The Thing You Think You Cannot Do Audiobook By Gordon Livingston cover art

The Thing You Think You Cannot Do

Thirty Truths about Fear and Courage

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Thing You Think You Cannot Do

By: Gordon Livingston
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.49

Buy for $19.49

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

What are we afraid of and what can we do about it? Fear - of change, of intimacy, of loss, of the unknown - has become a corrosive influence in modern life, eroding our ability to think clearly. Exploited for power by politicians and for money by the media, it has become embedded in the way we think about our lives.

Overcoming our fear, says Gordon Livingston, constitutes the most difficult struggle we face. Dr. Livingston, a psychiatrist, has increasingly found himself prescribing virtues like courage to his patients instead of tranquilizers or antidepressants.

Here, he presents us with thirty truths that tell us all what we need to do in order to develop personal virtues in the face of societal - and our own individual - fears. And he does this with the crystalline prose and leavening wit that have made him an internationally best-selling author.

©2012 Gordon Livingston (P)2012 Oasis Anxiety Disorders Career Success Education Mental Health Motivation & Self-Improvement Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Career Health

Critic reviews

“To read him is to trust him and to learn, for his life has been touched by fire, and his motives are absolutely pure.” (Mark Helprin)
All stars
Most relevant  
This audiobook was truly inspired. I am so glad I found it. Should be required reading or listening. I spent my Memorial day listening to it. Just wonderful!

Superb!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thank you Gordon Livingston for giving your readers many refreshing insights into life as we grow, age and become more aware of our authentic selves. You gave me permission to delve deep! Sean Runnette had the perfect compassionate voice for reading these life lessons! Thank you! I am gratefully inspired.
With love, hope and determination, Jacqueline

The things I think I can do!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed the many truths and life lessons in "The thing you think you cannot do".

Great book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

If you've read any other of Gordon Livingston's other books (I've read three) then this was just a re-hash, sadly. When he got to an example (again) of the way that the US treat their troops in airports - which he does twice in this book - I felt like it was on loop.

I really adore his books, but their needs to be new content.

Not enough new content from his other books

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Information felt disconnected; Not a motivational book as I was expecting. The author is basically brainstorming the entire book. There are no 'tips' on how to do what you think you cannot do. Just wondrous thoughts of how other people were able to do things that seem insurmountable.

Not what I expected

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Would have liked despite your clear devisive view points about politics, religion, etc…
And no, I’m not a deplorable

Devisive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.