Being judgmental about your own behavior is actually another cop-out because it makes you feel as though you're doing something virtuous.
Barbara SherWhat you are is a human being, sensitive and alive, with genius inside of you. Not only that, but you are one of a kind. There has never been anyone like you before. You see the world in a unique way because you have unique gifts. That's the way nature made you. And it will feel like nothing less than fulfilling your destiny to follow those gifts to a rich and exciting life, full of purpose and meaning and enjoyment.
Barbara SherReal Dreams don't require you to abandon your family, quit your job, and move to Tahiti with your paintbrush. They just require that you search your soul for that deep dream you put aside-and go for it. And watch your life light up.
Barbara SherIn the days before automobiles, people in horse-drawn wagons used to sleep if they were tired. They didn't worry about getting lost, because the horse knew the way home. Your heart knows the way to your gifts. You can trust it to take you to them.
Barbara SherYou 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 SherWhen you start using senses you've neglected, your reward is to see the world with completely fresh eyes.
Barbara SherI believe you can have whatever you really want in this life, in one form or another, sooner or later. All you have to do is take care of your health and be lucky enough to live for a while. But you can't have it all at once and you can't have it forever. No life has the room for everything in it, not on the same day.
Barbara SherEvery 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.
Barbara SherWe all need to learn a new language for love - a language that speaks not in socks, pancakes, and paychecks, but in shared fascination with physics or poetry, delight in each other's uniqueness, and mutual practical and emotional support.
Barbara SherHappy people have two things in common. They know exactly what they want and they feel they're moving toward getting it.
Barbara SherAction helps you think and raises your self-esteem. Good luck happens when you're in action. Ask yourself, "Does this go toward or away from what I want?" There's an animal in us, and it has great instincts. Scan for a desire and follow it. Set a goal, any goal, and start doing everything you can think of to achieve it.
Barbara SherEach destination you reach only opens out into wider horizons, new and undiscovered countries for you to explore.
Barbara SherDO IT RIGHT, DO IT WRONG, BUT DO IT. Squeeze your eyes shut and jump. Because a wonderful thing happens then. Your focus shifts from yourself, your nervousness, and your imagined inadequacies to the task at hand.
Barbara SherNow is the operative word. Everything you put in your way is just a method of putting off the hour when you could actually be doing your dream.
Barbara SherSometimes the only thing we do to avoid success is refuse to be energetic on our own behalf
Barbara SherEvery 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.
Barbara SherYou don't need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating.
Barbara SherUnkind criticism is never part of a meaningful critique of you. Its purpose is not to teach or to help, its purpose is to punish.
Barbara SherWhat you want is what you need. Your dearest wish comes straight from your core, loaded with vital information about who you are and who you can become.
Barbara SherReal obstacles don't take you in circles. They can be overcome. Invented ones are like a maze.
Barbara SherBecoming mature means learning to accept what you cannot change, facing unresolved sorrows and learning to love life as it really happens, not as you would have it happen.
Barbara SherDoing is a quantum leap from imagining. Thinking about swimming isn't much like actually getting in the water. Actually getting in the water can take your breath away. The defense force inside of us wants us to be cautious, to stay away from anything as intense as a new kind of action. Its job is to protect us, and it categorically avoids anything resembling danger. But it's often wrong. Anything worth doing is worth doing too soon.
Barbara SherIt's essential to distinguish between events that are really beyond your control and events you caused yourself.
Barbara SherFind what you love, because greatness is based on great gifts. If you love something, you can count on the fact that you are genetically gifted at it.
Barbara SherThe first step is to find out what you love - and don't be practical about it. The second step is to start doing what you love immediately, in any small way possible.
Barbara SherHuman beings are not comparable. You can't compare us any more than you can compare roses and oranges, or mountains and the sea. You might prefer living by the sea to living in the mountains. You certainly like some people better than you like others. Preferences are perfectly valid...they're just your style asserting itself again. But you'd feel pretty silly saying 'The sea is better than the mountains.' It's every bit as silly to go around saying 'I'm better than Mary, but Joe is better than me.'
Barbara SherWhenever you do what you really love, your heart lifts, your mind opens, and everything changes. You wake up. That's what true adventure really is.
Barbara SherWhat you love is as unique to you as your fingerprints. You need to know that because nothing will make you really happy but doing what you love.
Barbara Sher