80 Goal-Setting Quotes to Achieve Excellence

Goal setting is crucial to self-improvement, personal growth, and success in any area of life. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed or lost without clear objectives, but creating goals can provide direction and purpose.

While the journey to achieving greatness requires discipline and hard work, some goal-setting quotes from well-known figures could offer the inspiration needed to stay the course.

Here are 80 goal-setting quotes from successful entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, and leaders who have achieved excellence in their fields.

These quotes offer insights, wisdom, and guidance on how to set and attain goals in order to turn your dreams into reality.

Whether you’re looking to improve your health, advance your career, or pursue a personal passion, these quotes will motivate you to take action toward meeting your goals.

80 Goal-Setting Quotes to Achieve Excellence

Staying energized and on track to reach our desired outcomes is never easy. Below you will find 80 quotes about setting and achieving goals. Consider these sayings to broaden your horizons.

1. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
2. “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein
3. “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins
4. “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.” – Michelangelo
5. “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
6. “In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.” – Unknown
7. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
8. “Intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.” – Andy Andrews
9. “The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.” – Albert Einstein
10. “Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” – Bo Jackson
11. “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” – Zig Ziglar
12. “The difference between a goal and a dream is a deadline.” – Steve Smith
13. “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” – Earl Nightingale
14. “The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland
15. “Goals are like magnets. They’ll attract the things that make them come true.” – Tony Robbins
16. “Small daily improvements are the key to staggering long-term results.” – Unknown
17. “If you want to live a happy life, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie
18. “To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe.” – Anatole France
19. “A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee
20. “There’s no use trying to get people to see things your way if they’re not looking.” – Bernard Baruch
21. “The biggest challenge in setting goals is overcoming limiting beliefs and fears that hold us back.” – Hal Elrod
22. “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” – Jim Rohn
23. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
24. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
25. “Goals are simply dreams with deadlines.” – Diana Scharf Hunt
26. “One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.” – Michael Korda
27. “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius
28. “You can’t hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can’t catch a fish unless you put your line in the water. You can’t reach your goals if you don’t try.” – Kathy Seligman
29. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
30. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln

31. “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill
32. “The great end of life is not knowledge but action.” – Thomas Henry Huxley
33. “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie
34. “People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.” – Earl Nightingale
35. “Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.” – Elbert Hubbard
36. “The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.” – Earl Nightingale
37. “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” – Japanese Proverb
38. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
39. “The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!” – Marvin Phillips
40. “The starting point of all achievement is desire.” – Napoleon Hill
41. “A goal is not a vague or fuzzy dream. It is a precise, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound achievement that is born from the desires, values, and beliefs within you.” – Brian Tracy
42. “Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life.” – Les Brown
43. “The only way to do something in depth is to work hard. The moment you start being in love with what you’re doing, and thinking it’s beautiful or rich, then you’re in danger.” – Miuccia Prada
44. “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” – Jordan Belfort
45. “Don’t wait for opportunity, create it.” – George Bernard Shaw
46. “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” – Lou Holtz
47. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
48. “You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.” – Brian Tracy
49. “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” – Confucius
50. “Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision.” – Muhammad Ali
51. “Success is not just about what you accomplish in your life, it’s about what you inspire others to do.” – Unknown
52. “Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got this.” – Chantal Sutherland
53. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
54. “The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American dream.” – Tommy Hilfiger
55. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll
56. “Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.” – Arnold H. Glasow
57. “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
58. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
59. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela
60. “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” – Zig Ziglar

61. “If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission.” – Unknown
62. “What gets measured, gets managed.” – Peter Drucker
63. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
64. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
65. “Measure progress in small increments. Celebrate small successes.” – Bruce Van Horn
66. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn
67. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu
68. “Goals that are not written down are just wishes.” – Fitzhugh Dodson
69. “The most important thing in achieving goals is to make sure they are measurable.” – Charles C. Noble
70. “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
71. “The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” – Denis Waitley
72. “A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement.” – Bo Bennett
73. “Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” – Reggie Leach
74. “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein
75. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
76. “The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke
77. “Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive.” – Robert H. Schuller
78. “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing or brave enough to do.” – Unknown
79. “If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.” – J.M. Power
80. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford

Final Thoughts

Setting and accomplishing goals is vital to personal development and success. These goal-setting quotes offer valuable insights and inspiration from those who have achieved excellence in their respective fields.

Know that reaching greatness is not always easy, but it’s worth it. Use these quotes as a reminder to continue pushing forward, even when faced with challenges or setbacks.

By taking consistent action, you’ll be able to accomplish amazing things. We hope these quotes have encouraged you to pursue ambitious goals with passion and dedication.

Just recognize that there is no limit to what you can do once you put your mind to it. So don’t be afraid to go out there, establish your goals, and make your aspirations come true.