Phil McGraw Quotes

Eighty percent of all choices are based on fear. Most people don't choose what they want; they choose what they think is safe.

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.

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

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

Relationships are negotiated and if you deal with ultimatums and authority all the time, then you're not going to get anywhere.

You have got to decide, look, this is who I am; this is my best way to present myself, and I'm going to ride that horse to the finish line. Not everybody will like it, but that's OK.

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.

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.

People have the right to think and say whatever they want to. But you have the right not to take it to heart, and not to react.

Unless you know who you are, you will always be vulnerable to what people say.

People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing. You should be an open book, be transparent.

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

Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right.

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

The number one need in all people is the need for acceptance, the need to experience a sense of belonging to something and someone. The need for acceptance is more powerful in your family than anywhere else.... If that need is not met by your family, trust me, your kids will go elsewhere to seek it in order to find approval and acceptance.

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.

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.

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

Some people prefer the passenger role, because it imposes no real pressure to decide or stand accountable for their life results.

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’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Pain is the price you pay for resisting life.

Stand up and walk out of your history

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.

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

Successful weight loss takes programming, not willpower.

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

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?

The difference between winners and losers is that winners do things losers don't want to do.

If you want more, you have to require more from yourself.

Anger is nothing more than an outward expression of hurt, fear and frustration

Reality check: you can never, ever, use weight loss to solve problems that are not related to your weight. At your goal weight or not, you still have to live with yourself and deal with your problems. You will still have the same husband, the same job, the same kids, and the same life. Losing weight is not a cure for life.

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

Be your authentic self. Your authentic self is who you are when you have no fear of judgment, or before the world starts pushing you around and telling you who you're supposed to be. Your fictional self is who you are when you have a social mask on to please everyone else. Give yourself permission to be your authentic self.

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.

Life is not a success only journey.

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

There's a big difference between falling in love and being in love. There's a big difference between infatuation and falling in love.

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.

You're only lonely if you're not there for you.

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

Eighty percent of all questions are statements in disguise.

There is an interconnectedness among members that bonds the family, much like mountain climbers who rope themselves together when climbing a mountain, so that if someone should slip or need support, he's held up by the others until he regains his footing.

There is power in forgiveness.

Well, let me tell you, if you're 45, had three children and are post-menopausal, you're not going to weigh what you did the day you graduated from high school. Get that out of your head. That's a media-driven ideal that you're never going to healthfully obtain.

We teach people how to treat us.

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.

You can't change what you don't acknowledge.

You do not HAVE to be angry just because you have the right to be angry.

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.