It Always Seems Impossible Until It’s Done: Motivation for Dreamers and Doers
Pursuing a dream is hard work, but the right words delivered at the right time—by people who’ve been there and done that—can give us just the motivation we need. The right words can rekindle our enthusiasm, re-energize our efforts, dispel doubt, let us know we’re not alone, and show us that the fight is worth it—and winnable.
Now comes a book for dreamers and doers, plus writers, entrepreneurs, graduates, artists, future movers and shakers. Collecting the hard-won, brilliantly expressed advice from pioneers who have paved the way, including everyone from Rumi to Steve Jobs, Michelangelo to Oprah to Tina Fey, “It Always Seems Impossible Until It’s Done” is like a rousing locker-room speech, inspiring courage, commitment, and perseverance.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” —Michael Jordan
“Go for it, baby! Life ain’t no dress rehearsal.” —Tallulah Bankhead
“Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.” —Neil Gaiman
“If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” —T. S. Eliot
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” —Nelson Mandela
Amazon – Barnes & Noble – BooksAMillion – Bookshop — Indiebound
Nothing Is Worth More Than This Day: Finding Joy in Every Moment
There is always something to celebrate. It may not always seem that way on the surface. But stop. Think. And breathe. Isn’t it wonderful to feel alive? Here, from writers and artists, comedians and scientists, jazz musicians and philosophers and some of the smartest people who ever lived are hundreds of reminders that happiness is everywhere and the glass is half-full. It’s the perfect gift of optimism, for good times and not-so-good times.
“There are flowers everywhere for those who want to see them.” — Henri Matisse
“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.” — Maya Angelou
“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”— Guillaume Apollinaire
“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” — Jack Kerouac
“Think of all the beauty that is still left in and around you and be happy.” — Anne Frank
Amazon – Barnes & Noble – BooksAMillion – Bookshop — Indiebound
Dance First. Think Later: 618 Rules to Live By
Timeless in their wisdom, thought-provoking in their message, surprising in their truth and memorable in their originality, the right words can give direction, inspiration, and sometimes a tangible boost onto the right path. For example, Steve Jobs once read “Stay hungry Stay foolish” on the back cover of The Whole Earth Catalog, and those four words came to guide his life.
Created by Kathryn and Ross Petras, connoisseurs of quotes, whose books and calendars have over 56 million copies in print, “Dance First. Think Later.” is a collection of the greatest life wisdom from an unexpected group of speakers, doers, and thinkers. There are 618 rules to live by—funny, sly, declarative, thoughtful, offhanded, clever, and always profound:
“Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.” —Roald Dahl
“If everything is under control, you are going too slow.” —Mario Andretti
“Never make a credit decision on a beach.”—Victor J. Boschini
“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”—Oscar Wilde
“The only time to eat diet food is while waiting for the steak to cook.” —Julia Child
“What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build it anyway.” —Mother Teresa
And: “Dance first. Think later. It’s the natural order.”—Samuel Beckett
Amazon – Barnes & Noble – BooksAMillion – Bookshop — Indiebound
Don’t Forget to Sing in the Lifeboats: Uncommon Words for Uncommon Times
Uncommon times call for uncommon wisdom. It’s inspiring to hear from people who’ve graduated from the school of hard knocks, yet kept a sense of humor. People like Twain, Voltaire, Oscar Wilde. People who’ve said the thing so well that we all wish we’d said it. People who’ve been there, done that, and refuse to sugarcoat what they’ve learned. People who know, as Sherry Hochman puts it, that “Every day is a gift—even if it sucks.”
From Kathryn and Ross Petras, curators of craziness (and surprising smarts), comes a timely collection of reassuring reality:
“Why is there so much month left at the end of the money?”—John Barrymore
“October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.” —Mark Twain
“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.”—Mother Teresa
“When one burns one’s bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.”—Dylan Thomas
“If you think you have it tough, read history books.”—Bill Maher
And Voltaire: “Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”
Amazon – Barnes & Noble – BooksAMillion – Bookshop — Indiebound
Age Doesn’t Matter Unless You’re a Cheese: Wisdom from our Elders
Full of surprise, insight, humor, perspective, celebration, inspiration, and a kind of offhand, poignant poetry, Age Doesn’t Matter Unless You’re a Cheese — title courtesy of Billie Burke —shares hundreds of the best things men and women over sixty have said about how to love, work, laugh, and live. Collected by authors with a perfect ear for quotes, Kathryn and Ross Petras, Age Doesn’t Matter brings together Albert Einstein’s equation for happiness, Colette on the virtues of astonishment, and Julia Child’s secret of longevity: “Red meat and gin.”
“It’s ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.” -Lena Horne
“I take a simple view of living. It is: Keep your eyes open and get on with it.” —Laurence Olivier
“The only sin is mediocrity.” —Martha Graham
“When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock. So I stopped wearing socks.” —Albert Einstein
“Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.”—Jimmy Carter
Amazon – Barnes & Noble – BooksAMillion – Bookshop — Indiebound
Being Weird is a Wonderful Thing: Inspiration for Living Your Truest Self
Do you ever feel different? A little weird, a little wacky? It’s time to own it, because, as Meryl Streep proclaimed, “what makes you different or weird, that’s your strength.” In this inspiring collection, singers, poets, actors, activists, comedians, designers, athletes, and philosophers share wise and pithy reflections on what it’s like to march to the beat of a different drummer. Every statement is a powerful, positive reminder that to live successfully is to be completely unapologetically you.
“We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That’s OK.” —Laverne Cox
“All the colors I am inside have not been invented yet.” —Shel Silverstein
“I am different, not less” —Temple Grandin
“The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive.” —Jhumpa Lahiri
“Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.” —Ai Weiwei
Amazon — Barnes & Noble — BooksaMillion — Bookshop — Indiebound