197 Jocko Willink Quotes To Be Successful

Welcome to the ultimate collection of Jocko Willink quotes! You’ll find inspirational quotes, wisdom and advice by Jocko Willink on mindset, motivation, perseverance, discipline, leadership, fear, stress, waking up early and even diet and exercise.

John Gretton “Jocko” Willink is a retired officer of the United States Navy, who served in the Navy SEAL teams. He is also a bestselling author and podcaster.

His military service saw combat actions in the war in Iraq and was honored with the Silver Star and Bronze Star for his service. He achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander before retiring in 2010.

Willink has written and co-authored many bestselling books; Extreme Ownership, Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual, The Dichotomy of Leadership, Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual and even the Way of the Warrior Kid series.

He co-founded the management consulting firm Echelon Front, LLC and hosts a weekly podcast with Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner Echo Charles, called the Jocko Podcast.

Below I’ve put together the best collection of Jocko Willink quotes that I hope will inspire and motivate you to take extreme ownership of your life. To demand more of yourself than you ever thought possible and stay on track to achieve your goals.

Inspirational Jocko Willink Quotes

1. “Your life is like a story. You’re writing it. And you don’t know how long the story is. You don’t know how many chapters you’re gonna get. So I would say go ahead and fill ’em up.” – Jocko Willink

2. “People who are successful decide they are going to be successful. They make that choice. They decide to study hard. They decide to work hard. They decide to be the first person to get to work and the last to go home.” – Jocko Willink

3. “When things are going bad: Don’t get all bummed out, don’t get startled, don’t get frustrated. No. Just look at the issue and say: ‘Good’.” – Jocko Willink

4. “The only person you can control is you. So focus on making yourself who you want to be: Faster. Stronger. Smarter. More humble. Less ego.” – Jocko Willink

5. “When things are going bad there’s going to be some good that comes from it.” – Jocko Willink

6. “The better you understand yourself, the better you’ll become. You’ll be better. You’ll do better.” – Jocko Willink

7. “The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create.” – Jocko Willink

8. “Things won’t get better dwelling on the past. Accept what has happened. Then move forward.” – Jocko Willink

9. “A person’s strengths are also often their biggest weaknesses.” – Jocko Willink

10. “If you allow the status quo to persist, you can’t expect to improve performance, and you can’t expect to win.” – Jocko Willink

11. “Do not give up based on instinct. If you are forced to stand down. To retreat so that you can rebuild and attack so be it. But make that decision based on logic. Not on the instinct of surrender and defeat.” – Jocko Willink

12. “I’m always reading the next book. Taking notes. Highlighting, researching, studying. It doesn’t stop.” – Jocko Willink

13. “If I went back to my 20-year-old self, what I would tell my 20-year-old self is, ‘You don’t know anything.’ Because everyone, when they’re young, they think they know what’s going on in the world, and you don’t.” – Jocko Willink

14. “Didn’t get promoted? Good. More time to get better.” – Jocko Willink

15. “We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.” – Jocko Willink

16. “Weakness is strong. I must be stronger.” – Jocko Willink (This is an incredibly inspiring Jocko Willink quote on weakness.)

17. “Fight weak emotions with the power of logic; fight the weakness of logic with the power of emotion.” – Jocko Willink

18. “That is what aggression is to me: The unstoppable fighting spirit. The drive. The burning desire to achieve mission success using every possible tool, asset, and strategy and tactic to bring about victory. It is the will. To. Win.” – Jocko Willink

19 “You are declaring martial law on your mind: MIND CONTROL.” – Jocko Willink

20. “Don’t let your mind control you. Control your mind.” – Jocko Willink

21. “Go out in a blaze of glory, fighting with everything you’ve got, every ounce of energy, every bead of sweat, every drop of blood – until your last breath. And then – and only then- can you stand down, put down your sword and your shield, and rest: in peace.” – Jocko Willink

22. “Embed that long-term goal in your mind. Burn it into your soul…but most important: do something about it. Every day. Every day: Do something that moves you closer towards that goal – that keeps the goal in sight and in focus.” – Jocko Willink

