Joshua Waitzkin Quotes

I think sometimes parents and teachers fail to stretch kids. My mother had a very good sense of how to stretch me just slightly outside my comfort zone.

I act because I have to, because I need to find out whether I can do it or not - that's what drives me and excites me and lights me up.

You really can expand the boundaries of your life and do risky things and prove yourself by doing them.

I began to do this thing I do of giving myself a class every day, and trying to experiment and push further. I don't mean to say I knew everything, because I didn't, but I would do what I knew and then push beyond that and see what else I could find.

Developing a skill is painful, though. It is difficult. And that's part of the satisfaction. You will only find meaning in what you struggle with. What you struggle to get good at next may not seem the exact right thing for you at first. With time and effort, however, you will discover new possibilities in yourself-an ability to solve problems, for instance, or to communicate, or to create beauty.

I never was content unless I was trying my skill...or testing my endurance.

I just want to keep trying to surprise myself and I want to keep challenging myself.

I always look for... hopefully look for a challenge. And you're always looking for the next summit to hit. Even if it's a personal one. It needn't be some great sense of monumental... It just has to be important to you and big enough and special enough and individual enough that you get up for it. And that can be anything.

You should be having more fun in high school, exploring things because you want to explore them and learning because you love learning-not worrying about competition.

Writing in a journal reminds you of your goals and of your learning in life. It offers a place where you can hold a deliberate, thoughtful conversation with yourself.

Life itself is a school, and Nature always a fresh study.

I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It's a way of life for me.

I've always had better luck learning things on my own. And I really love the challenge of doing it yourself and kind of being alone against the system.

It's really important to me to keep growing and keep finding new things.

I'm always interested in challenging myself and pushing and seeing how far I can go.

I love to see how far you're able to go, both in skills but also emotionally how far I can push myself.

Lessons are not given, they are taken.

As a teacher I realize that what one learns in school doesn't serve for very much at all, that the only thing one can really learn is self-understanding, and this is something that can't be taught.

I've always been a guy who likes to stretch my limits - to find out if I have any, really.

I plan on doing a lot more work on my own, and discovering and doing more.

I used to like to dig myself a hole just to see how long it took to get out of it.

As I enter a new phase of life and my circle broadens, I start learning new things.

When I was a kid I was very interested in the idea of the will, finding out what you're capable of. I liked those kind of challenges.

I always try to put myself in the way of surprise as much as possible. My ambition is to keep challenging myself. I like that journey of discovery.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested - I'll kind of throw myself into some area that I don't completely know or understand, that I'm not adept at, so I'm forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There's a good feeling that comes from that.