REVIEW: The Daring Female's Guide to Ecstatic Living by Natasha Kogan

I found this book while browsing in my local library... hadn't ever heard of it, or the author. I hesitantly brought it home, fearing it would be "too much" for me.

Well, I couldn't put it down! There are 30 ideas for "Dares"... ways you can make your life more "gutsy and fulfilling" (the subtitle of the book is: "30 Dares for a More Gutsy and Fulfilling Life"). ;o)

Each "dare" is only a couple of pages long, and there are spots after each for you to journal your own ideas.

Mixed in with each of the dares, you learn about Ms. Kogan's personal story of how she "dared" to start her own publishing company with her husband. This adds to the "inspiration". ;o)

Some of the Dares I liked best were:

* dare to be the kind of person you dream of being

* dare to love your quirks and imperfections

* dare to NOT label yourself!

* dare to take life detours

* dare to UN-intimidate yourself

A Daring Female...

- does awesome, risky, outrageous, gutsy, unique, and creative things

- worries little about others' perceptions

- always stays true to her guts and instincts

- knows what she wants and has the guts to try and make it happen

Quote from page 163:

"There's no way of knowing where you'll end up every time you take on a new challenge or pursue a new opportunity. And that's the absolutely great thing about living a Daring Female life! It allows you to be surprised, to experience success as well as failure, and to learn something from each situation that guides your future choices and brings you closer to filling your life with things you care about and want to be doing."

I loved this book (obviously), and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs a dose of "kick-in-the-butt" inspiration. ;o)

Rated: A+

REVIEW: This Year I Will... by M.J. Ryan

I found the title of this book when I was browsing Facebook's "Virtual
Bookshelf" application, so I checked my local library, and was pleased to
find they had a copy. I ordered it immediately.

And, what a cool little book! It touches on soooo many topics:
- neural pathways & their "plasticity" (a lot of the book focused on this,
acutally)
- positive affirmations & creative visualizations
- prayer
- your personal "success formula"
- past successes
- intentions
... and sooooo much more!

I really loved the bits about creating new neural pathways... when you do something repeatedly, it creates a "pathway" in your brain. Kind of like a train-track. From then on, your brain will take that path unless it feels threatened... then it tends to "jump" track, and go back to your OLD habits/pathways.

Anyway. This book had lots of great advice on how to create new habits, and how to follow your dreams. I liked how she made it very clear that, what works for one person, usually isn't going to work for everyone. Hence why you have to find your own PERSONAL success formula. Everyone has a set of actions they use to succeed, and those actions are transferrable skills... you can apply them to anything you're trying to do differently.

Great book... recommended!

Rated: B+