23. “Your actions are a statement of what you believe.” – Jocko Willink

24. “Besides death, all failure is psychological.” – Jocko Willink

25. “Live in defiance of the weakness and in rebellion against the decay.” – Jocko Willink

26. “Don’t ask yourself ‘Why Me’? Instead, ask yourself ‘What am I going to do about it?'” – Jocko Willink

27. “Everyone has an ego. Ego drives the most successful people in life—in the SEAL Teams, in the military, in the business world. They want to win, to be the best. That is good. But when ego clouds our judgment and prevents us from seeing the world as it is, then ego becomes destructive.” – Jocko Willink

28. “Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. Often, the most difficult ego to deal with is your own.” – Jocko Willink

29. “Even if you can’t perform at a high level, showing up and doing something is still a thousand times better than not showing up at all.” – Jocko Willink

30. “Question yourself every day. Ask yourself: Who am I? What have I learned? What have I created? What forward progress have I made? Who have I helped? What am I doing to improve myself—today? To get better, faster, stronger, healthier, smarter?” – Jocko Willink

31. “There is no growth in the comfort zone.” – Jocko Willink

32. “So what does it take to win? Yes, you have to be determined. Yes, you have to be driven. Yes, you must have the unconquerable will to win. But to really win, to truly win at all cost, requires more flexibility, more creativity, more adaptability, more compromise, and more humility than most people ever realize. That is what it takes to win.” – Jocko Willink

33. “When you’re too embarrassed to ask for help, that’s a little knock at your door saying, ‘You’re insecure!'” – Jocko Willink

34. “Perseverance is also key to success in any endeavor, but without perseverance in combat, there can be no victory.” – Jocko Willink

35. “Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.” – Jocko Willink

36. “If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‘Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,’ you’re working for you.” – Jocko Willink

37. “There is no such thing as a weekend. This is an everyday gig: Every day is a Monday.” – Jocko Willink

38. “When you think you can’t take any more… guess what? You can – It’s proven by the stories of ordinary people in war.” – Jocko Willink

39. “I always have respect for the enemy. The minute you’re not showing respect to the enemy and their capabilities, that’s a lack of humility and its going to get you killed.” – Jocko Willink

40. “Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you.” – Jocko Willink

41. “The storm that you’re in is hard to see out of and it seems like its everything. But, the storm is not everything. And, it won’t last forever. You can get out of the storm and you will get out of the storm. And, when you get out, you’ll see the sun.” – Jocko Willink

42. “The most important trait for someone to be successful and do well is to be humble. When someone’s not humble, that’s when they all of the sudden don’t listen to anyone else. They don’t want to evolve anymore because they think they know everything. So, they don’t make any changes and they don’t improve. The most important quality is the quality of humility so that you can take criticism and change to improve yourself.” – Jocko Willink

43. “Repetitive exceptional performance became a habit.” – Jocko Willink

Motivational Jocko Willink Quotes

44. “Don’t think. Do.” – Jocko Willink

45. “You don’t “find” time to do what is important. You make time. Go.” – Jocko Willink

46. “Blah blah blah blah do work.” – Jocko Willink

47. “Time waits for no man. Life goes by, and it goes by quick. Don’t waste your years. Live them.” – Jocko Willink

48. “The idea isn’t going to execute itself…You have to do and do it now.” – Jocko Willink

49. “Unless you do the work, the world will never see your vision.” – Jocko Willink

50. “Get up. And. Go. Take the risk, take the gamble, take the first step. Take action. And don’t let another day slip by.” – Jocko Willink

51. “Stop thinking about it. Stop Dreaming about it. Stop researching every aspect of it…Start doing it. Take that first step and make It happen. Get after it.” – Jocko Willink

52. “Most things that never get done never get done because they never get started.” – Jocko Willink

53. “Ignore and outperform. Yes. While you are over there watching me and talking about me – I’m working. Working hard. I’m taking things to the next level.” – Jocko Willink

54. “Don’t give in to the immediate gratification that is whispering in your ear. Shut that voice up. Instead, go through the motions. Sprint up the hill. Lift the weights. Work on the project. Get out of bed.” – Jocko Willink

55. “The earlier you get in the game and start applying yourself, the better the life you’re going to have.” – Jocko Willink

