Quote Of The Day By Jeremy Renner: 'When You Really Know What You're Focused On, You Can Manifest What You Truly Want In Your Life. The Trick Is...'

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Jeremy Renner got a new lease on life back in 2023, and it's informed his worldview ever since.

The "Mayor of Kingstown" star was involved in a near-fatal snowplow accident on New Year's Day 2023, when he tried to save his nephew from a rolling Sno-Cat machine and was ultimately run over by the equipment himself. Later that month, he revealed on social media that he had broken more than 30 bones in the incident, and he underwent surgery for blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries.

Renner went on to detail the accident in his 2025 memoir "My Next Breath," explaining that he didn't initially want to write a book about what had transpired, but did so because he'd "come to understand the ripple effect this incident has had, and continues to have, even as time has passed."

Prior to his run on Paramount+'s "Mayor of Kingstown," Renner was better known for his film credits, including "The Town," "The Bourne Legacy," the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, and a long stint in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (who he also brought to television in a Disney+ miniseries). On "Mayor of Kingstown" — which will end with Season 5 — Renner plays Mike McLusky, who takes over as "mayor" of a fictional Michigan town where crime is prominent and prison is a major industry.

Following Renner's snowplow accident, it was unclear whether "Mayor of Kingstown" would continue, or if Renner would ever come back to it. But the show returned, as did Renner, and TVLine's quote of the day is just one of several insights in the actor's memoir about how his near-death experience has shaped his life and career outlook.

The full quote reads: "When you really know what you're focused on, you can manifest what you truly want in your life. The trick is to get out of our own damn way. I guarantee that we are the biggest obstacle to achieving the things we want to achieve. But because we're not often clear in what we want, if we're off course or unfocused, we're just going to be like an electron bouncing around the nucleus of a cell, or a planet floating around this star of fire, forever burning energy as we just flail around through life. That's not good."

This excerpt comes from Jeremy Renner's 2025 memoir "My Next Breath," which details the actor's snowplow accident in 2023 and the ways in which the experience informed how he now approaches life.

While reflecting on his near-fatal accident in "My Next Breath," Jeremy Renner writes often about not taking life for granted, which includes a renewed desire to take action as often as he can — in his career, in his relationships, and everywhere else. In the aforementioned quote and several other book passages, Renner encourages readers to be proactive in their own lives and refuse to be an obstacle to their own success and fulfillment.

"I believe that the most important thing in life is to take action," Renner urges in his memoir's prologue. "Feel everything, consider everything, read, think, ponder, cogitate — all that's fine. But you have to do something; you have to commit to action whenever you can. Don't only think about things, don't just feel things — take the first step, and then the next, and then the next. Do it. Otherwise, nothing's going to change, nothing's going to get better for you or for the people around you."

You're not going to let the man down after reading that, are you?

• "I just don't have the energy for [demanding roles after my accident]. I don't have the fuel. I have so much fuel to put into this reality, this body, all this stuff. I can't just go play make-believe right now. Because that takes a lot of time to get right here every day just so I can have a positive thought, so I can progress, so I can always keep growing." — from a 2024 appearance on the "SmartLess" podcast

• "In everything, we can always control our perspective. We're all the authors of our own narrative. How we feel about things is down to us and how we perceive things — it's our responsibility to control our perspective." — from his 2025 memoir "My Next Breath"

• "Reason number one for my recovery is [my daughter]. I asked her to 'wait for me' when I first saw her January 14 as I arrived home. As I got better, she got better, less afraid. There is simply no better motivator to recover than to heal your family and friends." — from a January 2024 Instagram post