Phil McGraw Quotes

If you don't have a plan, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, months turn into years, and before you know it you're looking back saying, I should've had a plan.

It's great if the in-laws themselves put up boundaries. But if they won't; it's up to their grown kids to do it and enforce them.

The problem is that for women, the average time is just over 14 minutes ... men are left with about 12 minutes during which time they need to think of something to do!

There has never been a merging of two lives where significant problems of daily living did not occur. One way or another, your relationship is going to be affected. The only question is how. There's a big difference between knowing and doing. It's not what happens between partners that determines the outcome of a relationship, it's how they handle what happens. If all you deal with in your relationship is problems, then you will have a problem relationship. If you want your pound of flesh with full acknowledgement that you're right, your future will be dim.

You don't need a pack of wild horses to learn how to make a sandwich.

We all have a social mask, right? We put it on, we go out, put our best foot forward, our best image. But behind that social mask is a personal truth, what we really, really believe about who we are and what we're capable of.

There is power in forgiveness.

Loving smart means believing in you, your worth and your value.

Well, I'm not sure what pop psychology is, but I don't like it.

People say time heals all wounds. Let me tell you, time heals nothing. You can do the wrong thing for 10 years and it doesn't equal the right thing for one day.

There is nothing wrong with your marriage if you're dealing with bills and kids and the broken garbage disposal and in-laws and work demands. That's a normal marriage.

Happiness isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. You must define what it looks like for you and then make a conscious effort to access whatever gets you to your unique definition of joy.

If your neighbor has a completely different view on abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, all of those things, you still are both Americans. Neither one of you is necessarily more patriotic than the other. Neither loves their country any more than the other one does.

Life is not a success only journey.

Do it! People who succeed don't just sit and think about what they want to do. They take meaningful, purposeful, directional action consistently and persistently. Every step they take puts them toward the outcome they're looking for.

In life you have three options with any situation that is a challenge. Remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it.

My dad used to say, 'You wouldn't worry so much about what people thought about you if you knew how seldom they did.

Willpower is a myth. The problem with trying to use willpower to achieve and sustain a behavioral change is that it is fueled by emotion. And as we all know, our emotions are, at best, fickle. They come and go. When your emotions start running down
and they will
even your best-laid plans will fall flat.

At the end of the day, whether or not those people are comfortable with how you're living your life doesn't matter. What matters is whether you're comfortable with it.

Don't wait until you're in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan.

Stand up and walk out of your history

This is your life and the clock is ticking.

Oh, everybody wears a mask. We all put our best foot forward. We all try and make a statement, I'm not saying that's bad.

Take the high road, there's a lot less traffic up there.

Most choices are driven by immediate results.

Why do so many marriages fail? Because nobody gets taught how to be married. We're not taught how to pick a mate, or why to pick a mate; we don't know how to manage our emotions once we're in a marriage; we don't know how to resolve marital conflict. Married people have never been taught why they or their spouses feel the way they do and act the way they do. Nobody has ever taught us the fundamentals.

Know your goal, make a plan and pull the trigger

Champions get what they want because they know what they want. They have a vision that keeps them motivated and efficiently on track. They see it, feel it, and experience it in their minds and hearts. What is success for you? You won't get there without knowing what it feels and looks like.

Like an enemy I knew as intimately as any friend, I came to know the nagging, constant emptiness of the incongruent life. I ignored myself and lived for people, purposes, and goals that weren't my own. I betrayed who I was and instead accepted a fictional substitute that was defined from the outside in.

The truth doesn't have versions, it just is.

There is no reality, only perception.

Learn when's a good time to shut up

I'm embarrassed every time I look a teacher in the eye, because we ask them to do so much for so little.

Successful weight loss takes programming, not willpower.

I grew up in athletics, where people keep score.

The Internet is just bringing all kinds of information into the home. There's just a lot of distraction, a lot of competition for the parent's voice to resonate in the children's ears.

You need to face the pain and the fear and walk through the Grief.

