I wanted to share with you some of my favorite inspiring leadership quotes and wish you all rejuvenation and renewal in a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year.

21 Quotes for Inspiration in 2021

“We love quotations; they strengthen us in our own belief; they show that some other spirit, perhaps a master spirit, has gone thus far with us.” ─S.J.W., 1835

As 2021 begins, let’s choose to take control of any messages of doubt and input into our brain the wise words of leaders found in inspiring quotes. Quotes can encourage and motivate, especially when those moments of uncertainty stalk us, our motivation wanes, or the impostor syndrome creeps up on us.

Your thoughts can be your closest companion and best friend or worst enemy. They are with you every moment of every day throughout your life and impact your mood, desires, intentions, and actions. They can empower you to greatness or beat you up with negative, demoralizing messages.

We all know how it feels when we’re in “flow,” and seem to be an unstoppable superman (or woman) and can “leap tall buildings in a single bound” ─ and we also know those moments when self-doubt wriggles its way into our psyche.

You may already have some quotes you love that inspire you. Keep them close to you; post your favorites around you ─ on your desk, in your planner, on the wall, or even on your mirror. They will remind you of your best self as you go about your day.

The remarkable thing about quotes is that they often speak to what you already know, to what is already inside you. Sometimes we need only to be reminded of our greatness and know that our thoughts are in synchrony with those of other great minds.

Perhaps you will connect with some of the 21 quotes below. May they support you and inspire you as we begin the year:

  1. “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” ─Henry David Thoreau
  2. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” ─John Wooden
  3. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ─Eleanor Roosevelt
  4. “It’s not what we do once in awhile that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” ─Tony Robbins
  5. “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” ─Woodrow Wilson
  6. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ─Winston Churchill
  7. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ─Maya Angelou
  8. “In life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough. You must take action. ─Tony Robbins
  9. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind.” ─Henry Ford
  10. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; to be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” ─Jim Rohn
  11. “I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our ass kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.” ─Brene Brown
  12. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” ─ Winston Churchill
  13. “If your dreams don’t scare you, they are too small.” ─ Richard Branson
  14. “When you have come to the edge of all the light you have… and step into the darkness of the unknown… believe that one of the two will happen to you: either you will find something solid to stand on or you’ll be taught how to fly!” ─Richard Bach
  15. “That’s been one of my mantras ─ focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” ─Steve Jobs
  16. “Leadership requires two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it.” ─Simon Sinek
  17. “Leadership is a choice that lies in the space between stimulus and response.” ─ Stephen Covey
  18. “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” ─Albert Einstein
  19. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ─Aristotle
  20. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ─Eleanor Roosevelt
  21. Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you can imagine.” ─Roy T. Bennett

Take the ones that resonate with you into the new year ─ and perhaps you have some quotes of your own design to share ─ some nuggets of wisdom that come from within you that would be great for all of us to read. After all, in a world where the negative is always ready to bombard us, putting out all the positive thoughts you can, goes a long way to encourage each of us.