We Can Do Hard Things

This guidebook for being alive—by the #1 New York Times bestselling authors and award-winning podcast hosts—is a moving exploration of the 20 essential human questions.

“We circle around the same 20 Questions throughout our lives. Inside this book are those questions—and the answers that saved my life.”—Glennon Doyle

Every day, Glennon Doyle spirals around the same questions:

Why am I like this? How do I figure out what I want? How do I know what to do? Why can’t I be happy? Am I doing this right?

Each morning, she’s somehow forgotten all the answers. She wonders: I’m almost fifty years old. I’ve learned a whole lot. Why do I wake up every day having forgotten everything I know?

Her sister, Amanda, and her wife, Abby, are the people Glennon calls first when she’s drowning, because they are her life preservers. Recently, in the span of a single year, Glennon was diagnosed with anorexia, Amanda was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Abby lost her beloved brother. For the first time, they were all drowning at the same time. So they turned toward the only thing that’s ever saved them: deep, honest conversations with other brave, kind, wise people.

They asked each other, their dearest friends, and 118 of the world’s most brilliant wayfinders: Do you spiral around these questions all day, too? Do you have any answers?

Two things became thrillingly clear:

1. We are not alone: Everyone swirls around the same 20 human questions.
2. We do not have to stay lost: There are answers.

As they wrote down every life-saving answer they discovered, they realized they were creating their own personal survival guide.

We Can Do Hard Things is that survival guide.

This book is a place to turn to when you feel clueless and alone; when you need language for how you feel; when you need clarity in the chaos. A place not to learn—but to remember—what you already know. A place to save yourself, again and again.

Featuring wisdom from: ALOK • Sara Bareilles • Dr. Yaba Blay • Kate Bowler • adrienne maree brown • Brandi Carlile • Brittney Cooper • Brittany Packnett Cunningham • Kaitlin Curtice • Megan Falley • Jane Fonda • Stephanie Foo • Ashley C. Ford • Ina Garten • Roxane Gay • Andrea Gibson • Elizabeth Gilbert • Dr. Orna Guralnik • Tricia Hersey • Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson • Luvvie Ajayi Jones • Dr. Becky Kennedy • Emily Nagoski • Esther Perel • Ai-Jen Poo • Cole Arthur Riley • Cheryl Strayed • Sonya Renee Taylor • Ocean Vuong • And many others