Welcome to The Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.
Today's quote comes from Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who wrote the profound book "Man's Search for Meaning."
Frankl survived four years in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, where he lost his parents, brother, and pregnant wife.
From that unimaginable suffering, he gave us this wisdom:
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
Think about what Frankl is saying here.
When you can't change the situation, you change yourself.
Most of us spend enormous energy trying to change things we can't control. The economy. Other people. The past. Circumstances beyond our reach.
And we exhaust ourselves fighting battles we cannot win.
Frankl learned in the most extreme circumstances imaginable that when the external situation is unchangeable, you have one option left: transform yourself.
Not accept defeat. Not give up. Transform.
You can't change that you lost your job. But you can change how you respond to it. You can become more resilient, more resourceful, more adaptable.
You can't change that someone hurt you. But you can change yourself into someone who doesn't carry that hurt forever.
You can't change the obstacle in your path. But you can change yourself into someone capable of navigating around it, climbing over it, or breaking through it.
This isn't about positive thinking or pretending everything's fine. Frankl watched people die around him. He knew suffering was real.
But he also knew that the last freedom no one can take from you is the freedom to choose who you become in response to what happens.
A few years ago, I faced a situation I couldn't change. A business partnership fell apart. I tried everything to fix it. Nothing worked.
I was bitter. Angry. Stuck.
Then I read Frankl's words. And I realized I was wasting energy trying to change something unchangeable.
So I changed myself instead. I became someone who could let go. Who could start over. Who could learn from failure without being destroyed by it.
The situation didn't change. I did. And that made all the difference.
So here's the question: What unchangeable situation are you fighting right now? And what if instead of trying to change it, you focused on changing yourself?
Because that's the one thing you always have control over. Not the obstacle. You.
That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.

Welcome to The Daily Quote – a podcast designed to kickstart your day in a positive way.

I'm your host Andrew McGivern and lets jump into today's quote from an unkown author from the tech world who once said..."If you haven't backed up your work, you haven't done any."Think about that for a second. You haven't done any work.Sounds harsh. But it's true.You can spend ten hours writing a document. But if your computer crashes and you didn't save it, you have zero hours of work. Not ten. Zero.You can spend months building a business. But if you don't protect your contracts, your files, your data, you have nothing. One hard drive failure and it's gone.The work you did doesn't matter if you can't prove it existed.This quote comes from the painful reality of technology. Every programmer, every writer, every designer has learned this lesson the hard way. You lose something important once, and you never forget to back up again.But here's what's interesting: this principle extends way beyond computers.If you're pursuing a goal but you're not tracking your progress, you haven't really done the work. Because you can't prove to yourself that you're moving forward.If you're learning a skill but you're not documenting what you've learned, the knowledge evaporates.If you're building a habit but you're not recording your consistency, you'll convince yourself you haven't been consistent.Backing up your work isn't just about protecting against loss. It's about creating proof. Evidence. A record that says "I did this."I learned this the hard way today. I booted up my computer this morneing. Or I should say I tried to... But I got a error screen.Turns out the hard drive that has my operating system on it died and I can't get into my computer or access any of my stuff.So, today I'm recording on a different computer that I borrowed to get the podcast done but I don't have all my fancy plugins and templates that make it sound good. But I have to admit... It sounds good anyway. Maybe even better. Maybe I've been over processing a little.Anyway... this time around it looks like I didn't actually lose much data because the other hard drive that has all my recent work on it is hopefully still good. The show must go on... so I'm working on this computer for now.But enough about me, what about you? What work are you doing right now that you're not protecting? What progress are you making that you're not tracking?Because if you haven't backed it up, documented it, or recorded it – you haven't really done it.Protect your work. Protect your progress.That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.