56. “Don’t just think. Don’t just talk. Don’t just dream. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you actually do. So: Do.” – Jocko Willink

57. “You have to do the work. You have to hold the line. You have to make it happen.” – Jocko Willink

58. “Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short.” – Jocko Willink

59. “When your feelings are screaming that you have had enough, when you think you are going to break emotionally, override that emotion with concrete logic and willpower that says one thing: I don’t stop.” – Jocko Willink

60. “The Darkness cannot extinguish your light. Your Will. Your determination. No matter what is happening—no matter how hard the fight is. As long as you keep fighting—you win.” – Jocko Willink

61. “Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it … Start doing it.” – Jocko Willink

62. “Don’t fail the test. Don’t give in. Don’t quit. Fight on. Fight through the storm. Fight through the pain and come out on the other side stronger, and tougher, and better. A fighter. A survivor. A winner… Victorious.” – Jocko Willink

63. “Everyone wants some magic pill—some life hack—that eliminates the need to do the work. But that does not exist.” – Jocko Willink

64. “Keep fighting no matter what. You never quit. And if you feel like you’re in a place where you can’t get any lower and can’t find a way out – Good. That means that the ultimate challenge is in front of you and the only way that you can go is up.” – Jocko Willink

65. “Go down swinging. And I’ll tell you: If you fight with all you have, more often than not, you won’t go down at all. You will win.” – Jocko Willink

66. “Remind yourself that this struggle that this struggle – this temporary pain – this fight that you’re in – will make you stronger and faster and better. Then with that motivation you go forward into the fray – into the heat of the battle – where victory is formed.” – Jocko Willink

67. “Another mission. Another task. Another goal. And the enemy is always watching. Waiting. Looking for that moment of weakness. Looking for you to exhale, set your weapon down, and close your eyes, even just for a moment. And that’s when they attack. So don’t be finished.” – Jocko Willink

68. “I know that somewhere out there, another man is also preparing. That man is the enemy.” – Jocko Willink

69. “Imagine if you added up all those moments and all those seconds of hesitation and then all those opportunities that you missed because you hesitated and all those things you wish you would’ve done but you didn’t because you hesitated. Think if you added all that up and put it into a big pile. Imagine how big that would be…and what a waste.” – Jocko Willink

70. “You’re not going to find happiness. You have to make it. So get out there and make some happiness.” – Jocko Willink

71. “If you can say the word good, guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing. And if you’re still breathing, well then hell, it means you still have some fight left in you. So get up, dust off, reload, recalibrate, re-engage, go out on the attack.” – Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes on Discipline

72. “Discipline equals freedom.” – Jocko Willink

73. “Discipline is your best friend. It will take care of you like nothing else can.” – Jocko Willink

74. “Discipline is the root of all good qualities.” – Jocko Willink

75. “There is one thing that gets you out of bed in the morning, and that is discipline. Because your dreams and your goals are not there waking up for you in the morning.” – Jocko Willink

76. “Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.” – Jocko Willink

77. “Get out there and do what you’re supposed to do whether you feel like it or not.” – Jocko Willink

78. “It isn’t that you wake up one day and decide, that’s it: I’m going to be weak. No. It’s a slow incremental process. It chips at your will – It chips at your discipline.” – Jocko Willink

79. “The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.” – Jocko Willink

80. “I would venture to guess that the biggest reason creative types don’t produce isn’t because they don’t have vision… or talent… in most cases, it’s a lack of discipline.” – Jocko Willink

81. “Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.” – Jocko Willink

82. “There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline. Discipline.” – Jocko Willink

83. “If you don’t think you are disciplined: It is because you haven’t decided to be disciplined. Yet.” – Jocko Willink

84. “How do I handle those days when I’m just not ‘feeling it’? Those days when I am tired or worn out or just sick of the grind…What do I do on those days? I go anyway. I get it done.” – Jocko Willink

85. “Don’t really want to workout? I work out. Don’t really want to hammer on the project? I hammer on the project. Don’t really want to get up and get out of bed? I get up and get out of bed.” – Jocko Willink

86. “The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test.” – Jocko Willink

