Tag: reading

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Reading List: August’s Book

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Happy Friday, darlings! I hope you’ve got an exciting weekend planned or, if relaxation is what you need, I hope that you’ve planned some time to chill out and restore yourself.

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It’s time for August’s book!

I tossed around a few options for this month, because I was unsure whether I wanted (yet another) book focused on self improvement or something completely different. However, while looking through a few of my stacks of books, I came across one that I hadn’t read yet and was eager to finally dig into.

August’s book is Elizabeth Takes Off by Elizabeth Taylor. I don’t think I’ve read a celebrity’s autobiography in years, so this will be very different from my norm. I love Elizabeth Taylor (remember I did a post about her nearly a year ago?) so when I purchased this book, it was because I wanted the secret to her crazy-tiny waistline. Yeah, it’s superficial, but if she’s giving out the secrets, I want to be the first in line, with my pen in hand.

When I glanced through the book, I recalled that this is, indeed, a book about her diet, but it’s also a discussion about her personal life and career, so it should be a well-balanced, fascinating read. I’m looking forward to reading this one!

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Book Review: Your Life By Design By Curtis R. Estes

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I had to schedule this book review a little later this month, because I had a really hard time making it through this book for the purpose of reviewing it. You’ll understand a bit later why writing this review was challenging.

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The book I selected to read during the month of June was Your Life by Design by Curtis R. Estes. I’ve had this book for several years but never managed to read it – until now. The book is a series of exercises and examples designed to help the reader examine current patterns and choices. After examining the present, the reader is gently lead through the process of creating and executing a new vision – a vision that reflects the reader’s closely held values and desires.

In short, this is a workbook that requires thoughtfulness and time as you complete the exercises. That, by default, makes it a difficult book to “review”, since there are actions required from the reader in order to get the most out of the text and I sincerely feel that these exercises should not be “rushed”.

This book contains many fantastic tips for examining lifestyle balance and harmony. I’m a fan of how this book emphasizes looking at your life and determining how much joy you derive from your activities. For instance, I was intrigued by Estes’ personal calendar, that not only listed out his activities for the day but also assigned an emotional score to each activity (identifying how happy or unhappy he was about completing that particular task) as well as a list of the day’s overall goals and the expenditures required for the day. This holistic view of the day really helps to put individual activities into perspective.

All that being said, I HIGHLY recommend the book for anyone trying to create new patterns and a clearer vision for his or her life. The steps are great for creating the kind of changes that will nurture and boost behaviors that contribute to a quality lifestyle. I thoroughly enjoyed this workbook. In fact, I liked it so well that I decided that I would be going through the exercises, individually, in the fall of this year.

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Book Review: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

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When I mentioned The War of Art by Steven Pressfield in my May Reading List post, I shared that I had read it before, but I rushed through it. I read it as part of a business “boot camp” that I participated in a few years ago. The book was good but since the business I was designing wasn’t “creative”, it didn’t feel relevant to my circumstances at the time.

However, I’m in a different space in my life now, and I am tapping into my creative powers regularly. That’s why I post daily in this space, whether I have lots to talk about or not much going on. It’s all about continuing to write and dedicating myself to my craft. Errors and all, I post here every day with the hope that I’ll share something that inspires or educates.

Back to War of Art: this book is all about learning what “Resistance” is, how it impacts our creative projects, and how to break through it. For those that don’t know, Resistance is anything that distracts us from our creative projects or interferes with our creative expression. Resistance takes many forms, but each of them are detrimental to the creative, who is denied their natural expression when they allow Resistance to win.

Resistance is described as an enemy that has mastered the art of disguise: so much so, it’s possible that this enemy is attacking you from several angles. However, once identified, the enemy can be defeated and the creative can realize his/her ultimate goal. Pressfield assures us that Resistance can be beaten, as he stated, “Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years”.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section outlines the many disguises of Resistance: it can be something as blatant as procrastination or as subtle as vicarious living through loved ones. The second section describes the way to conquer Resistance which is going “pro”: utilizing strategies of the “professional” to sets out to do his/her work regardless of all of the Resistance swirling in the atmosphere. The third section is all about what happens after Resistance is conquered. This section speaks of the magic of starting a project, the incredible outcomes of deferring to “higher powers” like God, the Muses, etc., and moving beyond the Ego.

This entire book is enjoyable, but I’m especially a fan of the second section. Many of the practices outlined are disciplines that could serve you in multiple arenas. I often need to be reminded of what a “professional” does, so that, instead of being frustrated by circumstance, I’m focused instead on what I need to do.

