Home > Author > Barbara Sher
1 " Start small.Start now.Start everything.And don’t bother to finish any of it. "
― Barbara Sher , Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams
2 " And be grateful that you’re a Scanner. Not everyone can have this much fun with nothing but what’s between her ears. "
3 " Let’s end the notion that ideas have no value unless they turn into a business or have some other practical use. Save them all in a beautiful book like Leonardo did. You might want to give them away someday, perhaps to someone who needs an idea. Or your great-great-grandchildren might love knowing what a fascinating mind you had. Or your biographer might be very happy after you’re gone. "
4 " Since then I’ve come to believe you don’t always have to use things you love, and it’s not always so practical to be so practical. Now that I’ve grown up, I realize that all that delicious dilettantism pays its way as much as any degree in medicine or engineering, by making me remember every day—whenever I pick up a book or watch the Science Channel or try to read a map of Asia for no particular reason—that life is amazing and there is no end to the wonder of it. "
5 " How can families harm us when they love us? Very easily, unfortunately. Most of us overlook one important fact when we think love is enough: Love and respect aren't the same thing.Love is fusion. As a baby, you belong to your parents, you're extension of them. Respect is differentiation: you belong to yourself, and you're an extension of no one. Differentiation is essential for happiness of adults. "
― Barbara Sher , I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It
6 " You can waste a perfectly good life trying to meet the standards of someone who thinks you’re not good enough because they can’t understand who you are. "
7 " You can learn new things at any time in your life if you're willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you. "
― Barbara Sher
8 " What you're really supposed to be doing is whatever makes your heart sing. "
9 " Every time you worry that you could get trapped in some kind of work you don't care about, you're dealing with the problem of meaningfulness. I guarantee that in the back of your mind is the thought that somehow you have to make a contribution to something, be acknowledged, do something that matters--or you're just fooling around. "
10 " Doing is a quantum leap from imagining. "
11 " People who aren't interested in anything are people who can't stop protecting their enthusiasm. "
12 " Every time you have to make a choice about anything, think "Does this go toward or away from what I want?" Always choose what goes toward what you want. "
13 " You'll never feel like exercising less than now when you need it most - but do it anyway. "
14 " When you play it too safe, you're taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth we're given. "
15 " Doing what you love isn't a priviledge; it's an obligation. "
16 " Life isn't supposed to be an all or nothing battle between misery and bliss. Life isn't supposed to be a battle at all. And when it comes to happiness, well, sometimes life is just okay, sometimes it'comfortable, sometimes wonderful, sometimes boring, sometimes unpleasant. When your day's not perfect, it's not a failure or a terrible loss. It's just another day. "
17 " Find out what you love.Do it because you love it.Stick with it.Start now. "
18 " You must go after your wish. As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning. "
19 " You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up for you. "
20 " You just have to forget whatever you were taught about “meaningful work” and start noticing whatever has meaning to you. "