Book Review – Finding Home – Breaking Free from Limits by Joleen Bridges

Within our Souls we are already free!

I am thrilled to be reviewing, or should I say previewing this book, because I am the author! So even though I won’t be evaluating the book (that would be unfair) –  I do want to introduce the book and the books intent by sharing an overview of the book in this blog article.

This book represents over 10 years of research and study in the nature of the human condition specifically regarding conditioned consciousness and the methodologies and/or practices to break free from this conditioning. Now many people may not have even considered that they are living within a conditioned consciousness and they go on about their lives in a very normal way, within the boundaries of their own experiences. But there are many people that feel unfulfilled with this model of living and may look to many other methods to try and fill a need that cannot even be clearly defined.  Many of the methods we look to for fulfilling these needs are very external and have a very limited shelf like. Some forms of external searching for life fulfillment are love, money, power or even lesser forms such as substances, denial or emotional highs and lows, such as resentment, anger, hate and judgement.

Finding Home – Breaking Free from Limits offers readers a comprehensive look at the personal human condition and how we accumulate the boundaries and limitations we live within. Understanding the nature of how these boundaries and limitations come to us as individuals brings to light the possibility of living without them. When we become aware of the limited nature of our consciousness we wake up to the possibility of a new way of living. Years of living life within a self-imposed set of limits create some very deep biological, physiological, and psychological ruts. So it becomes easy to see how change is so difficult, if not done with the full knowledge of our limits and how we they originated within us. Finding Home – Breaking Free from Limits will help define these and bring them to the surface for a compassionate analysis. This is not a deep psycho-analysis, nor is this level of “dealing” with deep emotions or hurts necessary, but it is necessary to gain a sense of awareness about our conditioned limitations and understand their origin in order to see their insignificant and transient nature.

Finding Home – Breaking Free from Limits then provides the readers with many powerful tools and practices to recognize and release these conditions and begin to live our life from a new depth of potential and possibility. These practices are not only useful to bring awareness to our divine nature and live from this new paradigm, but they also have many practical uses that will benefit the reader with a richness of life in their relationships, individual growth and quality of life.

Obviously as the author, I feel the book is a essential handbook for those that are ready to gain a deeper understanding of the self and live a life that is boundless and deeply enriching. But I also feel that the tools and information provided in the book offer sound spiritual practices for anyone that seeks to understand more about the divine nature of man, or to those looking to develop a practice to find more peace, joy and love in their lives. I believe the path to enlightenment is a uniquely individual one – so using the tools in Finding Home offers the seeker many opportunities to find something that personally resonates with them for growth.

Finally, I might add that my overall intention with this book was to give readers tremendous hope and faith in the potential they have within their own selves today. If, by reading the book, even one limiting thought eliminated opens a door to someone for a new and enriching experience, then I have done my job. Life is meant to be abundantly joyous and fulfilling. Believing anything differently warrants serious contemplation, and opening even one mind to the infinite potential available to each and every one of us is an amazing gift.

Finding Home – Breaking Free from Limits is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. During the writing of this book, I was overwhelmingly inspired and I am already in the beginning stages of my next book. Feedback on this book or ideas for similar future themes would be gratefully accepted.

Book Review – Epiphany, True Stories of Sudden Insight to Inspire, Encourage, and Transform by Elise Ballard

Have you experienced an epiphany?

Recommend: Yes

Star Rating (1 through 5):  3+

Genre: Self Help/Inspirational

Big Subject – Many views

I am always looking for new inspirational reading for myself and for sharing with my blog readers. I ran across this book during the sad closing of my favorite local book store. I was picking through some mis-categorized messes during the store’s inventory sell off when I ran across this book. It intrigued me because I am a huge believer in intuition and have had several major epiphanies myself that have made a difference to me. The author defines an epiphany as a moment of great or sudden revelation; an intuitive grasp of reality through something usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure. I agree and was excited to see how epiphanies have changed or inspired others.

In Ballard’s book, Epiphany, True Stories of Sudden Insight to Inspire, Encourage, and Transform, Ms. Ballard has spent several years putting together a collection of accounts of epiphanies from a variety of friends, colleagues, and guest contributors. Some of these contributors are quite notable, like Desmond Tutu, Clive Davis, Barry Manilow, and Deepak Chopra. Each of these contributors share their versions of an epiphany they have experienced that has somehow made a difference in their lives.

I liked the way the author presented these short stories of recollection from a varied group of contributors. She grouped the epiphany accounts into specific categories such as Awakenings, Miracles, or Comings of Age. I also appreciated that each of the contributors did an excellent job keeping their accounts short and relevant. Most of these short accounts of epiphany were well written and indeed moving and/or inspiring, as the title of the book promised. Only a few of the contributors fell short with their accounts because they either did not really describe an epiphany but more of a purpose in their life or else the readers were left a little short changed to see how the epiphanies actually made a difference to them.

You are going to have a favorite

Nevertheless, some of the stories where very touching and inspirational. One of my favorite stories was from Ali McGraw the iconic 70’s movie star of the hugely popular move “Love Story.”  McGraw’s story touched me personally as she spoke of how her epiphany changed the way she viewed herself in respect to her relationship with others, almost like a personal awakening. It is appropriately place therefore in the section on “Awakenings.” I also found the stories within “Miracles” and “Healings” to be more personally touching to me.

