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.
Rating: 
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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.
Rating: 
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Pushing past that comfort zone!
I’ve had a couple of days of doing things that stretch my comfort zone. Thursday evening I went to my first book club meeting. I felt quite nervous beforehand because I really didn’t know what to expect, but of course when I got there it was absolutely fine. It turned out that I already knew the woman who organises it (just hadn’t made the connection between name and face) and she was incredibly welcoming and encouraging, as were the rest of the group. I can’t wait for the next one now. What I need to work on is being more confident about speaking without having to be encouraged first.
And yesterday I went to my first speed networking event. There were a few familiar faces there which was good but I also spoke to lots of people I hadn’t met before. It was a really positive afternoon – I got some good reactions to my introduction and have made some promising contacts. Apart from a couple of people everyone was really nice and went out of their way to be interested. There was one bloke who I found completely rude – while I did my 60-second intro he actively looked bored and then told me that he had no interest in my business because he already had a website – then he went on to try to sell me his product… Come on, he only had to pretend to be interested for 60 seconds, that’s not much to ask is it?
Overall a really good, confidence-boosting couple of days. Just need to keep it up.
Confidence boosting link
As my current reading is on the subject of confidence I’ve been doing some looking around for related websites. The BBC has a good secton on improving your confidence, which includes some practical exercises to boost your confidence. Definitely looks like it’s worth spending a bit of time there and seeing what they have to say.
How’s your vision?
I had a brilliant meeting with my partner this afternoon. All of the ‘self-improvement’ books I’ve been reading recently say that to be successful you need to have a clear vision of what you want your work and lifestyle to be in the future. One of the tips is to imagine where you want to be in five years time and then decide what you can be doing right now to work towards it. As a small example one of the things that I’ve said in my 5-year goal is that our house is tidy and uncluttered, a calm place to relax in. Well, there’s lots that I can do to get to that – how about starting with doing a bit of uncluttering? I could make a list of all the things that I think need doing to get the house as I would want it and start working through it. Make sense?
Where does today’s meeting come in? Well, I realised that I’d been doing all this dreaming of where I want to be in the future but hadn’t actually asked my partner how he felt about that vision. What if he was dreaming up something entirely different (hopefully not living with a tall brunette, seeing as I’m rather short and fair…). So a couple of days ago I asked him to give it some thought and this afternoon we sat down to go through it together. And you know what? He was completely happy with what I had written down (no bossing from me, honestly). Goes to show that we’re on the same wavelength.
The outcome of the meeting is a list of things that we need to tackle to move towards our goal. We have another meeting planned for Monday morning to make a more specific action list to work through. Feeling hugely positive as a result of that and can’t wait to start actively working towards our future.
A brilliant week
Yesterday was the end of the first week of my 90 days of brilliance. Ignoring the breaking-down-car incident it was a pretty good week and I’ve come to the end of it with my motivation still nice and high. One of the things that I’m working on is my networking skills and confidence (so expect some book reviews on these subjects…). I feel like I’ve made a positive start with this:
- I’ve identified various opportunities for networking in our area and signed up for the first few of these.
- I’m half way through a book on ‘confident networking’.
- I’ve been working on stretching my comfort zone by actively looking for things to do that I’d usually be nervous about.
- I’ve joined a local book club – the aim of this is to help me be more confident in talking in a groups. I’m reading the book at the moment and will have the first meeting next week.
Hopefully I’m on my way to feeling more confident in a networking situation.
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.
Rating:
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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!
Rating:
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What’s it all about?
Thanks for reading my first post on Brilliant Business Books. I’m very excited about starting a new blog. The main thrust of the blog is going to be reviews of the business-related books that I read. You’ve not doubt heard the phrase ‘prolific writer’, well I’m a ‘prolific reader’. I read a lot. And because I run a business a lot of the books I read are on a business theme.
That’s what it’s about, but what’s the point? What contribution will ‘yet another blog’ make? Well, I genuinely hope that my ramblings will help others in a similar position to us. I’m striving for continual improvement – of my own skills in the hope that it will have a positive impact on our business. Maybe this will strike a cord with you so join in and let me know what you think – it would be lovely to have some company.
