Elizabeth Gilbert Quotes

Sometimes, in order to say yes to what matters most, I must say no to good things.

You’ve gotta keep control of your time, and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.

After you have made your commitment to say no to what no longer serves you, you will probably be invited to demonstrate that you really mean it.

Learn to say 'no' to the good so you can say 'yes' to the best.

If you want to be a legitimate artist, it's more important what you say no to.

I think it's just as important what you say no to as what you say yes to.

What we say no to is sometimes more important than what we say yes to.

I've always been of the mindset that you will be defined by the things you say 'no' to because it's so easy to say 'yes.'

Nothing is more important to me than the work itself. If I feel I am getting swayed too much, I take a step back… My focus is also on the performance.

There are only two words that will always lead you to success. Those words are yes and no. Undoubtedly, you've mastered saying yes. So start practicing saying no. Your goals depend on it!

I've never regretted saying no to anything, or finishing something. When I'm in the middle of doing something I love, I can have a better idea, and I'll go, "Oh God, I can't finish this." Maybe I've got some sort of disorder.

Everything in life turns out to be a distraction from the real thing you want to do. There are a million distractions and when I was a kid I was very disciplined. I knew that the other kids weren't. I was the one able to do the thing, not because I had more talent, maybe less, but because they simply weren't applying themselves.

Anything that gets in the way of my focus to create gets cut out of my life. It's not easy. Sometimes it's family. Sometimes it's friends. Sometimes it's the ability to have a relationship.

I am a believer in discipline; it takes a lot to do well. You need discipline for those little excursions into the chaotic that make life interesting.

For a while it was hard for me to say no to work.

I know where my priorities lie.

Without discipline, there's no life at all.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

You can only control what you can control.

To help you focus, to help you really understand what you're doing, you have to say no a lot. When you say yes to everything, you get distracted. When you say no, you have to get the one thing you're doing really right.

I think it takes a lot of desire because I think a lot of people who've never written books don't know quite how hard it is to stick with, to put in the amount of time and just make the commitment to just sit there every day and do it while everybody else is out having fun.

I've learned, I think, to be able to distinguish between the necessary and the unnecessary as far as my limited outside time is concerned. Saying 'no' politely is a necessity if one wants to lead any kind of stable life.

Once I commit to something, I complete it. If I say 'no,' I mean 'no.' I just have to learn how to say 'no' more.

When you arrive at a certain level it's very easy to say yes: that is the moment to learn to say no.

I could be working 300 hours a week. I just say 'no.' The power of slow is the power of no. I can't go to every party I get invited to. I can't do every work thing.