How do you define progress? As long as you're moving forward and improving each day, no matter how small the growth is, that's already progress. But with all the distractions, challenges, and personal situations, it can be tough to keep going. For a little help along the way, we have prepared the collection of progress quotes below as a source of inspiration and encouragement for every step you take.
Quick links to our selection of progress quotes:
With each passing year since we were young, we're progressing - from our first steps to our first promotion. Of course, even nature, technology, and society are evolving with time, and growth goes hand in hand with progress, but it could mean different for everybody.
Zig Ziglar's Wheel of Life summarizes the core areas of our lives into seven spokes: Mental, Spiritual, Physical, Family, Financial, Personal, and Career. We can assume that a successful CEO is advancing in his career and financial area while a pastor with kids, his spiritual and family life.
The end goal is to balance all of the spokes but human as we are, we are limited and imperfect. So we should strive to make progress instead across the dimensions that matter to us the most.
As you read our best progress quotes below, remember to strive for personal growth for all the spokes of your wheel.
Related: Like these? Check out our focus quotes and effort quotes you can add to your repertoire of motivational quotes.
"Personal growth is about progress, not perfection."
"Whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."
"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress."
"The moment a man ceases to progress, to grow higher, wider and deeper, then his life becomes stagnant."
"Always concentrate on how far you have come, rather than how far you have left to go. The difference in how easy it seems will amaze you."
Overcoming the inertia of just getting started can be daunting and discouraging. However, making progress by simply starting is not only possible but also incredibly rewarding.
To begin, we can develop what Charles Duhigg calls keystone habits that align with our goals and have a cascading effect on our progress. For example, if your goal is to become healthier, a keystone habit could be exercising three times a week. This action could lead to other positive changes, such as healthier eating or better sleep.
Habits, especially the positive ones, can take time to form, but it's worth it in the end. So it's best to cut the daunting into tiny achievable steps which allow us to direct our focus and effort wisely.
Additionally, it's essential to track our progress and hold ourselves accountable. On an organizational level, accountability and performance have a direct relationship2, and helping deliver both is an important leadership quality. On a personal level, there's no doubt that being responsible for our actions can help us stay on track.
After reading the progress quotes below, start your growth journey with habits and accountability. And for more reading, you might also like our selection of consistency quotes that further explore the theme.
"The secret of making progress is to get started."
"Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What's important is the action. You don't have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow."
"All progress takes place outside the comfort zone."
"I'll go anywhere as long as it's forward."
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
"Progress and innovation happen when you set unrealistic goals."
"Like the turtle, you need to stick your neck out to make progress."
"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off! You cannot make progress without making decisions."
"If you want to experience significant progress toward your goal, you need to be intentional about the work you're doing every day."
"Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it."
Small progress is still progress, and it is the solution for keeping the momentum. When achieving any goal, getting discouraged is easy when you don't see the progress you want. But the truth is that even the tiniest steps can lead to powerful outcomes over time.
Small gains can also add up, like the compounding interest on our savings. Author James Clear's simple illustration shows how our 1% improvement each day leads to a 37.78% better version of us after a year.
But, of course, it can also go a wrong turn -- a decline of 1% results in a 0.03% decrease or no growth. So, stay consistent and build momentum, whether reading one chapter or exercising for 5 minutes each day. Then, after a year, look behind and admire your progress.
Save the following progress quotes below to remind you to keep notching things up.
"Slow, steady progress is better than daily excuses."
"True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice."
"Some quit due to slow progress. Never grasping the fact that slow progress is progress."
"A little progress every day adds up to big results."
"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."
"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy."
"Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still."
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow."
"Little progress is better than no progress at all. Success comes in taking many small steps. If you stumble in a small step, it rarely matters. Don't gift wrap the garbage. Let little failures go."
Failure is an unavoidable part of life, and embracing it is essential to our journey to success. It's not an endpoint; it's merely a pit stop.
Furthermore, it is an opportunity to grow, and it's a mistake if we allow our ego to hinder us from taking the learning opportunity. A 2019 study from the University of Chicago shows how participants learn from others' failures, yet personal failures undermine their learning. As the research title says, not learning from failures is the greatest failure of all1.
Not only ego but fear, doubt, and envy can also restrict us. Check out our progress quotes below whenever you sense these negative emotions.
"Failure is success in progress."
"Courage means to keep making forward progress while you still feel afraid."
"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again."
"Just because you aren't making progress as fast as you think you should does not mean you aren't making progress. Keep going."
"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."
"Don't compare your progress to that of others. We need our own time to travel our own distance."
"Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be."
"The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress."
"Allow yourself to be proud of yourself and all the progress you've made. Especially the progress that no one else can see."
Making progress toward our goals can be challenging, especially when society says it's impossible. Suppose everyone believes the external voices, for example, the Wright Brothers. Should they and other problem solvers have given up, we may never have had the chance to experience flying over continents in hours in the same way we do today.
So if you have an impossible dream, own it! In a company setting, executives set a big hairy audacious goal, abbreviated to BHAG (bee-hag), a term from the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (here on Amazon). BHAG is a riveting long-term goal that inspires and energizes employees. In the same way, we can set our own BHAG that can motivate our progress.
Dream big, believe in your potential, and keep improving. You are on your way! Check out our progress quotes below for additional encouragement.
"There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect."
"Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction."
"When any real progress is made, we unlearned and learn anew what we thought we knew before."
"Progress and growth are impossible if you always do things the way you've always done things."
"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goals requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."
"Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing towards what will be."
"You need to place the right people in your life, and you need to make sure that the way in which you live your life and the environment in which you do is in and of itself is one that is conducive to your progress, and if it's not, you need to do everything within your power to change it."
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Michael Jordan is undeniably one of the greatest athletes of all time. Yet, despite his natural talent, he never stopped pushing himself to improve daily. From overcoming injury to never giving up on a play, NBA's five-time MVP inspired countless young athletes and ordinary people.
Likewise, Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful protest and civil disobedience cultivated worldwide inspiration to fight for human rights. Even if he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, the Father of the Indian Nation left a legacy that future generations will still discuss.
These two figures demonstrate the importance of striving for progress for ourselves and society through hard work and determination. Check out more progress quotes from other famous people.
"Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress."
"Actively recognizing progress towards your goal will ultimately end up inspiring you and have you pushing even harder."
"Comfort is the enemy of progress."
"Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path."
"Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be... If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man."
"The only time you should ever look back is to see how far you've come."
"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
Throughout the centuries, we humans have made incredible advances in technology and development. From the early days of farming and manual labor to the invention of the steam engine to the modern age of mobile devices, the world has changed drastically for better and for worse. We have always had a curiosity and desire for progress. It's an innate characteristic we should foster and utilize for our personal goals.
Despite the consequences of accelerated growth, let's always strive for progress toward a better world. Read the rest of our progress quotes about different perspectives of our societal development.
"Progress is the attraction that moves humanity."
"Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies."
"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards."
"We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can."
| 1 | Eskreis-Winkler L, Fishbach A. Not Learning From Failure-the Greatest Failure of All. Psychol Sci. 2019 Dec; 30(12):1733-1744. doi: 10.1177/0956797619881133. Epub 2019 Nov 8. PMID: 31702452. |
| 2 | Trivedi, Arti, A Study of Literature Review on Individual Accountability (August 22, 2013). |
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