David Joseph Schwartz Quotes

Why haven't you achieved your goals yet? What are your favorite excuses, and how do they hold you back?

Hoping and Wishing are excuses for not Doing.

There is only one reason for an individual to side-step to the useless side : the fear of a defeat on the useful side.

The primary reason for underachievement and failure is that the great majority of people don't decide to be successful.

Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.

There is no such thing as a long piece of work, except one that you dare not start.

Don't think about your errors or failures; otherwise, you'll never do a thing.

I never talk about work in progress because once I talk about it I don't do it anymore.

Fear of failure is a far worse condition than failure itself, because it kills off possibilities.

There are some persons who never succeed from being too indolent to undertake anything; and others who regularly fail, because the instant they find success in their power, they grow indifferent, and give over the attempt.

Working hard is great, being lazy sometimes is great, but failed potential is the worst.

I think of these things as obstacles rather than opportunities, because if they were opportunities it means I actually took the business of doing them seriously. To take myself too seriously is the gentle kiss of death.

But I find the best things I do, I do when I'm trying to avoid doing something else I'm supposed to be doing. You know, you're working on something. You get bugged, or you lose your enthusiasm or something. So you turn to something else with an absolute vengeance.

I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.

I had a history for starting something and maybe getting halfway done. Then I'd see the same thing I was doing on the bestseller list! My ideas were right, but I hadn't done them fast enough.

I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me.

Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.

I've always enjoyed poor health.

Definitely, it's a fear of failure that drives me.

I'm not very happy idle. There's always this voice in my head that says, 'I should be writing.'

Hesitation is often like procrastination. One may have vague doubts and feel a need to mull things over; meanwhile, other issues intrude on thought, and no decision is taken. Ask people why they procrastinate, and you probably won't get a crisp answer.

In the past I would give myself a reason to have an excuse. I wouldn't show up at the gym. I wouldn't do what I'm supposed to do as a professional.

Excuses destroy success every time.