Merle Haggard Quotes

My expectations for myself were really high.

Honestly, that is the most important thing to me: Can I continue to live up to my own expectations of myself - and not fall back into slacking?

Getting up early is one of the gifts I give myself.

At this level, you put a lot of pressure on yourself as a player to perform and do well.

I learned to discipline myself to do things I didn't want to do.

It doesn't matter what you're trying to accomplish. It's all a matter of discipline. I was determined to discover what life held for me beyond the inner-city streets.

Whatever it is you're doing, whether it's your career or a particular focus, if you're trying to be the best you can possibly be, then you'll be putting that pressure on yourself.

As a kid growing up, I put a lot of pressure on myself.

Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do.

My confidence comes from the daily grind - training my butt off day in and day out.

I like having my back pressed against a wall and being made to work harder so I don't embarrass myself.

In my second year in Los Angeles, when I was eighteen, I wasn't getting any bookings, so I stopped going out, stopped partying. It was a matter of getting to the work. I had to focus.

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.

I think gymnastics trained me as a person, too. Without the lessons I learned in gymnastics, I would be crushed.

I feel like I've set the bar fairly high, and I want to keep living up to that bar.

I think it's good to have pressure on yourself. The worst crime is to get kind of really complacent.

I like to push myself, you know.

One of the things Mother said to me, 'You want this, you're going to practice.' And I know how to practice.

It starts with myself. I have to believe in myself and set expectations for myself, set goals for myself, and continue to work for those goals every day.

I'm just trying to work on my game and get better. That's all I can do. Keep working hard, keep trying.

I always like to put myself under pressure to improve more.

I've done all my bike circuit cardio workouts when I know I gotta push my numbers higher and I gotta be better than I was before. It sucks. Your body doesn't want to do it, but I've done that. I know I have that in me.

Push yourself every single day to continue to work at yourself. And I feel like that's the reason why I made it.

It's a very good thing to teach kids to finish what they started in the sense of fulfilling their commitments. So when my daughter told me on the second track meet that she was done with it because she discovered she didn't like competing, I made her finish the season.

I have a lot of expectations on myself. That's important.