87. “Discipline starts every day when the first alarm clock goes off in the morning. I say ‘first alarm clock’ because I have three, as I was taught by one of the most feared and respected instructors in SEAL training: one electric, one battery-powered, one windup.” – Jocko Willink

88. “Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom. When you have the discipline to get up early, you are rewarded with more free time.” – Jocko Willink

89. “It’s pretty self explanatory. The more discipline you have in your life, the more freedom you have in your life. People are always looking for a remedy or a shortcut to make hard things easier. Things are hard for a reason. If they were easy, everyone would do them. If something is hard, I don’t care – I’m just gonna do it anyways.” – Jocko Willink

90. “You wanna get better, you wanna self improve. Stop looking for a short cut. Go find your alarm clock. Find your discipline. Find your guts and your passion and your drive. Find your will. Then, you will find your freedom.” – Jocko Willink

91. “People ask me, “How do I get tougher?” BE TOUGHER. “How can I wake up early in the morning?” WAKE UP EARLY. “How can I work out consistently every day?” WORK OUT CONSISTENTLY EVERY DAY. “How can I stop eating sugar?” STOP EATING SUGAR.” – Jocko Willink

92. “One of the best mental disciplines for people to implement is simply putting together a schedule or a task list and actually executing it. Write the list or the schedule the night before, and then do what you said you would do. Life becomes much better when you do that.” – Jocko Willink

93. “Freedom is what everyone wants – to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.” – Jocko Willink

94. “How do you become better? There is only one way – The way of discipline.” – Jocko Willink

95. “Getting better isn’t a hack or a trick or a one thing you need to change. Getting better is a campaign. Its an incessant fight that doesn’t stop against temptation, weakness and against laziness. Its a campaign of discipline. Hard work and dedication. Its going to bed late and waking up early and grinding it out every second in between – every single day.” – Jocko Willink

96. “Get creative. Get aggressive. Get it done. When you are on the road, stay on the path.” – Jocko Willink

97. You have to be vigilant. You have to be on guard. You have to hold the line on the seemingly insignificant little things— things that shouldn’t matter—but that does.” – Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Leadership Quotes

98. “Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” – Jocko Willink

99. “Extreme Ownership is a mind-set, an attitude.” – Jocko Willink

100. “A leader must exercise Extreme Ownership. Simultaneously, that leader must employ Decentralized Command.” – Jocko Willink

101. “The leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything.” – Jocko Willink

102. “There can be no leadership when there is no team.” – Jocko Willink

103. “Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory.” – Jocko Willink

104. “Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors.” – Jocko Willink

105. “The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job. When mentored and coached properly, the junior leader can eventually replace the senior leader, allowing the senior leader to move on to the next level of leadership.” – Jocko Willink

106. “A good leader does not get bogged down in the minutia of a tactical problem at the expense of strategic success.” – Jocko Willink

107. “One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.” – Jocko Willink

108. “A leader must lead, but also be ready to follow. They must be aggressive, but not overbearing. A leader must be calm, but not robotic. They must be confident but never cocky. A leader must be brave, but not foolhardy. They must have a competitive spirit, but be a gracious loser.” – Jocko Willink

109. “Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests.” – Jocko Willink

110. “The best leaders understand the motivations of their team members and know their people – their lives and their families. But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself.” – Jocko Willink

111. “When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.” – Jocko Willink

112. “In chaotic, dynamic, and rapidly changing environments, leaders at all levels must be empowered to make decisions. Decentralized Command is a key component to victory.” – Jocko Willink

113. “We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible.” – Jocko Willink

114. “When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable — if there are no consequences — that poor performance becomes the new standard. Therefore, leaders must enforce standards.” – Jocko Willink

115. “Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another.” – Jocko Willink

116. “Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.” – Jocko Willink

117. “A leader must be attentitive to details, but not obssessed with them. They must be strong, but have endurance. A leader must be humble, but not passive. They must be close to subordinates, but not too close. A leader must exercise ‘extreme ownership’, but employ ‘decentralized command’. They must have nothing to prove, but everything to prove.” – Jocko Willink

118. “Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than six to ten people, particularly when things go sideways and inevitable contingencies arise.” – Jocko Willink

