We all need a cheerleader. A good pep talk can get us moving again, get us back on our game, draw out the best of us,  jolt us out of complacency.

Postivity

“Look into your own heart. Unless I’m crazy, right now a still small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I’m crazy, you’re no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow. You think Resistance isn’t real? Resistance will bury you.”

~ Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

In the Science of Pep Talks by Daniel McGinn, he defines three key elements of an effective pep talk:

  1. Giving direction on how to do the task;

  2. Using empathetic language – concern, praise, gratitude, acknowledgement

  3. Providing meaning – using language of why the task is important.

“The most extensive research in this field—dubbed motivating language theory, or MLT—comes from Jacqueline and Milton Mayfield, a husband-and-wife team at Texas A&M International University who have studied its applications in the corporate world for nearly three decades. Their findings are backed by studies from sports psychologists and military historians.” states McGinn.

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“And suddenly you just know…it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.” ~ Meister Eckhart

“And suddenly you just know…it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.”

~ Meister Eckhart

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance.” ~ Steven Pressfield

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance.”

~ Steven Pressfield

“At the intersection where your gifts, talents, and abilities meet a human need; therein you will discover your purpose.” ~ Aristotle

“At the intersection where your gifts, talents, and abilities meet a human need; therein you will discover your purpose.”

~ Aristotle

“I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.” ~ Mary Oliver

“I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”

~ Mary Oliver

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.” ~ Mary Oliver

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

~ Mary Oliver

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucius

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

~ Confucius

“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” ~ Og Mandino

“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”

~ Og Mandino

“The dance of effort requires constant attention.” ~ Mark Nepo

“The dance of effort requires constant attention.”

~ Mark Nepo

“The most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence.” ~ Blake Lively

“The most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence.”

~ Blake Lively

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” ~ Karen Lamb

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.”

~ Karen Lamb

“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh

“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”

~ Vincent Van Gogh

“Stop asking permission. You don’t need it. Stop waiting to be chosen. Choose yourself.” ~ Joanna Penn

“Stop asking permission. You don’t need it. Stop waiting to be chosen. Choose yourself.”

~ Joanna Penn

“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win. By fearing to attempt.” ~ William Shakespeare

“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win. By fearing to attempt.”

~ William Shakespeare

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” ~ Michelangelo

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

~ Michelangelo

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” ~ CG Jung

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”

~ CG Jung

“Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty …Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” ~ Frank Kafka

“Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty …Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”

~ Frank Kafka

“We are always the same age inside.” ~ Gertrude Stein

“We are always the same age inside.”

~ Gertrude Stein

“There are no secrets that time does not reveal.” ~ Jean Racine

“There are no secrets that time does not reveal.”

~ Jean Racine

“The moment we awaken to know that we are lost – to realize as Jung says, that the ego is not master in the house – then we have begun the journey.” ~ Helen Luke

“The moment we awaken to know that we are lost – to realize as Jung says, that the ego is not master in the house – then we have begun the journey.”

~ Helen Luke

“We make a space inside ourselves, so that being can speak.” ~ Martin Heideggen

“We make a space inside ourselves, so that being can speak.”

~ Martin Heideggen

“We often wear so many opinions that wonder has very little chance of touching our skin.” ~ Mark Nepo

“We often wear so many opinions that wonder has very little chance of touching our skin.”

~ Mark Nepo

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” ~ Thorton Wilder

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

~ Thorton Wilder