Life, like a mountain range, has its ups and downs. It can feel tumultuous at times, but there are practical and proven ways to navigate the marathon we call living.
One thing that can make a big difference when facing a situation is preparation. One doesn’t have to fear the challenges that may come if one is prepared.
We face different scenarios, with each passing day requiring a different approach. It may not be possible to be prepared for everything, but that is where a failsafe comes into play.
Planning an effective course of action based on the situation and thinking of a fallback plan if things don’t work out the intended way are all part of adequate preparation.
Prep time is an essential aspect of everyday life, but it isn’t the easiest habit to nail down. One of the biggest problems with preparing for something yet to happen or a change that may come is the lack of experience. They say that experience is the best teacher, and for a good reason. One learns the most when in the heat of the moment.
This doesn’t mean that you have to plan in a void. Thanks to the way the current age is structured, an abundance of content and information is available that can help you plan ahead of whatever storm may be coming your way.
There is a great sense of ease and relief that comes with being prepared for any scenario you may face in the future. It can be likened to having a safety net surrounding you.
One invaluable resource for effective preparation is drawing inspiration from the experiences of others. Some of the most significant figures in history made documenting their lives a priority. As such, there is a wealth of inspirational and experience-driven material available out there.
For instance, we have autobiographies expositions on specific aspects of living, such as Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” and shorter, experience-packed quotes from famous and respected figures from different points in history.
Some may be too busy to invest time into reading an entire autobiography just to draw the inspiration necessary to plan ahead. Fortunately, we have you covered with a compilation of inspirational quotes that aid effective preparation.
Preparation Quotes
1. “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.”
– H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
2. “The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to, and the last duty done.”
– George MacDonald.
3. “…take life as God makes it; it is a long trial and unintelligible preparation for the unknown destiny.”
– Victor Hugo.
4. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in, and day-out.”
– Robert Collier.
5. “Over-preparation is the foe of inspiration.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte.
6. “Prepare while others are daydreaming.”
– William Arthur Ward.
7. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
– Benjamin Franklin.
8. “Preparation is the key to leadership success. The more prepared you are the less your struggle…”
– Israelmore Ayivor.
9. “The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.”
– Tony Robbins.
10. “The rich and even the middle-class plan for future generations, but the poor can plan ahead only a few weeks or days.”
– Gloria Steinem.
11. “Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.”
— Peter F. Drucker.
12. “All things are ready if our mind be so.”
― William Shakespeare, ‘Henry V’.
13. “Thorough preparation makes its own luck.”
– Joe Poyer.
14. “Now life is the only art that we are required to practice without preparation…”
– Lewis Mumford.
15. “If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him.”
― Sun Tzu, ‘The Art Of War’.
16. “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.”
– Zig Ziglar.
17. “A winning effort begins with preparation.”
– Joe Gibbs.
18. “Preparation for life is so important. Luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity. Opportunity is all around us. Are you prepared?”
— Earl Nightingale.
19. “Life requires thorough preparation – veneer isn’t worth anything.”
– George Washington Carver.
20. “Our whole life is taken up…with preparations for living, so that we really never live at all.”
– Leo Tolstoy.
21. “The whole journey of life is a journey of preparation…”
– Pope Francis.
22. “The best possible preparation of success is empower yourself with trust in self capabilities.”
— Anil Sinha.
23. “Preparation doesn’t assure victory, it assures confidence.”
― Amit Kalantri, ‘Wealth Of Words’.
24. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
– ‘Seneca The Younger’.
25. “For all your days be prepared, and meet them ever alike.”
– Edwin Markham.
26. “I will prepare and someday my chance will come.”
― Abraham Lincoln.
27. “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes…but no plans.”
– Peter Drucker.
28. “I believe success is preparation because opportunity is going to knock on your door sooner or later but are you prepared to answer that?”
– Omar Epps.
29. “A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success.”
– Joyce Brothers.
30. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
– Abraham Lincoln.
31. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
– John Dewey.
32. “If you prepare yourself at every point as well as you can…you will be able to grasp opportunity for broader experience when it appears.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt.
33. “If the love doesn’t last, it prepares you for the one that will.”
― Mandy Hale, ‘The Single Woman: Life, Love, And A Dash Of Sass’.
34. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”
– Alexander Graham Bell.
35. “Competing at the highest level is not about winning. It’s about preparation…”
– Joe Torre.
36. “There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality, and then there are those who turn one into the other.”
– Douglas Everett.
37. “Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance.”
– Sun Tzu.
38. “In missionary work, as in all else, preparation precedes power.”
– Gordon B. Hinckley.
39. “To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”
– James P. Carse.
40. “For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks…the work for which all other work is but preparation.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke.
41. “Life could do nothing for her, beyond giving time for a better preparation for death.”
– Jane Austen.
42. “Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future?
― James Burke, ‘Connections’.
43. “Before entering any occupation, diligent preparation is to be undertaken.”
– Cicero.
44. “Preparation for war is a constant stimulus to suspicion and ill will.”
– James Monroe.
45. “The best preparation…is the one that disarms the hostility of other nations and makes friends of them.”