This was such a good read! I hope you all check it out and find some benefit in it for yourselves!

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Reading List: June’s Book

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I’m almost done with The War of Art, so it’s time for me to select another book. I really wanted to read a book that I either 1) hadn’t read before or 2) had started reading but never completed. I also wanted the June reading selection to speak directly to one of my goals (by the way, I’ll be posting goal updates VERY soon!). At minimum, I wanted the selection to be in support of those goals.

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So, as it happens, the first book that I picked up while tidying my bedroom was Your Life by Design by Curtis R. Estes. I opened the book up and literally, the page I landed on spoke directly to me. I didn’t have to hunt for the book: my June selection found me!

I’m looking forward to reading this and discussing it with you all. Talk to you all tomorrow!

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May’s Reading Selection

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Happy Monday, friends! I’m excited to step into another week full of possibility and fun. I hope you all take full advantage of all of the good things that await you if you are BOLD enough to seize the day!

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May is shaping up to be quite an exciting month, so I want a book that keeps in step with that high energy but also reflect my goal of making 2018 the best year of my life. The May reading selection is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I’ve read this one several years ago but I rushed through it. This time, I really want to pace myself and take in the lessons.

The past few weeks have been a bit more stressful than normal. Despite participating in the Joy Challenge and actively cultivating joy in my daily life, I feel like my creativity is suffering a bit (not to mention my dissatisfaction with my job is increasing).  My hope is that this reading selection will help me to get back in touch with my creative “fire” as well as align me with better options for either eliminating or minimizing my dissatisfaction. If any of you have experienced similar feelings of frustration and stagnation, it may be worth check out this book, as well. I’ve linked the book above, so if it interests you, go ahead and pick it up!

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Book Review: How to Be Adored by Caroline Cox

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It’s the weekend, beloveds! I wanted to drop in and do this review quickly, as I have a very busy Saturday ahead of me. I’m a sucker for glamorous style, so what better way to honor my passion than to talk about last month’s Hollywood-inspired book selection?

This post is a review of the March reading selection “How to Be Adored“ by Caroline Cox. Throughout the book, Cox assures us that we, too, can be glamorous and adorable.

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The book opens with Cox explaining the glamour is a form of magic: a supernatural force that attracts and charms. The best glamour doesn’t offend nor does it discriminate: it intoxicates both men and women. This kind of sorcery is what the book promises to help readers achieve.

The book assures readers that we need not be born beautiful to become glamorous. It goes through the process of analyzing your physical traits and explaining how to best enhance them. It also dishes on the beauty secrets of several stars.

The book is over 250 pages but is a remarkably quick read (that may have something to do with it’s small size and generous use of photographs). I like the specific details outlined, as well as the behind-the-scenes look at the beauty routines employed by women that we all know and love. It even has recipes for Hollywood-inspired cocktails!

I recommend this book for anyone that enjoys reading random facts about stars as well as learning the beauty secrets for looking flawless on a daily basis. This is a fun read: you’ll enjoy it!

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The Best Year of Your Life: The “Plan It” Section, Part 1

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Ooh, it’s Monday again, and this month is just moving right along! I’ve been having a lot of fun with April: that may be because of the Joy Challenge, or maybe it’s the warmer weather we enjoyed over the past weekend. In any case, this has been a fun time for me.

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As part of creating the best year of my life, I’m reflecting on my December book selection, The Best Year of Your Life by Debbie Ford. In my previous post here and here, I discussed the Dream It section of the book, and how I worked through the exercises outlined in those chapters. Now, I’ll discuss the Plan It section of the book, which I feel has the most intense and critical exercises of the book.

Since the material in this portion of the book are crucial to consciously creating the best year of my life, I’m going to go through this part MUCH more carefully. I’ll break this review down into three parts: one for each chapter in the Plan It section.

Chapter 4 of this book talks about creating a clean slate. How many of us try to create something brand new and wonderful on top of our old mess? I can’t recall how many times I “turned over a new leaf” only for those same old leaves to pop up as soon as I lose my focus or resolve.

So my exercise for this chapter was to handle unresolved projects, incomplete tasks, and relationships past their expiration dates. I’m happy to say that there are only a few projects and tasks that I have to do (mainly, closing out some tax consulting projects from last year and finalizing financial arrangements) and I have no relationships that I need to sever: my current circle is healthy and positive. I’ve given myself until June 30th to complete the old tasks and projects, allowing myself one project/task per week until they are all done. I’ve listed out the actions I need to take on my calendar, so I won’t have to think too hard about what to do next.

