"Here's a good reason to push yourself –– you will always learn more about life and your capacity to succeed when you are uncomfortable. Often when your back is up against the wall of fear, the greatest breakthroughs appear."
–– Jack Canfield (b. 1944), American author and motivational speaker
Source: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt. The Power of Focus. Deerfield Beach, Florida: Health Communications, 2000; p. 68.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 86.
"Whenever she was having trouble making sense of a problem, Lila used to turn the piece of paper she was working on upside down. "It helps to see it from a new perspective," she would say. "This way, I have to concentrate on each number, each symbol. It's like having a second set of eyes with which to view the same picture. Sometimes a completely different angle is all I need to break through."
–– Michelle Richmond, American writer
Source: Michelle Richmond. No One You Know. New York: Bantam Dell, 2008; p. 89.
via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2023, p. 136.
"There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about."
–– Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), American abstract expressionist painter
"Ask yourself, when you are afraid or on the verge of a breakthrough: When does a candle shine the brightest? The answer is always in the dark."
–– Harriet Rubin (b. 1952), American writer
Source: Harriet Rubin. The Princessa.
"Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary."
–– Thomas L. Friedman (b. 1953), American political commentator and writer
Source: The New York Times, May 15, 2012
via Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 55
