81 Personal Mottos Ideas & Examples to Live By

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Have you hit a wall? Perhaps you feel like life is just a case of the same challenges, different day, right? 

Well, you aren’t alone. 

We all reach that point of feeling like our lives have no purpose, until we find a motto to live by. Your personal motto is your Holy Grail, and it will light your way from darkness to personal freedom and a life that is worth living. 

(Side note: One of the best ways to increase your happiness and life satisfaction is to plan your day, so you focus on your TOP goals. To get started, watch this free video that details the 7-minute habit for planning your day to focus on what's important.)

What Is a Personal Motto? 

To understand what a personal motto is, you need to know that a motto isn’t the same for any two people. It’s a deeper commitment, a mental guide that directs your decisions in life. Having a personal motto is like having a motivational coach who constantly tells you how to stretch to achieve your best life. A personal motto is the key phrase you use to pronounce your reason for living. 

You may wonder if a personal motto is the same as a mantra. Indeed, it is quite similar, except a motto is something you create yourself, and it is especially crafted to reflect your life decisions. A mantra, on the other hand, is more aimed at creating generally positive beliefs about you. Where the mantra expresses your beliefs, the motto drives you to inner greatness.

Mottos are important since they help you think in line with your purpose. In life, it is quite easy to become lost in the haze of daily chores and the mundane. Before you know it, you don’t know where you are heading or what you want in life. 

When you live without a motto (or two), you can become obsessed with a certain aspect of your life, usually at the loss of the rest of your life. It’s very easy to become a workaholic instead of living a balanced life. Your motto is about finding that balance and becoming greater for maintaining balance. 

A motto helps remind you what the original purpose of your life is. For example, your motto to never give up your dream to attend college may drive you to your goal, where a mantra may tell you that you are worthy of that goal. 

Mottos are the ways in which you talk to and encourage yourself to reach your goals. These motivational key phrases influence your ability to do the things you really believe in. Personal growth becomes possible when you have placed yourself in the driver’s seat of your life. 

By destroying negative self-beliefs, your own growth as a person will exponentially increase as you fertilize your thoughts with the mottos that echo in your mind. Instead of seeing yourself as a failure, you use a repetitive motto to boost you many more times than an affirmation can. Your motto is a manifestation of yourself now, living for the better future you deserve and creating it daily. A motto is about making it real—you believe it, you design it, and you live it. 

The more you believe your motto, the more it becomes ingrained in you, filling your mind and motivation with power and forward momentum. You become an unstoppable force when you have mottos that permeate your life. You finally have purpose, and you have become that purpose.

How to Make Your Personal Motto a Success

A motto only has power when you use it often. It’s not about having a motto for every possible situation. Instead, have a few good mottos that reflect what you believe. 

These mottos are your words of power, and by saying them repeatedly, you will create the change in your life that you desire. When you say these mottos, believe them and allow yourself to feel calmed and inspired by them. 

Creating a personal motto is about finding a part of your life where you need guidance or reinforcing. Choose situations where you wish you had a personal advisor who could tell you what to do or how to behave. Then think what you would really have appreciated hearing in those situations. 

Write a short and powerful phrase that will help you navigate life’s challenges and begin repeating it to yourself. Say it aloud, whisper it in your heart, and think it in the vast hallways of your mind, but make sure you repeat it. 

With each repetition, these words will grow in power and potential. 

81 Personal Mottos Ideas & Examples to Live By

Use these mottos daily to help you reach your goals, remain strong in the face of adversity, and achieve personal growth like never before.

Early Morning Mottos

Before you start your day, take a moment to align yourself with these motto ideas.

1. This day is the best day of my life.
2. What a privilege this life is; I enjoy the love, thoughts, and breath of each day.
3. I can dream or I can do—I choose action.
4. I cherish each hour of life, not a single hour will be wasted, not even if I sit and count clouds for that hour.
5. I improve the world by enjoying it.
6. “I make [like] my coffee black and my mornings bright.” – Terri Guillemets
7. Each step is a step forward—I will arrive.
8. Today, I planted one seed, and tomorrow, I will grow a forest.

Workplace Mottos

Take some of the stress and uncertainty out of your workplace by developing a personal vision and a motto to remind you of this.

9. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
10. Today, in every way, I am capable of saying “I can.”
11. When I fall, I pick myself up again.
12. I achieve success because I don’t achieve failure.
13. Ever onward, I pass through trials and succeed by never quitting. 
14. I am a river, and I cut through the rock of this moment to create my course ahead.

15. It only takes a small stone to slay a giant, and I’ve got a great swing!
16. I see only the road ahead of me today, and I don’t notice the dragons that line the way.
17. I know the rules of work, and I break them on my way to the top.
18. Creating change, I awaken myself to possibilities. 
19. Hard work produces luck and success.

Family Mottos 

Family matters, but family is so much more than blood and relations. Use these mottos to create your personal belief in family and what that means to you.

