200+ Empowering New Beginnings Quotes to Ignite Your Inner Courage

Embracing a new beginning creates a magical time to rediscover yourself, reassess your boundaries, and consider your life goals. Sometimes, circumstances deliver the opportunity of a new beginning to us, even if we weren’t expecting it. 

In my life, embracing change (embodied by the below new beginnings quotes) has come in several forms: career change, becoming closer to a person, ending various types of relationships, or completing a goal – like when I wrote my book – and asking myself “what’s my next new beginning?” Regardless of the catalyst for change, I learned to roll with it. Over time, I learned to consider it, understand it, and work with it so my life isn’t stressful and reactive,, even though difficult things sometimes happen. 

New beginnings sometimes emerge with spontaneous or planned opportunities. When I became a coach, I knew I had to say YES to myself to inspire others to do the same. That meant being honest so that I could embrace my new beginning. I had to say goodbye to past career endeavors and people who didn’t support my coaching journey. But today, I’m so glad I embraced the new beginning to direct my life, body, mind, and spirit.

Whether you’re facing change reluctantly or are preparing to embrace it without abandon, these new beginnings quotes can help you on your journey. These are some of my favorites – they’ve helped me through life.

Embracing Change Quotes

 

As I mention in my book, “I committed myself to finding a healthy way to transform myself from the inside out through exploration of the way the brain and body work together—the ‘brain-body connection.’ I knew I could not focus on just fitness or food if I would bring about lasting change. I had to commit to understanding my whole self and was ready to figure out how to experience sustained and substantial change.” 

Change can be big. Often, it’s lasting. Usually, it will require you to look deep into yourself and commit to your next phase of life.

Embracing change quotes about recognizing the potential of new beginnings

1. “Change is inevitable. Change is constant.”- Benjamin Disraeli
2. “Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” – Dalai Lama
3. “Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation.”- Mahatma Gandhi
4. “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”- John F. Kennedy
5. “You can live your dreams if you can embrace change. It`s by taking chances that you`ll learn how to be brave.” – Nikita Koloff 
6. “Clinging to the past is the problem. Embracing change is the answer.” – Gloria Steinem 
7. “Embrace change, even when the change slaps you in the face. ” – Walter Breuning 
8. “Embrace change. True success can be defined by your ability to adapt to changing circumstances.” – Connie Sky 
9. “When in doubt, choose change. ” – Lily Leung 
10. “He evolved; he embraced change, because he always wanted to be better than he was.” – Gene Roddenberry 
11. “Everything is change. Embrace that. Flow with it.” – Ryan Holiday 
12. “We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.”— Carl Jung

Quotes about embracing the transformative power of change

13. “You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” — Neil Gaiman
14. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
15. “By changing nothing, nothing changes.” — Tony Robbins
16. “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” — John C. Maxwell
17. “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” — Henri Bergson
18. “There is nothing permanent except change.” — Heraclitus
19. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” — Harriet Tubman

Quotes about taking the first step towards progress

20. “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — Alan Watts
21. “Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” — Carol Burnett
22. “All things must change to something new, to something strange.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
23. “Change in all things is sweet.” — Aristotle
24. “People do not change; they are merely revealed.” — Anne Enright
25. “You don’t need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ―Martin Luther King Jr.

Overcoming Fear and Doubt Quotes

The power to overcome fear and doubt can come from multiple sources. You can rely on your support network, personal strength, and the divine. In my book, I recall this realization and source of strength when facing fear and doubt: “God had a unique plan for me, and now I was ready to step into it. I could use my darkness to bring others into their light.”

Conquering fear as a barrier to new beginnings

1. “He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “There is no illusion greater than fear.” — Lao Tzu
3. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” — Susan Jeffers

Challenging self-doubt and building self-belief

5. “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” — Benjamin Franklin
6. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — Nelson Mandela
7. “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” — Vincent Van Gogh
8. “Extreme fear can neither fight nor fly.” — William Shakespeare
9. “Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear.” — Tony Robbins
10. “If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.” ― Marcus Aurelius
11. “Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them.”― Epictetus
12. “Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear”.— Martin Luther King Jr.
13. “Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.” —Napoleon Hill
14. “Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it. That is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.” – Dale Carnegie
15. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius
16. “Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.” – Frederick Smith
17. “Fear regret more than failure.” – Taryn Rose
18. “Regret and fear are twin thieves that rob us of today.” – Bob Hastings
19. “Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow.'” — Mary Anne Radmacher
20. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts today.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Embracing resilience in the face of challenges

