Quotes about starting over
Starting over is rarely something you choose on a good day. A job ends, a relationship ends, a plan falls apart, or you simply wake up one morning unable to keep doing it the old way. These are for the first steps after.
For permission to begin again
The first obstacle to starting over is usually the feeling that you shouldn't have to. That you should have got it right the first time. Nobody does.
There was nothing for it, but to turn back and begin all over again.
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Dickens makes it sound almost cheerful, which is the right spirit. Not a tragedy. Just the next thing to do.
What you do wrong once, you can alter the next time.
George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
Be forgiving with your past self. Be strict with your present self. Be flexible with your future self.
James Clear, 3-2-1 Newsletter
Make a mistake? Release the guilt, remember the lesson.
James Clear, 3-2-1 Newsletter
For which way to face
Move toward the next thing, not away from the last thing. Same direction. Completely different energy.
James Clear, 3-2-1 Newsletter
Possibly the most useful line on this page. Running away from a bad job and walking toward a better one can look identical from outside. They feel nothing alike from inside, and they tend to lead to very different places.
Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.
Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.
Joel 2:25, World English Bible
For anyone who feels they've lost years. It's a verse people come back to when they're rebuilding after something that took a long time to go wrong.
For after a failure
Defeat is a school in which truth always grows strong.
Henry Ward Beecher
A shy failure is nobler than an immodest success.
Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
Failures are with heroic minds the stepping-stones to success.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton
There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
That's Sherlock Holmes talking, and it's a good attitude to borrow. When everything's gone wrong, at least the problem has become interesting.
For what's ahead
Many people wish they started sooner. Almost nobody wishes they started later.
James Clear, 3-2-1 Newsletter
You push push push, then one day find yourself on the very stage you used to dream about.
Derek Sivers, sive.rs
You must begin at a low round of the ladder if you mean to get on.
George Eliot
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Starting over, practically
Use a fresh start date. Researchers Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman and Jason Riis found that people are more likely to take on new goals at the start of a week, a month or a year, and after birthdays. They called it the fresh start effect. You don't have to wait for January, but a Monday, or the first of the month, can give a new beginning a bit of extra push.
Keep something from before. Starting over doesn't mean starting from zero. The skills, friendships and hard-won knowledge of what you don't want all come with you. List them. It's a longer list than you think.
Make the first week small. The urge after a big change is to rebuild everything at once. Pick one thing. A walk every morning, one application a day, one call to an old friend.
Let yourself grieve the old version. Even a good change is a loss of something. It's fine to miss it while you move on.
Dailies has a topic called Start again from here that's built for this stretch, and another called Do the brave thing for when the next step is a scary one. If what you're facing is less a new start and more a long hard season, motivational quotes for hard times might suit better.
Questions
What is a good quote about starting over?
James Clear's "Move toward the next thing, not away from the last thing" is one of the most useful, because it changes how a fresh start feels. For something older, Dickens wrote in David Copperfield: "There was nothing for it, but to turn back and begin all over again."
Is it too late to start over?
Almost never. People change careers, move, go back to school and rebuild relationships at every age. As James Clear puts it, many people wish they had started sooner, and almost nobody wishes they had started later.
What is the fresh start effect?
A finding by Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman and Jason Riis that people are more motivated to pursue goals after dates that feel like a new beginning, such as a Monday, the start of a month, a new year or a birthday. Those dates can be used on purpose to launch a new habit.
Where is "I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten" from?
The book of Joel, chapter 2, verse 25. In the World English Bible it reads: "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten."
Keep reading
Start today with something good.
Set it up once. Dailies takes it from there.
