Wayne Dyer and 7 of His Best Quotes
When you read the things Wayne Dyer said, it’s easy to see why became such a big self-help psychologist. With books like Your Erroneous Zones, he transformed very academic psychology into simple, accessible and practical reading. He enabled us to be agents of our own change and responsible for our own happiness.
Still, plenty have criticized Dyer’s work. Being a best-selling author for a long time in the field of self-help resulted in academia dismissing his simplification of psychological theories and approaches. However, there is something we should remember, something Wayne Dyer himself knew very well.
Writing scientific articles for a university is not the same as writing for the general public. One of the great challenges for those who work daily in the area of psychological processes, in a clinic or in college classrooms, is to articulate the mysteries of human behavior to the world.
Wayne Dyer was possibly the best at doing this. Ever since his early years at St. John’s University in New York, he understood the transcendence and value of cognitive-behavioral concepts, Abraham Maslow‘s vision about human motivation, and Viktor Frankl’s thoughts on the meaning of life.
Those ideas shaped his first books. Later, he explored various spiritual aspects of the human experience with a clear purpose: to help people understand themselves, look at themselves and begin changing concepts, ideas and attitudes in order to grow.
Wayne Dyer quotes to reflect on
Dyer was a psychologist, professor, a best-selling writers in the field of motivation and personal growth, as well as one of the most successful speakers of all time. He wrote numerous books, including 5 children’s books. Today, more than 2 years after he passed away, his legacy is still very alive and present. These words Wayne Dyer spoke reveal the essence of his practical wisdom.
1. Your attitude towards life
Something that Dyer used to say often in his books is, “change your thoughts, change your life”. Happiness, as surprising as it may seem, is nothing more than an attitude towards life. No matter our personal darkness, no matter the difficulties and gray days… Because if you are willing to overcome it, perspectives change and life becomes a little easier.
2. Selective attention
Let’s admit it. How many times have we backed off off a dream because we didn’t trust ourselves enough? We see more walls than open roads and we set traps in front of ourselves. Let’s get widen our selective attention that only sees difficulty so we can also see the opportunity all around.
3. Don’t be your own enemy
Wayne Dyer reminds us that it will always be preferable to be hated for what we are than to be loved for what we are not. At the end of the day, there is no worse reason to suffer than for not being ourselves.
4. The present is what counts
It’s hard to believe it but nevertheless we do it: we don’t give enough importance to things around us, and in fact, we even neglect ourselves. We let life go by all the while worrying about yesterday and a future that has not yet happened. In turn we miss all the wonderful things that are happening right now before us.
Let us be responsible builders of our own story. Let’s focus on the present and be architects of our own happiness.
5. Take risks
The unknown is a vast unexplored territory where all of our fears grow. A loud voice tells us it’s better not to take a risk, that it’s best to stay in our comfort zone where nothing new happens but where, after all, we are safe.
But no one grows in that small space where everything is easy and known. There, we don’t advance and can’t be fully happy. As Wayne Dyer reminds us, “The more you see yourself as what you’d like to become, and act as if what you want is already there, the more you’ll activate those dormant forces that will collaborate to transform your dream into your reality.”
6. Dominate your inner self and focus
Here Wayne Dyer touches on the spiritual world, which intensifies rather than detracts from the psychological world. There was something he always defended in his books, and it is the fact that we have the resources we need to experience total peace, but sometimes we fill our mind with noise, whispers of negative thoughts, exhausting attitudes…
All our power is there, in our mind. However we must learn to calm it, to center it. For this, we must learn to connect with our inner self and pay attention to it, heal it, and give it peace.
7. Learn to see the best in other people
A person who doesn’t trust people and only sees their weakness, failures, and bad behavior certainly has a long way to go in the adventure of personal growth. The reason? Anyone who only sees defects is a person who has a lot of emptiness inside, in addition to dangerously low self-esteem.
A person who is good to themselves does not get obsessed with the bad in others. Moreover, it will only bring us unhappiness and suffering. However, seeing the light in another person’s heart will give us hope and well-being.
To conclude, these quotes by Wayne Dyer are a very small example of all he taught us. He was one of the most insightful psychologists and skilled at sharing psychology for people to use in building a healthier and more satisfying life.
