Book Review: Creating Your Own Way To Happiness by Robert Bruce and Lee Ann Kirby Written by Alexandria Jackson Published February 23, 2008
Creating Your Own Way To Happiness is a self-help workbook that helps the reader learn or remember that you create your own happiness. While that sounds like a trite, over-used cliché, reading this book is an interactive way of reminding yourself of who you want to be. There are many useful fill-in-the-blank forms for you to reacquaint yourself with you. After each assessment tool, there are helpful statements of encouragement and often a biblical reference. Each main area of the book has, “Go for it! You can do it!” or other motivating statements. The concept may sound pedestrian, but while reading the book I was smiling and eager to keep reading. Hindrances to achievement were listed as: fear, carelessness, laziness, indifference, forgetfulness, and procrastination. Basic strengtheners were listed: enthusiasm, optimism, creative intuition, persistence, belief, and activity. The reader is encouraged to smile, live life to the fullest, and change to a more positive attitude. The authors give you tools to help you on your path toward self-understanding and subsequently to happiness. Other tools offered in Creating Your Own Way To Happiness are: ways to communicate more effectively, how to deal with stress and anxiety, and how to improve your self-image, self-confidence and self-respect. The reader is also given business solutions and strategies to assist in working with different types of people. The authors do not shy away from darker issues such as dealing with loneliness, divorce, and the death of a loved one. Practical coping techniques are suggested in a kind and caring manner. Creating Your Own Way To Happiness asks you to consider living your life with honesty, integrity, courage, and tact. This may seem to be an old-fashioned concept, but I cheered when I read this chapter. I have long yearned for the days when a man’s word was his honor. We don’t hear about integrity enough anymore and it no longer appears to be a valued commodity. Robert Bruce and Lee Ann Kirby have 95 years of marriage, 6 children, 11 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren between them. They have both survived the death of their respective spouses and are the best of friends. They seem to be beautiful people, both spiritually and emotionally. Their book is a gently encouraging, motivating and easy-to-read (170-pages). I will recommend Creating Your Own Way To Happiness to anyone I know over the age of fifteen. Alexandria Jackson is a psychologist by day and a Blogcritic by night. She is the author of Don’t Take it Personally: Keep Your Self-Esteem in a Relationship.
By Susan P. "honest to a fault" (Iowa) - See all my reviews
If you are anything like myself, you are continually on the search for something, anything that will help you find more peace of mind, improve your mood and quite frankly help you achieve happiness that seems ever elusive. In this day and age of low self image, uncaring individuals and a world that simply does not seem to care, this book is a gem when it comes to finding happiness within and applying it to ones life.
This, my friends is the book that we have been looking for. I have to be honest here, I've read a lot of books regarding self-help, improvement and even achieving happiness within ones life, but this one is different. Not only does it actually help in common sense, easy to understand language, but lessons within are easy to implement into ones life and feel totally natural besides. And on top of everything else, it speaks to each reader, reaching across age and background barriers to hit the basics and aid each reader on their own level.
Controlling stress had to be my favorite area in this book. As any parent and working mother can attest, keeping stress at a minimum as well as at a manageable level is the secret to a happier life and relationships besides. Again the common sense, no nonsense advice that appeals to any reader, despite his/her background is a factor that sets this book aside in terms of appeal and actually being worth the price.
I would strongly suggest anyone who is looking for a book that speaks not just to the mind but to the soul, to obtain this book. It is a winner and one that I promise will be off the shelf and in use far more than some of the glossy tomes we see far too often in bookstores all over the country. I think you'll be happy that you took the plunge into it’s depths when you read this book, I know I certainly was!
I highly recommend this book.
Whether you are happy or not depends on only one person---YOU! March 7, 2008 By J. Guild (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews Robert Bruce and Lee Ann Kirby have analyzed happiness in life from every angle from A to Z.; and have put it all into a neat book for anyone to use, who wants to find out what things lead one down the path of happiness in life, as well as pointing to the pitfalls that must be avoided, not to ending up with a feeling of "Woe is me, how come everything seems to go wrong for me?" The book would be perfect for group use with a facilitator or to use on a personal basis. Although, in the end, there is no simple or single thing in this book that you probably have never heard before; but what it does is layout a process to follow particularly if you are facing the need to make a major change, of whatever kind, in your life, and are having fear and concern as to whether you are making the right choices, particularly when so many are available. There are no guarantees in life choices; especially when others influence your happiness. However; when situations occur, it will depend on you, yourself, if you decide to take the actions needed to resolve them; or allow yourself to continue to flounder in misery and, even worse, blame someone or something else. The author's stress what a great help faith is in one's journey through life. People who have a deep belief system would agree whole heartily with them and find it an invaluable resource to turn to in dealing with the trials and tribulations as well as joys, contentment and happiness. Even if there were no God, the invention of God would be the greatest accomplishment of mankind. Throughout history, man's inventions have continued to come and amaze us. This will continue to happen in the future, but great as they may be, God will continue to be the "Light of the World. True, there are many who prefer to do without God and are happy, that is a choice each one has to make. This book gives a very structured process to help you make choices of every kind as you go through life. Some decisions are of our own making while many are made by others and events. How we deal with things that face us however is up to us. A few old sayings ought to convince you that you are responsible for your own happiness. "Human happiness is having what you want, and wanting what you have." "Happiness comes in the practice of virtue." "The better part of happiness is to wish to be what you are." Failing that, one can always adopt the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of "Peanuts" "Happiness Is a Warm Puppy." br> br> br<>br>blogarama.com google65cdbff2160b9262.html>br<
How can this book help me?
