Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up Quotes

“It’s true what they say: life does go on and joy does return, and often it’s in the most unexpected of places,’ she continues, ‘but you never get over losing someone; you just get better at coping with it.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Because sometimes happiness isn't a choice. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can't find joy. Which is why I've decided to stop beating myself up by desperately seeking happiness and give myself the permission to feel exactly how I feel, when I feel it. In fact, maybe, it's not happiness we should be looking for after all - but acceptance.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Embrace your sense of humour, don’t ever take yourself too seriously, every day is another chance to laugh instead of cry, and when nothing is certain, everything is a hell of a lot less scary when you make fun of it. Amen.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“I’ve learned if there’s one gift you can give yourself in life, it’s the freedom and courage to say “I don’t know”. Because I’ll let you into a secret – you don’t have to know. You don’t have to know how you feel, or what you want, or if you’re happy or if you’re sad.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Don’t worry about getting older, worry about becoming dull.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“I haven’t a clue either. I’m just someone struggling to recognize their messy life in a world of perfect Instagram ones and feeling like a bit of a fuck-up. Even worse, a forty-something fuck-up. Someone who reads a life-affirming quote and feels exhausted, not inspired. Who isn’t trying to achieve new goals, or set more challenges, because life is enough of a challenge as it is. And who does not feel #blessed and #winningatlife but mostly #noideawhatthefuckIamdoing and #canIgoogleit?”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Because feeling like a fuck-up isn’t about being a failure, it’s about being made to feel like one. It’s the pressure and the panic to tick all the boxes and reach all the goals . . . and what happens when you don’t. When you find yourself on the outside. Because on some level, in some aspect of your life, it’s so easy to feel like you’re failing when everyone around you appears to be succeeding.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“You’re not too old, it’s not too late, and yes you can.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty Something

“Because now there’s two of us. And two of us makes a tribe.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“No one ever died of cellulite or wrinkles.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty Something

“listening can be more powerful than talking.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty Something

“I don't want to spend whatever time I have left looking backwards. I want to look forwards. To new things. New places. New adventures. Otherwise I'm just living a life where a part of me is missing.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“We’re encouraged to be our true, authentic selves, but being told to feel happy when you’re just not feeling it, only encourages us to be the exact opposite. Life can be wonderful but it can also be scary and hard. We should be free to feel sad or gloomy or just downright bloody miserable, without feeling like there’s something wrong with us Because sometimes happiness isn’t a choice. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can’t find joy. Which is why I’ve decided to stop beating myself up by desperately seeking happiness and give myself the permission to feel exactly how I feel, when I feel it. In fact, maybe, it’s not happiness we should be looking for after all – but acceptance.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Remember that, love. When life buries us under all its heartache and disappointment, think about a seed. It needs to be buried in order for it to grow. That’s how the magic happens. But you have to have faith. Remember that. Patience and faith.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“You can grieve for someone and the past, but you've also got to live.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Sometimes I wonder if maybe it was for the best. I tried and I failed. Maybe deep down I didn’t want it enough. Like you said, not everyone does.’ ‘True.’ Eventually she says something. ‘But is that really you talking? Or is it your grief?’ ‘I don’t know.’ I shake my head. ‘And that’s OK,’ she says quietly. I raise my eyes to meet Cricket’s. ‘I’m eighty-one years old and I’ve learned if there’s one gift you can give yourself in life, it’s the freedom and courage to say “I don’t know”. Because I’ll let you into a secret – you don’t have to know. You don’t have to know how you feel, or what you want, or if you’re happy or if you’re sad. Life is full of choices and decisions, and there is so much pressure on us to make all the right ones. But what if we don’t? What if we have doubts and misgivings? What if we make mistakes and contradict ourselves?’ She looks at me, her eyes shining. ‘What if we try our best and fail anyway?’ As her words peg out before me, I think about myself, about everything that’s happened. ‘What then? Should we feel bad about ourselves? Why not just accept that we don’t know? Because if you accept that, my dear girl, it will give you such immense freedom. It will allow you to change your mind, to take a different path, to grab opportunities that come your way that you might never have thought of . . . to be impulsive instead of being stuck, to stop feeling guilty.’ Cricket looks at me, her face imploring. ‘To stop feeling scared.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“If getting older has taught me one thing, it’s that I feel so many conflicting things about so many different things, and to negate or stifle any of them doesn’t make them go away. Emotions don’t necessarily have a moral compass. Feelings can’t be shamed into disappearing. Suppressing and ignoring them will only make them come back to bite you in the therapist’s chair.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Sometimes life is crap, and wrapping it up in an inspirational quote isn’t always going to make you feel better. On the contrary, sometimes it just makes everything feel worse.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up: A Novel

“People always talk about happy endings, but I think it should be happy beginnings. Who wants to talk about endings when ahead is a brand new year, stretching out before you. One filled with infinite possibilities and wonderful new opportunities and decisions to be made and doubts to be had and a whole lot of love to be explored.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Because feeling like a fuck-up isn’t about being a failure, it’s about being made to feel like one.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“They don’t do it to be cruel. Quite the opposite. I’ve found friends and acquaintances keep their distance because they don’t want to upset you or say the wrong thing. What they don’t realize is you’re already upset beyond anything they could ever say or do. It’s their silence that upsets you. You feel isolated. Abandoned.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“I'm not saying this to be trite or to make you feel better, but believe me when I say this: the people who matter will see you, no matter what.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“the people who matter will see you, no matter what.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“One thing I’ve learned through this bloody awful time is that grief isn’t linear. You can be doing all right, then it will suddenly come out of nowhere. It’s the silly little things that remind you .”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“But that’s one of the good things about getting older: often the most terrible of things turn into the most amusing through the lens of time.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“The women whom I love and admire for their strength and grace did not get that way because shit worked out. They got that way because shit went wrong and they handled it. They handled it in a thousand different ways on a thousand different days, but they handled it. Those women are my superheroes. ELIZABETH GILBERT”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“Word by word, page by page,’ Cricket tells her cheerfully, ‘that’s how a writer writes and how a reader should read. You’ll get there in the end. Doesn’t matter if it takes six months or a year or longer to finish it. That’s what I always used to tell my husband.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

“For all of us, it seems, life isn’t always easy, and the lesson I’ve learned is that you’re not fucking up if life hasn’t worked out how you expected. Because real life is messy and complicated.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up: A Novel

“I thought I knew. I had it all mapped out and then—boom. It’s a scary thing, stepping into the void. It can overwhelm you: fill you with panic and fear.”
― Alexandra Potter, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up: A Novel