Henry Cloud Quotes

“Endings are not only part of life; they are a requirement for living and thriving, professionally and personally. Being alive requires that we sometimes kill off things in which we were once invested, uproot what we previously nurtured, and tear down what we built for an earlier time.”

“Even the most gifted people and leaders are subject to feeling conflicted about ending things, so they resist.”

“Without the ability to end things, people stay stuck, never becoming who they are meant to be, never accomplishing all that their talents and abilities should afford them.”

“Getting to the next level always requires ending something, leaving it behind, and moving on. Growth itself demands that we move on.”

“For companies that operate like a family: Sometimes the commitment to being a family gets interpreted in two destructive ways that often remain unspoken. The first one is that ‘we will put up with you no matter how you perform, and you will always have a place here.’ Second, in these companies, it can also be implied that ‘if you give yourself to us, we will take care of you, almost for life.‘”

“Some leaders think all of life and business is a start-up. ‘More, more, more,’ is their mantra. That can kill a business that could have had very good life if someone had seen that sowing had to stop and operating had to begin.”

“False hope buys us more time to spend on something that is not going to work and keeps us from seeing the reality that is at once our biggest problem and our greatest opportunity.”

“Your business and your life will change when you really, really get it that some people are not going to change, no matter what you do, and that still others have a vested interest in being destructive.”

“You cannot fix people who will not take feedback, because from their perspective, they do not have a problem. So as far as they are concerned, there is nothing to fix.”

“Some of those activities may be good, but they are taking up resources that your best ones need. So you always will have to choose between good and best. This is especially tough for some creative people, causing them a lack of focus. They create more than they can focus on and feed, they are attached to every idea as if they were all equal, and they try to keep them all alive. Instead of a to-do list, they have a to-do pile. It goes nowhere fast.”

“We get comfortable with our misery, as we find ways to medicate ourselves, delude ourselves, disassociate our feelings, or get enough distance from the problem that it does not touch us directly.”

“One of the most important types of decision making is deciding what you are not going to do, what you need to eliminate in order to make room for strategic investments.”

“Recommitment does not make a person who is unsuited for a particular position suited for it all of a sudden. Promises by someone who has a history of letting you down in a relationship mean nothing certain in terms of the future.”

“Failing well means ending something that is not working and choosing to do something else better.”

“The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it.”

“All of your precious resources—time, energy, talent, passion, money—should only go to the buds of your life or your business that are the best, are fixable, and are indispensable. Otherwise, average sets in…”

“We are not prepared to go where we need to go. So we do not clearly see the need to end something, or we maintain false hope, or we just are not able to do it. As a result, we stay stuck in what should now be in our past.”

“Today may be the enemy of your tomorrow. In your business and perhaps your life, the tomorrow that you desire and envision may never come to pass if you do not end some things you are doing today.”

“They have realized that their success depends on having the time and energy resources to go deep with a few relationships, and they have to end the wish to go deep with everyone, as it leads to skimming the surface with almost everyone.”

“It is in complete alignment with the reality that both businesses and individuals will begin, gather, and have more activities than they can reasonably sustain.”

“When things are darkest, God shines his light the brightest.”

“I’m reminded that, often, God allows us to wrestle for long periods of time as we reach out for him.”

“At one of the most painful times of his life, Jesus prayed three times without any noticeable response from God (Matthew 26:39–44). It is as if God is helping us to truly own our pleas, wishes, and desires—to want them deeply, from the heart, rather than casually or offhandedly.”

“Your first small step must be followed by another, and another, until you realize that God has indeed made a way for you to know him personally.”

“The more you act on your faith in God, the more you will see his way for you.”

“One of the most powerful, though difficult, lessons we all need to learn on our spiritual pilgrimage is that even when bad things happen and we do not understand why, we can trust God to be present and working on our behalf.”

“Own your faults and weaknesses”

“You will never benefit from your faith in God until you step on the bridge and start walking across.”

“Just as you would exercise faith in a doctor by following his advice to get well physically, by following God’s instructions you can get well emotionally and spiritually.”

“Trying to get through life on your own limited strength, knowledge, and resources leads to futility and a loss of hope. But in God’s economy, getting to the end of yourself is the beginning of hope.”

“The person who cares about the problem owns the problem.”

“Fortunately, in God’s economy, getting to the end of ourselves is the beginning of hope. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit” (Matthew 5:3)—meaning that when we realize we have no more resources, we’re ready to ask God for help.”

“What does ‘work out your salvation’ mean? It means that now that God has delivered and saved us, we are to take responsibility to live a life that reflects him and his ways: daily dependence on God, trust, love, honesty, and all the things that are of him. And while we are doing that, he is doing miraculous, divine things to achieve his ends.”

“When we put our faith and trust in God, we’ve done the one thing that a human can do to accomplish superhuman things. We have reached past human strength and knowledge. We’ve touched infinite strength and infinite knowledge.”

“The main obstacle to finding God’s way through the crises and gaps of life is failing to believe a way exists.”

“Trust is both an attitude and an action. ”

“One of the biggest oxymorons is the term ‘self-made’ man or woman. No man or woman ever ‘made’ him- or herself. The psalmist understood this when he wrote, ‘It is [God] who has made us, and not we ourselves’ (Psalm 100:3, NKJV). I also love what he goes on to say at the end of the verse: ‘We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.‘”

“The ultimate answer, then, to the problem of pain is a person. It’s God himself.”

“When your back is up against the wall and you pray and seek his help, God will make a way through the trial.”

“When God makes a way for you through your trials, it is an active, not passive, process.”