Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now Spiral-Bound | March 4, 2008

Gordon Livingston, Elizabeth Edwards (Foreword by)

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From a psychiatrist who has spent the past thirty-five years listening to other people’s most intimate problems and struggles, here is a generous and gentle alternative to the trial-and-error learning that makes wisdom such an expensive commodity.


The beloved bestselling collection of common sense wisdom from a celebrated psychologist and military veteran who proves it's never too late to move beyond the deepest of personal losses

After service in Vietnam, as a surgeon for the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in 1968-69, at the height of the war, Dr. Gordon Livingston returned to the U.S. and began work as a psychiatrist. In that capacity, he has listened to people talk about their lives--what works, what doesn't, and the limitless ways (many of them self-inflicted) that people find to be unhappy.

He is also a parent twice bereaved; in one thirteen-month period he lost his eldest son to suicide, his youngest to leukemia. Out of a lifetime of experience, Gordon Livingston has extracted thirty bedrock truths, including:
  • 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.

Livingston illuminates these and twenty-four other truths in a series of carefully hewn, perfectly calibrated essays, many of which focus on 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 have the capacity to face loss, misfortune, and regret and to move beyond them--that it is not too late.

Full of things we may know but have not articulated to ourselves, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart offers solace, guidance, and hope to everyone ready to become the person they'd most like to be.
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Original Binding: Paperback
Pages: 192 pages
ISBN-10: 1569243735
Item Weight: 0.3 lbs
Dimensions: 5.0 x 0.5 x 7.3 inches
Customer Reviews: 3 out of 5 stars 1,001 to 10,000 ratings
"The slim book by Columbia-based psychiatrist Gordon Livingston has been a source of inspiration for many."—Baltimore Sun
Gordon Livingston, MD, a graduate of West Point and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who was awarded the Bronze Star for valor in Vietnam, was a psychiatrist and writer who contributed frequently to the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Baltimore Sun. His books include Only Spring; Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart; And Never Stop Dancing; How to Love; and The Thing You Think You Cannot Do.