119. “To implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous — you can’t make people do these things. You have to lead them.” – Jocko Willink

120. “When personal agendas become more important than the team and the overarching mission’s success, performance suffers and failure ensues.” – Jocko Willink

121. “Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance or doesn’t. And this applies not just to the most senior leader of an overall team, but to the junior leaders of teams within the team.” – Jocko Willink

122. “Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get things done.” – Jocko Willink

123. “Leaders should never be satisfied. They must always strive to improve, and they must build that mind-set into the team.” – Jocko Willink

124. “A leader must lead but also be ready to follow. Sometimes, another member of the team—perhaps a subordinate or direct report—might be in a better position to develop a plan, make a decision, or lead through a specific situation.” – Jocko Willink

125. “On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.” – Jocko Willink

126. “You can’t make people listen to you. You can’t make them execute. That might be a temporary solution for a simple task. But to implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous you can’t make people do those things. You have to lead them.” – Jocko Willink

127. “So how can a leader become great if they lack the natural characteristics necessary to lead? The answer is simple: a good leader builds a great team that counterbalances their weaknesses.” – Jocko Willink

128. “Leadership isn’t one person leading a team. It is a group of leaders working together, up and down the chain of command, to lead.” – Jocko Willink

129. “Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise.” – Jocko Willink

130. “When a leader takes too much ownership, there is no ownership left for the team or subordinate leaders to take. So the team loses initiative, they lose momentum, they won’t make any decision, they just sit around and wait to be told what to do.” – Jocko Willink

131. “When leaders who epitomize Extreme Ownership drive their teams to achieve a higher standard of performance, they must recognize that when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” – Jocko Willink

132. “The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. For all the definitions, descriptions, and characterizations of leaders, there are only two that matter: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” – Jocko Willink

133. “Generally, when a leader struggles, the root cause behind the problem is that the leader has leaned too far in one direction and steered off course.” – Jocko Willink

134. “It is paramount that senior leaders explain to their junior leaders and troops executing the mission of how their role contributes to big-picture success.” – Jocko Willink

135. “For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.” – Jocko Willink

136. “If your boss isn’t making a decision in a timely manner or providing the necessary support for you and your team, don’t blame the boss. First, blame yourself.” – Jocko Willink

137. “Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.” – Jocko Willink

138. “If mistakes happen, effective leaders don’t place blame on others. They take ownership of the mistakes, determine what went wrong, develop solutions to correct those mistakes and prevent them from happening again as they move forward.” – Jocko Willink

139. “The leader must explain not just what to do, but why.” – Jocko Willink

140. “The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame.” – Jocko Willink

141. “As leaders, we must not get dragged into the details but instead remain focused on the bigger picture.” – Jocko Willink

142. “Good leaders are rare; bad leaders are common.” – Jocko Willink

143. “The world isn’t filled with great people who are thrilled to work for you. You’ve got to find them and nurture their talent so they stay. It’s easy to fire someone but do you have a suitable replacement? Someone who can do two-thirds of the work is better than no one doing any of the work.” – Jocko Willink

144. “When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.” – Jocko Willink

145. “Your success, or lack of success, is your responsibility. Even when you have a chain of command that you don’t like as well, it’s your responsibility to work with the up chain of command.” – Jocko Willink

146. “Identifying weaknesses, good leaders seek to strengthen them and come up with a plan to overcome challenges.” – Jocko Willink

147. “In the business world, and in life, there are inherent complexities. It is critical to keep plans and communication simple.” – Jocko Willink

148. “All animals, including humans, need to see the connection between action and consequence in order to learn or react appropriately.” – Jocko Willink

149. “If you continue to keep low performers on your team, that are actually dragging the team down; you’re failing the whole team, and eventually, the whole team is going to fail.” – Jocko Willink

150. “Leadership is hard. It’s a skill. It’s a technique.” – Jocko Willink

151. “Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.” – Jocko Willink

152. “Waiting for the 100 percent right and certain solution leads to delay, indecision, and an inability to execute.” – Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes about Fear

153. “Do not take the easy way out. Do not give up based on instinct. Take the step. Step aggressively toward your fear.” – Jocko Willink