But this is what is great about a inspirational book like this where the reader is presented with a cornucopia of choices to find nuggets of inspiration, motivation or comfort. I chose to read this book a few accounts at a time over the course of about a month. Any way you chose to read it you are bound to find several stories in this book that speak to you personally.

Summary

I recommend this book to any reader. It is general enough to appeal to a broad interest group yet detailed enough related to epiphanies and intuition for those specifically interested in these topics to enjoy as well. Did this book offer any unique epiphanies for me? No, and even though the messages were touching and inspiring at times, it was not the type of inspirational adrenaline pump an epiphany/intuition junkie like me craves. A pleasant worthwhile read none the less and a great gift book for a special friend that needs a boost or a thoughtful holiday gift for those hard to buy for.

A Course In Weight Loss – by Marianne Williamson – Book Review

Praying it away? Hmmm. Something to think about.

Recommend: Yes

Star Rating (1 through 5):  3+

Genre: Self Help/Spirtual

A Weight Loss Book with no Diet?

Marianne Williamson’s A Course in Weight Loss, an extension of lessons from A Course in Miracles that applies to weight loss and body image, is a refreshing approach to this topic, which almost always includes great personal sacrifice. Without going too over the top, you might say that A Course in Weight Loss is a book about healing and transformation instead of counting calories or an aggressive exercise routine.  A Course in Weigh Loss, 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Weight Loss, presents the reader with 21 progressively structured lessons to go from unhappy, unhealthy image of self and body to free and healthy self and body. This will not be done in this book with a new diet plan or a new exercise, but with a new mindset.

The average reader looking for new ideas on weight loss may not recognize the direct correlation of this book to the contemporary teachings of Jesus as dictated by Dr. Helen Schucman called A Course in Miracles. A Course in Miracles a later 20^th century volume, said to be channeled or scribed from the intuitive direction of Jesus is a highly controversial, yet highly acclaimed and extremely dense work that has sold over 2 million copies and has been translated into 16 different languages. Now whether you believe in the theology or the principles ascribed to within A Course in Miracles, if you have read any or all of it, you have to admit that the book is an amazing display of theological genius. But since this book review is about A Course in Weight Loss, instead of A Course in Miracles, I won’t go on right now about the originating book that drives the concepts and philosophy of the lessons and ideas in A Course in Weight Loss.

Marianne Williamson is an internationally known and respected teacher of the principles in A Course in Miracles and has written several other books related to the principles within, including A Return to Love and The Age of Miracles. In this book (which she dedicates to Oprah), she lays out a 21 lesson plan to transform a weight loss problem into an opportunity to lose weight. This book is about the mind, not the body, and by using the mind and understanding images we hold of ourselves, we transform our thoughts and habits into freeing and “skinnier” life changes.

The book begins with lessons related to understanding and mental processing of the roots of why we submitted to a lifestyle of abusive habits and attitudes about food, body image or self. This recognition helps to introduce an image of ourselves that transcends these old tire habits. Later the lessons go on to help the reader adapt to newer healthier choices because our perceptions of ourselves is changed to include a new healthier mind and body. These perceptions are not based on external gratifications, but because we have “lost” the excess baggage of guilt, shame, poor self-image, or self punishment. Finally, Ms. Williamson closes the lesson plan with adaptive lifestyle and mental exercises to flex our newly found strength of spirit and spiritual muscles.

Regardless of mine or your belief systems when it comes to spirituality and religious ideals, you have to admit that dealing with a weight and self-image problems for most people does, in fact, start with a state of mind and how we feel about ourselves. Readers may not “get” the direct link to personal self-image, spiritual at-one-ment with a greater good to the end result of bringing forth a changed and energized body, but I do. I found a couple of pretty amazingly inspirational moments in the book and overall appreciated the grounding it provided in approaching any type of physical self-image problem you might have. There were a couple of chapters that many readers may find a little over the top or overly ritualistic, but I do not think the message will be lost if you would prefer to skip over some of the symbolically inspired lessons within the book.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone. Readers who have not been introduced to the parent inspiration (A Course in Miracles), may find a reason to get that book as well – (which to me is just an amazing book whether you believe in it or not.) But even if you aren’t a ACIM advocate, Williamson’s book that applies many ACIM principles to an area of our life that many of us struggle with, which is not so much being overweight as it is being under loved by ourselves, will touch you and inspire you to make some healthy changes to your diet and your attitude.

A Course in Weight Loss by Marianne Williamson

The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach – Book Review

Automatic Millionaire - Automatic Rip-Off?

Book Review – The Automatic Millionaire – A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich by David Bach

Recommend: No

Star Rating (1 through 5):  None

Genre: Business/Personal Finance

Dated could be dangerous

Normally I wouldn’t write a review on a book that is older unless it is deemed a classic in its genre, but this book kept popping up on my recommended reading list, and honestly I purchased it to review before I looked at the publication date. Sorry….. I am sure much to the writers delight this book is still showing up in an Amazon search for Business & Investing for both Motivational and Personal Finance. But now I’m glad I did read it because I hope this review finds any new potential book buyers before they buy this book.

Now the first problem with this book is that it was written in 2002 and published in 2003, so to say that it is dated based on the dramatic changes in our economy is an understatement. The author decided to update the book in 2005, but was apparently too lazy to really update the book itself and only wanted to get a fresh publication date by adding a new chapter at the end with lame testimonials and another short chapter to pawn his other newer books.

