Self Defeating Behavior Quotes

• All forms of self-defeating behavior are unseen and unconscious, which is why their existence is denied.

  Vernon Howard

  Self, Unseen, Weakness

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• Whatever your present situation, I assure you that you are not your habits. You can replace old patterns of self-defeating behavior with new patterns, new habits of the effectiveness, happiness and trust-based relationships.

  Stephen Covey

  Self, Effectiveness, Patterns

  Stephen R. Covey (2016). “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Interactive Edition”, p.74, Mango Media Inc.

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• here's a payoff for everyone. The reason we hang on to self-defeating behaviors is because it's easier not to take responsibility.

  Wayne Dyer

  Responsibility, Self, Reason

  "A Conversation with Wayne Dyer". Interview with Ellen Mahoney, www.drwaynedyer.com. September 2009.

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• Just get out of your own way.

  Rajneesh

  Love, Way, Paralysis

  Osho Rajneesh (1999). “Lovers' Mysteries”, p.105, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd

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• You have considerable power to construct self-helping thoughts, feelings and actions as well as to construct self-defeating behaviors. You have the ability, if you use it, to choose healthy instead of unhealthy thinking, feeling and acting.

  Albert Ellis

  Thinking, Self, Healthy

  Albert Ellis (2010). “Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy”, p.49, Prometheus Books

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• Excuses are the explanations we use for hanging on to behaviors we don't like about ourselves; they are self-defeating behaviors we don't know how to change. InExcuses Begone! I review 18 of the most common excuses people use, such as "I'm too busy, too old, too fat, too scared or it's going to take too long or be too difficult."

  Wayne Dyer

  Self, Long, People

  "A Conversation with Wayne Dyer". Interview with Ellen Mahoney, www.drwaynedyer.com. September 2009.

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• By using your heart as your compass, you can see more clearly which direction to go to stop self-defeating behavior. If you take just one mental or emotional habit that really bothers or drains you and apply heart intelligence to it, you'll see a noticeable difference in your life.

  Doc Childre

  Hate, Heart, Emotional

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• This self-defeating behavior, so the argument goes, must be the result of warped domestic politics.

  John Mearsheimer

  Self, Argument, Behavior

  John J. Mearsheimer (2003). “The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (Updated Edition)”, p.228, W. W. Norton & Company

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• God's love is so perfect that He lovingly requires us to obey His commandments because He knows that only through obedience to His laws can we become perfect, as He is. For this reason, God's anger and His wrath are not a contradiction of His love but an evidence of His love. Every parent knows that you can love a child totally and completely while still being creatively angry and disappointed at that child's self-defeating behavior.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Children, Love Is, Wrath

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• After a while, we start really believing these things are true. People who have had self-defeating behaviors for a long time, such as people who have been overweight since they were children or people with longtime addictions, actually believe there is no other alternative.

  Wayne Dyer

  Children, Believe, Self

  Interview with Ellen Mahoney, www.drwaynedyer.com. September, 2009.

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• The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates students to learn.

  Carol S. Dweck

  Self, Students, Kind

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