Executive Function Quotes

“According to the Turnaround paper, which was written by a consultant named Brooke Stafford-Brizard, high-level noncognitive skills like resilience, curiosity, and academic tenacity are very difficult for a child to obtain without first developing a foundation of executive functions, a capacity for 
self-awareness, and relationship skills. And those skills, in turn, stand atop an infrastructure of qualities built in the first years of life, qualities like secure attachment, the ability to manage stress, and self-regulation.”
― Paul Tough, Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why

“The capacities that develop in the earliest years may be harder to measure on tests of kindergarten readiness than abilities like number and letter recognition, but they are precisely the skills, closely related to executive functions, that researchers have recently determined to be so valuable in kindergarten and beyond: the ability to focus on a single activity for an extended period, the ability to understand and follow directions, the ability to cope with disappointment and frustration, the ability to interact capably with other students.”
― Paul Tough, Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why

“When fervent human curiosity is abandoned to the power of AI, the intrinsic executive function, cognitive control, interrogation, and discord will rapidly weaken to the surrender of the narrative/reality created by AI.”
― Tamie M. Santiago

“People who have never dealt with mental illness will never understand know how legitimately triumphant it feels to decide to take a shower and then actually do it.”
― Ruby Walker, Advice I Ignored: Stories and Wisdom from a Formerly Depressed Teenager

“[Mindfulness] is one of those mushy buzzwords that I’d always despised until I began to understand it was a really effective tool to create distance between my thoughts and myself, to wedge even a sliver of space between some stimulus and my knee-jerk response.”
― Peter Attia, Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity

“When we exert willpower, we actively engage mental effort and energy. Decisions and willpower draw on what we call executive-control functions in the mind and brain, which are thoughtful cognitive processes, to select and monitor actions. We are mostly aware of these processes. They are our subjective reality, or the sense of agency that we recognize as “me.” Much as we experience the stress of exerting physical strength, we are aware of the heavy lift of exerting mental strength. Executive control must be paid its due. Many of life’s challenges require nothing more than this.”
― Wendy Wood, Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick

“Chronic stress rewires your brain for self-protection, not self-production.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“What if your lack of focus wasn’t failure—but a signal that your clarity system needs repair?”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“Executive dysfunction isn’t distraction. It’s your brain’s defense mechanism kicking in to protect itself from overwhelm.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“You’re not procrastinating. You’re protecting yourself from burnout.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“You don’t need more to do. You need a system that works with your brain—not against it.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“Each day feels heavier than the last, as you try to ‘push through’ a system that’s quietly screaming for relief.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“You’re not broken. But you’re trying to sprint a marathon with a nervous system that’s whispering, ‘Please—not one more step.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“Clarity isn’t something you hustle for. It’s something you regulate into.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“That’s not procrastination—that’s your brain protecting itself from overload.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women

“Your brain needs space to think, not more tasks demanding attention.”
― Felecia Etienne, Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women