Wilderness Living Review

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(More customer reviews)Gregory Davenport's book is a masterpiece of clarity and brevity, and it covers all the bases. Use it as a reference book, as opposed to a cover-to-cover read. For instance, it starts off with a chapter on making buckskin. It's just the right level of detail if you're tanning a hide, but too much for the casual reader. Another example is the wonderful chapter on making snares. Davenport lists some nineteen types, all illustrated, and all with a practical application. Davenport's education was clearly of the outdoor variety, at the expense of the indoor variety, resulting in some cumbersome syntax, and excessive passive voice, but perhaps his editor is more to blame for that. Overall, it is a genuine masterpiece, and my copy is already dog-eared with use.

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Authoritative information presented by a certified USAF Survival School Instructor
Organized and indexed for easy reference
Living, not just surviving, by choice in the wild can be a rewarding experience. This easy-to-use guide looks beyond the fundamentals of survival and examines the art of living long-term in the wilderness. Hunting techniques, meat preservation, clothing improvisation, shelter design, and tool- and basket-making are just a few of the basic skills described. Expert advice, clear prose, and detailed illustrations combine to make this book the authoritative text on primitive living.

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Taking Out Your Mental Trash: A Consumer's Guide to Cognitive Restructuring Therapy Review

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(More customer reviews)Dr. McMullin has written a valuable book for individuals who have been, are, or might someday be in therapy -- as well as for those who want to learn on their own to have an emotionally healthy and satisfying life. Through the use of humor, metaphors, examples, exercises, and tips, he teaches the reader to identify their thoughts and beliefs, to examine them, and to change or "trash" the ones that are inaccurate and/or harmful to one's mental health. He guides the reader through a structured process of cognitive change in this well-organized and user-friendly book. "Taking Out Your Mental Trash" fills a void in the cognitive therapy literature by offering a step-by-step approach to those motivated and interested in making lasting and beneficial changes to their thinking -- and therefore to the whole of their lives. I highly recommend this book to therapists for use with their clients, to clients, and to anyone who wants to learn to think clearly and to feel better.

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How can you take control of your life?
Why do negative thoughtssometimes predominate, despite your knowledge that they're unfounded?Why do your best efforts to stave off these negative thoughts so oftenfail? What can you do to identify your core beliefs?For the first time, there is a book that offers the consumer and thepublic what has previously been available onlyto professional audiences. This book is alayperson's version of Dr. McMullin's successful professional book-The New Handbook of CognitiveRestructuring Therapy (2000)-and his otherprofessional works. Written by one of thefounders of Cognitive Restructuring Therapy(CRT), Taking Out Your Mental Trash offers thekey principles, techniques, and exercisesnecessary for a solid foundation in CRT. Itincorporates Dr. McMullin's three decades offull time clinical practice with many thousandsof clients, from many different cultures, withmany different problems. The book is written inan informal, personal style and presents reading guides, copious real life examples, step-by-stepinstructions, picture-forming stories,illustrations, and 53 exercises and 23worksheets to help the reader. To date, it isone of the most accessible, reader friendly, and up-to-date books for the public on CRT. Packedwith problem-tackling strategies on how to useMcMullin's own Cognitive Restructuring Therapyto overcome phobias, social anxiety, stress,relationship difficulties, and more, thisinvaluable workbook promises to help you dumpeven the most stubborn negative thoughts.McMullin then helps you adopt fresh beliefs and, in doing so, reclaim meaning and control overyour life.

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The Psychology of Entertainment Media: Blurring the Lines Between Entertainment and Persuasion (Advertising and Consumer Psychology) Review

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(More customer reviews)
For students or professionals in the field of media psychology, this book serves as an essential reference guide providing a wide, yet detailed inspection of entertainment media's effect on unconscious consumers. Although a required text for some courses of study, we found this literature necessary and quite informative.

