12 Inspiring Quotes to Help You Finish the Year Strong

As the holiday season gets into full swing, now is a great time to reflect on the year you’re about to leave behind. What did you accomplish? What do you have left to do? What did you learn? What will you try to do better next year?

The end of the year might feel like a perfect time to simply cruise along and get into the holiday spirit, but this is your time to dig deep. The last quarter of the year is like the final mile of a race, when you need finish strong. Keep in mind, the real winner is the one who is able to summon up that last push of energy when everyone else is fading.

Your Year-End Hustle

Here are 12 inspiring quotes to help you make it over the finish line—and beyond.

1. “Stopping at third adds no more to the score than striking out. It doesn’t matter how well you start if you fail to finish.” —Billy Sunday

2. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” —Steve Jobs

3. “Whenever you have taken up work in hand, you must see it to the finish. That is the ultimate secret of success. Never, never, never give up!” —Dada Vaswani

4. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

5. “Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.” —Thomas Carlyle

6. “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” —Julie Andrews Edwards

7. “Don’t tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.” —James Ling

8. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” —Maya Angelou

9. “The woods are lovely dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.” —Robert Frost

10. “The only guarantee for failure is to stop trying.” —John C. Maxwell

11. “Starting strong is good. Finishing strong is epic.” —Robin Sharma

12. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” —Dale Carnegie