The second problem with this book is that because it is so dated, some of the enthusiasm and vigor this author has put behind some of his strategies is laughable for today’s financial and housing marketplace. Take his strong insistence on investing in your companies or your own 401K. Yikes, have these taken a nose dive. I don’t know about you, but I love watching money fly out the door on my 401K. I am not saying NOT to invest in a 401K, especially if you are lucky enough to have an employer that still does some type of contribution match, but you may want to rethink your contribution levels until the market calms down a little bit and we feel like we might be over the hump on wild swings in the market and future predictions of gloom and doom over the next couple of years.

And while still talking about the second problem (over enthusiasm with saving techniques that can make you a millionaire), one of the other huge points the author makes to accumulate wealth is to pay off your home mortgage early. Bach shares the old crusty technique of bi-weekly payments on your home to potentially pay off your mortgage around 7 years early. So, long story short, because you pay bi-weekly and there are 52 weeks in a year, you end up making 1 extra house payment a year. So here is the scoop on that strategy 2011:

You bought your house for 200,000 in 2003 @ 6.5 interest. Your house payment is 1,500.00

You made 1 extra payment a year for 7 years (1,500 x 7) = 10,500 towards principle.

In 2010, you try to refinance to get a lower rate and lower your house payment. You principle balance because you paid extra is all the way down to 173,000! Wow! Your killing it! Since you paid that extra 10,500 right into principle when you sell your house at 210K (houses appreciate in value right?) – you will already have $37,00! Wrong! Turns out that when the appraisal comes in on your home, that your house is now only worth 165,000. Woops, looks like now instead of $37,000 in the bank, if you were to sell today you’d have to come up with about $8,000.

Bach’s quote in the book is, “You can’t get rich renting! You have to buy a home.” In hindsight, maybe the smart person who decided to rent in 2003 for seven years, who paid $1,500 a month in rent might have been richer. The homeowner spent 136,500 on payments, (1,500 x 13 payments a year x 7 years), giving most of that money to the bank. The Renter spent 126,000, so right away he is 10,500 richer and at the end of 7 years the renter walks away. But the homeowner still has to come up with 8K to sell his house, so add that to the renter’s kitty, and after 7 years the renter at 18,500 appears to have made the better choice this time.

Please don’t get me wrong, I still believe in homeownership as a “pride of ownership” and potential revenue generator for long term investment. My optimistic side tells me that if our example homeowner sticks it out over the next 4-5 years he may level off again to regain some of his lost equity from the current market but my point is that the authors naiveté’ and aggressive stance on homeownership as a method to gain millionaire status could have actually hurt people. There are no investments that do not bear risks, even homeownership, and yet the author talks like this is a sure thing and it is THIS kind of thinking that got us into the housing issues we are having today in the first place.

Bad timing and left out risk discussion

Let’s face it, in the market downturn that we are experiencing right now, there are no great investment options for the average person. The non-existent interest rates, which are being held down artificially, are keeping any moderately safe investment vehicles about as profitable as putting money in a cookie jar.

Even if times were great I still would not have liked this book. It is overenthusiastic about obvious and mainstream ideas they do not even bear repeating. Here is the entire books “One-Step Plan” methodology:

• Review your expenses to see where you could cut back
• Pay yourself first
• Invest in 401K’s
• Buy a house and make extra payments on it
• Set everything up automatically

Seriously! This is all you got!

Summary

I would actually like to see the author be responsible and remove this book from the market. Making money on people today with this kind of nonsense in a financial world turned upside down is just plain greedy and harmful.

Today, with grim outlooks ahead for housing, Wall street, 401K’s, and other obvious investment options, I believe that each new investment needs to be looked at a little differently today – cautiously. For those who have money to invest (first of all), choose wisely, calculate the risks involved and go into your investment strategies with your eyes wide open. There are still some good ways to make a little money out there with your hard earned dollars, and some of them are even covered in this book, but be careful out there friends and let this 2010/2011 market be a lesson to us.

Book Review – The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott Third Edition

30 thousand foot view - New Rules for Marketing and PR

The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott (Third Edition)

Recommend: Yes

Star Rating (1 through 5):  3+

Genre: Business/Marketing

There is no doubt about it that within the last 5 or 6 years corporate marketing/public relations strategies that are not adapting to the newest internet technologies are going to be left behind. But old mindsets are hard to change and even companies that have adopted some of the new cyberspace tools are having a hard time understanding the needs and behaviors of the new consumer/buyer/customer.  In The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott walks the reader through the traditional attitudes of marketing and PR activities and shares with readers an updated viewpoint on marketing and PR due to the shift in our present web-enabled communications environment.

The book spends a great deal of time validating the need for a change in attitude towards marketing and PR because of the way that consumers now get their information, which is shifting heavily towards internet and social media outlets. The New Rules of Marketing and PR shares several examples of how outdated traditional marketing and PR methods are becoming very costly and inefficient. The book also  shares several examples of companies that have broken away from traditional marketing and PR to achieve positive results using new improved methods related to internet and social media.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR covers several key areas of web based communications approaches that are becoming industry standards in marketing for a business of any size. Scott also touches on the process of pulling several of these methods together to target your specific market and/or customer and again, shares some successful industry examples.

