Robert McKee Quotes

The moment you feel yourself hesitate on something you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1 to activate your prefrontal cortex and interrupt the habit of overthinking, self-doubt, and fear.

We do not lack strength so much as the will to use it; and very often our imagining that things are impossible is nothing but an excuse of our own contriving, to reconcile ourselves to our own idleness.

A lot of people put pressure on themselves and think it will be way too hard for them to live out their dreams. Mentors are there to say, 'Look, it's not that tough. It's not as hard as you think. Here are some guidelines and things I have gone through to get to where I am in my career.'

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.

It's all right to hesitate if you then go ahead.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

People have to decide on priorities if they want to get anywhere. The best lessons I learned was to just do it.

The word 'when' is so important for a people, for an individual! If an individual thinks he won't do it, he'll never do it. Even if he's highly intelligent, even if he has countless talents.

Make the decision that you'll no longer use excuses to keep you from what you know is in your best interest. Today, act on something you've always avoided and explained away with a convenient excuse. Make a phone call you've been putting off, write a letter to a friend, put on a pair of walking shoes and go for a stroll, clean out your closet—do something you've been justifying not doing with excuses.

Sometimes the space between knowing what to do and actually doing it is a very short walk. Other times it is an impossible expanse.

I keep remembering from my early student days how I would walk at night through the streets, my hands bunched into fists in the pocket of my coat, my head hunched deep into my collar, and how I used to say, 'I want to work, I shall work'--and then I would come back home and be so exhausted by my determination that I had no strength left to do the actual work.

We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible.

When you want something so badly, you just do it. You don't think about how hard it's going to be.

Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.

I believe in one thing only, the power of human will.

Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself.

This is the question I want everyone to ask yourself every single day when you come up with something you feel that needs to be done: if not now, then when? And if not me, then who?

I don't think I have discipline when it comes to anything.

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you.

Turning pro is a mindset. If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we're thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don't show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin', no matter what.

Wanting to do it was much more powerful than the fright.

So many fail because they don't get started - they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin.

I think you can do anything you put your mind to. I think your mind is the worst thing you can use as a reason to not do something.

Don't let yourself make excuses for not doing the things you want to do.

How do you know you're going to do something, untill you do it?