Yo-Yo Ma Quotes

The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

Modelling isn't something I'm doing to prove people wrong. It's something I'm doing because it's what I want to do.

I want to do it because I want to do it.

I am not influenced by other human beings. But I am inspired.

I don't believe in strategies. I love what I am doing; that's the main thing.

I'm hugely intrinsically motivated and have always believed that I'm fueled and motivated by learning.

When you're motivated by external rewards, it's often because you're trying to accomplish goals you didn't create yourself.

I don't even realize sometimes I am spending hours and hours on the field, because it is something I decide to do, not something someone else demands of me.

I enjoy racing because I want to do it. No one's forcing me.

Even if you have so many people saying, 'Yes, this is for you! This is your path!' unless you feel it... It needs to be your own passion, it needs to be your own will.

There are parents, siblings, teachers and friends, but counting on them to motivate you isn't fair. They've all got their own lives, and while the may be able to help you out, if you can motivate yourself, then you're golden.

The only person who can really motivate you is you.

When people are motivated by principles larger than themselves, you don't have to beat them over the head to get them to act. You simply empower them, you inform them, you give them tools, and they take it upon themselves to act.

You can't help someone unless she wants to help herself. You can give her a nudge, but if she doesn't want to help herself, no one is going to be able to force her to do anything. I like that "attraction rather than promotion" approach.

Love what you do, not the love you get for doing it.

There's always a lot of talk about motivation to race, but nobody really knows what I do or what I think apart from myself, so I don't really care what people think.

I don't think people do anything out of fear very well. So I think the only choice is to have them intrinsically motivated.

I don't have to do anything for anyone else's benefit anymore. I just want to exceed my own expectations.

I think people ought to do what they feel useful at the time. If I do things because I ought to do them, I switch off.

Acting is a whole boatload of fun, but I prefer to do it on my own terms.

I wasn't handed college or graduate school or anything else on a silver platter. I had to work very hard, but I did it because I wanted to. That's the real key to happiness. I think unhappy people are those who feel that circumstances are forcing them into a pattern. Happy people are not slaves to the system.

No one can make me work harder than I do, so I'm generally not interested in who I am competing with.

I've always said in my career and in my life I only do things I'm interested in.

If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it.

Some stuff I don't even put out. I'll just be home, happy, creating something for myself, and then ball it up and throw it in the trash. It's less about trying to prove something or get on somebody's list or make a fan happy or make a hater mad or convert a non-believer. That's not the case for me anymore.