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You are here: Home / Archives for Self Help Daily / Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Five Wishes to A Better Life

December 5, 2007 by Joi 3 Comments

Five Wishes by Gay HendricksAs you know, one of my favorite things to be able to do on Self Help Daily is to recommend a great book.  Since my last book review, I’ve actually read three books. The first two were as bland as unseasoned cafeteria food.  In fact, I forgot about them before I even finished them.

But the third boook – wow! If, by some whacked out laws of literature, I had to re-read the two bores just to get to the third book again – I’d do it.

The third book is titled Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True and was authored by Gay Hendricks.  Mr. Hendricks has written a perfectly delicious little book and I’m highly pleased to recommend it to anyone who:

  • Appreciates a great author doing what he or she was born to do.
  • Loves great Non-Fiction that reads like Fiction.
  • Is always looking for ways to grow.

If any of the above describe you, this book will fit you like a glove.

Five Wishes is composed of an Introduction and six chapters.  For the first time in my reading life (from Grimms to Grisham), I was profoundly inspired and motivated before I ever hit Chapter 1. How’s that for a powerful introduction?

There are so many life-changing lessons to be carried away from this book!  With the most provocative and challenging Introduction imaginable, you hit the ground not just running, but running for your life…more to the point, running for the life you want.  Momentum builds with each inspiring chapter as the reader lives through the author’s Five Wishes.

From the back cover of the book:

In my thirties I received the gift of a question that changed the course of my life.  My decision to answer that question gave me a life in which all my dreams came true.  Now I want to offer you this gift, so you can use its gentle power to create your own fulfilled life. – Gay Hendricks

From a “Self Improvement” standpoint, the thing I loved most about this great book was the bridge the author built from his past to his future.  In order to attain his own personal five wishes, Gay Hendricks didn’t stare starry-eyed into the future hoping that the wishes would come true. He first looked at his present – to find out exactly where he came up short.  If things were perfect, the wishes wouldn’t be wishes, they’d be bragging rights.  He had to take a good, honest look inward to learn why the outward wasn’t what he’d hoped or wished for.

After determining that renovations needed to be done, he wisely took a good, long look at the foundation – also known as the past. By looking back, he found the information he needed to bring change and improvement into the here and now. He beautifully tells how each change came about and how, as a result, each of his five wishes came true.

Talk about motivation and inspiration wrapped up into one.

I really hope you’ll grab a copy of this book.  If you use the links in this post, you can order from Amazon without ever leaving the house.  If you don’t want to wait a few days, grab a copy at your favorite store.  Whichever way, you go about it – be sure to get your hands on, eyes in, and mind around this book.  If you’re one of the technological whiz bangs that has an Amazon Kindle (A Wireless Reading Device – the ultimate in cool.), you can be reading it within 5 minutes.

It would also make a perfect Christmas gift – it’s a beautiful little book in addition to being a motivational masterpiece. Stuck inside a stocking or gift bag, it’d be the ultimate Christmas gift.  Who wouldn’t want to receive Five Wishes?  Even genies just give three.

Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True by Gay Hendricks.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, General

A Baseball Adage Worth it’s Weight in Gold

November 5, 2006 by Joi 1 Comment

I’m still somewhere over the moon over my beloved St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series.  It’s such a complete surprise – not because I didn’t expect it from the team.  You gotta love the chances of a team with Albert Pujols, Jim Edmunds, Scott Rolen, Chris Carpenter, and MVP David Eckstein.  Especially when they’re coached by a baseball guru like Tony La Russa.

No, I’m totally surprised because of the year I’d been having – I never expected or hoped for anything good to come out of it…. I didn’t think it was capable of anything right or good.  It’s just been one of those One D—… years – you know, one d— thing after another.  Forgive my language – I’m not a cusser except for the most extreme of circumstances, but some years beg for it.

This one did.

So how had 2006 been treating me? My mom moved on to Heaven without asking me (guess she knew what my answer would have been), we had a few shake-ups and near melt-downs in our home businesses, we lost two beloved cats, another one went missing for nearly a week, my van decided running wasn’t in its best interest, the dryer thought that looked like a sweet idea and followed the van’s lead, then – of course – there are the crazy little things that happen on the norm. The type of things you come to expect when you have a large family.

And a year without a sense of humor.

Last night – after the pit bull incident – I figured it out.  Life has simply forgotten how to be reasonable!  And a quick look at the news lets me know that it isn’t just my life – it’s life in general.  So if any of us look around for or long for that thing called normal, we’ll be sorely disappointed.

We’d be twice as likely to find the Easter Bunny.

I’ve been reading an amazing book by Buzz Bissinger.  It’s called Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager and it’s about the guru I mentioned earlier, Tony La Russa.  Kind of takes place inside his mind.  It’s a great, great book and I’d say so even if I didn’t bleed St. Louis Cardinal red.

At one point, Coach La Russa is talking about his line-up.  Due to a torn hamstring, the Cardinal’s gold glove winning Fernando Vina was sidelined for months. The Cards had to call up a young man named Bo Hart.  He filled in and did his best – his “heart” made Hart a fan favorite.  But he wasn’t Vina…. he was, well, far from it.

At the time the book was written, the Cards had an upcoming series with their rival, the Chicago Cubs.  The Cubbies had a really strong team led by Sammy Sosa who was still at the top of his game.

La Russa knew that Vina’s absence in the line-up, and on the field, was going to hurt.  Hart had no shortage of heart and determination, but he did lack Vina’s talent and experience. Which could be said of a lot of players. Vina was one of the best second basemen to ever play.

In one of the more telling paragraphs of the book, a lesson was given to all of us:

“….it’s another La Russa adage that you can’t dwell on what you don’t have and can take advantage of only what you do have, so Hart is starting and batting second.”

Spoken like a champion.

After the final game, as the celebration was taking part on screen and in our living room, I realized something pretty cool.  After my dad passed away, his favorite team in the world (and one of his reasons for getting out of bed in the mornings) the UK Wildcats won the championship the following season. I got my ridiculously HUGE love for the UK Wildcats from my dad and I know he would have been crying tears of joy just as I was.

My mom loved the Cardinal’s and she knew baseball terminology inside and out – she knew all the players and had a really good idea about their averages.  She also had a pretty healthy crush on Rolen.  And just like my dad, her beloved team won the very first season she was in Heaven.

And just like I did with my dad, I got to thinking, “What a shame she isn’t here to see it…”  – only to realize she had the best seat in the world.

Life goes on, doesn’t it? “You can’t dwell on what you don’t have… and can only take advantage of what you do have.”

Golden, Coach. Golden.

3 Nights in August

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Books I Love, Positive Thought, Self Help Tagged With: baseball, inspiration, inspirational quotes

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