– Helen Keller.
46. “…the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson.
47. “…what I have is a ridiculous insane obsessiveness for practice and preparation.”
– Will Smith
48. “…the American Red Cross does an extraordinary job at not only meeting the immediate needs of a community but also the preparation and planning for long-term support.”
– Darius Rucker.
49. “I do find that there’s a fine balance between preparation and seeing what happens naturally.”
– Timothee Chalamet.
50. “Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket-book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.”
– George Washington.
51. “Unless you have prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous.”
– Orison Swett Marden.
52. “I appeal to all men and women, whether they be eminent or humble, to declare that they will refuse to give any further assistance to war or the preparation of war.”
– Albert Einstein.
53. “Preparation for defense is an inalienable prerogative of a sovereign state.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt.
54. “Everything that a painter did or that a writer wrote was a part of his training and preparation for what he was to do.”
– Ernest Hemingway.
55. “When you say ‘It’s hard’, it actually means ‘I’m not strong enough to fight for it. Stop saying it’s hard. Think positive!!”
– Unknown*.
56. “Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren’t enjoying today’s sunshine.”
– William Feather.
57. “Confidence – Poise, and confidence are not possible unless you have prepared correctly. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Poise and confidence are a natural result of proper preparation.”
– John Wooden.
58. “The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision. ”
– Bruce Barton.
59. “Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.”
– Jules Renard.
60. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”
– Bill Cosby.
61. “It is the eternal, inescapable law that growth comes only from work and preparation, whether the growth be material, mental, or spiritual. Work has no substitute.”
– J. Reuben Clark.
62. “Be ready when opportunity comes…Luck is the time when preparation and opportunity meet.”
– Roy D. Chapin, Jr.
63. “To keep a vow means not to keep from breaking it, but rather to devote the rest of one’s life to discovering what the vow means, and to be willing to change and to grow accordingly.”
– Mike Mason.
64. “I believe that people make their own luck by great preparation and good strategy.”
– Jack Canfield.
65. “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.”
– Winston Churchill.
66. “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”
– John Wooden.
67. “The decision to serve a mission will shape the spiritual destiny of the missionary, his or her spouse, and their posterity for generations to come. A desire to serve is a natural outcome of one’s conversion, worthiness, and preparation.”
– Russell M. Nelson.
68. “That was the time to begin all-out preparations for war.
On the contrary. That was the time to begin all-out prevention of war.”
– Isaac Asimov.
69. “Luck is a crossroad where preparation and opportunity meet”
– Jesse Jackson.
70. “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.”
– Denis Waitley.
71. ‘Fear is the brain’s way of saying that there is something important for you to overcome.”
– Rachel Huber.
72. “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
– John Wooden.
73. “Behind every brilliant performance, there were countless hours of practice and preparation.”
– Eric Butterworth.
74. “Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.”
– Gail Godwin.
75. “Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
– Gloria Steinem.
76. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
– John Dewey.
77. “Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going.”
– Chantal Sutherland.
78. “Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability…We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”
― Thomas A. Edison.
79. “Victory is the child of preparation and determination.”
– Sean Hampton.
80. “Every race is like training and preparation.”
– Nino Schurter.
81. “Hours of preparation for something that is executed, with extreme precision, in a few minutes. Just as with a judo throw.”
– Yves Klein.
82. “You hit home runs not by chance, but by preparation.”
– Roger Maris.
83. “Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind.”
– Louis Pasteur.
84. “The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether its proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation – the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.”
– Michael Jordan.
85. “I’m a big believer in the fact that life is about preparation, preparation, preparation.”
– Johnnie Cochran.
86. “I run on the road long before I dance under the lights .”
– Muhammad Ali.
87. “For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.”
– Emmitt Smith.
88. “Opportunity does not waste time with those who are unprepared.”
― Idowu Koyenikan, “Wealth For All: Living A Life Of Success At The Edge Of Your Ability’.
89. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
– Colin Powell.
90.”Football teaches you hard work. It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to have spectacular results in both business and football.”
– Roger Staubach
91. “Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.”
― Robert Schuller.
92. “Shape your heart to front the hour, but dream not that the hours will last.”
– Alfred Lord Tennyson.
93. “Talent is to actors what luck is to card players. It’s not really anything; it’s just a fictitious word that people have created and labeled things. Talent is like, you know, I never really believed in talent, I believed in drive and determination and preparation, but talent is sort of like luck.”
– Shia LaBeouf.
94. “There is no shorter road to defeat than by entering a war with inadequate preparation.”
– Charles Lindbergh.
95. “The foundation of confidence in virtually every field is preparation.”
– Brian Tracy.
96. “Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing.”
– Wayne Dyer.
97. “Good luck is when opportunity meets preparation, while bad luck is when lack of preparation meets reality.”
– Eliyahu Goldratt
98. “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation, there is sure to be failure.”
– Confucius.
99. “I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.”
― Oprah Winfrey.
100. “I believe success is preparation because opportunity is going to knock on your door sooner or later but are you prepared to answer that?”
– Omar Epps.