Set Realistic Expectations & Change Circumstances – Quotes

We love a good quote. We especially like short ones that are easy to commit to memory. But even if they are lengthy, we enjoy the pithy nuggets of knowledge that speak to something that is meaningful to us. Here are some great quotes to help us along in our exploration of realistic expectations.

1. Realistic expectations for life are that we are going to be better today than we were yesterday. – Jim Harbaugh
2. Having realistic expectations about your day-to-day challenges are the keys to stress management, which is perhaps the most important ingredient to living a happy, healthy and rewarding life. – Marilu Henner
3. Set realistic customer expectations and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them – preferably in unexpected and helpful ways. – Richard Branson
4. Professional accountability is a good thing. Without it, excellence is merely a pipe dream and even average performance isn’t a realistic expectation. – Leon F. “Lee” Ellis
5. Rely on virtues that intelligent, balanced humans have relied on for centuries: common sense, thrift, realistic expectations, patience, and perseverance. – John C. Bogle
6. A realistic expectation demands our acceptance that one’s allotted time must be limited. – Sherwin B. Nuland
7. If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not recognize it when it arrives. – Heraclitus
8. Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. – Calvin Coolidge
9. Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. – Leo Buscaglia
10. I would like my car to fly and make me breakfast, but that’s an unrealistic expectation. – Jack Tretton
11. You have to find out what’s right for you, so it’s trial and error. You are going to be all right if you accept realistic goals for yourself. – Teri Garr
12. The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break. – Rick Hansen
13. What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
14. The journey begins with the contemplation stage of specifying realistic goals, getting ready, or getting psyched. – John C. Norcross
15. You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there. – Edwin Louis Cole
16. If I want to change my reality, then it is time for me to change my mind. – Louise Hay
17. Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. – Nido R Qubein
18. To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities. – Bruce Lee
19. Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it. – Robertson Davies
20. I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition. – Martha Washington
21. Take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of. – Jim Rohn
22. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. – James Allen
23. Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
24. Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him. – James Allen
25. Don’t underestimate players or audiences in any circumstances. – Peter Maxwell Davies
26. You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself. – Joy Page
27. The function of intellect is to provide a means of modifying our reactions to the circumstances of life. – Edward Thorndike
28. No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
29. Others’ circumstances seem good to us and ours seem good to others. – Publilius Syrus