Quotes from Jessica Simpson

Owning my faults is an easy thing for me. Learning from those realizations and breaking the cycle of making the same choices, that's the work.

You may have had that lonely conversation with yourself by now, but if you haven't, let me tell you. You can have people encourage you and talk to you all day long about your potential, but if you're not there, ready and willing to be that for yourself, you'll never be fulfilled.

You're the only one who has the power to be the best you, I thought. Nobody else can do that for you.

With the same fervor that my mom now flips houses, my parents fixed people throughout my childhood. We took in people who were sick or neglected, and it wasn't always fun. Sometimes it was a chore to share my parents with others. Our family time was always with others, whether they were there physically or talked about in our prayers. "To whom much is given, much is expected," was what I heard. I understood, but sometimes I didn't feel we had much to share.

That my husband stopped drinking with me was powerfully romantic, even if Hallmark doesn't have a card for it. Or maybe they do. It saved our marriage, or at least saved us from the stupid fights that didn't need to happen. Things said that didn't deserve to be said because it was the alcohol talking, not the heart.

So, I went through the motions and got the photos, like every mom does on special occasions. Just get the damn photo so we can create the memory. Then I can go back to real life. Then I could go back inside and hide.

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." It's a quote from Joseph Campbell, who studied mythology to describe what it takes to be a hero. I probably got it from one of the many, many self-help books I devoured back then, underlining points and dog-earing the pages that seemed to tell me a way out. I repeated that quote to myself for weeks, in the shower, on a red carpet, driving in my car.

We found out early that we were having a girl, and I was thrilled. My wish had come true. When I was pregnant with Maxwell, every sad thing in my life was forgotten or put into a healthy perspective. I know that was so much to put on her, but I couldn't help it. She saved me from all the worries, all the overthinking, all the dwelling on the past.

First, I wanted to tell my parents what was happening to me. What had just happened again the night before. For me, this would be a confession, because I felt like I might be sinning by allowing her to continue to do these things to me. I was the victim, but somehow, I felt in the wrong.

She gave me a huge smile, and I took it so I could manage to give it back to her.

I thought I had the job, and now I had to change myself to be "Jessica Simpson." It was as if he tied my value as an artist to my weight right there, like a rock, and then threw it out the window of the thirty-second floor of the Sony building. Maybe Tommy was being realistic about the times, and he knew what it would take for me to be successful. He believed in me, and he would be a beautiful part of my career, but it was hard to hear what was required to be a star.

This little tiny whisper of intuition answered. A voice from within spoke up. "It's okay to not be left alone," it said. "The moment people leave you alone, it will be because you stopped standing up for yourself.

When I love you, I want you to stick around.

We need to own our weakness, our hurt, our pain, and say it out loud so that we can name what is coming up and why. You deserve it. You deserve to feel the heartbreak and the pain so that once and for all you stop holding yourself back from feeling whatever it is you've tried to mask. No, it's not easy but you are worth the work.

And, most important, I love you.

Sometimes we are all so afraid to be honest with ourselves because we know that honesty will lead to somewhere.

I'VE GROWN INTO MYSELF to understand where I'm going and what I want to do. I always knew who I was but I didn't know how to get to where I thought I needed to go in order to be "that person." I think a lot of us are intimidated by what we are called to be, but we already have everything we need in our hearts.

I love journaling because I have found it to be a place of compassion for my mistakes and a challenge to learn from them. It reveals all the hidden places, and as you discover and move through them, you see that that's where all the answers are.

San Ysidro Ranch and

When people saw the real me, they wanted me to succeed. It was a fleeting thought, and I wish I had caught it and internalized it. I still thought people expected perfection.

Shortly after Sarah died, I started reevaluating what I was spending time on. The push-and-pull games with Jason now seemed childish, and I felt like God wanted me to make space for bigger things.

There's enough pressure keeping this perfect little creature alive. Just do the best you can, whatever your best is.

Dad did a U-turn to take us back to the gas station so we could collect our winnings. My parents clung to the happiness of that ticket, thrilled to be rescued with a change in subject. We never stayed at my parents' friends' house again, but we also didn't talk about what I had said. Instead, we just went back to start. As if what I said happened to me happened to some other girl, in some other car, in some other life.

Each time you deny your own truth, something intense happens. You have to listen to the signs and take care of it yourself.