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The Psychology of Entertainment Media provides a cutting-edge look at how entertainment media affects its viewers, both in intended and unintended ways, and the psychological processes that underlie these effects. The collection represents an international, multidisciplinary investigation of an age-old process--persuasion--in a relatively new guise, which includes product placements, brand films, television programs, and sponsorships.The collection covers three broad areas:the potential effects of embedding promotions within entertainment media content;the persuasive power of the entertainment media content itself; andindividual differences in the interplay between media usage and media effects.Contributions focus on a variety of topics, including product placement, subliminal perception, narrative impact, cultivation effects on consumers, and individual differences in media use. Virtually all the chapters speak to the issue of how entertainment media are processed, with the conclusion that media consumers do tend to process entertainment and promotional information differently.Providing a broad perspective on how entertainment media may have an effect that goes largely unnoticed or unattended by consumers, this volume makes a substantial contribution toward creating a more knowledgeable field, as well as a more knowledgeable consumer. With its origins in the 21st Annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference, the volume represents scholarship from prominent and emerging scholars in psychology, marketing, and communications. It is appropriate for advanced students and scholars in marketing, advertising, psychology, and mass communication; for research-focused practitioners working in marketing, advertising, and public policy; and for individuals interested in entertainment studies, consumer behavior, attitudes, persuasion, media studies, and consumer psychology.

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A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country Review

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(More customer reviews)The book could easily be subtitled, "Stories from my life and the lessons they teach," for that is the basic structure of the book. In chronological order, except for the Preface, in which he relates the incident in which he was wounded in Viet Nam, Gen. Clark tells stories of his life and then completes each chapter with the lessons those stories have taught him--lessons for life and lessons on leadership. The final chapter applies those lessons to articulate a vision for America, for governance, and a path to follow for the 21st century.
Most of the stories he tells will be familiar to the avid Clark supporter community, but we've never heard them in his own words before, and in some cases in as much detail. The personal touch and the insights he provides bring the stories alive in his straightforward--dare I say simple?--language. It's an easy read, but the message is deep, but not complex.
If there was any disappointment in my reading of the book is that he downplays his own achievements, accomplishments, and uniqueness as a public servant, soldier, scholar, and leader. While his brilliance shines through the prose, he goes out of his way to avoid making him the star of the narrative. For example, his account of the Mt. Igman tragedy in Bosnia leaves out the danger and personal risk he undertook in making his rescue attempt. And there are almost too-casual mentions of his being number one in his class at West Point and his selection as a Rhodes Scholar. He omits altogether the praise that has been lavished on him in his formal Army evaluations and in other, less formal ways.
His mission in writing the book was to teach. The stories are necessary to understand the significant events in his life that have shaped who he is, led him to his beliefs, developed his character, and instilled the principles that guide him still. Extracting the leadership lessons from the stories and putting them all in one place could be used as the basis for a day-long seminar on principled leadership.
I didn't get the impression that he was touting his own leadership traits or promoting himself for his own purposes. Rather, I think he was hoping that others would internalize the lessons he teaches and adopt the same principles. He seems to think that the country has a dearth of such leaders and would like to develop more of them in all walks of life.
Readers of Clark's third book should enjoy it at at least two levels: the stories themselves as a compelling and often poignant narrative, and the points to ponder in developing leaders to take America to the places she should go in the future.

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The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls Review

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(More customer reviews)In "The Frailty Myth," Colette Dowling presents a compelling and well-researched analysis of why and how American girls are socialized to be "weak." Dowling examines the myths about the "weaker sex," tracing this myth as a source of the oppression of women handed down to us from Victorian times.
She convincingly explains why men fear strong women: In part, she says, it's because strength is perhaps the only area in which our culture does not say that men and women are equal. Thus, as male-only professions and traits are rapidly disappearing from public discourse, strength is masculinity's last hope.
Further, she carefully details how the media, parents, educators and peers of both sexes encourage girls to be passive and boys to be active (often without realizing it), and gives ample evidence that there is no physiological basis for the belief that women are fated to be weaker than men. It is, in essence, a mere self-fulfilling prophecy.
After demonstrating the mental and physical unhealthiness of this cycle, the author provides advice on breaking out of it. To illustrate the possibilities, she offers inspiring stories of women and girls who have become strong, breaking into "male" sports like football and even playing on co-ed teams.
This book is well-written, well-organized, and an important read for anyone with a daughter or an interest in women's issues. At the very least, it might encourage you to spend more time at the gym -- that's one of the many beneficial things it did for me!

