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Gail Sheehy

Gail Sheehy Books

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“If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it, "Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most." The real fear should be of the opposite course.”

GrowthAnxietyMeaningSelf Development
Book:Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life
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“As we reach midlife in the middle thirties or early forties, we are not prepared for the idea that time can run out on us, or for the startling truth that if we don't hurry to pursue our own definition of a meaningful existence, life can become a repetition of trivial maintenance duties.”

IfsIdeasRunningAgeExistenceMiddleDutyPreparedDefinitionsMeaningfulPursueFortyRepetitionMiddle AgesMaintenanceMidlife
Book:Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life
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“The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires a letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our distinctiveness.”

SelfLife IsGivenEasyStepsGreaterMagicChildhoodDevelopmentLetting GoIllusionAdultsTasksSafetyCastsTechniqueFamiliarPassagesExpansionGiven UpSense Of SelfLife Is Not Easy
Book:Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life
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“We must be willing to change chairs if we want to grow. There is no permanent compatibility between a chair and a person. And there is no one right chair. What is right at one stage may be restricting at another or too soft. During the passage from one stage to another, we will be between two chairs. Wobbling no doubt, but developing.”

IfsWantMayPersonsTwoGrowsGrowing UpDoubtStageWillingDevelopingPermanentNo DoubtChairsPassagesCompatibilityWilling To Change
Book:Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life
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“Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it, "Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most." The real fear should be of the opposite course.”

PeopleGivingShouldMayMeanRealValuesCoursesLostGrowthStepsSecuritySafeDemandGiving UpOppositesPatternsSurrenderFamiliarTemporaryNew Words
Author:Gail Sheehy
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“This is a woman [Hillary Clinton] who for many of her 52 years never cared a fig about her appearance, but in the chrysalis of transformation from political wife to independent woman, the jawline has been chiseled, the dominatrix eyebrows weeded, the weight dropped, and the result is a woman who obviously enjoys for the first time being called beautiful.”

YearsFirstsHas BeensBeautifulPoliticalEnjoyResultsWifeFirst TimeWeightTransformationIndependentClintonAppearanceEyebrowsIndependent WomenFigsChrysalisJawline
Author:Gail Sheehy
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“Journalism today is obviously in a major transition. Going to journalism school, learning how to write, working your way up in a little paper in Decatur, Georgia and then moving to Atlanta and then maybe to New York: it's just over. You have to have a whole other set of skills now. You have to be a videographer, you have to do social media. You can't do a long, thoughtful, insightful piece if you don't have the time to do reporting, particularly reporting around somebody who doesn't want to be known or an issue that doesn't want to reveal itself.”

WritingLongTodaySchoolMovingSocial MediaJournalismThoughtfulOver YouInsightful
Author:Gail Sheehy
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