This book is currently on its third edition and I believe this speaks to the overall theme of the book which is that change is inevitable in today’s virtual environment and companies that educate and experiment with the newest tools are quickly becoming the leaders in their markets.

Best impacts target selective audience

Companies that are looking to learn and expand upon their current marketing strategies and enhance their public relations in general are good reading candidates for this book. Overall the methods and processes described are generically described. A more detailed explanation of the processes needed to implement these methods are not covered in the book, but the book is comprehensive in regards to the various methods that comprise the “new” rules of marketing and PR.

The benefits of reading The New Rules of Marketing and PR are getting a 30 thousand foot view of an ever expanding virtual environments and being presented with some industry leading examples on utilizing the “new” tools and technologies.

It’s unbelievable that today there are still PR companies or profitable corporations that are not aggressively focusing efforts into the latest and greatest internet and social media tools available, but according to Scott, this appears to be the case. So accordingly, I would recommend reading this book to those professionals and corporate executives that are still toying around with spending the effort or the costs of updating to these new strategies.

I have listed a couple of other high points for me from the book:

• An exceptionally well done Marketing Strategy Planning Template (and this template is available for downloading too – which is great).
• Valuable links to industry leaders in media press kits, media rooms and industry blog sites.
• Methodology and focus on buyer personas and marketing to them

Small business bang for their buck?

While I think this is a valuable book for those to understand the need for changing/expanding your marketing or PR strategies from traditional “interruption” style to inbound or content based web-enabled communications, I believe that the target buyer for this book was not the local small business.

Most of the clients I work with in the local business communities would not have a “PR” strategy or even would consider this aspect of marketing/advertising. Since there is a good deal of material in this book specifically related to Public Relations methods and enhancements to those methods, I think some of the readership would not appreciate this aspect of this book.

Additionally, along that same line of thought, I felt that most of the industry examples for social media, blog, video/audio content, etc – where mid to larger businesses that may have a substantial budget to experiment or initiate many of these types of methods.

However, I might add that just because your small business does not have a “PR” strategy today, after reading this book, some level of PR work done internally could net your small business some big benefits. For instance, using some of the ideas related to online press releases, media rooms, or even reaching out to your local newspaper could be a profitable endeavor. The mindset is that these PR strategies are for big businesses only, but one thing that the internet is excellent at, and that is equalizing ALL businesses based on valuable and useful web content as opposed to big PR budgets and advertising sponsors.

Summary 

I am recommending this book overall to any person who owns, is responsible for, or interested in marketing and public relations trends as it relates to social and web-based communications. The book is detailed enough to cover the various tools and techniques, but broad enough to be educational/instructional but not technical.

There is some redundancy throughout the book and a few points that were overstated, but overall I thought the book was very readable, nicely formatted and had a good flow to it. It was pretty long (over 300 pages), which is tough for some of us short attention span learners. I felt that the material could have been covered easily in less than 300 pages, but nevertheless, I did not find it tedious.

I felt the book leaned toward the mid-size to larger corporate audience more than it did to my local small business friends, but I still feel the book is worth reading for both. Make no mistake though, once you pick a few methods or topics that interest you based on your business needs, further reading/learning will be required. This book is a general overview of the current web-based, content driven marketplace, not a manual for implementing new practices.

Book Review – The Mandala of Being by Richard Moss, MD

Book Review – The Mandala of Being, Discovering the Power of Awareness

Deep Diving into nature of human consciousness

By Richard Moss, MD

Recommend: Yes

Star Rating (1 through 5):  4

Genre: Metaphysical/New Age

Understanding the human condition

According to dictionary.com, the meaning of mandala is a symbol expressing a person’s striving for unity of the self.  In Richard Moss’s book, Moss describes the malady of living our lives in a state of unawareness and that by finding unity in our own mandala of being, we can emerge transformed and renewed. The mandala in this case is described as a circle, where the center point is the beginning and the end of conditioned thought, the Now, and thoughts coming into or out of the center represents conditioned thought.

Outside of the Now (the center of the mandala), Moss points out that all other thoughts fall into four catagories, Me, You, Past & Future. When our thoughts are in any of these four catagories, we are bound to suffer because these thoughts do not contain the essence of our true being, which can only be experienced in the Now.

The Mandala of Being is advocating an Eastern philosophical ideal of non-duality or the enlightenment of the self by the extinction of the self (the extinction of the idea of “me” or “I”.) Now this may seem an extreme and frightening description, but really there is some element of re-birth, renewal, and release of human ego in all major traditions, both East and West. Moss equates the concept of nonduality as the center point in his symbolic mandala and even calls this state the “beginning of ourselves.”

Using the circle as a symbolic representation of thought process is a powerful way to help us visualize the “Now” as a grounding center point that we can always come back to for authentic being.  Further, visualizing our thoughts coming out of or into the absolute moment of presence (Now), helps us to become aware of the years of conditioned thoughts we develop that are outside of the essence of our true being.

What to expect

The Mandala of Being is a comprehensive analysis of the thoughts that we think and how they impact us. The book’s intention is to provide a methodology for bring awareness to these thoughts and accepting them into a more graceful and healing space, which is defined as the Now.  The ultimate goal of doing this work is to come to a place in your life where suffering, judgments and other non-serving thoughts can be viewed under the lens of awareness to see their illusive nature and by doing so, create a more authentic and meaningful life. Additionally, the Mandala of Being uses the mandala concept to help us find acceptance of the self.