Welcome to the Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.Today's quote comes from Herbert Kaufman, who said:"The habit of persistence is the habit of victory."Notice what Kaufman doesn't say. He doesn't say talent is the habit of victory. He doesn't say genius or luck or natural ability.He says persistence. And he calls it a habit.That's the key insight: persistence isn't something you summon for the big moments. It's something you practice daily until it becomes automatic.Most people think persistence means gritting your teeth and pushing through when things get hard. That's part of it. But that's not the habit.The habit is showing up when nothing dramatic is happening. When progress is invisible. When nobody's watching. When you don't feel like it.The habit is doing the work on day 47 of a hundred-day goal when the excitement has worn off and the finish line still feels impossibly far away.That's when most people quit. Not because the goal is impossible. Because persistence isn't a habit yet. It's still an effort.But for people who've made persistence a habit? Day 47 is just Tuesday. They show up because that's what they do. Not because they're motivated. Because it's their habit.And here's what Kaufman understood: if you build the habit of persistence, victory becomes inevitable. Not immediate. Inevitable.Because you will outlast everyone who quits. You will outlast the setbacks. You will outlast your own doubts.Victory doesn't go to the fastest or the smartest. It goes to the one who refuses to stop.So here's the question: What goal are you pursuing? And have you made persistence a habit yet – or is it still an effort?Because if you can make persistence automatic, victory becomes inevitable. You just have to outlast everything else.That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.

Welcome to the Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.Today's quote comes from Eric Butterworth, a Unity minister and author who spent his life teaching about human potential and spiritual growth.He said:"Don't go through life; grow through life."Seven words. Two completely different approaches to living.Going through life means you're just surviving. Days are happening to you. You wake up, handle what comes at you, go to sleep, repeat.You're present, but you're not learning. You're busy, but you're not evolving. You're alive, but you're not growing.Growing through life means something different. It means you're extracting lessons from everything that happens. The wins teach you. The losses teach you. The mundane days teach you.Going through is passive. Growing through is active.Going through life, you experience a setback and say, "That was terrible." Growing through life, you ask, "What can I learn from this?"Going through life, you repeat the same patterns for years. Growing through life, you notice the patterns and break them.Going through life, you're the same person at sixty that you were at twenty, just older. Growing through life, you're constantly becoming someone new – wiser, stronger, more capable.The difference isn't what happens to you. It's what you do with what happens to you.Butterworth understood that life gives you the raw material. Growth is what you build from it.So here's the question: Are you going through life or growing through life?Because the same experiences that make one person bitter can make another person better. The difference is whether you're learning or just enduring.Don't just go through it. Grow through it.That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.

Welcome to the Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.Today's quote is attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, the French military commander who conquered most of Europe.He said:"An amateur is easily spotted because he tries to do too much."Think about that. Trying to do too much is the mark of an amateur.Not too little. Too much.This seems backwards at first. We're told to hustle. To do more. To maximize productivity. To add more skills, more projects, more goals.But Napoleon understood something most people miss: professionals focus. Amateurs scatter.The amateur tries to master five things at once. The professional masters one thing deeply.The amateur takes on every opportunity. The professional says no to everything except what matters most.The amateur spreads their energy across a dozen projects. The professional concentrates their full force on one objective.Napoleon conquered Europe not by fighting on every front at once, but by concentrating his forces at decisive points. He didn't try to do everything. He did the essential thing with overwhelming force.This is how mastery works. It's not addition. It's subtraction.You don't become great by adding more things to your plate. You become great by removing everything that doesn't serve your primary objective.The amateur's calendar is packed. The professional's calendar has white space because they've eliminated the non-essential.The amateur is busy. The professional is effective.So here's the question: What are you trying to do that's making you look like an amateur?What can you cut? What can you eliminate? What singular objective deserves your full concentration?Because professionals don't try to do everything. They focus on the one thing that matters.That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.

