Iyanla Vanzant Quotes

Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.

On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.

It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.

It's not a gift of mine, but one given to me, to be able to criticise myself and not be crushed, by myself or by others.

I really believe I'm no different from anyone else. I just had a few challenges I had to learn from at a very early age.

Someone said adversity builds character, but someone else said adversity reveals character. I'm pleasantly surprised with my resilience. I persevere, and not just blindly. I take the best, get rid of the rest, and move on, realizing that you can make a choice to take the good.

I'd spent my childhood thinking bad things, bad things every day. It had made me sick, but it had made me determined.

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.

I've always said that my greatest crises are my greatest opportunities to prove my own character to myself.

While I don't necessarily believe the cliche that 'everything happens for a reason,' I do believe that every encounter, every situation, and every challenge I've experienced has shaped me into the woman I am today. And I am proud to say that I have never backed down from life's challenges.

When the chips are down, life forces you to take inventory and reevaluate the people in your life.

I admit that when challenging times first surface, it's not first instinct to do a happy dance. But when you take time to pause and add insight to injury, you will immediately start to feel empowered to make those majorly needed life shifts.

I believe when people can find out who they are, then you can be equipped to handle life's situations.

That is life: you have to deal with things, and it's up to you how you deal with things. That's what makes you mature or not. If you can get the best out of yourself, that's all that matters. If you do that, nobody is arguing.

I just keep surprising myself, I guess.

Cultivate the technique of seeing all problems as opportunities. Opportunities to...be, and decide, Who You Really Are.

There were times when I thought I got a bit more punishment than was coming to me, but I don't regret a minute of it now. Each of us must be tempered in some fire. Nobody had more to do with choosing the fire that tempered me than myself, and instead of finding fault with the fire I give thanks that I had the metal to take the temper and hold it.

Sometimes it's the toughest moments that you learn the most about yourself, and the more you know yourself, the less you are willing to give away.

If you learn life's lessons, you will do well. If not, life will just continue to push you around. People do two things. Some just let life push them around. Others get angry and push back. But they push back against their boss, or their job, or their husband or wife. They do not know it's life that's pushing.

Life is a bunch of ups and downs. It's how you handle it.

Life doesn't always go according to plan, and we don't always act in a way that represents who we are. What matters is that these moments become teaching moments.

If something is going on and you are struggling, embrace it. You are growing.

It's one of those things that I use everything that I go through... to be better. I use it all to just fuel the fire, to grow and learn from.

Sometimes, my weakness is where the strength really is, and it leads me to depend in the areas where I really should.