Dr. Moss has presented in this book some inspiring and thought provoking ideas to consider. As I have mentioned in other book reviews, one way that I gage the quality of the books content is by the number of marker tabs I have on that pages that mark specific passages that are meaningful or important to consider. In this book, I had a lot of markers! There is certainly no lack of content regarding the specific message of the tendencies of the mind to go outside of the present moment to conceptualize our daily living as well as content related to the benefits of being in the Now moment.

There are many powerful ideas to consider in this book and I believe that for the serious seekers of enlightenment and awareness, you will find this book to be one of your favorites. Regardless of any downsides I found in the book, I know I will be returning to my marked pages many times to gain inspiration or to review my feelings about this subject.

Where the book missed for me

This may or not be a fair analysis, but based on my reading experience, I find that books on spirituality, enlightenment or other non-scientific methods related to the human condition that are written by medical professionals are extremely dense in their content and tend to be repetitive. I don’t know whether these authors feels that unless stated multiple times in many ways the reader won’t get their point, or because of their academic backgrounds they feel that overstating a case is more compelling, but as a reader, it becomes tiresome.

I felt this book could have been written just as effectively about 100 pages lighter. Although I thought the content was generally well presented, there was no doubt that many of the concepts were repeated over and over in a slightly different context.

Although I do not agree with all of the ideas that Moss points out, I won’t hold that against him as a reviewer, but what I did find weird about the book is that even though the main theme is to provide a tool for seekers to live a more authentic and enlightened life, for me, the book was not be very uplifting. Perhaps it was because of the overstated opinions of the pervasiveness of our thoughts outside of the “Now” causing suffering. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but at the end of the book I didn’t feel better about things or highly motivated to jump in to begin this process.

Summary

Overall I would recommend this book but only for those that have already explored the ideas about “presence”, “Now”, and “awareness.” I do not feel this is a good book for beginning seekers. There are some compelling statements in this book that will give the more advanced student of enlightenment some serious food for thought. I will be referring to some of the ideas frequently even though my own methods for enlightenment and approach to spiritual wholeness are quite different than Dr. Moss’s.

Of course this is what I love about this subject, that there are infinite approaches and infinite possibilities to find our own individual paths. The Mandala of Being is a good book for adding to your arsenal of possibilities. It is a great book to deeply ponder some compelling ideas about the nature of human suffering and provides a unique approach to develop a sense of awareness about these thoughts and feelings.

The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D – Book Review by Joleen Halloran

Nice supplement to High School Biology class

The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D – Book Review by Joleen Halloran

Recommend: No

Star Rating (1 through 5):  2

Genre: Metaphysical/New Science

High School Biology 101

This book’s subtitle is Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles, so as an avid reader on matters related to spirituality and consciousness, I was excited to read it. The book also had two pages of endorsements within the front cover by several prestigious sources as well as high number of positive reviews on Amazon. I approached my reading with high expectations after such raving reviews.  In the spirit of full disclosure on my mindset for spirituality, I am a firm believer in Original Cause and appreciate scientific theories/studies that harmoniously unite the two mindsets of science and spirituality. I am a also a firm believer that you can and should believe in both and more information should be made available to support their complementary nature as opposed to their segmented viewpoints. I admire and encourage the scientific community that is brave enough to come forward within this context.

On the other hand, I am also a book critic who at the very least expects authors to provide at least a thread of content in their book as it relates to the title. I think that perhaps using Understanding instead of Unleashing in the book’s subtitle may have been much more appropriate. At the end of the day, I found no content that provided suggestions, theories, practices or methods for Unleashing anything other than a long drawn out and somewhat repetitive explanation of cellular structure and functionality.

I consider myself to be fairly smart and I wanted to understand the correlation between the cells, their membranes and how this might all relate to consciousness, but the level of detail that Lipton chose to share in this book was way over the top. Unless this book was intended to be part of the curriculum for a high school or early college biology course, there is just no need to go into the level of specifics about how our cell’s amino acids are assembled or providing diagrams on the molecular composition of different protein molecules. I tell you it took every ounce of effort I had and a few cups of coffee to get through the 5 out of 7 chapters in this book that dealt with biological details that I will never remember and that could have been described within a page or two to support the author’s viewpoints.

I did appreciate the authors attempt to present this dry and specific material in a lighter and conversational manner than most would find in a textbook, but nevertheless the material was extensively detailed for a book that ultimately intended to talk about consciousness and spirituality. I did enjoy the chapter Lipton wrote about Conscious Parenting, entitled: Conscious Parenting: Parents as Genetic Engineers . Don’t let the chapter title scare you too much, in this chapter I actually found some theories and studies explained in more general terms which helped to get the authors points across.

Social Statements Included

I am not a fan of authors using a book to push their social agenda when the book is categorized as something else. Regardless of whether I believe in the social statement or not is not the point. The book is about one thing (according to the title and book description) and should not be used to gather a captive audience to get on a soapbox about some societal issue. If you want to talk about that issue, write a book about it that clearly informs the reader about your content.

