Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I didn't know what to expect from the book or the author.
I saw the subtitle about lessons from 21 extraordinary people and feared it might be some exercise in genuflecting to celebrity. That is a most subversive notion in this day and age of conformity where aspiring to wealth seems the highest goal.
John St. Augustine's name didn't mean much to me either. I'm an east coast guy and though he was a succesful radio talk show host that was mostly in the middle of the country - plus, I'm not much of a talk show guy. I find the radio stuff so jarring and controversial that it leaves me uncomfortable. Would that his show had been on everywhere.
Then I cracked the spine. What a book. It is bold - it respects its readers and doesn't try and sell them on three ways to achieve success or 2.5 ways to live a get thin and achieve a lasting tan - because it challenges readers not to go to the comfortable wings (left or right) but to dig down deeply in their own lives. The book challenges our humanity and confronts us with the reality of our mortality and does with passion and enthusiasm and gusto because John St.Augustine looks at life and shouts, "YES!" It can be a bit intimidating because it is so radical.
At various points I found myself reading and thinking to myself that I could live the kind of rich, full life he writes about here -punctuated with stories of famous (and anonymous) people he has known - and wanting to live that kind of life but realizing that to do so I had to follow his most serious lesson...that living takes work and determination but that it is so worth that work.
I could go on and on in writing but frankly I am more interested in now going back through some of the chapters - like the one in which he talks about learning the power of living in the moment through the late Chicago Bears star Walter Payton - to learn what I have already forgotten.
I've never written an Amazon review before and perhaps I haven't done the best job - my enthusiasm may be getting in the way of my writing - but don't hold that again this uncommon book. It is remarkable and must, must, must be read.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Living an Uncommon Life: Essential Lessons from 21 Extraordinary People
At the lowest point in his life, living in a motel room with his wife and two children, John St.Augustine undertook a journey of a thousand miles, walking from northern Michigan to Chicago—and back—a journey that became one of discovery, and a chance for St. Augustine to reinvent himself.
It was on this walk that the inspiration was born for a radio show that would be a positive voice in a world saturated by cynicism. Upon his return, despite having no prior radio experience, a local station gave him a chance: one hour a week for five weeks . . . .
Ten years and 5,000 guests later St.Augustine is living his dream, and, like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Living an Uncommon Life offers a roadmap for reaching your own dreams.
St.Augustine discovered a pattern in the lives of the exceptional personalities with whom he has crossed paths including Oprah Winfrey, John Denver, Walter Payton, Wayne Dyer and others. Each of them refused to let negative circumstances dictate their life. Instead they found the inner strength to achieve great things. St.Augustine insists we all share these remarkable traits and in Living an Uncommon Life he offers powerful principles for unlocking your strengths and achieving your personal best.
