Stedman Graham Quotations

Most people are defined by their titles, their cars, their house, where they came from, their color, their race, their religion. And so it's up to you to take control of your own life and define you. As long as you understand who you are and you have a solid foundation of understanding what your talents are, what your skills are.

Freedom is about a way of thinking. Freedom is about understanding that you can do anything that you want and freedom is about being able to take information and education and make it relevant to your own growth every single day. Freedom is not staying in the box. Freedom is not doing what other people want you to do.

Understand who you are, so that you can be the same, whether you're talking to a homeless person or the president of the United States. You're the same person.

If you did the same thing you did yesterday as you did today as you will do tomorrow, what have you done? The same thing.

Everybody has 24 hours and the question is, what do you do with your 24 hours? That's what makes everybody equal.

So while you're an athlete, and you have that platform, what you want to be able to do is make it work for you as much as possible, because there's going to be life after sports.

I've worked in the prison system for five years, and most of those folks in prison didn't have a direction.

Sports isn't just a part of life. It's not life itself.

You know, you're living in a society where if you say something that you might think may be OK, when it's more sensitive to that particular culture. You have to be very, very careful.

I define myself by everything that I love, everything I can create, everything that I can imagine.

I'm pretty grounded on my own passion - writing books, you know, doing programs, speaking around the country. And I love what I do.

You know and we have about 60 to 70 percent black men in prison today and it's because of the negativity they have in their own hearts.

The idea of being able to serve as an example, based upon how to process, how to think, how to realize our own dreams, we can pass that down to our children.

You know, and younger people today, you know, they may not have Social Security. They may not have a pension. They may have 17 different jobs. And so they have to be - they have to, you know, establish somewhat of an ownership, you know, mentality.

Daren Hardy's The Compound Effect is a culmination of success principles that is relevant to anyone who needs it! As a thought leader, he is making a significant contribution to our industry. A wonderful book!

Each of us can make a great difference in the lives of other people, particularly as we move along the Success Process ourselves growing in strength, gaining experience and knowledge.

There are always risks when you chase after a dream because growth requires that you leave your comfort zone and enter unknown territory. But without confronting those risks and facing your fears, you'll never, as Nike says, "Just do it." Now the truth is, you may fail in some of your efforts, but you will never succeed if you are not willing to risk failure. And even if you do fail, you can learn from the experience and try again. To do that, you will need courage, and you will also need to have faith in your ability to achieve your goals....

To pursue success effectively, you must build supportive relationships that will help you work toward your goals. To build those relationships, you need to trust others; and to earn their trust, you in turn must learn to be trustworthy....

It's not what you have at the end of life, it's what you leave behind that matters.

I've found that often, just when you think you've hit a wall, you experience a breakthrough that takes you to new heights in accomplishment

To get where we want to go in life, we have to keep at it. We have to create a vision, make choices based on what moves us most swiftly toward our goals, and go after them with determination and single-mindedness.

If you're to fulfill your vision for a better life, you must formulate a plan of action. Effective planning involves identifying and prioritizing those actions that will move you most efficiently toward your goal.

When you set goals, you have to keep them always in mind.

When everybody has access to an avalanche of information, becoming a master thinker is very important in your life-long security.

I'm a lucky guy. No question.

How can I go out there and create value?

A primary purpose for setting goals is to get you moving in the right direction. When you set goals, you have to keep them always in mind.

Having a vision for your life allows you to live out of hope, rather than out of your fears.

We make the best choices when we have invested all of our energies, our hearts, and our souls into a course of action that leads to the accomplishment of goals we are passionate about.

And whenever you encounter a problem, no matter how insurmountable it might seem, there is one simple response that should be ingrained in your behavior: Never give up.

To know yourself is the first and most important step in pursuing your dreams and goals.

All your life you compare and contrast, explore and search. But knowing yourself well is, well, elusive.

Every day, do something that is truly important in moving you toward your goals. You must choose to invest your time in the important steps. When you take charge of your time, you take charge of your life. How you spend your time reflects your priorities.

People who let events and circumstances dictate their lives are living reactively. That means that they don't act on life, they only react to it.

When you have a sense of your own identity and a vision of where you want to go in your life, you then have the basis for reaching out to the world and going after your dreams for a better life.

People who consider themselves victims of their circumstances will always remain victims unless they develop a greater vision for their lives.