Haruki Murakami Quotes

Every time I do something in life, I try to outdo myself.

If you think you can do better, then do better. Don't compete with anyone; just yourself.

My biggest competition is me.

I'm competitive with myself. I always try to push past my own borders.

I really just compete against myself. I look at my previous material and try to surpass what I've done.

Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success.

My biggest competitor? Myself, mentally.

We all understand that this isn't about me beating you and you beating me. It's about each individual competing against himself.

My competition is with my growth to where I want to see myself.

I'm always trying to one-up myself.

I'm in competition only with myself, and I always want to push the envelope.

You're always becoming; you've never arrived. And I use that day by day just for me to work hard each and every day, and know that no matter how good I worked out today, no matter how good I thought I was today, I can always get better and always be a better person.

I do not compete with anybody else; I compete only with myself. You saw my capacity a few minutes ago. Now I am competing with myself. When I do weightlifting, my body is my world. If I can improve myself, if I can go beyond my previous achievements, then that is my goal. My own previous record is always what I am competing with.

I challenge myself everywhere, onstage, on the golf course. Hey, isn't that the point of it all? To keep getting better? Otherwise why do it?

I really don't feel like I'm in any kind of contest. Except, maybe, with myself. Just want to learn and create and grow. Get better all the time with these filmmaking tools. I don't expect perfection from myself. Just progress.

Instead of wanting to be better than other people, let's channel that energy to be better than we were yesterday and then again to be the best we can be tomorrow.

It's a kind of philosophy of my own life, to create the energy enough to keep on going.

One thing I've come to learn about myself is that I have to keep going.

I view my strongest competition as myself. You're always trying to top yourself, rather than worrying about what other people are doing.

All of us want to be better. Human nature is always seeking advancement.

I don't feel like I've nearly got to the place where I'm ready to even slow down.

Although in skating you compete with other people, anyone who achieves a certain level of success is first and foremost competing against themselves. And for me, the idea that I could always do better, learn more, learn faster, is something that came from skating.

I try to challenge myself as much as possible, as often as possible.

I think if I ever stopped pushing myself, I would revert quickly to quite repetitive, restrictive behaviour. But in pushing myself and concentrating on what I can do, I think I can contribute to society. And that gives me the desire to keep pushing, to see what I'm capable of. The thing to do is not to stop.

There were periods of my life when a lot of people didn't believe in me. I still had faith in myself. I really had to ask myself life questions. Where do I see myself in five years? Create a ladder for yourself, and walk up the steps. Climb that ladder.