Mind-expanding—and potentially even life-altering—advice on both a personal and business level.
A business psychologist dissects mindset in this motivational book.
Johnson (Mastering the Game, 2015, etc.) is often asked “to deliver motivational speeches to pump up employees in an organization.” If this work is any indication, it’s easy to see why: The author has the rare ability to tell stories—lots of them—that perfectly drive home his points. He also deftly interweaves insights from other experts with salient observations of his own to dramatize the importance of a “Results-Focused Mindset.” Johnson patiently leads readers on a journey of discovery, first defining mindset, then explaining the difference between mindsets (most notably “fixed” and “growth” ones), and finally delving into techniques he recommends for building a better one. Some of the lingo, such as “context and content recasting,” “submodality change,” “flow state,” and “meta-patterns,” feels like it’s straight out of a psychology textbook. While this could be off-putting to the average reader, the focus is less on the terminology and more on what it helps a person to achieve. In explaining meta-patterns, for example, the author discusses the attributes associated with five types, such as “moving toward or away” and “necessity or possibility.” He explains each meta-pattern in detail, often using stories and examples. He follows this with four specific tips for “successfully” using meta-patterns in addition to three assignments that demonstrate how to employ them. As a result, even if the concept is foreign, it is thoroughly explained and illustrated, with guidance on how to apply it to one’s own situation. This approach is very effectively used throughout the book. One of the more engaging portions is the chapter on “using behavioral contracts” since it addresses various ways to initiate self-rewards for desired actions. Here, Johnson offers two worksheets that help facilitate creating a contract. The overall message—that a positive mindset creates good outcomes—is startlingly simple, but the magic is in the process, which the author masterfully describes.
Mind-expanding—and potentially even life-altering—advice on both a personal and business level.Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-72251-016-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: G&D Media
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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