Self-… what?

The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons fron
Extraordinary Lives by Katie
Couric

OK, so here’s me,
reading any self-help book: “Profound! So simple, yet so meaningful…” 

Then, one week
later: “…What was that book about, again?”

So yeah. I’m
running true to form here.

I listened to the audiobook, and I liked it plenty. Couric contacted a whole passel of
famous people and asked them to write a short essay on the best advice they
ever received. 

And some of the essays are actually great. And a few of them I
had to fast-forward through because they were so self-congratulatory I wanted
to hurl. But most of them
contained some darn good advice.

Which I promptly
forgot.

But here are the
few things that I jotted down in time, so they weren’t lost forever.

“Be comfortable with the uncomfortable.”—General David Petraeus 

[I’ll refrain from
commenting about his personal ethics, though I’m sorely tempted to do so.]
Basically, this one’s about learning new things and taking risks and being OK
with the discomfort of trying something unfamiliar. And I’ve been getting some practice in this realm, and I like it.     

This one made me
gasp: “Treat yourself as well as you treat others.”—Gloria Steinem. 

Yeah, some
of us have some work to do there.

And here’s my
favorite line, from Couric herself: “We have an obligation to find and give
joy.” As responsibilities go, that’s one I can happily embrace.