I mean, look, teachers don't do their job for the money, obviously, because we pay them ridiculously little amounts for what they put in. Most of them come out of their own pocket for materials and things to help the children and all that.

Everyone faces the challenge of finding meaning to their suffering.

Men fall in love with their eyes. Women fall in love with their ears.

Nothing's funnier to me than laughing at myself.

I think I've got the best staff in television.

Eighty percent of all questions are statements in disguise.

It's hard to see your own face without a mirror.

Common sense needs to be more common.

If you're trying to get out of debt, you have to be willing to treat everything as expendable.

I've talked to so many people, men and women alike, that get overweight and their self-esteem just goes in the tank. They think they're judged. They think they're unattractive.

Change can come in either of two important ways: Start behaving positively or stop behaving negatively.

You are your own most important resource for making your life work. Life rewards action. Until your knowledge, awareness, insights, and understandings are translated into action, they are of no value.

A mother is only as happy as her saddest child.

Pain is the price you pay for resisting life.

I mean, if you degrade someone, you isolate them, you control them, you call them names, you demean them. That's a horrible existence for people.

Think about all of the times, situations, and circumstances where you have gotten caught up in making your self right rather than happy ... The harder you fight to win, the bigger you lose.

This is no dress rehearsal.

Success means different things in different parts of my life, but overall if I have to define ultimately what success means.. the bottom line.. then for me it's if the family is healthy and happy.

Right now, make a list of what you admire about yourself- don't stop until you've filled a page. Sit and relish each quality and accomplishment. When you remember how much you have to be proud of, you don't need to envy others. Instead of wallowing in your jealousy, use your friends' accomplishments as inspiration to pursue the life you want.

You must demand nothing less than the best of yourself and for yourself. You must tell yourself that it is not wrong to want it all.

Life is a full-contact sport, and there's a score up on the board.

You get what you ask for in this life. If you ask for nothing, you get nothing.

When you get married, your loyalty, first and foremost, is to your spouse, and to the family that you create together.

if you continue to do what you've always done, you will continue to have what you've always had.

I have some wonderful friends from the Mideast that are as red, white and blue as anybody you know, that have been harassed, and I think it's a terrible, terrible thing.

Take it from a guy: If you're in love with somebody, you will swim the stream, you will climb the mountain, you will slay the dragon. You're going to get to her somehow, some way.

Anyone can do something when they want to do it. Really successful people do things when they don't want to do it.

We teach people how to treat us.

Grief is a process to go through, not a destination in which to wallow. In a process, you keep putting one foot in front of the other, and each little step is part of your healing.

You should consider an employment change before you consider selling out.

I do not believe, even remotely, that you have to have a partner in your life in order to be whole, in order to be complete, in order to be fulfilled. You just don't have to.

You either get it or you don't. Become one of those who get it.

If what you're doing isn't working, change it.

If I was on the air and was just kind of a plain-vanilla personality that took the safe road and the safe way trying to please all of the people all of the time, I'd been gone in two weeks.

People are used to being coddled.

Do you realize that you can't play the game of life with sweaty palms?

Instead of being ashamed of what you've been through, be proud of what you have overcome!

At this very moment, you may be saying to yourself that you have any number of admirable qualities. You are a loyal friend, a caring person, someone who is smart, dependable, fun to be around. That's wonderful, and I'm happy for you, but let me ask you this: are you being any of those things to yourself?

I've learned a tremendous amount from Oprah.

When I was practicing psychology, I used to tell myself if I ever get to where I'm just doing this for the money or I'm just going through the motions, I'll quit.

It's better to be healthy alone than sick with someone else.

Are you doing what you're doing today because you want to do it, or because it's what you were doing yesterday?

The most you get is what you ask for.

You don't need a rope to pinch a stranger's butt.

I think you're running into a lot of trouble if your idea of foreplay is, 'Brace yourself honey, here I come!'

I don't substitute anybody else's judgment for my own.

If you've gone into a marriage and you haven't been clear about how you're going to handle money, how you want to raise kids, who is going to work or stay home or what have you, then you've set yourself up for failure.

There are some sick people in this world.

God is a loving god.