First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. - Epictetus

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. 

- Epictetus

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. - Epictetus

The first step is to say to yourself what you wish to become. Simply give consideration to what you wish to become.

We will take those steps, yes, but we must actually say it.

Once you know and have said what you wish to be, all that is left is to do what has to be done. That may require a little planning, but that’s part of moving forward towards the accomplishment of your goal.


The act of saying what you are thinking makes something more real to your mind.

To me, that seems to be very important.

Anything that can be done to convince your mind, on every level possible, that you are serious about doing something is a good thing.

Saying something to your mind is the basis of motivation and experience of learning new things.

How did we learn the basic calculation and vocab in playschool? By saying and repeating day by day we learned it.


Daily statements which are used by us is actually to gain some power by being spoken, and not just read or thought.

Saying it makes it a contract with yourself, a form of the encouragement, the great motivation from your soul.

It’s just a matter of saying and doing, learning from your experiences, and repeat, again and again, until you get to where your goal.

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