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Can women be equal to men as long as men are physically stronger? And are men, in fact, stronger?These are key questions that Colette Dowling, author of the bestselling The Cinderella Complex, raises in her provocative new book. The myth of female frailty, with its roots in nineteenth-century medicine and misogyny, has had a damaging effect on women's health, social status, and physical safety. It is Dowling's controversial thesis that women succumb to societal pressures to appear weak in order to seem more "feminine."The Frailty Myth presents new evidence that girls are weaned from the use of their bodies even before they begin school. By adolescence, their strength and aerobic powers have started to decline unless the girls are exercising vigorously--and most aren't. By sixteen, they have already lost bone density and turned themselves into prime candidates for osteoporosis. They have also been deprived of motor stimulation that is essential for brain growth.Yet as breakthroughs among elite women athletes grow more and more astounding, it begins to appear that strength and physical skill--for all women--is only a matter of learning and training. Men don't have a monopoly on physical prowess; when women and men are matched in size and level of training, the strength gap closes. In some areas, women are actually equipped to outperform men, due partly to differences in body structure, and partly to the newly discovered strengthening benefits of estrogen.Drawing on extensive research in motor development, performance assessment, sports physi-ology, and endocrinology, Dowling presents an astonishing picture of the new physical woman. And she creates a powerful argument that true equality isn't possible until women learn how to stand up for themselves--physically.

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Change Your Heart, Change Your Life: How Changing What You Believe Will Give You the Great Life You've Always Wanted Review

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(More customer reviews)Gary Smalley has written one of the most amazing books I have ever read. Reading his story about how we walked away from the rewarder and worried about the rewards shows how we can all get caught up into worrying about worldy stuff. Gary takes us back to the basics, back to the bible and the word of truth. This book has changed my life, and I know it will change yours.

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Out of your heart flow your words and actions. Change your heart, and you'll change your life.

According to best-selling author Dr. Gary Smalley, nobody has to live by the destructive subtle lies or believe the distortions of truth this world holds out to us. There are steps, strategies, and beliefs people can bring to their lives to either totally transform them or quietly improve them-and it all starts with hiding God's Word in their hearts.

Hiding God's Word in his heart radically changed the life of Smalley himself, and he is seeing it revolutionize the lives of people around him as well-from lust, materialism, selfishness, anger, stress, overeating, anxiety, and guilt, just to name a few. No matter a person's age, experiences, or previous patterns, this book will guide readers to the whys and hows of orchestrating their beliefs to forever change their lives and relationships.

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Personality Plus for Parents: Understanding What Makes Your Child Tick Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is EXCELLENT. Every parent needs to read it.
I have 5 children and this book has helped me so much to see
what makes my children different, and has enabled me to accept
them just as they are. Just one example-my third son has always seemed to be lazy. He is just not motivated to work. I used to worry that I was raising a lazy adult but this book showed me that he is a phlegmatic, and phlegmatics tend to be that way! They find the shortest way to do things and are unmotivated to get their work done. I now understand my little guy and why he is like he is-I can accept him as living according to his temperament. I could give several other examples.
This book is practical in that it lists the strengths and weaknesses of each temperament and gives ideas for parents on how to raise their children according to how they are. I loved that it pairs up the different combinations of parents and children.
I could go on and on but suffice it to say that I read the book in just a couple of days and learned so much that it's changed the way I relate to my children. I even learned much about me and also about my husband.
It's a fascinating, practical, life-changing book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Now I'm off to read her book for adults, "Personality Plus". :)

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How can you improve your relationship with your children and more effectively parent them? Florence Littauer helps you identify, understand, and meet each child's unique needs.

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Life Skills: 225 Ready-to-Use Health Activities for Success and Well-Being (Grades 6-12) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a must have for all secondary health teachers. I have used it already quite extensively this year, and I am 1 month in!! If I am looking for a worksheet to cover the topic I am working on, I go to the book and so far all worksheet have been there plus some! It covers an extensive array topics of ready to use worksheets that are wonderfully put together. Kudos to the author!

