Life mottos are like opening the drapes in the morning to reveal the sun exploding through the window – sometimes they sting your eyes with the truth and sometimes they are just what you needed to see. Let’s figure out your mottos to live by to give you that warm sunny feeling.

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Conquer EVERY moment of your day with your free updated 9-page booklet of ready-made inspirational sayings at the bottom!
What’s a Motto?
Nothing, what’s a motto with you?! Ahaha, thank you, Timon and Pumba for your dad jokes. A motto is a saying or phrase used as a guiding principle in connection with a person or organization. “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” is associated with an insurance agency, while “Hakuna Matata” is a personal takeaway from The Lion King movie. Both spark meaning in their audience.
There are various types of mottos but today we’re going to find your set of personal life mottos. My definition of a personal motto is a quick phrase to uplift and keep you going, especially through tough or confusing times.
Mottos Matter
Speaking of tough and confusing, I use mottos as a gentle reminder to stay positive and aware. Sometimes I get knocked down, but I’m the only person who can get myself back up (there’s a motto for ya). Life mottos help us avoid getting caught up in our thoughts and forgetting what we are already capable of. If you want to work on calming your mind long-term, you’ll want these meditation practices.
For now, personal mottos are quick and satisfactory. While you have this guide to create your own mantras, you can also use the words of others; third-party perspectives help keep you in check and on track with your goals. After all, it’s free advice with a purpose!
Quotes can be fun to look at but most of the time, they are long and you don’t always connect with the person who said them. This is also why creating your own mottos or intertwining the words of others into yours are important – mottos are personal and direct.
What Do They Do For Me?
Life mottos can:
- Maintain your focus.
- Inspire you to dream big and achieve your goals.
- Form new perspectives and show wisdom.
- Get out of sticky or stressful situations.
- Curate positive thinking.
- Calm your anxiety.
Mantras can be life savers. Literally and figuratively.
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
Dr. Seuss
Mottos to Live By
These are some important factors about the mottos you make. You’ll want to create them, memorize them, and use them properly. It’ll set you up for success!
If you don’t feel like creating your own right now, try the little Motivational Mottos Booklet – I did the work for you with all the sayings you’ll need for any moment in the day, whether you need a confidence booster or a laugh or get yourself to do things you don’t wanna 🙂
How to Use Them
Tomato, tomotto, it matters when and how you use them! With the plethora of mottos to live by, the best sayings in life are the ones that resonate with you at that moment. This is why I have a little list of mottos so I can scroll through and pick the one I need in that moment.
One of my personal mantras is “it just doesn’t matter”, but I can’t use this 100% of the time. I was grabbing coffee and a snack the other day and realized I didn’t have my debit card…They had already given me my order but “it just doesn’t matter” wasn’t going to fly.
Instead of making assumptions (which is what the 4 agreements tell you not to do) that I was either going to jail or about to offer to clean dishes in the back, I pulled a different motto out of my mental notebook, “It’ll work itself out.”
So have as many as you can memorize! I don’t believe there is only one motto for each person. One of the best features of having go-to mottos is that they are always with you. You can also write them down or keep them on your phone.
Mottos I Live By
Here is the current list of mantras I utilize. Feel free to take advantage of any if they hit home for you. Don’t forget about the downloadable list of personal mottos to live by at the bottom!
- I am my own solution.
- Be the person you want to be.
- It just doesn’t matter.
- Sit in the moment.
- A calm mind is a happy one.
- I’m not going to let someone else affect how I feel or change what I know of myself.
If you have any questions about how I use my mottos, feel free to contact me or comment below!
It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
Lewis Carroll
Guide to Create Your Own Mottos
This is the FUN part! Woo! You get to write down as many phrases as you can think of that speak to you. For a more narrow focus, start with the top 10 that come to mind. I made most of mine up in accordance with situations in my life where I know I need them.
Here are some great tools to create your own set of mottos to live by.
- Think of moments in the past week when you felt you could have used some advice. It could be the moment you yelled at the ref at your kid’s soccer game (“don’t take things personally”), when you felt you needed more productivity at work (“what’s my goal for today”), or the time you forgot your debit card at the coffee shop (“it’s a small thing”).
- This incredible booklet of affirmations is from a Star Seller on Etsy and popular now so it looks like we need inspirational quotes! Check out the amazing reviews of happier people after using these sayings!
- Use free apps such as Enliven, Inspire, or Make Me Better for daily motivation.
- Download and print the little Motivational Mottos Booklet below that I created just for you 🙂
Try one or try them all, being mindful of how we feel will guide us to form real words of wisdom that are personal.
Free 9-Page Motivational Booklet!
Get your freebie here or below! This is a little booklet of inspiration to help you whenever you need. From the times you need a laugh to the times you need a cry, these words of wisdom will help you through! Because, hey, we all go through things, it’s not just you.
Check out using eco-friendly hemp printing paper then hang this on your fridge, keep them on your phone, or use them to help build your own list!
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I hope you got a grasp on some great ideas for your mottos. They are something you can use every day – because pulling back those drapes in the morning means the sun is always there for you, even when you don’t see it right away. <3