The Shift: Taking Your Life from Ambition to Meaning

Don’t let the size of the book deceive you: at a little over a hundred pages, this is by no means an easy read for someone looking to understand the full extent of Dr. Dyer’s meaning. Yet it is eloquently written, with quotes pulled from many cultures sprinkled throughout. The book has four chapters: From, Ambition, To, and Meaning.

Chapter 1: From

In this chapter, Dr. Dyer talks about his theory of where we all come from. I’ll be honest: it was a difficult chapter to read. I was not convinced by his “support” of his theory of what we are before being; I feel that just because many people write to support the same opinion, it doesn’t make it true. But Dr. Dyer is certainly knowledgeable, and this gives it enough credence to build the rest of the book.

Chapter 2: Ambition

The chapter on Ambition is not about the blind drive entirely. Dr. Dyer talks about how we are trained, by society, at birth, to achieve great things. Yet more possessions, more status, better opinions and such don’t necessarily lead to happiness.

Chapter 3: To

At some point in our lives we will hopefully realize that life is not about being selfish. In the chapter To, Dr. Dyer talks about this transition point.

Chapter 4: Meaning

In this final chapter, Dr. Dyer discusses what else there is out there, and how a life of service connects us with each other and our source.

Summary

I liked this book, because it does focus on a way to get more meaning out of life. After spending hours struggling through that first chapter, though, I think I would have been better off seeing the movie.

I agreed to review the book on the basis of its title, thinking that this might help the readers of the blog in a practical way. However, unless you are looking for a way to make rather large changes in your life, this isn’t the book for you. This book talks about big things in a big way.

Book Information

Book: The Shift: Taking Your Life from Ambition to Meaning
Author: Dr. Wayne Dyer
Publisher: Hay House, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-1401927097

Disclosure:

Hay House Publishing provided me with a free copy of the book The Shift to enable me to write this review.

It was the day I had stepped on the scale to find that the number had crept up…again. So when I opened my mailbox and found The Spark: The 28-Day Breakthrough Plan for Losing Weight, Getting Fit, and Transforming Your Life, I was ready for it.

I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I met my husband. His family can eat whatever they want in massive quantities and not gain a pound. Me, on the other hand, can look at a piece of cheesecake and gain weight. I’ve tried many diets, Zoned, Watched the Weight, measured, deprived, limited. Noting worked for long.

The Spark Is Different

The Spark is not another diet plan, where it tells you what to eat and how to exercise. I was astounded at this new take on losing weight.

The Cornerstones

The first part of the book concerns itself with the Cornerstones. And these were different than I expected. After all, I know what to do – eat less, eat better, exercise more. What else is there? Quite a lot, it turns out.

Focus

The first cornerstone asked me why I want to lose the weight. It asked me to state that goal, and then set short- and medium-term goals with it. It backed it up with examples of people who have used the program.

Next, it asked me to make these goals concrete by putting together visual and audible reminders of the goals. I’ve used these tools with success in other areas of my life, so I know these work.

Fitness

OK, I thought, here we go with the lecture and special exercises. Instead, I found information on stress management, emotional eating and sleep. Since I tend to overeat when I am tired, stressed and upset, this hit home.

The other thing was interesting: rather than insist on a regimented workout routine, The Spark recommends something that can be done anywhere. Since traveling destroys my exercise plans, this was a good thing to hear. I don’t have to join a gym. I don’t have to buy anything. In fact, it’s better if I don’t.

Fire

The third cornerstone is about the drive to get where you want to be. With topics on choices, journaling and character traits, you learn how to change yourself. The section on consistency and momentum gives some great ways to keep moving forward, as well as how to handle the inevitable setbacks.

Positive Force

This last section is about how you can be inspired by, and inspire others. By having positive role models in your life, you are more likely to succeed.

The Spark “Diet”

The second half of the book is entitled “The Spark Diet”. But it’s not a diet plan that lays out meals for you. Instead, it’s a plan to get you moving to better choices.

The Fast Break

This is the part that tripped me up with Weight Watchers. You were expected to do the whole plan from Day 1, and no exceptions. This is really hard! With The Spark, you get a better start in the Fast Break.

The whole idea of the Fast Break is to build up some easy successes. For instance, you can choose to drink more water and eat more veggies. Or commit to exercising three times during the week. The point of the Fast Break is to set goals low enough that you can do them, without being overwhelming.

