With the new year still the new year (according to wise ones, January 11th is when it is No Longer New Year’s Day!), I decided that reviving this post from the archives might just work. One that inspires and motivates with books containing powerful words of inspiration for all the places you’ll go!!

Note: Part of this post, as I mentioned above, is from a January of many, many moons ago – 2011, actually! Hence the mention below in one section of this post of my now 18-yo daughter being in preschool! Now she is marching to her own cool beat as a freshman at college. Oh, the places she has gone to indeed….(proud mom here)

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Powerful Words of Inspiration from Little Ones & Books They Read

When My Kids Were Little & Spoke Wise Powerful Words, Also Sweet Silly Ones,

I Read These Books to Them

note: this section is the 2011 original

My Thoughts

My daughter does a little cheerleading she learnt at her preschool occasionally:

‘Can you do it? You can do it… Can you march? You can march…. Can you …..? You can …’

This book conveys this message wonderfully, in beautiful Seuss rhyming and simple words that the youngest readers can understand. I found this book when I was looking to give a gift to a friend who was graduating from a Masters program. I ordered it from Amazon and when it arrived, I could not resist a peek inside before wrapping it for him. And here were my Seussian thoughts when I peeked in..

Oh, the wonders it contained inside,
My mind learned at every page,
My face grew a smile a mile wide,
I knew this book was for every age!
The peek I first planned
Turned into something more
The gift for my friend
Just stayed in my books galore.
 -LadyInRead(Vidya)

The book lets You know that you have everything in You – the right set of tools – to set out in the Big, Bad World. As you step out, you will see new places, need to make decisions, face hardships, have successes and failures too. You will be in a Lurch, a Slump, a Waiting Place but you can keep on going ahead and YOU WILL MOVE MOUNTAINS.. and you will succeed! (98 and ¾ %)

And They Said These Words to Me

Of course, one of the things my daughter marched to was that ‘I can do it’ beat! A year before that, when she was in kindergarten, she introduced my husband and I to Katy Perry’s ‘Roar!’ with an infusion of heart!

While my son, in his preschool wisdom, told me that when someone is hurting or angry, or down in anyway, we need to ask them this all-important question, “What can I do to make you feel better?”

Other Books I Discovered Since With Powerful Words for the Places You’ll Go

note: this section is a 2025 addendum

And Off You Go to Change the World

Wherever You Go

Wherever You Go

You’re Here for a Reason

Then Some More

I have more similar reads in this post.

Powerful Words of the Week

Booms and Beacons from the Bygone

Thise week of January 2011, I picked a couple of words which are unusual but maybe not uncommon:

overimaginative: What is unusual about this word? You can see (no need to be overimaginative at all!) that this word has alternating vowels and consonants in its spelling..

I diddle-daddled a bit to find this word – diddle-daddled– means wasted time. On the other hand, discovering new words or new things about old words is cool, so maybe it was not wasted time at all.

Infusing Inspiration in the Now

Adding words that will inspire me and you – us – as we gear up for the year ahead, full of dreams and goals to reach.

• Antifragile
  • Meaning: Refers to something that not only withstands adversity but becomes stronger and more resilient because of it. This is the opposite of fragile, which breaks under pressure.
  • Etymology: Coined by author Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2012 book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. It combines anti- (against) and fragile (easily broken), suggesting the opposite of fragility.
• Bouncebackability
  • Meaning: The ability to recover quickly from difficulties or setbacks; resilience.
  • Etymology: This word gained popularity in sports, especially in soccer, to describe a team’s ability to recover after a loss. It’s a portmanteau of bounce back (meaning to recover) and the suffix -ability (indicating capacity or quality).
• Glow-up
  • Meaning: A noticeable improvement in someone’s appearance, style, or life, often used to describe a person who has become more confident, successful, or attractive over time.
  • Etymology: Glow-up is a combination of “glow” (meaning to shine or appear radiant) and “up” (suggesting improvement or elevation). It emerged in popular culture in the 2010s, particularly through social media and memes.
• YOLO
  • Meaning: An acronym for “You Only Live Once,” often used to encourage taking risks or living life to its fullest.
  • Etymology: First popularized in the early 2010s, especially by the rapper Drake in his 2011 song The Motto. The phrase itself is a variant of similar expressions encouraging living in the moment, but the acronym “YOLO” became widely recognized as a cultural mantra.

Related Reads and More

• A Little Encouragement Can Lead to Great Wonders
• Be the Change You Want to See
• Seize the Power to Make the Moments Matter

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, what is your go-to book or quote for inspiration? Who is your inspiration? Any words or quotes that inspire? And which ones from among the books/words/quotes here appeal to you most? Which book are you getting for yourself?