154. “We’re scared of what we don’t know and there’s only one way to learn and to know and that is to confront that fear.” – Jocko Willink

155. “I don’t want you to overcome fear of failure. I want you to be afraid of failure.” – Jocko Willink

156. “Fear of failure is good. It will keep you up at night. Planning, rehearsing, and keeping you training hard. It will stop you from cutting corners. It will keep you thinking, working, and striving. I want you to be horrified – terrified – of sitting on your butt and doing nothing. That’s what you need to be truly afraid of – being stagnant.” – Jocko Willink

157. “Fear is normal. Every person feels fear at some point. Step aggressively toward to your fear – that is the step into bravery.” – Jocko Willink

158. “One of the things I definitely think of as a driver of me is fear. And it’s fear of failure, fear of being overtaken.” – Jocko Willink

159. “Hesitation is the enemy. It allows the moment to pass, the opportunity to be lost, the enemy to get the upper hand.” – Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes on Stress

160. “Some things are completely out of your control and that’s fine. When that happens, you ask yourself ‘What can I control that will make this situation just a little bit better?’. Then you go. Don’t get crushed by things going wrong. Ask yourself ‘What am I going to do?’ – then go do it.” – Jocko Willink

161. “If it’s something you can’t control, how can you look at it in a different light? How can you see it in a way where you can take advantage of it? How can you take that stress and make it into some kind of ally?” – Jocko Willink

162. “If it’s stress of things that we cannot control, what you have to do is you mitigate that stress as much as possible. You’ve planned, you’ve trained, you’ve done everything you can in your power to mitigate the stress that’s facing you. And then after that, there’s nothing you can do. So, you have to let that one go.” – Jocko Willink

163. “Humans can withstand almost inconceivable stress—and you can too. So that is your first step: Gain perspective. And to do that you must do something critical in many situations: Detach. Whatever problems or stress you are experiencing, detach from them. Stress is generally caused by what you can’t control.” – Jocko Willink

164. “Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.” – Jocko Willink

Lies and Excuses Quotes by Jocko Willink

165. “No more excuses…Now is the time for strength. And through strength – and through will – and through unwavering discipline – I will become what I want to be. I will become who I want to be.” – Jocko Willink

166. “You have to decide that you are going to be in control, that you are going to do what you want to do. Weakness doesn’t get a vote. Laziness doesn’t get a vote. Sadness doesn’t get a vote. Frustration doesn’t get a vote. Negativity doesn’t get a vote.” – Jocko Willink

167. “No more. No more excuses. No more: “I’ll start tomorrow.” No more: “Just this once.” No more accepting the shortfalls of my own will. No more taking the easy road. No more bowing down to whatever unhealthy or unproductive thoughts float through my mind.” – Jocko Willink

168. “How do you stop making excuses? It’s actually pretty simple. You have to accept that all of your excuses are Lies.” – Jocko Willink

169. “You don’t have time. That’s a lie. You don’t have support. That’s a lie. You don’t know the best way, or you’re too old, or you’re too young, or you’re too tired, or you’re too sore, or you’re just not feeling it… Lies Lies Lies.” – Jocko Willink

170. “The lies will come, and the will come from you. The lies you will tell yourself are: It’s no big deal. You can have just a little. It isn’t worth it to feel this bad. The body needs carbs. You will rationalize, and start to listen to these lies. Don’t.” – Jocko Willink

171. “If you are sick or injured, don’t use that as an excuse to skip workouts to stay in bed all day. Do what you can.” – Jocko Willink

172. “Recognize the excuses are not valid. They’re trumped up, they’re fabricated. They’re lies. How do you stop the lies? You stop them with the truth. The truth will set you free and stop the procrastination. The truth is that you have the time, you have the skill, you have the knowledge, the will power, the discipline to get it done. Cast out the lies and burn them down.” – Jocko Willink

173. “Once people stop making excuses, stop blaming others, and take ownership of everything in their lives, they are compelled to take action to solve their problems. They are better leaders, better followers, more dependable and actively contributing team members, and more skilled in aggressively driving toward mission accomplishment. But they’re also humble—able to keep their egos from damaging relationships and adversely impacting the mission and the team.” – Jocko Willink