21. “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” — Rosa Parks
22. “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” — Lucille Ball.
23. “Don’t fear failure — not failure, but low aim is the crime. In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.” ― Bruce Lee
24. “When in doubt, choose change.” — Lily Leung
25. “We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.” — Harrison Ford
26. “The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything.” ―Frank Sinatra
27. “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” — J.M. Barrie
28. “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” — Neil Gaiman
29. “What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
30. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” — Michael Jordan 
31. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
32. “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” — Seneca
33. “Men are disturbed not by things but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.” — Epictetus
34. “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius
35. “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” — Seneca
36. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” —Winston Churchill
37. “Once you face your fear, nothing is ever as hard as you think.” —Olivia Newton John
38. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
39. “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Empowering Self-Reflection Quotes

Self-reflection is a significant part of the process of new beginnings. Whether through shadow work, meditation, or prayer, self-reflection has helped me help others. I had to do a deep dive through my life to consider how I wanted to enact my new beginning. 

In my book, I wrote: “We know that science puts great importance on the power that words, both positive and negative, can have on the brain. Words help to create thoughts, which can lead to action, either good or bad. When those words become self-talk, they can lead to long-term harm.”

Cultivating self-awareness and understanding personal values

1. “The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.” — Marcus Aurelius
2. “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” — Rumi
3. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Victor E. Frankl
4. “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” – Thomas Paine
5. “Friendship with one’s self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
6. “Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” – William Faulkner
7. “Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.” – Marcus Aurelius
8. “Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?” – Carl Sandburg

Fostering a positive mindset and self-talk

9. “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle
10. “It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
11. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
12. “If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it.” — Muhammad Ali 
13. “He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” — Marcus Aurelius
14. “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
15. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” — Aristotle              16. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde
16. “You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated”. — Maya Angelou
17. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” — Henry David Thoreau
18. ” In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln
19. “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
20. “I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” ― Michael Jordan
21. “Failure is a part of the process. You just learn to pick yourself back up.” ― Michelle Obama
22. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” ― Confucius

 

Harnessing the power of gratitude and visualization

24. “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” ―Marcus Aurelius
25. “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ―Marcus Aurelius
26. “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.” — W. Clement Stone
27. “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” —Winston Churchill
28. “The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
29. “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius
30. He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” – Epictetus

Taking Action Quotes

Goals are important. But taking the first step is critical. And once you take that first step, it leads to the next. You have to keep putting one foot in front of the other until your journey is complete. 

“I committed myself to finding a healthy way to transform myself from the inside out through exploration of the way the brain and body work together—the ‘brain-body connection.’”

 

Setting goals and creating a vision for the future

1. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”  – Maya Angelou
2. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” — Abraham Lincoln
3. “If I am an advocate for anything, it is to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river.” — Anthony Bourdain
4. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Developing an action plan and staying committed

5. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller
6. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” — Barack Obama
7. “Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you’d like to act.” — Bob Dylan
8. “My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.” — Charles Dickens
9. “You have got to get up every morning with determination if you are going to go to bed with satisfaction.” — George Lorimer
10. “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
11. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one!” — Dolly Parton
12. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
13. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela             

Celebrating small victories along the way

14. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” — Walt Disney
15. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. — Steve Jobs
16. “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
17. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky
18. “First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” — Aristotle
19. “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” — George S. Patton
20. “Failure is success in progress.” ― Albert Einstein
21. “Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.” ― Napoleon Hill
22. “Nothing will work unless you do.” ―Maya Angelou
23. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” ―Maya Angelou
24. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ―Theodore Roosevelt
25. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — Mahatma Gandhi
26. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” — Confucius
27. “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” — Albert Einstein
28. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.” — Robert Frost
29. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” ― Arthur C. Clarke
30. “The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” — Theodore Roosevelt
31. “It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.” — Tony Robbins
32. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” — Amelia Earhart
33. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” —Mark Twain
34. “There is nothing impossible for those who will try.” —Alexander the Great
35. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” —Confucius
36. “If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing.” — Ernest Hemingway

Embracing Possibilities and Growth Quotes

Eventually, it will be time to reap some rewards – to embrace possibilities and hold on to your positive change and results. While you do this, don’t rest on your laurels – keep growing! Even after I’d made decisions to improve my health and wellness, I realized I had a lot of junk holding me back – even taking up physical space. From my book, here’s what I did: “With that simple action, I reclaimed the driver’s seat in my health and wellness journey. I knew in that moment I would succeed on my own terms, not relying on gimmicks or gadgets.”