Do you need to “clean up” before you move forward? Let me know what you intend to finish up during the next few weeks and months!

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The Best Year of Your Life: the Dream It Section Follow-up

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A few weeks ago, I gave a brief recap of my revelations while working through the book, The Best Year of Your Life by Debbie Ford. I completed my notes on Chapter 1, but I hadn’t finished fleshing out my thoughts on Chapters 2 and 3. Here, I’ll follow up on what I learned from doing the work outlined in those chapters.

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Chapter 2: Exposing the Fantasy -I thought deeper about the feelings I associate with my “fantasy” life: I often fantasize that I will feel joy, eagerness (happily looking forward to the good stuff to come) and calm. Activating joy will be easy, since I’m doing the Joy Challenge and will be regularly activating that emotion on a daily basis. Eagerness will come from taking more chances and affirming the goodness of everything that comes across my path. I can engage the feeling of calm by instituting relaxation practices for different scenarios. Right now, I can only think of two situations that would greatly benefit from the relaxation practice: I’ll need one for when I feel stressed about work, and one that I can engage to set the tone for a good night’s sleep. Once I finalize the details of those practices, I’ll make another post describing them. That takes care of Chapter 2’s exercises!

Chapter 3: Stepping Into Greatness – I allowed inspiration to come to me, and I created my vision for this year: I will become a well-known influencer, using my reach to encourage people to supporting the arts, move past relationship disappointments, and create the most enjoyable, luxurious lives that they can experience.  The traits I mentioned in the previous post – discipline and boldness (extroversion) – still apply. Creativity is also required, as is excellent communication skills. Focus will be big for me: I tend to get sidetracked. I could easily list about 5 – 10 additional realms that I want to influence, but my primary love is the arts, so I’m going to focus on that, with healing from relationship trauma and living high-quality lives as secondary and tertiary goals.

I’m glad I got a chance to review these chapters and get clear on what I’m dreaming up in 2018. I’ll be sharing more on how I plan out this year’s activities in a future post. Ciao for now!

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Reading List: April’s Book

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As part of creating the best year of my life, I’m committed to doing the internal and external work that will help me realize my intentions and create the lifestyle that I desire. In support of this journey, I am focused on reading books that will enhance my life, either through providing inspiration, knowledge, or entertainment, all for the sake of crafting a wonderful year.

For April’s book of the month, I’ve selected Lifestyle Design for a Champagne Life by Cassie Parks. I’ve read this one before, but I didn’t execute all of the exercises mentioned in the book. I have, however, read another of Cassie’s books, Manifest $10,000, and I got phenomenal results, so I am confident that Lifestyle Design for a Champagne Life will be truly life-changing for me.

However, as you all know, I’m doing the Joy Challenge for April, so I am going to read Lifestyle Design but I may have to save the exercises for May, when I have a bit more time and can give it my full attention. That being said, if I find that I do have a bit of time, and inspiration leads me to completing some of the exercises in April, then I’ll do so. I believe in not “overworking” my conscious creation muscle by doing too many things at once. But I also believe in following inspiration, so we’ll see how it goes.

Have any of you read Cassie Parks’s books before? Let me know in the comments below!

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Book Review: How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb

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I’m a bit behind with my book reviews, but it’s great to finally get caught up.  February’s book selection was  “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci” by Michael J. Gelb.

I enjoyed that this book is broken down into 7 broad concepts, and the author goes to great lengths to describe how da Vinci embodied those concepts

The seven Da Vincian principles – Curiosita (curiosity), Dimostrazione (closely examining beliefs and learning via questioning), Sensazione (fully engaging the senses), Sfumato (embracing uncertainty and ambiguity), Arte/Scienza (balancing between arts and sciences), Corporalita (physical health and fitness), Connessione (understanding relationships between and connection among all things)- are the building blocks for living a genius life. Gelb provides examples from da Vinci’s life, as well as practical exercises, to describe how these principles worked in the past and how we can make these work in the present day.

 

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I especially appreciated how Gelb provided exercises for embodying the Da Vincian principles at work and while parenting. He took great care to show how these concepts can be applied wholistically. I feel that many books exclude multiple groups in favor of focusing on one particular group. But this is a testament to Gelb’s application of da Vinci’s stance of connessione: all groups are connected, related and at some level inseparable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely reread it! I think I’ll draw upon these concepts for future posts, because I strongly feel that this multidimensional approach to life is crucial. In these times, where change can happen in an instant and we need to be able to respond quickly, I feel there is so much benefit to training ourselves to be the best thinkers that we can be.

Make sure that you check this one out! You won’t regret it!