20. I choose both friends and family; my friends are family.
21. Creating a legacy, I teach my family the path to success.
22. Mistakes are lessons unlearned until I fix them.
23. My family is always part of my future.
24. Hard work, gratitude, and love form the crest of my family shield.
25. Forgiveness is our family middle name.
26. Family is what matters most in life.
27. I cherish each member of my family.
28. Together, anything is possible.

Friends Mottos 

Friends come and go, but your attitude toward friends present and past should make the best friendship of all, the one with yourself.

29. With friends, I don’t need to ask, but I do.
30. Friendship is a divine gift that I cherish.
31. Friends find me by chance and not by choice, but I keep them by not leaving it to chance and making a choice.
32. Friendship is a conversation that never ends.
33. On the journey of life, strangers are friends I haven’t yet met.
34. Whether I am busy or just hanging out, friends are the people I can’t do without.
35. To have a friend, I need to first be a friend.
36. Never ask a friend something I won’t ask of myself.

Social Mottos

Out and about in the world, we can be challenged in our belief in what our values and self-views are. Using mottos, we can steer true to our inner nature and stand up to social pressures.

37. No matter where I am, home is in my heart.
38. Good times, trying times, I value experience at any time. 
39. In every room, there is a conversation that can change my life; I need only talk with people to find it.
40. No matter the setting, I will always remain true to who I am.
41. Whether in the limelight or in the shadows, I create my own light.
42. My values remain more important than public opinion. 
43. I subscribe not to rumors or praise but make up my own mind on which I prefer. 

Money Mottos

Our view on money determines whether we are rich or poor, not the amount in our bank account. Using money mottos, we can control our spending and views on money.

44. I spend money on saving before I spend it on spending. 
45. Money is a means to an end; it’s not the end to my means.
46. I earn. I save. I thrive.
47. I am not my money, and what I earn is no indication of my true worth.

48. If I can afford it, and it enriches my life, it is worth the investment.
49. Money is a means to an end, but it isn’t the end itself.
50. Cents add up where dollars seem impossible to save.
51. I plan my action, and I action my plans.

Failure Mottos

Failure is an inevitable part of life, but with the right failure mottos, we can make failure into the foundation of success. 

52. It sucks, but I rise above this.
53. Failure starts in the mind, so my mind is a place of success.
54. Failures are the bricks that build the temple of success.
55. Failure just means I need to try again before I succeed.
56. When I refuse to try, I fail already.
57. “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill.
58. How many times I fell and still got up is what marks me as being a victor.  

Love Mottos

There is no love greater than the one that comes from our heart of hearts. Mottos remind us why we love and how our love has the power to heal ourselves and others. 

59. Love is a temple that isn’t built in one day.
60. Where faith enables, love removes the obstacles.
61. Self-love is the greatest love of all but the hardest to practice.
62. I succeed in loving others because I love myself first.
63. To give love, I learn to receive it.
64. Love is friendship with myself that includes others.
65. To love is to hope endlessly.
66. To find love, give it out for it will shine like beacon lights, attracting more of the same.

Authentic Self Mottos

Being yourself is the best gift you can give yourself. Create a motto that inspires you to stand firm in your belief in yourself and helps you to come more into your own.

67. “The authentic self is the soul made visible.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach.
68. I am me, beautifully. 
69. This is who I am, unapologetically. 
70. The greatest treasure is the gift of me, being who I am meant to be.

71. “If you don’t know who you truly are, you’ll never know what you really want.” – Roy T. Bennett.
72. I have the ability to criticize others or be authentically me; I choose the latter.
73. Every day, in every way, I grow a little bit more into who I am. 

End of the Day Mottos

When the day is done, you have only yourself to answer to. This is when you need to quiet the voice of unreasonable doubt, or listen and act on the quiet reminder that you have room to grow. 

74. Today, I tried my best, and tomorrow, I will try even harder still.
75. I am not done.
76. The best day is this day, and tomorrow will be better still.
77. A day surrounded by the people whom I love is a good day.
78. I gather the opportunities of tomorrow in my pocket as I dream of today and smile.
79. I give thanks for today, and I am grateful for the chance at tomorrow.
80. “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther
81. The gratitude I feel for today will make tomorrow better and the day after that will be better still. 

Final Thoughts on Personal Mottos

Over time, you will thrive when you have personal mottos that govern your life. Mottos are there to help you stay on course, live the life you want—not the one thrust on you by outside forces—and achieve personal freedom. 

Using personal mottos is a habit you can cultivate through repetition and belief. Like tying your shoes in the morning, your mottos can become second nature, and while you may not consciously always think of them, they can bring you great peace. 

Work at that peace by checking out our article on 60 Affirmations for Inner Peace and Calm in Your Life.

Finally, if you want to increase your happiness and life satisfaction, then watch this free video that details the 7-minute habit for planning your day to focus on what's important.