By simply making the commitment to drink four glasses of water and eat three fruits/veggies a day, I started losing weight the first week…

Healthy Diet Habits

This next section didn’t contain anything new for me. What surprised me was the lack of insistence on following their “plan”. You can follow any healthy diet plan and still use this book. The habits section focused instead on portions, water, sleep and exercise — all healthy habits.

Lifestyle Change

This section is more about keeping motivated, and dealing with issues that may be behind weight gain (like emotional eating). It gives specific strategies for moving forward.

Spread The Spark

This last section talks about maintenance, and using what you learned to apply to other area of your life that you may be stuck in. With specific suggestions on how to live a more fulfilling life, it encourages you to dream.

I was really impressed with The Spark. I need something other than an all-or-nothing approach to weight loss and lifestyle change, and this book provides it.

If you are looking to make a change this year, check out the book. It is well worth the time to read.

The Spark Information

Book: The Spark: The 28-Day Breakthrough Plan for Losing Weight, Getting Fit, and Transforming Your Life
Author: Chris Downie
Publisher: Hay House, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-1401926458

Disclosure:

Hay House Publishing provided me with a free copy of the book The Spark to enable me to write this review.

A friend recently asked me where to start with simplifying her life. I thought I would throw together a list of recommended books that I found helpful:

• Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century. This book will help you clarify what you are doing with your life in relation to money. Most people will simplify after reading the book.
• Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things That Really Matter. The first book I read on simplicity. Bite sized ways to get simpler.
• Living the Simple Life: A Guide to Scaling Down and Enjoying More. Another book by the author of Simplify Your Life.
• The Joy of Simple Living: Over 1,500 Simple Ways to Make Your Life Easy and Content– At Home and At Work Packed with tips covering all areas of life.
• 30 Days to a Simpler Life. Step by step ways to get a more sane life. This book has “easy” and “hard” levels, depending on how far you want to tackle simplicity.
• It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff. A great book on clutter and getting rid of it.
• Living Simply with Children: A Voluntary Simplicity Guide for Moms, Dads, and Kids Who Want to Reclaim the Bliss of Childhood and the Joy of Parenting. A great book on how to simplify within a family.
• Simplicity Lessons: A 12-Step Guide to Living Simply. 12 steps to simplicity. The lessons are more in depth than the 30 Days book.
• The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living. Strategies, stories, resources and information. This is a great reference book.

I don’t recommend you go out and buy all these books at once! They are all great resources, and should be available from your local library. I bought each of these books after reading them, and refer back to them frequently.

Photo by kwerfeldein

A few weeks ago one of my favorite blogs, Wise Bread, announced the publication of their first book. I was thrilled to bits, since I love the varying perspectives of the blog authors, and find the advice helpful and entertaining. The Wise Bread blog is one of my daily reads.

Wise Bread also asked for reviewers, and I answered the call. They provided me with a copy of their book, which I am reviewing here. (Disclaimer: I am receiving no compensation for reviewing this book, and I am not affiliated with the Wise Bread blog)

Book Information

10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget by The Writers of Wise Bread
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (May 12, 2009) Paperback: 352 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 160239704X
ISBN-13: 978-1602397040

In A Nutshell

10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget is a collection of articles written by the writers of the Wise Bread blog. It covers varying viewpoints on saving money and making the most of the money you have.

As they say, “Too many books on frugal living focus on the negative, throwing around words like sacrifice and responsibility as if there’d been a fire sale at the Boring Store.“. This book is positive, action-focused, and fun.

The book is divided into two main sections: Frugal Living, and Personal Finance. Frugal Living is about saving as much money as possible, without being miserly or cheap. It is subdivided into sections covering food and drink, travel, health and beauty, fun and entertainment, shopping, green living, and education and self-improvement. Personal Finance helps you make the most of the money you have, and has subdivisions covering financial planning and budgeting, debt, investing, housing and career.

Overall Impressions

This book was a smooth and easy read. The articles are laid forth in a logical fashion and make it possible to skip over things I wasn’t interested in. For example, I am already married, and as bigamy is not in the picture, the section on planning a wedding was not of interest (although I was amused to see many things I did when planning my wedding covered in the article).

The articles cover varying aspects of every section put forth. The education section, for instance, covers everything from going back to school to starting college to eating for free in college to homeschooling. The editors have taken great care to select articles that apply to varying walks and times of life.