Welcome to the Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.Today's quote comes from Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese-American poet and philosopher, best known for his book "The Prophet."He wrote:"Kindness is like snow—it beautifies everything it covers."Think about what happens when snow falls.It doesn't discriminate. It covers everything equally. The beautiful garden and the junk pile. The mansion and the broken fence. The new car and the old shed.And when the snow settles, everything looks better. Cleaner. Softer. More peaceful.That's what kindness does.It doesn't judge what it touches. It doesn't wait for someone to deserve it. It just covers everything – the good, the bad, the ugly – and makes it all a little more beautiful.A kind word to someone who's struggling doesn't fix their problem. But it makes the problem more bearable. It softens the edges.A kind gesture in a tense situation doesn't resolve the conflict. But it makes the conflict less harsh. It creates space for something better.Kindness transforms without changing the facts. The junk pile is still there under the snow. But it's covered in something beautiful.And here's what Gibran understood: kindness doesn't just beautify what it touches. It beautifies the person giving it. When you choose kindness, you become someone who makes the world softer, cleaner, more peaceful.Just like snow.So here's the question: What could you cover with kindness today? What rough edge could you soften? What ugliness could you beautify?Because kindness is like snow. It doesn't fix everything. But it makes everything a little more beautiful.That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.---## VIDEO NOTES:- Show quote text on screen at 0:15-0:20- Visual: Fresh snow covering landscape / before/after snow fall / gentle snowfall- Text overlay at key moments: "Kindness doesn't judge" / "It just beautifies" / "Be the snow"- End card: "What will YOU beautify today?"

Welcome to the Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.Today's quote comes from Carol S. Dweck, Stanford psychologist and author of "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success."She wrote:"We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don't like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary."This quote destroys a comforting lie we tell ourselves.The lie goes like this: "Those people are special. They were born with talent I don't have. They're different from me. So of course they succeeded."It's comforting because it lets us off the hook. If they were born special, then our ordinariness isn't our fault. We can stay exactly where we are and blame genetics.But Dweck spent decades researching high achievers. And here's what she found: they weren't born superheroes. They were ordinary people who did something extraordinary – they committed to growth.Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team. He wasn't born the greatest. He made himself the greatest through obsessive practice.J.K. Rowling was a single mother on welfare when she started writing Harry Potter. She wasn't born a legendary author. She became one through persistence.Your idols started where you are. Ordinary. Maybe even less than ordinary. What made them extraordinary wasn't their starting point. It was their refusal to stay there.Dweck calls this the growth mindset – the belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.The opposite is the fixed mindset – the belief that talent is innate and unchangeable. That you either have it or you don't.Guess which one keeps you stuck? And guess which one creates champions?So here's the question: What have you been avoiding because you think you weren't born with the talent for it?Because here's the truth – you probably weren't. But that doesn't matter. Champions aren't born. They're made.And you can make yourself extraordinary too.That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.

Welcome to the Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.Today's quote comes from Nassim Taleb, author of "The Black Swan" and one of the most provocative thinkers on risk, probability, and impact.He wrote:"The world is dominated not by the median, not by the average, but by the extremes — the monsters on the tails."Think about what Taleb is saying here.We're taught to focus on the average. The median. The middle of the bell curve. That's where most people are, so that's what matters, right?Wrong.The world isn't shaped by the average. It's shaped by the extremes. The outliers. The rare events that nobody expects.One pandemic changes more about how we work than fifty years of gradual improvement.One breakthrough technology transforms an entire industry while a thousand incremental updates do nothing.One exceptional employee creates more value than ten average ones combined.One massive mistake can undo years of careful, steady progress.Taleb calls these "monsters on the tails" – the extreme events at the edges of the probability distribution that have disproportionate impact.Here's what this means for your goals: playing it safe and aiming for average won't get you far. The median is comfortable, but it's not where impact lives.Impact lives in the extremes. Extreme dedication. Extreme risk. Extreme innovation. Extreme failure that teaches you what works.If you want to make a real difference – in your career, your business, your life – you can't optimize for average. You have to be willing to go to the tails.The tails are where the monsters live. But they're also where the magic happens.So here's the question: Are you playing it safe in the middle? Or are you willing to go to the extremes where real impact lives?Because the world isn't dominated by average. It's dominated by the monsters on the tails.That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.