27+ Powerful Transformation Quotes

Transformation Quotes and Transformative Coaching

So, what exactly is transformation? What is transformative coaching? And, most importantly, where are the transformation quotes?

 

Introduction

Okay, this post was originally going to be called “What is a Transformative Coach?”. It very quickly morphed (transformed) into a post about transformative coaching inspirational quotes, instead. (Because these transformative quotes really do explain, or reveal, the process of transformation (and transformative coaching) – what transformation looks like, where it comes from, and why it’s avoided at all costs sometimes!)

So, without further waffling of the Steve kind, let the transformational quotations begin (and I’ll talk about being a transformative coach some other (rainy day) time)…

 

Transformation Quotes

“You can’t teach anybody anything, only make them realize the answers are already inside them.”
– Galileo Galilei

“How soon will you realise that the only thing you don’t have is the direct experience that there’s nothing you need that you don’t have?”
– Ken Keyes, JR

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.”
— John Allen Paulos

“If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.”
— Sydney Banks

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
— Maya Angelou

(Those first 5 transformation quotes are my favourites, by the way, the ones that appear most on my transformative coaching business cards. Why? Because they eloquently describe the human condition – the struggles we have, the journey we’re always on, and where the wisdom that helps guide us actually comes from.)

 

More Transformation Quotes

“Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes.”
– Carl Jung

“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”
– Chinese Proverb

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
– Rumi

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
– Maya Angelou

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
– Albert Einstein

And I love these quotes about transformation because they’re about what happens to us when we start to be more gentle with ourselves. They encourage us to play full out, aware of our ‘character’ strengths and weaknesses but not held back by them.

 

 

 

Even More Inspirational Transformaton Quotes

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
– Steve Jobs

“Cease trying to work everything out with your minds, it will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be a Revelation.”
– Eileen Caddy

“Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.”
– Anon

“The only trick in life is to be grateful for your highs and graceful with your lows.”
– George Pransky

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
– Anais Nin

Wow! Can you see how empowering it would be to live – most of the time, anyway – in a space where you understood, on a deep level, what all of these wise people say. Wow!

 

Yet More Transformational Quotations

“Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.”
– Theodore N. Vail

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
– Aristotle

“You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can’t have it.”
– Robert Anthony

“Be curious, not judgmental.”
– Walt Whitman

“Nothing lasts forever. Not even your troubles.”
– Arnold H Glasgow

Yes, you know these words to be true – all of ’em – I know you do.

And yet. Still. We go on believing otherwise. Because others believe otherwise. Or because it’s easy to forget. Or because we feel life is ‘easier’ if we ignore the real, nagging, truth of our lives: we can do anything, we really can. (A final transformative quote from my very own transformative coaching business cards…)

“You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can’t have it.”
– Dr. Robert Anthony

But if I were to sum up transformative coaching in just one inspirational quote.

(As impossible as deciding your favourite visited place in all the world, admittedly. Could it be the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the much more humble Castle Hill in Huddersfield, the Tate Modern in London’s South Bank or how about the deeply spiritual, hypnotic almost, Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) near Alice Springs, Australia? Hmm…)

Still. One quote? Which one? This one…

“How soon will you realise that the only thing you don’t have is the direct experience that there’s nothing you need that you don’t have?”
— Ken Keyes, JR

(This really is the focus of my work with clients, actually – getting them to see this for themselves.)

 

 

 

Yes, More Transformation Quotes…

“Through return to simple living comes control of desires. In control of desires stillness is attained. In stillness the world is restored.”
— Lao Tzu

“If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm.”
— African proverb

“As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others.”
— Marianne Williamson

“Life is a moving, breathing thing. We have to be willing to constantly evolve. Perfection is constant transformation.”
— Nia Peeples

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We are all butterflies. Earth is our chrysalis.”
— LeeAnn Taylor

5 more transformation quotes:

“With love and patience, nothing is impossible.”
— Daisaku Ikeda

“Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives.”
— Lao Tzu

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
— Albert Einstein

“Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.”
— Marianne Williamson

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”…
— Lao Tzu

NOTES:

1. Find more transformation quotes here, at Awaken The Greatness Within
2. I compiled a book containing quotes like this, that I’ve called “Conscious living” quotes, which you can buy here