I’m sure the Lipton intends this viewpoint to be a part of his unleashing of consciousness and a responsible topic to discuss (the statement he is making at the end of the book is about how humans are destroying the earth and each other and we are destined to annihilation if we don’t change our conscious behaviors) – but in my viewpoint this is a topic best discussed as part of a venue where your audience is receptive to these viewpoints, not captive. Additionally, what makes this stand out as a social ideological platform rather than a highly generic solution to expanded consciousness was the contradictions in his own theories. Either you believe in global limitations (human destruction of the planet) or your believe in cellular infinite adaptation (constantly expanding based on biological and spiritual variables.)

Summary

For a reader looking to gain insights about how science and spirituality comingle and combine into a harmonious relationship, this book is for you only if you enjoy the high end of the science portion of this equation. For me, someone who enjoys exploring scientific and spiritual concepts and getting background on the concepts presented, this book was way too detailed on the science side of things and very weak on the spirituality side of things. I was able to get his point overall about cellular behavior based on environmental input, but by getting so granular into the science of the cellular structure, I lost interest overall. Frankly, I only finished the book so that I could review it. I would not be able to recommend this book to readers that are interested primarily in consciousness as it relates to both science and spirituality.

I did find the writers style and presentment to be easy to read, but if you are presenting material that is dry and over saturating, your casual writing style gets eaten up by your love of hearing yourself talk about details no one cares about or will ever remember (unless you are also a scientist). Finally, the readers do not ever really get a sense of how we might improve our biology of belief, even though the authors states several times we can and that he, in fact, has.

Internet Millions? Maybe……The Six-Figure Second Income by David Lindahl & Jonathan Rozek Book Review

The Six-Figure Second Income – How to start and grow a successful online business without quitting your day job by David Lindahl and Jonathan Rozek – Book Review

Is this how I will make my millions?

Genre: Business/Internet Business

Business Complexity: Medium

Star Ranking(1-5): 4

Baby Steps

If you are like me, you would probably like to boost your income by either finding a nice residual income stream or by exploring totally new ways to earn income. I think you will find this book a good resource if what you are considering has an online business ambiance to it. And why shouldn’t you consider this enormous data monstrosity in the cloud as a way to make some bucks? We hear stories and see evidence of new million dollar entrepreneurs emerging from internet businesses all the time.

The Six-Figure Second Income is a practical and methodological approach to creating your own online presence and doing it independently. Most of the ideas and tools the book proposes you will need are either free or practically free (except for you own time.) I liked how the authors build one concept off the other to progressively engage the potential new internet mogul into building their internet business.

The way this particular book recommends for creating your internet empire is with content creation. Meaning – selling valuable information that only you may be able to contribute. The book shares many, many ideas for finding a niche market that you can speak to with creative and valuable content.  Lindahl/Rozek do a good job of walking the reader through the steps you need to take to begin creating content, describing the type of content to create and finally, how to publish it and sell it successfully.

The business model in this book is obviously not new because there are many who have already capitalized on the content creation methodology already. However, for the average person, the steps needed to make this happen may have seemed impossible or improbable, whereas in The Six-Figure Second Income they argue that really just about anyone can do this.  And I agree, to a certain extent that the model presented in the book is sound and given a certain passion by the individual, that a successful online internet business is a doable endeavor.

Reality Checks

While I applaud the two author’s collaboration to create a well formatted and easy to read book to provide the average guy/gal instruction to get started within the internet content marketing arena. However, I worry a bit that some might have their hopes dashed when by following the instruction in the book, they do not end up being a millionaire. A six figure income is after all, a pretty large amount of content you would have to sell. I don’t think most readers of the book, despite following all the methods proposed in the book are ever going to get to a six figure income.

I would love to be called out on this prediction as false, but besides following a clear recipe for getting successful content marketing business going, there still requires a large base of consumers that must buy your products. If you are writing about a Brother CS-6000i Sewing Machine, which is one of the niche markets the book uses as an example, are there really 250,000 potential clients out there that are willing to spend $40 for a video on using the product? (1,000,000/40=250,000) I’m thinking probably not. The more value centric to the general public your content product is, the more you raise the potential to reach a larger audience. Unfortunately most of the really valuable content related products have already been spoken for (over saturated even). This is not to say that there is not good money to be made utilizing this methodology and I encourage everyone that feels they have a passion for a niche market and the internet to go for it. I’m just trying to put the title of the book into perspective that to make six figures, it might take a little more than a good content product and a good internet presentation.

The other small issue I had with the book was that it was a little light on the technical aspects of getting involved with internet marketing. The book does a good job of covering the methods that a new internet marketer would need to perform, but the processes behind these methods is only approached from a high level view. Just the internet marketing strategies alone would take several books to cover, so covering it in a one chapter is hardly going to be adequate to launch a major successful internet marketing campaign. The warning goes out to readers that more research will need to be done on several of aspects of the approaches covered in the book.

Summary

The Six-Figure Second Income, how to start and grow a successful online business without quitting your day job is a excellent read for anyone considering utilizing the internet to start a business venture. I like the approach to develop your business one step at a time. I also feel that content marketing, as opposed to other methods for monetizing on the internet, is one the safest, easiest, and sound methods. For those that have a strong desire to start a business and can spare a few hours every night to developing your content and the platform to share your content, this book will be very inspiring for you. The book was easy to read and well organized. The information in the book is useful and appropriate to the processes. Just keep in mind that as you grow in your knowledge of internet business, you will most likely want to expand your education and your technology acumen to insure that your efforts have the best possible chance of being successful.