The editors made no effort to pull the writers into the same line of thinking. For example, one article in the Health and Beauty section said that watering down hair spray makes little difference to the overall quality of the product; the next article plainly stated that the author would never consider watering down products. By presenting differing viewpoints, the book allows itself to be the most useful to the most people. We are all individuals after all, and one single tip will not work for every person.

I have seen that most people resist the ideas of frugality because they cannot see themselves &quotsinking” to that level. Unpalatable ideas are hard to swallow, and what is unpalatable to one person is not necessarily to the next. The book gives a wide variety of tips in order to overcome this problem.

I really enjoyed this book, and I have found many things I am going to try. I would highly suggest you purchase a copy of this book and get some wonderful tips on both living better on less, while making the most of what you have.

Title: Goal-Free Living: How to Have the Life You Want NOW!
Author: Stephen M. Shapiro
Rating (of 10): 8
ISBN: 0471772801

Book Summary

In Goal-Free Living: How to Have the Life You Want NOW!, Stephen Shapiro walks us through the secrets of goal-free living: 8 points to keep us moving forward in an unrestricted way. For those of us who have problems with traditional goal-setting, this is an alternate approach that can be very freeing.

Review

Too many people are bound up in goals, causing them to lose sight of what is really important, Shapiro points out. The eight secrets are not about not moving forward, but moving forward in a way that allows you to grow and expand without restriction.

I was put onto this book by a class I took this summer about setting a theme rather than a goal for a year. By setting a theme, I can include more things into my focus rather than single-mindedly pursuing things that may have little meaning to me.

I found many nuggets of wisdom in this book. In section 3 (Remember that Opportunity Knocks Often, but Sometimes Softly), I was reminded that there are many hidden opportunities, and that they are better noticed if I am in tune and present with what is going on. Especially in these days of deciding what to do next, I need to pay attention to what is around me as I look for a new path.

The book was very well laid out. Each section had great sub-headings, supporting stories gleaned from people all over the country and world. At the end of the chapter are summaries of each point.

I enjoyed this book, because in a lot of ways, traditional goals oppress me. I either can’t figure out exactly what I want to do, or get bored/sidetracked halfway to a goal, and it languishes on the “should-do” list, a victim of my non-interest.

I believe the approach laid out in Goal-Free Living is going to work better with my style. I think that if traditional goals feel more like lead weights than inspiring scenes, this may work better for you as well.

Title: Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth
Author: Steve Pavlina
Rating (out of 10): 9
ISBN: 1401922759

Book Summary

The phenomenal blogger Steve Pavlina has become synonymous with personal development. Sharing for free his immense knowledge gathered from extensive reading and interviews, digested and assimilated in new ways, his blog is one of the top blogs in the field of personal development. And now Steve has turned his knowledge into a book. Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth has just come out, and it lives up to all that I have come to expect from Steve’s writing.

Steve starts out the book explaining where he was, and how he got where he is. He then lays out what he intends to do: to reduce all principles of personal development down so that they are universal, complete, irreducible and practical. That’s a very tall order. Ultimately, I think he succeeded.

The book is laid out very logically: first covered are the three core principles of truth, love and power (which I think would be more aptly named strength), then the secondary combinations of these principles into oneness (truth plus love), authority (truth plus power), courage (love plus power) and intelligence (truth, love and power). Each concept is covered in detail in a well designed chapter, easy to read with many examples.

Review

This book can be read at two levels, and both levels should provide some benefit to the reader. The most superficial level can be obtained by a first reading, where exercises are given and the concepts presented in an orderly fashion. What I found, though, as I read this book, was that after I set the book down and thought about things for a while, I would re-read a section and find a whole other level within the ideas.

The only thing that bothered me about the book was that there were concepts put in that were not fully explained at the time. This is not a problem for someone familiar with Steve’s web articles. However, someone picking this book up without that background might be confused when the Law of Attraction is dropped into the chapter on Power without any explanation of what it means or why it was brought in.

Steve doesn’t pull any punches in this book, but tells the truth with compassion. His text flows naturally, conveying the ideas as if he were talking directly to the reader. Don’t be fooled, though. This is no fluffy “get everything you want tomorrow” book. In fact, it is the most in-depth book I have read in a long time. He thoroughly covers each of the topics, reducing it down to his criteria carefully and thoroughly.

My copy Personal Development for Smart People arrived right at a time when I have been struggling with what boils down to personal development. I can see that this book will be one I return to many times.

Overall, I would recommend Personal Development for Smart People as a must-read for anyone interested in personal development.

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Steve Pavlina. I received a copy of his book from his publisher in order to review it.