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.

I dislike wasted effort. And since I spend most of my days (and nights) on a computer, typing the same thing over and over again is wasted effort.

I’ve had long experience with text replacers over the past five years. I started with ShortKeys, tinkered with AutoHotkey, and looked at many others over the years. Most didn’t even last a full day on my computer. AutoHotkey was too much like work (literally, since I’m a programmer). And ShortKeys has no shortage of quirks.

Enter Breevy. It’s a program that has taken the best of the programs without any annoyances.

The Basics of Breevy

Breevy is an auto-text expander. It not only allows you to expand text as you type, but you can also launch programs and websites using it.

The program itself is written in a non-Microsoft dependent format. This means when Microsoft randomly forces an update of your operating system on you, it is not likely to break because of a dependency on Microsoft code. It is also very light on memory (3748K on my machine), registering at less than half what ShortKeys takes up (12,740K).

The Breevy Interface

The left side of the Breevy screen contains a list of folders. These folders can be used to group your abbreviations together — something I find very handy. I have split mine into work, email, HTML and others. You can change folders by clicking on the folder, or see everything by clicking on the top level. You can even nest folders more than one level, allowing for a great deal of organization.

The right side of the screen contains the list of abbreviations in the folder. You can change how they are sorted, making it very easy to find the one you are looking for.

Clicking on an abbreviation brings up the modification area at the bottom of the screen. You can set your abbreviation key, the case-sensitivity, replacement text, and the description. All of these columns show in the abbreviation area and can be sorted by.

Breevy Abbreviation Options

One of the strengths of Breevy is the ability to control, by abbreviation, the case-sensitivity of the output, and when the text is replaced.

Case Sensitivity

Each abbreviation comes with three casing options: case insensitive, case sensitive, and “adapt replacement case to case of typed abbreviation.”

The first option allows you to use your abbreviations regardless of case. For instance, if you had an abbreviation called “l8r” that expanded to “later”, you could type any one of L8R, L8r, l8R, l8r to have it expand.

The case sensitive option allows you to have multiple expansions for a given set of letters. Thus, you could have replacements called L8R and l8r expand to two different things.

Feature alert: Breevy is smart enough to catch possibly conflicts between case-sensitive and case-insensitive abbreviations, and warns you that there might be a possible conflict.

The third feature, which I’ve never seen in a text expander before, adjusts the text to match the case you typed in. So if you have an abbreviation “cc” that expands to “camel case”, you would get the following:

• cc — camel case
• CC — CAMEL CASE
• Cc — Camel case

Text Replacement Options

Most text replacers allow for a global text replacement option. You need to trigger the replacer by either prefixing or suffixing the text you type in with a sequence of characters. Breevy allows you to set this by abbreviation. You can have the text trigger immediately when you type in a sequence, when you press a “word-ending character” (fully customizable in the settings) or by pressing a trigger key after the sequence.

Having the text replace when you have matched the sequence is great when you have special characters. For instance, when I type in “/H1″, I want the expander to put out HTML H1 codes. This customization means I can put in a prefix of my own without worrying I will accidentally insert them into a letter.

Having a replacement trigger on a word-ending character is the type of thing you see in replacers within word processors. This fixes errors as you type. Great for common typos.

Having the trigger key (customizable) allows you to use a key to force the program to put the text in. I find this is good for codes I may want to put in that may actually be words that stand on their own.

Breevy Features

Here are the things I really like about Breevy:

• Folders for organization. As mentioned above, this is an important feature for me. My ShortKeys list had 500+ entries in it. I rarely found anything. Breevy has allowed me to split out the abbreviations into functional areas.
• Program launch. Although I use Launchy, it was difficult for me to get specific websites set up to launch on command. Breevy does it with little effort.
• Imports Word Autocorrections. Yes, it will import the entire Word autocorrection file in, giving you the same sort of spelling replacement in other programs.
• Include clipboard. You can tell the abbreviation to include the contents of the clipboard in the replacement. This is great if you routinely wrap clipboard text with something else (in my case, with HTML).
• Special symbols. Breevy can handle special symbols, like © and non-English letters, like umlauts and accents.
• One screen editing. I really dislike programs that have screens everywhere for editing. Breevy’s interface is one-stop shopping, all on screen. The screen also doesn’t vanish when you switch to another program, like ShortKeys does.
• Cursor positioning. You can include the cursor position in your replacement text. This allows you to put your cursor at the place you would start typing without having to move the arrows or mouse.
• Variable date insertion. You can use Breevy to insert dates and date parts into your text. For example, for my work comments, I have it put the date in a YYYYMMDD format. Breevy handles this with no problems.

What is Breevy Missing?

I haven’t abandoned ShortKeys completely. That is because ShortKeys allows me to access Alt, Control, Home, End, and the arrow keys. This allows me to move around on the screen. For instance, one frequent replacement I do is on the fourth line from the top of the screen in a document.

The good news is when I asked the developer about this, he indicated it would be forthcoming in a future release.

Conclusion

I am really impressed with Breevy. I have put it to use and really tested it in my everyday working. It is as flexible as I could possibly wish, and really works quickly, with no noticeable lags or system loads. I also couldn’t get the thing to crash, and I tried.

Since buying Breevy entitles you to lifetime free upgrades as well as protection by a 30-day money-back guarantee, I suggest you give it a try. You will be very surprised how much it improves your time on the computer.

Special Offer for Simple Productivity Blog Readers

16 Software has generously offered a limited time 25% off discount on their product for readers of Simple Productivity Blog. To take advantage of this offer, you can use the direct link, or use the coupon code of SIMPLEPRODUCTIVITY. This offer will be valid from 15 Feb 2010 to 21 Feb 2010.

Disclosure:

Note: I was provided with a free full working copy of Breevy to evaluate and write this review from. I have no other affiliation with 16 Software.

I’ve always been skeptical of online money management tools. I couldn’t figure out what they would get me that I didn’t have already.

And honestly, most online tools I had looked at before either only did accounts for a specific institution, or were a vehicle to sell me things. What I wanted was everything in one place, and that happened on my husband’s computer in a set of spreadsheets.

Mint came onto my radar with an article from Lifehacker (see Mint is the Most Popular Web-Based Personal Finance App), and then an article from Gina Trapani (see Why I Stopped Being Paranoid and Started Using Mint). Both made me think that Mint was different.

So, tired of not really understanding where our finances stood, I signed up for Mint over my last break from work. It was free, and asked only for my username/passwords – so I felt comfortable that no transactions would take place. Then I watched the magic as it pulled in my bank data.

The thing I’m really impressed with is the iPhone/iPod Touch application. I have the summaries of Mint with me at all times. The application from my bank has a flaw where it doesn’t include pending transactions on one screen, but does on another, and the balances never match. Mint doesn’t have that problem.

We’ve used Microsoft Money for years, but the budgeting module is just painful. Mint allows me to classify transactions quickly and sets up initial budgets as well.

I also set up some notifications. Since I am no longer salaried, I worry that a glitch somewhere in the manual time sheet process will mess up my paycheck. So I set up a notification to let me know when the transaction occurred. It was good to be able to say “I want to know” and have the application take it from there, rather than me having to remember to look later.

So far, I’ve been impressed with what Mint is doing for me. If you haven’t looked at it, take a gander. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Please note I have not been compensated in any way to make this review.

Another note: my husband is excellent at managing money and finances. But his near-fatal accident two years ago has me skittish when I don’t understand a critical process enough to be able to step in.