Be your own best life coach
There’s no doubt that the author knows her stuff. However, maybe because I wasn’t following along with the activities, I didn’t find it to be the inspiring book that I hoped. As I say, I wasn’t following along so maybe if I was I would have been drawn into it more, but I didn’t get much of a buzz from it.
Even though each chapter included practical steps to help you look at things differently or discover something about yourself, I did feel like it was a bit disjointed. It felt like 52 completely individual steps rather than working through a process that built up throughout. But, as I said, I may not be the best person to judge as I was just reading it.
Not a complete no-no but if I was to start a program of changing my life I can think of books that I would turn to more readily.
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How to Talk to Anyone
You know what it’s like when you go to a networking event and there are one or two there who seem to just breeze around the room, being greeted by loads of people they already know and talking to new people with ease? Wouldn’t you love to be just like that? I know I would, but instead I’m the one nervously standing in the door desperately looking around for a friendly face. Actually, I’m not as bad as I used to be, I’ve definitely got more confident but I would like to feel more comfortable with striking up a conversation with someone I’ve never met before.
One of my fears when it comes to networking is not knowing what to say when I meet someone for the first time. This book provides you with techniques for overcoming that - not just things to say, but the whole thing from how to enter a room and choose who to talk to, to how not to answer certain questions that might leave the other person at a loss as to how to respond. Great stuff! I can certainly see how I can do things differently. A lot of it is being more aware of how you are reacting to the situation.
I’ve got this one down as a book to dip into every now and then. I don’t think I’m going to be able to go out there and put all 92 tips into practice straight away, I’d never remember them all. So, I think the thing to do would be to try out one or two at a time and see how they help, gradually improving my networking and conversational skills.
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Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
In theory this should have been just the book for me at the moment, with my goal to become more confident. There is undoubtedly a lot of good stuff in there and some techniques that I’ve read elsewhere and taken onboard.
However, for some reason I just couldn’t enjoy reading it. Over the last few years I’ve become much more open to ‘personal development’ but in my mind there is a distinction between personal development and self-help. I would say that this book definitely falls into the category of self-help. It put me off because it seemed to be for someone with very low self esteem who needed help in all aspects of their life, rather than for a reasonably confident businesswoman who needs a bit of help with confidence in certain situations (which is how I see myself). Maybe I need to open my mind a bit more and not cringe away from ’self-help’.
If you really do feel that you have a self-esteem/confidence problem then you may well find this helps you, but if you’re looking for something to help you feel more confident at meeting new people when networking then I would look elsewhere.
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The Total De-stress Plan
She covers relaxation, covering the different techniques you can use and making your workplace and home much more amenable to it; diet and how you can reduce stress by eating sensibly; exercise, giving details of different types of exercise that are particularly good for stress-relief (i.e. yoga); and pampering, treating yourself well to aid relaxation.
The final chapter gives some ‘fast-track alternative solutions to stress-related problems’ if you have particular issues you want to deal with more quickly.
The book is a very comprehensive coverage of the subject of stress-relief. I’ve come away from it with a list of things that I can put into practice straight away and a few things that I plan to read up on further. I particularly like the idea of making my home and office a more relaxing place and will be following up on this in the coming weeks.
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The Confidence Plan
I was immediately absorbed by it and made the mistake of starting it without a pen and paper to hand and then found myself champing at the bit to start writing my thoughts down. Now that’s a sign of a good book! I was impressed with how it started with laying the groundworks - encouraging you to start taking the smallest actions as taking action in itself can help build your confidence. The chapter on increasing your energy was also an eye-opener. The idea of dealing with the energy drains in your life - things that might seem insignificant but that drain a little bit of energy every time you notice them (like my leaving things piled up on the sofa - if I just tidied them away I’d feel so much better). Brilliant!
To be honest quite a bit of it is stuff that I’ve read elsewhere but in a ‘getting things done’ or ‘improving your effectiveness’ kind of way. Applying it to building my confidence was an interesting take. And of course the more times you read something the more it reinforces it in your mind. If you feel like you could do with working on your confidence I would highly recommend reading this book.
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Confident Networking for Career Success and Satisfaction
The book easily passed the ‘easy to read’ test - it grabbed me straight away and kept me interested throughout. I liked the way that it didn’t jump straight in with the ‘you need to talk to as many people you don’t know as you can’ kind of stuff that usually goes hand in hand with networking advice. It acknowledges that not everybody is comfortable in networking situations and offers practical advice for how you can feel less daunted by it. I was also pleased that the authors recognised the value of online networking and offered some advice specifically about that (though best to ignore their description of ‘forums commonly known as blogging’).
What I wasn’t so satisfied with is that I didn’t feel like I came away from the book with a solid plan of action. I could go back through it and work through the different pieces of advice to slowly increase my confidence and skills, but the book doesn’t offer a particularly structured approach to this. Maybe I’m wanting to have my hand held a bit too much, but I do like it when practical books set you particular goals to achieve.
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How to Be a Complete and Utter Failure
It doesn’t have such a structured approach as How To Be Brilliant, however you could easily note down the various steps and devise your own plan from it. What I really like about it is that it makes you look at things differently and pushes you to try things that you might have dismissed otherwise - I have to own up to being a bit too comfortable in my comfort zone at times, but this book reminds me that I need to push past it.
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How To Be Brilliant
Actually this isn’t strictly speaking a business book as it can equally be applied to your personal life. But I think it deserves the title of a ‘Brilliant Business Book’ on the basis that if I’m brilliant then my business will be brilliant too.
I have to admit I haven’t achieved brilliance yet but I’m following the advice of the book and striving for that brilliant moment. I feel positive that it will come if I work hard at it!
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