 

Embracing uncertainty and seeing opportunities in new beginnings

1. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates
2. “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.”— Abraham Maslow
3. “It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.” — Isaac Asimov
4. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” — Theodore Roosevelt
5. “Growth means change and change involves risks, stepping from the known to the unknown.” – George Shinn 
6. “Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” — George Bernard Shaw
7. “True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” — Leo Tolstoy
8. “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” — William James
9. “Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer
10. “Things do not change; we change.” — Henry David Thoreau
11. “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” — Winston Churchill
12. “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” — Frank Zappa
13. “You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Roy T. Bennett
14. Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you’ve changed, by believing. Once you’ve changed, other things start to follow. Isn’t that the way it works?” ― Diane Duane
15. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” — Milton Berle
16. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
17. “We must let go of the life we have planned, to accept the one that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell
18. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis
19. “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.”  — James Cameron
20. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” — Alexander Graham Bell
21. “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” — John F. Kennedy
22. “It’s not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change” — Miles Davis

Embracing personal growth and continuous learning

24. “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” ―Albert Einstein
25. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” ―Arthur Ashe
26. “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” — Johnny Cash
27. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ―C.S. Lewis
28. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela
29. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” — Herman Melville
30. “You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.” — Joe E. Lewis
31. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde
32. “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” — Albert Einstein

Cultivating resilience and bouncing back from setbacks

33. “Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling.” — Cleanthes
34. “If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn
35. “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” — Mark Twain
36. “The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” — Arnold Palmer

Inspiring Others Quotes

The most rewarding part of my journey to improve my health in a way that is kinder to me is knowing that I am inspiring others to do the same. When people see your improvements or the exterior result of your hard internal work, they might be inspired to try a new beginning of their own. As my book says, “You owe it to yourself to continue striving to become the best of you. When you do that, you will not only attract all those who walk in a similar light, you will also encourage others to strive to be the best of themselves.”

 

Sharing experiences and inspiring others through storytelling

1. “For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it.” — Eric Roth
2. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” — Albert Einstein
3. “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” — Christopher Reeve
4. “You cannot use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou
5. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” — Abraham Lincoln
6. “Learn from yesterday. Live for today. Hope for tomorrow.” — Albert Einstein
7. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
8. “What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
9. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
10. “The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” — Barack Obama
11. “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” — Benjamin Franklin

Being a positive influence and supporting others’ new beginnings

12. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ―Aristotle
13. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” ―Michael Jordan
14. “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ―Vincent Van Gogh
15. “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” ―John C. Maxwell
16. “Go the extra mile. It’s never crowded there.” ―Dr. Wayne D. Dyer
17. “Keep your face always toward the sunshine―and shadows will fall behind you.” ―Walt Whitman
18. “Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.” ―Maya Angelou
19. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” ―Abraham Lincoln
20. “You must do the kind of things you think you cannot do.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt
21. “If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s possible. If you schedule it, it’s real.” ―Tony Robbins
22. “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” ―William Shakespeare
23. “Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat is accepted as a reality.” ―Bruce Lee
24. “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” ―Robin Williams
25. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” ―Albert Einstein

Celebrating collective achievements and fostering a sense of community

26. “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.” ―Nelson Mandela
27. “Light tomorrow with today.” —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
28. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams

New Beginnings Quotes, New Actions

As I’ve discussed earlier, taking on new beginnings means accepting the challenge of the follow-through. With these quotes and the wisdom of the greats to guide you, you can create your new beginnings through support. To do this, choose your five favorite quotes from this blog, then imagine the speakers of those quotes sitting around a table, advising you on your life. Their new beginnings quotes can help you take the steps you need to get there. What would they say? What would you do? I believe in your ability to foster positive change in the world!

 

 

 

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