This Powerful Quote from an Acting Legend Will Change Your Life
By: Christopher D. Connors
Tags: Life Lessons, Inspiration, Personal Development, Quotes, Motivation

This Powerful Quote from an Acting Legend Will Change Your Life

Stop chasing what you don’t have.

What makes a great speech? First and foremost, it’s the ability to connect with the audience and say things that empower, inspire and move them to think deeper and act to make a change in their lives. So, in that spirit, it’s worthwhile to think, what if that change is really already inside of us? What if we are that change right now, and maybe we just need to think of it that way?

“True desire in the heart for anything good is God’s proof to you sent beforehand to indicate that it’s yours already.” — Denzel Washington

The quote above has become my favorite life quote. If you’ve never watched the video of when Denzel Washington delivers this (at the Dillard University commencement a few years ago), then check it out here:

This is only part of the address. There’s more to it, and I’d encourage you to watch the whole thing. You can also watch his commencement address from the University of Pennsylvania here. Truly powerful words.

​Getting back to the quote, it’s one that I hope can give you optimism as you look out at what’s in front of you. I want you to spend some time this morning in thought about what you truly want. There’s no sense in settling for next-best, or really, anything other than exactly what you want.

Choosing Faith

If you believe in Denzel’s words (and I do), this means that those dreams you hold dear are no coincidence. They’re real. That desire to want to live your best life — to have a family, to find true happiness, to land the job that you’ve always coveted — that’s real. Those are more than just fleeting images playing back in your conscious and subconscious mind.

​It’s real. And you have such an extraordinary amount of power every day to both influence and control your destiny. This begins in your mind with what you believe! And believe you must, perhaps, like you never have before.

This is the part that even I struggle with, yet find refuge in during moments of darkness and negativity: Proof sent beforehand that it’s yours already! Proof! Think about that. When we have a continuous desire for something noble and good, that lights the fire inside of us and makes us feel special, that’s proof that it’s ours already.

It’s a total re-frame of mind. It’s a call to live our lives in abundance and victory each day. There’s a famous three-word mantra called, “Be-Do-Have.” In other words, you have to BE, before you can DO, and DO before you can HAVE. As it goes.

​Denzel’s words prompt us to live first with a Have mindset. We still need to Do, but it’s doing in order to Be. When you live with a mindset of having what you already want, it can positively influence your thoughts. It’s another way of looking at life and seeing things from a different perspective. It gives us more hope to attain something worth having.

Anything truly worth having will never come easy. We have to work for it and go outside of our comfort zone to get it. Some people will quit during the pursuit. But we know that quitting is never an option. Your desire will fuel you. You may not see the results yet, but you will. After all, you have proof.

Join my newsletter for the best, free emotional intelligence and productivity content on the Internet!