12 Poems To Motivate & Inspire

If you’re looking for a boost of motivation, then reading through the below collection of inspiring poems will help.

Their words are powerful and their meanings deep. They will get you thinking about life and motivate you to improve.

Read them slowly and enjoy.

Poems to Motivate

 

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

– Portia Nelson

Chapter I

I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost … I am helpless. It isn’t my fault. It takes me forever to find a way out.

Chapter II 

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in again. I can’t believe I am in the same place. But it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter III 

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in … it’s a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Chapter IV 

I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter V

I walk down another street.

 

 

Don’t Quit

John Greenleaf Whittier

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,

When the funds are low, and the debts are high

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is strange with its twists and turns

As every one of us sometimes learns

And many a failure comes about

When he might have won had he stuck it out,

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell just how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

 

 

Promise Yourself

– The Optimist Creed From The Optimist International

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel like there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living person you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, and too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

 

If

–  Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same:.

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings,

And never breathe a word about your loss:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

 

 

Climb ‘Til Your Dream Comes True

– Helen Steiner Rice

Often your tasks will be many,

And more than you think you can do.

Often the road will be rugged

And the hills insurmountable, too.

But always remember, the hills ahead

Are never as steep as they seem,

And with Faith in your heart start upward

And climb ‘Til you reach your dream.

For nothing in life that is worthy

Is never too hard to achieve

If you have the courage to try it

And you have the Faith to believe.

For Faith is a force that is greater

Than knowledge or power or skill

And many defeats turn to triumph

If you trust in God’s wisdom and will.

For Faith is a mover of mountains.

There’s nothing that God cannot do,

So start out today with Faith in your heart

And ‘Climb ‘Til Your Dream Comes True’ !

 

 

Compensation

Edgar Albert Guest

I’d like to think when life is done

That I had filled a needed post.

That here and there I’d paid my fare

With more than idle talk and boast;

That I had taken gifts divine.

The breath of life and manhood fine,

And tried to use them now and then

In service for my fellow men.

I’d hate to think when life is through

That I had lived my round of years

A useless kind, that leaves behind

No record in this vale of tears;

That I had wasted all my days

By treading only selfish ways,

And that this world would be the same

If it had never known my name.

I’d like to think that here and there,

When I am gone, there shall remain

A happier spot that might have not

Existed had I toiled for gain;

That someone’s cheery voice and smile

Shall prove that I had been worthwhile;

That I had paid with something fine

My debt to God for life divine.

 

 

For Every Hill I’ve Had to Climb

– L. E. Thayer

For every hill I’ve had to climb,

For every stone that bruised my feet,

For all the blood and sweat and grime,

For blinding storms and burning heat

My heart sings but a grateful song

These were the things that made me strong!

For all the heartaches and the tears,

For all the anguish and the pain,

For gloomy days and fruitless years,

And for the hopes that lived in vain,

I do give thanks, for now I know

These were the things that helped me grow!

‘Tis not the softer things of life

Which stimulate man’s will to strive;

But bleak adversity and strife

Do most to keep man’s will alive.

O’er rose-strewn paths the weaklings creep,

But brave hearts dare to climb the steep.

 

 

It Couldn’t Be Done

– Edgar Albert Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done

But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried, he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

At least no one ever has done it;”

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat

And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

There are thousands to prophesy failure,

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

 

 

 

Our Deepest Fear

– Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness

That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small

Does not serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking

So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,

As children do.

We were born to make manifest

The glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us;

It’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we’re liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.

 

 

Plain Old Oyster

– Unknown

There once was an oyster, whose story I’ll tell

Who found that some sand, had gotten into his shell

It was only a grain, but gave him great pain

For oysters have feelings, although they are plain

Now, did he berate the harsh workings of fate

That had brought him to such a deplorable state?

“No”, he said to himself, “Since I cannot remove it”,

I’ll lie in my shell, and think how to improve it”,

The years rolled around, as the years always do,

And he came to his ultimate destiny …. stew.

Now the small grain of sand that had bothered him so,

Was a beautiful pearl all richly aglow,

This tale has a morale, for isn’t it grand,

What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand?

Think…what could we do, if we’d only begin,

With some of the things that get under our skin.

 

 

Success

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by

a healthy child, a garden patch

or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed

easier because you have lived;

This is to have succeeded.

 

 

The Victor

C.W. Longenecker

If you think you are beaten, you are.

If you think you dare not, you don’t.

If you like to win but think you can’t,

It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost.

For out in the world we find

Success begins with a fellow’s will.

It’s all in the state of the mind.

If you are outclassed, you are.

You’ve got to think high to rise.

You’ve got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win the prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger or faster man.

But sooner or later, the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can.

 

Okay, maybe there are 13 poems….

 

What Will Matter?

Michael Josephson

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten

will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations

and jealousies will finally disappear.

So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from

or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter?

How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought

but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success

but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned

but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity,

compassion, courage, or sacrifice

that enriched, empowered or encouraged others

to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence

but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew,

but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories

but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered,

by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Looking for more inspirational poems and words?:

Very Short Quotes about Life and Inspiration

6 Inspirational Poems About Achieving Your Dreams

6 Inspirational Words That Are Powerful On Their Own

Positive Words – An Epic A-Z List & How to Use Them More Often!

Word Of The Year Ideas

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