Monday Morning Motivation – The marvellous Mimi Hughes

Mimi Hughes is an American long-distance swimmer who has crossed the Bering Strait and swum the length of many rivers, including the Tennessee, the Danube, the Drava and the Mura.

Mimi was interviewed by GOTRIbal
To get herself through her long-distance swims, Mimi relies on many motivational sayings, such as:
- When you decide to give yourself to a cause, you must arrive at the point where no sacrifice is too great.
- It is not the mountains we conquer but ourselves.
- To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe.
- The basic tenet of democracy is an individual’s ability to make a difference.
- Freedom means accepting—not forfeiting responsibility.
- When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, “I used everything you gave me. – Erma Bombeck
- Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. – Bruce Barton
- Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. – Napoleon Hill
- Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. – Saint Francis of Assisi
- Faith is the heroic effort of your life. Face anything you have to face without wavering. Matt 10-27
- The evils that we hate, you no less than I, cannot be overcome with shrugs and sighs and shakes of the head no matter how wise. They but mock us and grow more bold when we retreat before them and take refuge in the affirmation of man’s tragic average. To believe that new evils will arise as vicious as the old—to believe that the great Pandora’s box of human suffering, once opened, will never show a diminution of its ugly swarm, is to help by just that much, to make it so, forever. – Thomas Wolfe
- Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek sinuous full-bodied animal. Chasing and chuckling gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, only to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free and were caught and help again. Tired at last, he sat on the bank while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world sent from the heart of the Earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea. – Ken Graham
- The first and last day of the 1,000 swim (walk) are no different, the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. Your only aim is to achieve your initial purpose, then you can really enjoy what you’ve done. There is no backing out. When you have finished what you set out to do, you have created something of value. – Sakai Yusai
- Never look back—be forever mindful of others and always keep the eyes set on the way. Do this and there is nothing that can’t be accomplished. – Sakai Yusai
- Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. – Marie Curie
- Facing it—facing it—always facing it—That’s the way to get through it. Face it! – Joseph ConradMake it a point to do something every day that you don’t want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain. – Mark Twain