It’s a regrettable thing to have to begin a post with an apology, but that fate falls upon my keyboard this morning. A while back – okay, several months, I admit it – I was sent a great book by its publishers (Thank you, thank you, thank you again!). Whenever I’m sent a book or products to review for one of my blogs or sites, I pride myself on getting it done right away. 9 times out of 10, we’re talking a day or two. However, books can take a little longer. Especially if there’s a lot of great information to process, which was the case with “The Not So Big Life,” by Sarah Susanka.

I’m truly sorry that this review wasn’t posted sooner – but that’s what you get for publishing such a thought-provoking, life-affecting book like this one! What’d you expect? This isn’t just a book, after all, it’s an education. And no education that I know of can be completed in mere months. None worth having anyway!

Actually, it’s a two-part education. The MAJOR is in an area I already knew I loved with a consuming passion: Self Help. The MINOR is in an area that I never really thought much about – the fascinating world of architecture.

A Little Background

The author, Sarah Susanka, is an architect as well as a writer. She’s the author of the bestselling book, “The Not So Big House.” In TNSBH, she gives her expert advice on making homes BETTER, not BIGGER. Guess what philosophy she brings to “The Not So Big LIFE” – right, how to make our lives BETTER, not BIGGER. Brilliant? Brilliant.

From the inside cover:

Most of us have lives that are as cluttered with unwanted obligations as our attics are cluttered with things. The bigger-is-better idea that triggered the explosion of McMansions has spilled over to give us McLives. For many of us, our ability to find the time to do what we want to do has come to a grinding halt. Now we barely have time to take a breath before making the next call on our cell phone, while at the same time messaging someone else on our blackberry. Our schedules are chaotic and overcommited, leaving us so stressed that we are numb, yet we wonder why we cannot fall asleep at night.

Wow, does that sound familiar or what? We’ve become somewhat like hamsters running around in a wheel….gotta get there, gotta get there, gotta get there. Problem is that there keeps moving.

In a very, very entertaining manner and with an extremely well-written style, Sarah Susanka details the similarities of designing a home and designing a life. Thought provoking? Try thought propelling, thought arousing, and thought awakening.

From Chapter 1, “Blueprint For a New Way of Living” to Chapter 12, “Being at Home in Your Life,” I was challenged to look at every nook and cranny of my life – upstairs and downstairs, inside and out. Exhausting and invigorating at the same time! The reader is led on a tour of their own life, to examine everything from their foundation to their present structure. You’re shown how to find cracks in your foundation and how to mend them. Your structure (or life) will only be as firm as your foundation.

Another problem with writing a book review for such an amazing book is that if I told you everything I wanted to tell you, two things would happen:

1. The post would be so long, I’m not sure anyone would even attempt to read it.
2. I’d give away everything and you wouldn’t have any need to buy the book!

I don’t want 1 or 2 to happen, so I’m trying to keep from giving away too much. Personally, I’d do just about anything to make sure each and every one of you bought this book journey. It’s that important.

One of the things that makes “The Not So Big Life” so special – and the main reason this particular Self Help Enthusiast is telling you, “If you buy two books this year, make one of them The Not So Big Life and the other one Dean Koontz (pick one)” – is this: There isn’t an author or so-called “expert” telling you what your weaknesses or strengths are. YOU determine them. A so-called “expert” isn’t giving you a ridiculous one-size-fits-all solution or advice – YOU come up with what’s best for you. With clear guidance and tons of real-life examples, your given the map…but the journey? It’s yours.

If you ask me, that’s the whole key to self help anyway. That’s why it’s Self Help rather than Somebody Help. It’s also the only way we’ll ever grow.

The chapters of “The Not So Big Life” deal (in beautiful depth) with the following components of Self Growth and, in turn, a “better” life:

1. Developing a Blueprint for a Better Way of Living
2. Noticing What Inspires You
3. Identifying What Isn’t Working
4. Removing the Clutter
5. Listening to Your Dreams
6. Learning to See Through the Obstacles
7. Improving the Quality of What You Have
8. Creating a Place and a Time of Your Own
9. Proceeding Through the Construction Process
10. Moving Into Your Not So Big Life
11. Maintaining Your Newly Remodeled Live

The Not So Big Life Notebook

Readers are encouraged to create a notebook and use it as they read the book. I bought a nifty purple on and did just that. While it slowed down the review, it proved to be unbelievably rewarding. It wasn’t long before I realized that I was doing more than just interacting with a book. My purple notebook wasn’t just a compilation of reflections and notes – it was a blueprint for an even more rewarding life.

It never ceases to amaze me how insidious our conditioning is. I’m conditioned to be always too busy. For you it might be something else, something that seems equally real and equally frustrating. Just like the fish that doesn’t realize it’s surrounded by water because it’s in it constantly, our conditioning is so much a part of our experience that we forget it’s there and fall into the idea that the outer world is conspiring to keep us from doing what we want to do, when in fact our obstacles are self-generated.

