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This quote by Maya Angelou talks about taking control of our lives. Change is hard – and facing difficulties is also challenging. However, life is complex, it keeps throwing different challenges in front of us. This quote talks about the attitude that we take to these circumstances. The message is simple. If we don’t like something, we have to change it.

But this change is not always easy. While appreciating the complexity of these challenges, we must recognise that change can happen only when we take ownership. This ownership is about deciding to make a change. This decision can help us start thinking about solutions – moving from a problem mindset to a solution mindset. The ultimate point in this quote is – if we don’t like something, only we can make a change. And this change can be in small things to make it sustainable and eventually, it becomes a part of our life.

If you don’t like something change it meaning

The meaning of this quote can be split into two parts – one is about taking responsibility and ownership of the situation. The second part is about what we can do about the situation. The latter part says we can change the situation or our attitude about it. We can’t always change the situation, but the attitude is in our control. Although it is easy to say this, the attitude change is tougher because it is closely linked to our values and beliefs. Changing something like this will take effort and commitment. While doing so, we must create strategies that help us overcome our limiting behaviours.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude

– Maya Angelou

We can all make this change, but the main thing is to appreciate change’s complexity- attitude and strategies take time and effort. Change happens and we get better at dealing with change. The first part is about recognising that something must change. It takes time for us to make this realisation sometimes, but the moment we do it – this can liberate us and help us think about life differently.

Maya Angelou Quotes about Strength

Maya Angelou’s quotes talk about strength in an emotive, empathetic manner. What I love about these quotes is that they talk about kindness, and quiet strength which is not always spoken about. It is one of the strongest types of strengths within. This strength is beyond pain and self-pity or challenges.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Our defeat is only when we give up. As long as we keep fighting and keep up our spirit, life moves on and we grow with each of these defeats. Giving up is a waste of all these experiences that we’ve gathered with time. This is not about perseverance and fighting beyond our strength. It is just about using our situation, lessons and opportunities to the best and create an option for us to win

“The measure of our success is not whether we have ever been knocked down, but whether we rise every time we are knocked down.”

We must keep fighting – each one of us fights. But how we fight makes all the difference. It is hard to maintain the spirit as we continue this fight. This is because it challenges our motivation and fighting when we feel tired and even at times when we don’t have any support. But each time, we need to rise, because that’s the only way to live.

“Still I rise.”

Still I rise – this can come across as a simple quote, but the power of it is in its simplicity. No matter what these challenges are, we have to rise beyond them to move forward with life. Giving up is not an option because it is synonymous with death of the spirit. Life moves on, we move on and it can suprise us wiht different outcomes each time. But still we need to find a way to rise.

“You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, but in the recorder of the human heart, it will be said that I rose up in defiance. Because you see, my ancestors, they didn’t succumb to the hurt you inflicted on them. They held on to their pride.”

“The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination.”

Maya Angelou Quotes about Purpose

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.

There is nothing more pathetic than a closed mind, unwilling to learn, unwilling to grow

I long to be a warrior for these children here, fighting for their right to be free, to be educated, and to have a decent shot at happiness.

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who actually strives to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat