Thursday, March 20, 2008
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By Susan P. "honest to a fault" (Iowa) - See all my reviews It is a winner and one that I promise will be off the shelf and in use far more than some of the glossy tomes we see far too often in bookstores all over the country. I think you'll be happy that you took the plunge into it’s depths when you read this book, I know I certainly was! I highly recommend this book.
Written by Alexandria Jackson
Published February 23, 2008
Creating Your Own Way To Happiness is a self-help workbook that helps the reader learn or remember that you create your own happiness. While that sounds like a trite, over-used cliché, reading this book is an interactive way of reminding yourself of whom you want to be.
There are many useful fill-in-the-blank forms for you to reacquaint yourself with you. After each assessment tool, there are helpful statements of encouragement and often a biblical reference. Each main area of the book has, “Go for it! You can do it!” or other motivating statements. The concept may sound pedestrian, but while reading the book I was smiling and eager to keep reading.
Hindrances to achievement were listed as: fear, carelessness, laziness, indifference, forgetfulness, and procrastination.
Basic strengtheners were listed: enthusiasm, optimism, creative intuition, persistence, belief, and activity.
The reader is encouraged to smile, live life to the fullest, and change to a more positive attitude. The authors give you tools to help you on your path toward self-understanding and subsequently to happiness.
Other tools offered in Creating Your Own Way To Happiness are: ways to communicate more effectively, how to deal with stress and anxiety, and how to improve your self-image, self-confidence and self-respect. The reader is also given business solutions and strategies to assist in working with different types of people.
The authors do not shy away from darker issues such as dealing with loneliness, divorce, and the death of a loved one. Practical coping techniques are suggested in a kind and caring manner.
Creating Your Own Way To Happiness asks you to consider living your life with honesty, integrity, courage, and tact. This may seem to be an old-fashioned concept, but I cheered when I read this chapter. I have long yearned for the days when a man’s word was his honor. We don’t hear about integrity enough anymore and it no longer appears to be a valued commodity.
Robert Bruce and Lee Ann Kirby have 95 years of marriage, 6 children, 11 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren between them. They have both survived the death of their respective spouses and are the best of friends. They seem to be beautiful people, both spiritually and emotionally.
Their book is a gently encouraging, motivating and easy-to-read (170-pages).
I will recommend Creating Your Own Way To Happiness to anyone I know over the age of fifteen.
Alexandria Jackson is a psychologist by day and a Blogcritic by night. She is the author of Don’t Take it Personally: Keep Your Self-Esteem in a Relationship.