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Life Skills is a practical resource that gives teachers 225 ready-to-use worksheets that cover a wide variety of key life skills. The book addresses topics such as drug and alcohol use, sex, relationships, stress, food-related issues, and self-esteem. Life Skills is an easy-to-use, time-saving book that is designed for grades 6-12 and helpful for both new and seasoned teachers. For quick access and easy use, the worksheets are organized into eight sections and are printed in a large 8 1/2" x 11" format that folds flat for photocopying. Here's an overview of what you'll find in each section:
Drugs, Alcohol, and Smoking: Trends in smoking, second-hand smoke, reasons why people smoke and ways to help people quit, facts about drug use, the classification of different drugs, alcoholism, fetal alcohol syndrome, as well as drinking and driving.
Sex and Sex-Related Issues: Male and female sex organs, why people have sex, facts and myths, birth control, options after getting pregnant, sexually transmitted diseases, homosexuality, infertility options, sexual harassment, and date rape.
Love, Relationships, Marriage, and Family: The role of friends in our lives, negative aspects of cliques, dating and love, love and infatuation, qualities in an ideal mate, problems in marriage, why marriages end, family life cycles, and nontraditional families.
Life Skills: High and low self-esteem, long and short range goals, learning assertive behavior, dealing with difficult people, conflict resolution, what makes a good leader, effective communication and time management skills, and problems with violence.
Stress: What makes you stressed?, reactions to stress, coping with stress, suicide, death, and dying.
Food and Food Related Issues: Improving eating habits, the food pyramid, information about calories, water, vitamins, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, fat, additives, and eating disorders.
Know Your Body and Body Image: Body image and type, the functions of differnet organs, body parts, body systems and terminology, viruses and bacteria, basic first aid, diagnosing and solving emergency problems, fitness habits, and four components of fitness.
Self Esteem and Knowing Yourself: Favorite things, handwriting, personality type, birth order, highs and lows, and five senses.

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Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)) Review

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(More customer reviews)In my rural mental health counseling practice, I have recommended this book to about 50 clients who experience anxiety. Each client said that the book described them, helped them feel understood, had specific ideas of what to do about the problem - and that it is fun and an easy read. I highly recommend this book as a "bibliography" resource for therapists.

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Practical, proven ways to get fear, worry, and panic under control
Think you worry too much? You're not alone?over 40 million Americans suffer from some form of anxiety. Help is here in this friendly guide, which offers sound advice on identifying anxiety triggers through taking self-tests, improving your eating habits, relaxing, and finding support for you and your loved ones.
Now with 25% new and revised content, Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies, 2nd Edition explores all of the most common triggers for anxiety, recent developments in medications, newly emerging biologically oriented approaches for treating anxiety, and the most up-to-date advancements in psychotherapies.
Understand why you?re anxious and pinpoint your triggers
Get trusted advice on whether you can overcome anxiety on your own or seek professional help
Covers anxiety in teens, young adults, and veterans

The practical information in Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies, 2nd Edition is your first step toward getting your life back and winning the war against your worries!

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Get Motivated: Daily Psych-Ups Review

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(More customer reviews)If you do not want to read complex motivational and psychiatric theory about athletic and mental performance, this is the perfect read, because its daily motivations are not only trenchant and stirring, they are also meaningful and evocative. Not all 365 mini-essay will pump you up, but I dare say everyone, anyone, who takes his training seriously can find at least 10 passages he will bookmark and refer constantly to for inspiration. This is really good, the only one of its kind I know, I'd buy it if I could decide all over again.

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For readers who work out daily, play weekend sports, or compete professionally, this little book offers inspiring thoughts and the wisdom of such masters as Chris Evert and Michael Jordan, motivating and encouraging them to set goals and build confidence.

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The Ten Paradoxes: The Science of Where's My Zen? Review

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(More customer reviews)I was impressed with Chapter 14 No Mind Extreme and it reminded me of `Your Erroneous Zones" by Dr. Dryer. This is about the person living in the moment and free of the hang-ups, prejudices, guilts, worries, and over-thinking that we all do and get stuck in. It's not easy to get out of it, but this book provides one of the first thoroughly researched methods of getting back it and devotes over 140 pages to the techniques, which are detailed in No Mind 301. If you are looking for change, this can help you become more objective and as Master Nomi says, "enjoy the play in life."

