If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging

Being envious of other people’s talents will make you bitter. Being envious of other people will steal your joy. Be yourself. Believe me, the sooner you are able to cheer yourself on, the better. Do what YOU do and BE who YOU are.

Since the big things find you no matter where you are, it's okay to unhook from your portable news source so you're not in the middle of what's happening every minute of the day. It doesn't mean you don't care; it means you care about yourself too.

You are not what you did, you are what you will do.

My mom used to say, 'You become who your friends are.

It's getting easier for me to empathize with him as I get older, and that is truly a gift. My dad was just a guy with his own shit.

If failing is the worst possible outcome, I welcome that over not trying at all.

The way you talk to yourself is unbelievably important. It can make your life easier or harder, and that is a fact.

You don't realize that thoughts are tangible things until you start making yourself feel sick with them.

What feels better than being sure of yourself? What feels better than knowing yourself? What feels better than at last knowing how to look after your physical and mental and spiritual health? For me, nothing feels better.

Becoming wiser is the reward for getting older.

You have to keep going forward even if that forwardness is kind of sideways--sometimes backwards. Things stop working when you stay still. We've got to keep moving, listening to that inner voice that dares you to be more than you are. The conversation you have with yourself is a lifelong one, so you may as well make it a positive and encouraging one. If you keep repeating negative, hurtful things inside your head, you will believe them eventually.

My mother used to say, 'One man's ceiling is another man's floor,' and my dad used to say, 'One man's tragedy is another man's triumph.

Optimism is the thing that can carry you out of a fire. When you think you can do something, at least you have a shot at getting it done. When you think you can't, you won't. I'm not trying to be all preachy preacherperson here but you know that's true. Thoughts are tangible things. Intentions are valuable, and the intentions you have for yourself and your future can make all the difference in the world.

If we don't talk about death, it becomes the monster in the closet, the hand that grabs your leg from underneath the bed. It becomes a fear that takes away from the quality of the time you have left. To live with low-grade anxiety about something you have no control over steals your happiness.

It takes a long time to become a person.