Ray Romano endorses If Not Now…Then When? I don’t know about you, but because I love Ray Romano, I take the time to look at it and I really like what I read. (See excerpt below)
“Peter Fogel’s If Not Now… Then When? is not only a book that’ll make
you smile with its humor and heart, but will also inspire and show you
how other ‘over 40’ folks took control of their own destiny and created a
life of meaning through their reinvention. It’s a worthwhile book, and
that’s coming from someone who doesn’t like to read.” –
~Ray Romano - Everybody Loves Raymond
Excerpt - Preface (Kindle Locations 237-264)
“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” ~ George Eliot
Reinvention: 1) to make as if for the first time something already invented, 2) to remake or redo completely, 3) to bring into use again
I’m going to be up front with you right now: I wrote this book for a special person. Me. And who’s more special than me? Answer: You. Yes, you. And you’re not being selfish, feeling that way. Because in the long run, if you don’t take care of “you” first, then you won’t really be able to give to others. Ever wonder if on one occasion during her life, the selfless Mother Theresa ever contemplated, herself, just once? “Gheez, Louise,” I can hear her saying now. “What about my needs? Don’t I count?”
Now, I don’t know you personally, but I’m figuring that we both might have some things in common. We both have probably had to deal with the same type of people over the years and have “jumped through the same hoops” in our professional lives. I mean, isn’t it true that for as long as you can remember, you’ve had to answer to “others,” please “everyone else,” and make “all of them” happy?
And “them” usually referred to some committee you were on, right? Where do committees always gather? In meetings … where nothing has been accomplished— except perhaps a promise to gather again for another meeting to discuss what wasn’t accomplished at the first one.
During this “meeting” in this conference room—you sneak a peek across the street, at the children in the park, and you’re thinking, “I want to be playing with those kids on this sunny day.” (Sigh.)
And then you vent your frustrations with your internal dialogue:
“That’s it. I can’t take it any longer. I am out-of-here. You hear me, ‘self?’ I am outta here! They’re not going to have me around any longer as their friggin piñata! God, I hate this office and that plant! I have to get rid of that plant! Arrgh!”
Years go by and you’re still in the same position, the same meetings. Worst of all, the plant is still there. Nothing changes, does it? But now you’re at that defining moment. If there was a gauge attached to your happiness, that dial would be pointed to the part that reads, “Warning! Warning!” So let’s “keep it real” as they say:
At this stage of the game, the one we call life, you’re entitled to do what you want to do!
I’d like for you to feel the excitement of having a vocation that makes you so excited that you jump out of bed in the morning— and not because you smelled smoke. Imagine having that “I’ve just had some great sex” smile on your face— all day— just because you’re in a career that you love or in a different lifestyle that really gets you jazzed. Because, for the first time in a long time , you’re going to do what you’re supposed to be doing ... something that completes you.
Well, you can have that feeling but only if you want it. Remember: Baggage is just experience magnified. George Burns was once asked about the secret of his longevity (mind you, he was asked this when he was still alive). With a twinkle in his eye and his trademark raspy voice he said: “Have a job you always love doing.”