I recommend this book to the reader that is interested in starting an internet content distribution business and who has a good general knowledge of the internet, social media, general marketing techniques and websites. A reader that is an absolute beginner with any of these technologies may want to read a few books or articles on any of these topics before they can truly appreciate this book in totality.

The ADD Guide to Internet Moneymaking – Book Review Get Rich Click by Marc Ostrofsky

The ADD Guide to Internet Moneymaking  – Get Rich Click by Marc Ostrofsky Book Review

Jam Packed with Internet Business Ideas

Stuffed like Granny’s Thanksgiving Turkey

Making Money Online. Mmmm, doesn’t that sound awesome! Easy money, right? Well, maybe it could be according to millionaire internet pioneer, Marc Ostrofsky. In his book, Get Rich Click, Ostrofsky provides multiple moneymaking ideas and examples of people who used them to made money online, big money. Additionally to several pages of accolades on the book (mostly from other successful online marketers), the book contains 17 full chapters of methods to potentially break into the internet monetary market. Mr. Ostrofsky also gives the reader input on developing a mindset to get into this business, plus loads of references to resources for tools or additional information.

What I liked about this book is the fact that is does indeed deliver the goods. The methods presented are proven methods for making money on the internet and Ostrofsky gives you enough information about the method to at least get your started, should you wish to pursue further. So in regards to quantity, this book is a hands down winner. If I sat down and wrote out a list of every single way you might be able to make money on the internet, from selling personal items on eBay to selling domain names for millions of dollars (Ok maybe the domain name for millions of dollars isn’t up for grabs anymore – unless you are keeping your eye on the future of the dotMobi domains), I don’t think I could have covered the field any better than this book does.

The other thing I liked about this book is the resources provided. Within every method described in the book, Ostrofsky does a good job of providing links to resources for tools or providers that are valuable to the newbie entrepreneur. Additionally, at the end of the book, there is a whole chapter dedicated to resource and supplier information.

Because Get Rich Click is packed with information that serious lookers for internet opportunities could benefit from, I highly recommend it. I applaud the authors style to present important key processes in easy to follow numbered sequences or with bullet points. As someone who reads a high volume of technical information on the web or in books, it is refreshing to see the steps broken down into little chunks that are easy to read and digest. The book is also broken down into small sub chapters so it goes pretty quick and for those of us that may only be interested in one specific method or two, the book is laid out to easily accommodate them. I don’t recommend this of course, because you will not get your money’s worth from the book by just cherry picking a method or two.

Now my Grain of Salt

Despite my recommendation of the book, to give fair warning for anyone with their hand hovered over the “buy now” button on Amazon; I would like to point out a few things I did not like about the book.

First – although the book appears to be organized in a nice standard Microsoft Word Outline with titles, and sub-titles with text attached to it, sometimes the organization of the author’s thoughts get a little off course. For example, in the chapter titled “Collecting Your Payments – Fast and Easy”, the author gets into collecting payment with credit cards and using drop shipping and so on. So far, so good. But then right in the midst of that, he presents a flow chart and a concept about Database Marketing and talks about the qualifying and selling leads. What? What does this have to do with getting paid? I found examples of this ADD writing style throughout the book, which could be more attributed to bad editing than bad authoring, but either way it does take away from the flow quite a bit.

Second – you cannot get through the book without feeling a little bit snookered either. Clearly many of the references provided by the author must be obtained by a link back to his website. No doubt this is for a monetary affiliation with that referenced product or service. While the book IS about making money online and I cannot fault the author for trying to make money as he proposes to you, the reader, it would be so refreshing to read a book about online marketing or monetizing that is truly altruistic from the author (like they claim they are.) “I made money so I want to give back, blah, blah, blah…..” Make no mistake about it; besides the profits Ostrofsky is making from book sales, his intention is connecting to you, the reader, as a potential income source. So, keep that in mind. I personally don’t have an issue with it and frankly, given the chance, I would probably do the same thing myself. Still, it’s nice to dream of truly giving individuals whose only motive is to give back to the community.

Finally, the last thing I didn’t like about the book is the author self-aggrandizement that is splashed throughout the book. Again, this is super typical for this type of book where the author uses his/her own success as the most shining example of how to do whatever they are promoting in their books. Maybe I’m not being fair here, because of course we wouldn’t want to hear from the author unless they hadn’t done something to establish themselves as an expert on the topic. Still, I keep hoping to find one that is not like this. I think it is entirely possible to present your success without coming across as an ego maniac name dropper. Get Rich Click is not as bad as that but there was enough self aggrandizement in the book to irritate me once in a while.

Summary

Ok so maybe I’m jealous or maybe I just have never been good a fit for over the top salesy stereotypes that tend to write these money making books. Hint, hint…does this mean this type of personality is a requirement in mindset to be successful?  No, I don’t really believe that is true. In fact, when you think about the concepts promoted in this book for “online” success, which implies individual non-corporate achievement, self entrepreneurship, and an independent spirit, then the opposite logically might be true. I’ve given Mr. Ostrofsky a little bit a grief for his salesman like style in the book but nevertheless I still applaud him for creating a story and an example of individual spirit and ingenuity. These are the stories that interest us and make us buy books to see if there is anything we can do to emulate these stories.

