great clarity. Add Proverbs to your daily diet – a chapter a day – and see if you don’t start thinking better, acting better, eating better, living better, and feeling better. ~ David Ward (veganovercome.com)

Even the most humble of dreams without a plan to fulfill them will lead to frustration and disappointment.

I have often heard it said by New Age thinkers that if you can dream it, you can do it.   As it stands, this mindset is flawed, and leaves people frustrated in their dreams and their lives as a result.  What the well-meaning New Agers fail to impart to their followers is that of the Truth of Wisdom.  Wisdom would say that if you dream it, without catching a vision for it, making a plan to do it, gaining the knowledge and understanding for it, and weighing the possibility of finding success in it against your physical limitations, you are destined to face disappointment in your life. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)

• Nothing wastes more energy than worrying. It is a ravenous termite of the soul. It is the opposite of faith, and will bring nothing but unwanted and unhealthy emotions. Worry’s only equal in destructive force is self-exaltation where narcissism takes complete control of your life. Neither of these have any place in a person’s life, let alone the life of a true follower of Christ. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• The things you think about most will consume you. Be careful that you set your mind on things that are above the mediocrity of this world that serves no other purpose than to keep you average in life. You were NOT meant to be ordinary or average in life, but extraordinary and exceptional. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Jack Cranfield, self-proclaimed as America’s success coach, was quoted as saying, “The world doesn’t pay you for what you know; it pays you for what you do.” I would beg to differ with this as a coach myself. We live in an information driven society, and people pay very big money for what a person knows IF that person has something worth knowing. If this were not the case, we personal development and success coaches would not have a job for it is what we know that people pay us for, Cranfield included. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• There is something about hanging around people who are in pursuit of excellence, and those who are constantly attaining success in their lives. It rubs off on you if you hang around them long enough. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• You can’t remain pessimistic and continually negative if you are continually being exposed to successful thinking and outward focused attitudes. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education” ~ Albert Einstein
• One of two things will happen if you attempt to live in pessimism around those who are not. Either the continual optimism of those you are hanging around will rub off on you and you will change your way of thinking about things in your life, OR you will become so aggravated that no one wants to listen to your complaints and self-pity that you will pull away and find less motivated and less successful people to hang around that will coddle to your poor attitude. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• In times of our greatest struggles, we tend to see our futures through the eyes of our worst thoughts of what might be. For those who view their lives as weak and insignificant, they see their future as impossible. For those who see their lives through the eyes of being a victim, they see their lives as a stormy sea with no relief in sight. Yet, for those who see their lives as valiant in their pursuit of a noble purpose, they see their life as ideal and fully worth any sacrifice to see it come to pass. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• When you discover why you have been put here on earth, you soon learn that the how of doing whatever it my be is not nearly as important as the why which propels you daily to do it. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Great information without an equally as great decision to act upon it is wasted opportunity, and robs you of your greatest potential. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• The power of a single kind gesture in the direction of someone who can never repay you, will leave an undercurrent of goodwill that will hold back the ocean’s tide itself. Never waste an opportunity to pour your life into someone less fortunate than you are. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Those who wonder about their future and make excuses why they can’t do something significant are typically the same people who are quick to settle for the mediocrity of entitlements.  I am not saying that charity is a bad thing.  I think it to be a great safety net for those who have hit upon hard times whether by their own doing or as a result of the sins of others.  I am however saying that when we choose to find an excuse not to pursue and act on our dreams by an active initiative towards self-sufficiency, that we relegate our  existence to that of bondage to others, whether it is from Christian charity, an employer, or even worse, the government.  ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• To the extent that we are intent on helping others in and around our lives, if we do not take action on our intentions, there is no outward evidence that we are any more genuine in character than someone steeped in narcissistic behavior where their life is the only life that matters. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Never miss an opportunity to help build the success of others in pursuit of your own success. It is the evidence of a heart motivated by love and given to servanthood. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• Intent alone does not have any great significance in life, build any notable enterprise or forge any lasting and meaningful relationship.  It is the action one takes on their intentions that will set them apart from the well-intentioned and average masses who will ultimately fall short of their dreams and of doing anything notable with their lives. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• True leaders inspire not only in word, but in their actions.  The same goes for parenting.  We can tell our children what they need to do; even send them to Church, Synagogue, Mosque or private school.  But, if they do not see what we are telling them being demonstrated in our own lives, what we tell them to do has little or no significant affect on who they will become and how they will act. I believe the saying goes, “Monkey see, monkey do” and not “monkey hear, monkey do.” Parents, lead by example. Be willing to admit when you are wrong, quick to apologize and ask forgiveness when you screw up, and by all means do what you say when it comes to molding the fragile lives of your children. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)
• The measure of a man or woman, or the legacy they seek to leave behind is not found in the amount of knowledge or experience they have, but rather how they use that knowledge and experience to serve others and mankind in positive and lasting ways. ~ David Ward (sdward.com)

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