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Success Quote by Mary Kay Ash

"A good goal is like a strenuous exercise - it makes you stretch"

About this Quote

A worthwhile aim should feel just beyond your current reach. Like a hard workout, it demands effort, raises your heart rate, and leaves you a bit sore. That discomfort is not a sign to retreat; it is evidence that you are engaging muscles, skills, and habits that need to be strengthened. Easy goals give quick satisfaction but little transformation. Strenuous ones require discipline, patience, and incremental progress, and they reshape you while you pursue them.

The exercise metaphor also carries a warning about form, pacing, and recovery. Push too little and you coast; push too hard and you risk injury or burnout. The sweet spot is a deliberate stretch that is challenging yet attainable with practice. This is where focus deepens, creativity awakens, and feedback becomes invaluable. You refine technique, celebrate small gains, and learn to tolerate the tension that accompanies growth. Over time, the very actions that once felt taxing become part of your normal range of motion.

Mary Kay Ash built a company and a culture around this principle. As an entrepreneur who empowered thousands of women to build their own businesses, she championed clear targets, public recognition, and rewards that made ambitious goals vivid and motivating. The famous pink Cadillac was more than a perk; it was a symbol of stretch, a visible reminder that effort, consistency, and belief could move someone beyond familiar limits. Her message was not about willpower alone but about structure: break goals into daily behaviors, seek coaching, track results, and adjust when obstacles appear.

A good goal, then, does more than organize your calendar. It changes your capacity. It trains you to withstand discomfort, to measure progress honestly, and to keep showing up when the finish line is not yet in sight. Choose aims that make you reach, and let the strain become the catalyst for new strength.

Quote Details

TopicGoal Setting
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A good goal is like a strenuous exercise - it makes you stretch
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About the Author

Mary Kay Ash

Mary Kay Ash (May 12, 1918 - November 22, 2001) was a Businesswoman from USA.

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