This book is just too filled with good information not to read it. You may have to investigate a little further any specific method that appeals to you, but the book does provide a comprehensive overview of each method presented. I rate a book of this genre, which is intended to inform and educate, by how much I actually learned. And I did learn from this book, plus I also got several good ideas and resources I intent to look into further. I feel you will too.

4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris – ADULT MANDATORY READING!

Say YES to "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferris

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris – ADULT MANDATORY READING!

Recommend: Yes

Star Rating (1 – 5): 4+

Genre: Business Motivational

If you haven’t had a chance to read Timothy Ferris’s book – 4-hour Workweek, Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich, do it as fast as you can. This book is a game changer for the working man/women. You will not be able to stop yourself from dreaming up a plan for immediate laptop vagabonding in faraway dreamy destinations.

But…… don’t quit your day job just yet. Clearly this book is a powerful motivator for those of us daily 9-5 grinders to get out from under the “man.” Ferris’s finesse at dangling a newer, shinier carrot in front of our upturned, hopeful faces is nothing less than genius, but practicality is a bitter pill to swallow on our road to virtual freedom.

I read the first edition of this book back in 2008 and I seriously couldn’t sleep that night, I was so excited. I studied some of the techniques in the book and began to really get fired up. But over time, my pasts ingrained reality crept back into my life, and except for the occasional trip down virtual success dreamy river, I went on with my job. A couple years later and after being laid off from a 20 year successful career, I ran across the new version of this book and went ahead and laid out the money to get any new gems out of the expanded and updated version. The original adrenaline high I got from reading the first edition pumped me up all over again to get this virtual dream lifestyle going.

Well, I’m not there yet friends, but I’m not giving up. I’ve tried a couple different ideas to get some juices flowing for flexibility in work environment and/or to get enough capital raised to wing it for awhile anywhere, to no avail, YET! But in my pursuit of lavish, flexible and joyful work, I have learned a lot about myself in the process and I have to credit The 4-Hour Workweek for being a part of this self discovery.

While I promise to keep you posted the minute I go seriously viral or achieve the “aha” of all moments in the business development community, for now just let me give you the high points of this book and in all fairness, point out the downside to it as well. But keep in mind that from my perspective this book is about attitude changes, not job changes and the one key lesson of the book for me was this: If he can do it, so can you – Never give up on yourself or your dreams.

Now for the key pluses of this book:

This book is not really about just working 4 hours a week (catchy title though, isn’t it?), as it is about living first and then matching your work to support your living. When I say living, I mean living it up, doing what you want to do, when you want to do it. That could mean something different for everyone, but this concept of finding a few tiny hours each week to do something you want to do (travel, family, be creative) needs to stop if you don’t’ want to have to look back over your life and realize you gave it up for 9-5 dreary monotony. The book opens your mind to encourage you to question your intentions with your current job? Who are you striving for? Your boss?  Please – how’s that going for you? The main intent of the book is to look at your work situation differently and decide what you really want to do with your life. Ferris asks the readers to really question – What do you REALLY want? What are you doing now to get it? What are you waiting for?

Ferriss offers some great tips to manage time and effort towards whatever you want to achieve that are a major paradigm shift away from what other business talking heads recommend. I found them refreshing and effective. Note that these tips are not new in the sense that Ferriss invented them, but just that they are outside the mainstream. For instance, one great tip I totally embrace that goes against all my 20 years of corporate work skills is: Do not multitask. Seriously effective advice, in my opinion. Focus only on the one thing you are currently doing,  get it done, wrap it up, pat yourself on the back, then move on.

The 4 Hour Workweek offers creative ideas on branching out and growing your business, like virtual assistance and outsourcing. Heck, the big companies do it all the time, why are we taking advantage of this? And for crying out loud, keep your email shut down during your work time. Check in morning and/or evening, then shut it down.

Finally, the entire book if filled with great ideas, concepts, tips and resources to get just about anybody revved up to get their own 4 Hour Workweek plan going. This book exceeds every other book I have read to date for this.

Now the dark side:

Many folks may be so enamored with 4 Hour Workweek ideas that they move too quickly and damage their work history or their finances by jumping off the cliff of 4 Hour Workweek bliss. While the book is inspiring, it needs to be reviewed with a practical eye to insure that as you develop your plan for independent living, you include a transition that appropriately protects you and your family from financial ruin.

Tim Ferris’s story of rising to the epitome of combined financial and personal freedom is motivating but it is not the same path others will probably take to get there, in both the sense of time to achieve or method to achieve. This could be a little discouraging to some and perhaps even get others just downright mad. The point is to get going.  But, we should not measure our plans or methods against someone else’s, ever. That truly is like comparing apples to avocados.

Summary:

This book, in my opinion, is one of the most important business motivational books of this decade. It represents a new independent global mindset regarding business entrepreneurship in this time of our lives. I believe that our entire society will begin to slip further and further into virtual living as accessibility, speed, and cost just make it almost impossible not to be a part of it.  The ideas and precepts of this book will pave a new path as more individuals become a part of this new global independent community. Certainly, we may all do this differently than this book suggests, but the social mindset this book promotes is relevant, important and exciting. Please don’t go another day without making plans to read this book.