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The Ten Paradoxes is a landmark program that combines a unique six-part training and educational system for achieving peak performance and enlightenment or what Master Nomi calls Total Mental Fitness®. Using the ancient power of No Mind® which has been clinically proven by top university and medical centers, it actually changes neural pathways to restructure and improve awareness, enabling you to do better and feel better in every aspect of your life. You'll attain peak performance and flow in sports, business, academics, relationships, and stress management, along with health benefits and deeper spiritual understanding. You'll be more playful and tranquil, have greater compassion and a clearer perception of reality, and become a better communicator with your colleagues and loved ones. With continued practice, you can even come to terms with death, the most feared aspect of our humanity. The Ten Paradoxes, through extensive research and case studies, leads you on a journey to the secrets of the ancient masters. First, it reveals the basic functions and mechanisms of the mind, beginning with the way we filter and interpret our perceptions, which then limits and restricts our actions and reactions. Finally, we will see how the mind defensively creates the self that we know; the ego, or personality. This is the ultimate illusion that we all need to come to grips with. And when we do, our intuition and creativity blossom, and we become fully alive and open. The practice of No Mind® will actually un-train your thinking and teach you how to achieve Total Mental Fitness® by transcending the very structure of the mind. As long as we live in a dualistic reality, we keep searching for what we think will complete us: material objects, relationships, achievements, spirituality, etc. But, The Ten Paradoxes program frees you from the limitations of these perceptual and ego defense mechanisms and allows you to control your thoughts and desires. You will respond to a new, open set of categories ultimately learning to act without trying. We therefore act in harmony with our essential nature. And we can truly be in control of our destiny, decisions, and responses, without the troublesome emotions we normally face, such as fear, worry, anxiety, prejudice, and greed. The practice of No Mind® not only brings freedom from our automatic actions, reactions, and perceptions, but the ability to make maximum use of our inner potential through realization that awareness is the only universal constantTM.

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You Go Girl Winning the Woman's Way Review

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(More customer reviews)These amazing women athletes all made the decision to set a goal, to have the right attitude, to have faith and determination, and to make sacrifices in order to reach their dreams/goals in life. This book is very uplifting and inspirational - full of wisdom, optimism, gratitude and joy. It is truly a gift that makes you feel so good after reading just a few pages. I had the opportunity to share some of the stories with my male friends and they enjoyed it as much as I did. My five star recommendation goes out to both Kim and Charlie. Thanks for being able to share all these inspirational stories with us!

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A collection of first-person insights, thoughts, and stories from successful women in the world of sports, including Mia Hamm; Gabrielle Reece; Marion Jones; Kerri Strug; Chris Evert; Nancy Lopez; Picabo Street and more.

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The Five Stages of the Soul: Charting the Spiritual Passages That Shape Our Lives Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was seminal in describing to me and helping me to understand the extent to which my life has been and continues to be a spiritual journey, one that was originated by the God of the universe, and to which the journey leads. This is a book for all, but especially for those who have been brought up in a majority Christian culture, but who eschew the parochialism and often bigoted dogma and rigid theology of mainstream and particularly, right wing christian culture.
The authors use all the great spiritual traditions to describe their concepts of the spiritual journey, including Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and others. This is a book that really emphasizes the individual relationship with the Holy One, the Great Lover, and so has an attractive mystical bent. Quotes from the writings of Rumi as well as St Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross and Julian of Norwich fit very comfortably together within the authors' spiritual paradigm.
If you would like a book that can explain to you how you and everyone else on earth might fit into God's plan, despite differences in dogma and theology, then this book is for you. After all, this is exactly what Christ taught, despite orthodox bigots' exclusionary proclamations.
It's an easy read the first time, and gives forth more richly on subsequent readings.

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The Dynamic Path: Access the Secrets of Champions to Achieve Greatness Through Mental Toughness, Inspired Leadership and Personal Transformation Review

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(More customer reviews)I found this book to be very, very helpful. Before explaining how so, I want to caution potential purchasers.
Much of this book is chock full of snippets about well known athletes. Although the successful from other fields get some coverage, the authors' love for athletics rings strong. I bought the book based on the cover touting it as a book on great leaders...and quickly became discouraged with the plethora of snippets on athletic success, most of them not even involving team sports (where is the leadership in non-team competition?).
As I read on, I also became troubled that the author's examples are very, very heavily male dominated, not surprising in view of his love for non-team competitive sports, but very surprising in view of the author being a super star recruiter in the business world where female power (and success) has become very, very evident.
The good news is that the book ends very strong. Chapter 8 on "Finding a Calling" is alone worth the purchase price. (Readers who want to learn more on this subject will enjoy Brad Swift's excellent book on living a "Life on Purpose.") Astute readers will likely correlate that the failure to find a calling explains the many second life failures that the author serves up (but does not explicitly connect the dots).
Personally I found this book to be very, very helpful, notwithstanding the aforementioned shortcomings. I am currently finishing extensive research on personal peak performance in preparation for the upcoming taping of my Peak Performance program. I found the author to be very thoughtful on the subject and to have done a good job researching some of the work that is out there on the subject. I got great value by testing my own hypothesis against his theories of personal peak performance. We are not totally in synch but the mere exercise of comparison has greatly enriched my own thinking. And for that, I am grateful to an author whose personal transformation appears to be a work in process (as it is for all of us). I am looking forward to this prolific author's upcoming writings as I fully expect that he will write an even better book as he continues to discover the incredible power of passionate purpose and its impact on champions, male and female, in all fields of endeavor.