Great stuff! This is the most timely book one could hope for. It gets us right where we live and shines the spotlight on all the right places. Use the link to the right or scour your local bookstore….just be sure you read this book.

When I was thinking of a closing sentence to sum everything up – a closing sentence to compel you to buy this book – I kept coming back to the same thing. I’d toy with things like: “Instead of going to Applebee’s this weekend, do something that’ll impact your life even more than their garlic potatoes…” – but then I realized how much I love Applebees, and how much I want some of those very potatoes. Then I thought…beg! Yeah, that’ll work. But I always came back to the same phrase – so that’s what I’ll go with.

This is the book you were meant to read.

There’s no getting around several truths in life:

1. If you want to be fit and healthy, you have to adopt a healthier lifestyle, which includes exercise and a healthy diet.

2. If you want to stay mentally sharp, and guard yourself against mental decline, you have to keep challenging and working your mind.

If we eat junk food, our bodies will reward us with extra weight, an unhealthy heart, and a multitude of physical woes and worries. If we let our minds coast along on cruise control, it’ll reward us by growing as dim as an old light bulb.

Click HERE and HERE to learn more about the benefits of learning a second language.

Make each moment count double!
~Joi

We all want physical fitness, and will pay just amount any amount of money and spend just about any amount of time to achieve it. We want to look our best, feel our best, and by all means, live as long as we possibly can.
To make all of this happen, we try to eat right, try to get as much fresh air and sunshine as possible, take our vitamins, and work our bodies as much as our bodies are willing to work.

The media keeps us well informed on the benefits of exercise, green tea, white tea, vitamins and herbs, walking….. But only recently has there been much focus on the importance of mental fitness. Yet, think about it – few things are as important as keeping our brains healthy and well-functioning.

The most important thing we can do for our bodies, physically, is to stay active. If we don’t stay physically active, our muscles will deteriorate and we’ll not only fail to get stronger, we’ll lose what strength and fitness we have. The same thing can be said of our mental fitness – it’s imperative that we stay mentally active.

[Read more...]

I know I’ve written about Write a Book Now.com on this blog before – but like all truly great things, it deserves a second mention. I’m really excited about the author, Steve Manning, and about his amazing program. In fact, attribute a great deal of my ability to write for 12 blogs and 14 websites to the information in Steve Manning’s program.

When I realized just how much I had bitten off of the blogosphere, I realized that I’d have to chew like I’d never chewed before….. or choke like a loser. The whole choking like a loser part didn’t appeal to me, so I started rounding up information to educate myself. Like the quote says, “Genius lights its own fire, but it is constantly collecting materials to keep alive the flame.”

This particular flame-feeding information was the deal maker. I printed out the PDF and quickly devoured the information – leaving many, many yellow-highlighted paragraphs in my wake. I actually started out reading it on the computer, but I kept reaching for my pen and paper so many times (to write down everything I was learning), I soon stopped reaching for them and just reached for the printer button. And that was the second above average decision I made that day.

As I said, I didn’t buy the information for the purpose of writing a book – although I’ll let you in on a little secret, it has motivated me to do just that. I keep my black, white, and yellow copy on my desk and we have every intention of getting started after the first of the year.

If you’ve ever wanted to write a book (either fiction or non-fiction), but faced one of the following problems…

• You’re certain you don’t have the time
• You can’t think of a plot
• You’re afraid you don’t have enough words at your disposal
• You’re afraid of writer’s block
• You don’t know where to start
• You aren’t sure you can do it

….this information is ready to get you started. And it’ll help you write your book faster than you ever thought possible. In fact, everything’s at your disposal to propel you to write your book in 14 days!! Two weeks. If you have several ideas kicking around inside your head, do you realize how many books you could write within a year?! This time next year, you could be giving your loved ones Christmas gifts like they never expected!

I apologize for all of the exclamation points, when I’m excited, they flow like coffee in a dorm room.

Speaking of writing many, many books, I know you’ve heard of Mark Victor Hansen (he’s a co-author of the amazing Chicken Soup for the Soul books as well as dozens of others). When he saw the information, he not only said it was some of the best stuff he’d ever used, he even asked the owner of the website to speak at his next seminar! And Mark is using this information to crank out still more books!

This stuff is so powerful that folks all around the world, even absolute novices, are using these techniques to write books faster than they ever thought possible. There’s even a free email course that gets you started FAST! So if writing a book has always been your goal, your dream, your desire, scoot over to Write a Book Now.com and have a look for yourself.

The information is more of a writing course – except it’s cheaper than what you’d have to pay at a University, and you get to stay in your nice, warm home….with coffee nearby and a highlighter in your hand. I fully, fully, fully encourage any and all writers and would-be writers to get this information. For what it’s worth, I recommend it 100 percent, without any reservation whatsoever.

Make each moment count double,
~Joi