174. “If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.” – Jocko Willink

175. “If you are going to rest, that is the one thing that you should procrastinate on. That’s the one thing that you should put off until tomorrow. If you feel the same way the next day, then go ahead. But, what you’ll realize is that the desire to rest was just weakness and the desire to take the path of least resistance.” – Jocko Willink

Quotes on Waking Up Early

176. “I’m not saying 0430 is for everyone. But if your sleeping until 10 every day, get used to losing.” – Jocko Willink

177. “If you wake up whenever you want, and you slept for 10 hours, and you’re lazy getting out of bed, then I believe that affects your whole life in a negative way.” – Jocko Willink

178. “That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.” – Jocko Willink

179. “Just on a practical side, if you wake up early in the morning – like at 4:30 in the morning – you’re going to have some free time to yourself to make things happen, to take care of things that are important to you.” – Jocko Willink

180. “Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out. Get some.” – Jocko Willink

181. “Waking up early was the first example I noticed in the SEAL Teams in which discipline was really the difference between being good and being exceptional.” – Jocko Willink

182. “Go to bed at 9:55pm and you can get up at 4:55am, still get your seven hours, and be up before the enemy.” – Jocko Willink

183. “If you try and work out at 4:30 in the afternoon, how many people are going to chip away at that time? Your boss, your job, your work, your family, your other obligations that you might have. At 4:30 in the morning, all those people are asleep, so you can do whatever you want.” – Jocko Willink

184. “There are a slew of psychological advantages that come from early morning physical training. First, there is a psychological win over the enemy. Knowing that you are working harder than your adversaries gives you an advantage. It gives you confidence that you can overcome them in battle.” – Jocko Willink

185. “It’s not fun to get out of bed early in the morning. When the alarm goes off, it doesn’t sing you a song: it hits you in the head with a baseball bat. So how do you respond to that? Do you crawl underneath your covers and hide? Or do you get up, get aggressive, and attack the day?” – Jocko Willink

186. “If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.” – Jocko Willink

Quotes On Diet & Exercise

187. “Why do you want to get a good workout early in the morning? Well, because it sends more oxygen to your brain; it releases endorphins. It puts you in a state of mind where you can crush things, which is where you want to be.” – Jocko Willink

188. “It’s really hard to guarantee things in life. I guarantee if you get up in the morning and you work out, and you work hard, you will have a better day – 100% guaranteed.” – Jocko Willink

189. “Those weights in the gym – they aren’t going to move themselves. You have to do it.” – Jocko Willink

190. “I would say there are some foods that I strongly recommend that you do not eat. No. 1 on that list, I believe, is doughnuts. Comfort food. Zero value. Don’t eat them.” – Jocko Willink

191. “In this age, the food around you is actually trying to kill you. It is poison. Donuts? Poison. Soda? Poison. Potato chips? Poison. You don’t need it.” – Jocko Willink

192. “Do I have chocolate chip cookies? Yes, I do. Do I have mint chocolate chip milkshakes? Yes, I do. I love them. They are fantastic. But when I have them, they’re worth it. I earned them. I did something. I worked out super hard. I stayed clean on food.” – Jocko Willink

193. “Those donuts aren’t food. They are poison. Same with the chocolate chip cookies, the chocolate cake, the can of soda, the bag of potato chips….All that junk isn’t going to make you stronger, faster, smarter or better. It’s going to do the opposite. And you know this. You know that you don’t need any of that junk.” – Jocko Willink

194. “We have food all around us all the time, and if we haven’t eaten for three hours, we think we’re starving. You’re not starving – human beings can go for 30 days without food.” – Jocko Willink

195. “Everyone wants to know: what should a workout actually consist of? And first of all – let me say this: The most important thing to do is something. Anything.” – Jocko Willink

196. “Just do some kind of workout. Doesn’t matter if it’s going for a walk around the block, going for a jog, doing some calisthenics, lifting weights, going to a pool and swimming – you name it. But do something that gets your blood flowing and gets your mind in the game.” – Jocko Willink

197. “Jiu-Jitsu is probably the No. 1 activity that I could recommend to someone to improve their lives overall.” – Jocko Willink

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