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The best-selling business leader offers a fresh and compelling path to success based on extensive research and candid interviews with some of the greatest winners of our time

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Ambition: How We Manage Success and Failure Throughout Our Lives Review

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(More customer reviews)i have read many books & know from real life & working experience that what the author says is true, & it is a very realistic & nicely done analogy of the progression of ambition & our mental & physical states (although they vary between individuals) throughout our working lives~thank you very much for this study

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Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a 17-year resident of Palo Alto, California, land of the $700,000 fixer-upper, and it's indeed a wonderful place to live if you can afford the price of admission: safe, excellent schools, a mild climate, pleasant & bicycle-friendly tree-lined streets, and a community life strongly flavored by proximity to Stanford University. Unlike a number of the subjects interviewed in Rich Karlgaard's Life 2.0, I have been fortunate to enjoy (?) commutes of 20 minutes or less. Downsides? A few: high mortgage, state income tax and property tax bills-EVERYTHING costs more here-congested rush hour and weekend getaway traffic, and a workaholic culture in which one schedules a dinner with friends a month or more in advance and it is rare for a long-time neighbor to be more than a passing acquaintance.
Nonetheless, in recent years my wife and I have often pondered whether we might enhance our family's quality of life by relocating to a smaller community. So far, in the last analysis, it has always come down to, "They don't have my kind of work [biotechnology research] there."
This sort of yearning is part of aging ("When you're young, you want to get away, when you're old you want to go back...") and is not unique to the nation's post-boom cultural and economic circumstances. However in Life 2.0 Karlgaard has identified a number of economic and social developments that in the next 1 or 2 decades could well synergize, transforming "yearning" to "megatrend." These include the aging of the huge baby-boom generation; the prediction, well-informed by history, that the next 10-15 years will likely see below-average investment returns and wage growth; and the huge impact of the information technology revolution that enables much knowledge-or service-based work to be done from anywhere and will doubtless catalyze a great leveling of the world's standard of living over the next two generations. In my opinion, he makes a compelling case.
This subject could easily have been the substance of a ponderous ethereal academic tome or a dry compendium of statistical analysis intertwined with cadaverous prose that would put 10,000 people to sleep if they were running from a napalm attack. Thankfully the author has instead chosen to illustrate his thesis in an engaging way through real people's experiences. The lengthier interviews are devoted to the more unusual and exceptional folks-entrepreneurs of various flavors-who have made successful transitions to stimulating, productive lives in "flyover country." Shorter "sidebars" are also included as excerpts of letters he has received from others who have found happiness and meaning, if somewhat more modest success, in smaller communities. I found the combination very enjoyable and read the book in but three sittings-a remarkable achievement for a 51-year old father of a lively six-year old son who normally takes a month or more to read a book! In addition Life 2.0 was for me a very thought-provoking read on several levels: both in its relevance to my personal circumstances and future, and in a more global (or at least national) sense.
What didn't work so well? As a pilot myself, I think the segments about the author's experiences in personal aviation might have been better integrated. Reading the first part of the book, I imagined that the aviation-related segments would serve as a metaphor for the broader theme, describing the author's own journey through a difficult transformation: finding fulfillment and satisfaction in mastering a new set of skills, finally opening up a completely new set of opportunities and experiences. Instead this theme seemingly just faded away as the narrative progressed and came to no satisfying conclusion. However, the subject and style of Life 2.0 foreshadow future revised editions containing at least updated information and perhaps additional stories. These future editions would also be an opportunity for the author to more tightly weave the theme of personal aviation into his tale.
I enthusiastically recommend Life 2.0 as a very interesting and enjoyable book that will make you think differently about your own life and our society's future. I plan to give it as a Christmas present to a number of family members and friends! In the meantime, my wife and I may make a few investigative visits and domestic inquiries in places such as Payson AZ, Columbia CA, Groveland CA, Albuquerque NM,...

