Review/Recommended Reading: Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

Gordon Livingston’s Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

There are so many books out there that you can read to gain a new perspective or appreciation for life and all of its many challenges, but this is definitely one of the best and easiest that you will ever find.

Out of a lifetime of experience, Livingston has extracted thirty bedrock truths: We are what we do. Any relationship is under the control of the person who cares the least. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Only bad things happen quickly. Forgiveness is a form of letting go, but they are not the same thing. The statute of limitations has expired on most of our childhood traumas.

He intersperses counsel with personal experience, and tackles topics both joyful and deeply painful. In the chapter focusing on "We are what we do," he notes that the "three components of happiness are something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to," and he reminds us that "love is demonstrated behaviorally"-that is, actions count more than words. In his discussion of "Happiness is the greatest risk," he considers how our fear of losing happiness is often a roadblock to our experiencing it. For those contemplating suicide, he writes that "it is reasonable to confront them with the selfishness and anger implied in any act of self-destruction." Livingston's words feel true and his wisdom hard-earned.

Livingston illuminates these and twenty-four others in a series of carefully hewn, perfectly calibrated essays, many of which emphasize our closest relationships and the things that we do to impede or, less frequently, enhance them. Again and again, these essays underscore that "we are what we do," and that while there may be no escaping who we are, we also have the capacity to face loss, misfortune, and regret and to move beyond them.

Full of things we may know but have not articulated to ourselves, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart is a gentle and poignant alternative to the trial-and-error learning that makes wisdom such a hard earned treasure. For everyone who feels a sense of urgency that the clock ticks and still we aren’t the person we’d like to be, it offers solace, guidance, and hope.

I highly recommend picking up a copy, so you too can experience the joy and live your best life!




Coach J