Books
7 Short Poems To Motivate You To Conquer The World (Or At Least Conquer The Day)
Ever find yourself just happening to Google "success mantras?" (Pro tip: do it.) In addition to scoping out some pretty sweet office art (think posters and plaques), you'll also get a jolt of positivity and empowerment. And remember positivity plus empowerment equals motivation. You know--that feeling that you, bad ass, can conquer the world... or at least the day.
But how to carpe diem when you've got a full plate? Tony Robbins says: “A major source of stress in our lives comes from the feeling that we have an impossible number of things to do. If you take on a project and try to do the whole thing all at once, you’re going to be overwhelmed.” Motivation experts again and again advise us task rabbits to chunk and make to-do lists and visualize. They ask us to high-five ourselves for our achievements.(Health coach Jill Ginsberg tells Bustle, "It’s no surprise then that many of us find it challenging to stay engaged in our goals when we rarely provide ourselves with praise." Yikes!)
Looking for another way to cultivate the "you-can-do-it" 'tude? How about reading one of these poems, sure to pump you up and leave you ready to tackle whatever comes your way today, tomorrow, and forever.
"Renascence" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
But, sure, the sky is big, I said;
Miles and miles above my head;
So here upon my back I'll lie
And look my fill into the sky.
And so I looked, and, after all,
The sky was not so very tall.
"Death" by Donald Revell
For what are days but the furnace of an eye?
If I could strip a sunflower bare to its bare soul,
I would rebuild it:
Green inside of green, ringed round by green.
There'd be nothing but new flowers anymore.
Absolute Christmas.
"On Old Ideas" by Dorothea Lasky
Kissing the bankteller outside his stairs
In Brighton, MA I cannot lie. I felt the hope
That we once felt, if only for an instant
"Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" by Alexander Pope
You think this cruel? take it for a rule,
No creature smarts so little as a fool.
"kitchenette building" by Gwendolyn Brooks
But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday’s garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms
Even if we were willing to let it in,
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,
Anticipate a message, let it begin?
"On Reading Crowds and Power" by Geoffrey Hill
Cloven, we are incorporate, our wounds
simple but mysterious. We have
some wherewithal to bide our time on earth.
"Bad Year Anthem" by Matthew Nienow
I let the voice grow loud. I let the voice
hum outside my body in distinguishable phrasings, and count
the increments as I set the fence according to the blade. All day
I stand before a blade and push things into its path.