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Do You Know Where Your Happiness Lies?In The Purpose Driven Life, I consider the question "What on earth am I here for?" This book considers another important question: "Where on earth should I be living?" Is where you live worth the stress? No one is forcing you to stay where you are. It's your choice. —From the foreword by Dr. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven LifeWould you be happier if you lived somewhere else? A place where the quality of life is greater than the cost of living? Such places do exist—you just have to look a little harder to find them. The answer probably doesn't lie in the big coastal cities: the cost-of-living gap between those urban areas and the heartland is an immense chasm. And yet the "sophistication gap" between these regions is steadily shrinking—cable tv, computers, fax machines, cell phones, and broadband Internet access are making it possible to work almost anywhere.Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard wanted to explore the new appeal of "flyover" country, and he decided to sky-hop around America in a single-engine Cessna, talking to people—those with a nose for entrepreneurship, a faith in technology, and the willingness to take a chance—who found their bliss in places like Green Bay, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; and Bozeman, Montana.America offers up scores of these gems—cities and towns with a winning combination of low cost of living and high quality of life—and Karlgaard provides an in-depth look at the country's 150 cheapest (and greatest) places to live.Life 2.0 is the story of those who are living larger lives in smaller places, and a road map for those who want to follow their lead.Where is your happiness? Check out Life 2.0's "150 Cheapest Places to Live" section, featuring dozens of cities and towns that offer the good life at a great price.

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The Green Beret in You: Living with Total Commitment to Family, Career, Sports and Life Review

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(More customer reviews)"The Green Beret In You: Living with Total Commitment to Family, Career, Sports, and Life" by John Giduck with Special Forces Sergeant Major John A. Anderson (RET.) is one of the best books I've read in a long time, and I read a lot of books. I have to agree with Brad Thor's quote on the back that it is "the essential guide to manhood, and if John Wayne had left a how-to-manual on being a real man, this would be it." In fact, the endorsements by Thor and Lt. Col. Dave Grossman helped influence my decision to purchase the book. That and the fact that I worked with SF a few times when serving with the 82nd Airborne Division and in South Korea with the 2nd Infantry Divison, and I've always respected those who wore and wear the green beret.
Right up front, this book was written for men. It's not that women couldn't learn from this book, or live by some of the principles, but the fact is Special Forces are composed of men, and this book is aimed at how men should be. Like Thor said, it is a manual on being a real man. There is a reason John Wayne made a movie about the Green Berets, and that because they shared his conservative values of honor, integrity, and having the courage to do what's right. That is exactly what this book is about. The book uses the principles and values of those serving in Special Forces as the model for living. It uses the Green Beret as a model to live life to your fullest. I loved the part where the person was shocked that the author didn't follow sports on television because he was too busy living to stop and watch others playing.
The book first explains the making of a Green Beret and the character of a Green Beret. Then in part two, it focuses on Green Berets in everyday life and how you can build the Green Beret in you through principles such as being a man, not hiding, and not sugarcoating things. (And so many more!) The fourth chapter addresses the workplace and how living and working with the values of the SF soldier will make you stand out in any corporation or workplace. Next, the authors focus on team, and the importance of teams in our lives.
Part Three of the book delves into Green Beret Commitment with chapters on commitment to marriage, commitment to family, commitment to career, commitment to sports, and commitment to life. I can't stress enough how important the concepts in these chapters are and how by living this way a person will undoubtedly be not only a better person, but a much happier and successful one.
The final part consists of some rules for everyday life. Ten short rules, but they mean a lot of lived by. The book then shares the Special Forces Code and concludes with a brief Conclusion that motivates the reader to live with the courage and values taught in this manual.
Like I said, I read a lot of books, and there are some that I do go back to for research when I'm writing, but there are very few that I will read cover to cover multiple times. This book has just earned a spot on that short list. This is a book I will read again to continuously remind myself of how I should be living and to help me teach others to live with the Warrior's Edge.
Reviewed by Alain Burrese, J.D., author of Hard-Won Wisdom From the School of Hard Knocks.

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