Handbook to a Happier Life : A Simple Guide to Creating the Life You've Always Wanted - Softcover

Donovan, Jim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965053407 ISBN 13: 9780965053402

Publisher: Austin Bay, 1996

Synopsis

A simple guide to creating the life you've always wanted, this powerful new self-help book contains practical information, and simple exercises to help you create the life of your dreams. The message is that this is your life. Live it to the fullest!

About this title

About the Author

Jim Donovan. For more than a decade, Jim has worked with individuals and companies to help them implement strategies for their personal and professional growth. Having applied these same ideas in his own life, he has gained a position of national respect and recognition as a writer, author and seminar leader. Jim knows firsthand that these ideas work and he is able to bring his own experience to his writing and teaching, making it possible for people to relate to his message and to learn for themselves how they too can change their lives for the better. He is the author of the best-selling Handbook To A Happier Life, two new books: The Little Book That Can Change Your Life and This Is Your Life, Not A Dress Rehearsal and the author of Jim's Jems, an internationally syndicated newsletter, read by business executives, entrepreneurs and individuals. Jim's articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines as well as on the Internet and he has been interviewed by numerous radio and television programs. He currently writes for several international business magazines and newsletters in addition to delivering seminars worldwide. Jim has spoken on a variety of topics about personal development and small business to the National Association of Sales Professionals, American Womens Economic Develpment Corp., New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners, business and professional women's groups, network marketing companies, high schools, banks, medical practices, small business groups, Rotary & Kiwanis clubs, chambers of commerce, prison inmates and others. Jim is a member of the National Association For Self Esteem.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

(Page 1) Introduction - This is not a self improvement book. You are fine, right where you are, doing just what you are doing. You can, however, grow and develop further. This book is intended as a handbook for your personal development and growth. You are entitled to live a long, joyous, abundant, exciting life. This is your birthright. If you are experiencing less, you are shortchanging yourself. While I do not claim to be able to provide you with this exciting kind of life, throughout this book I will share with you some of the concepts, techniques and tools which have personally helped me and countless others to improve the quality of our lives and begin to move closer to reaching our full potential as human beings. I have personally used the ideas presented here in my own life. This is not a theoretical treatise. I have, as they say, "walked the walk." My intent here is to share with you techniques which are simple. Not necessarily easy. Easy requires no effort. Implementing the ideas here will require effort on your part but the payoff is living a happier life. The result is well worth the effort. Some of the information in this book will be new to you. Some you will have already learned. Some you will embrace. Some you will reject.

Question Everything (Page 8) If the cause of unhappiness or a lack of prosperity in my life is something outside of my own area of control, then how can I possibly expect to change it? If I am broke because of something the government did, then I am stuck there! Regardless of how much we look to outside forces to solve our problems, we are always 100% accountable for our lives. On the other hand, if I take complete responsibility for the conditions in my life, I then have the power to do something about them. This may sound like an oversimplification or merely a play on words but it is a critical distinction. We must take responsibility for everything presently in our lives. (Page 29) The only thing stopping most of us is the fear that we might fail. So what? Is that any more debilitating than sitting in a rocker twenty or thirty years from now and wondering what could have been if only you had taken a chance? Just go out and do it! One of the things stopping us is the quality of questions we ask ourselves.

(Page 25) Do It Now. Recently, someone said to me "Yeah but I'm too old." It saddens me to hear such comments especially in light of some of the facts below: Verdi composed his Ave Maria at age 85. Martha Graham performed until she was 75 and choreographed her 180th work at age 95. Michelangelo was carving the Rondanini Pieta six days before he died at 89. Marion Hart, sportswoman and author, learned to fly at age 54 and made seven nonstop solo flights across the Atlantic, the last time in 1975 at age 83. Grandma Moses had her first one-woman show when she was 80. If you think you are too old to do something you've always wanted to do, you may want to reconsider and just go for it! What is the one thing you have always wanted to do but have been putting off? (Page 70) Three Steps To Having The Life You Want 1. Decide and Define. Decide what it is you want. Define it as clearly as you can. Write it down. Visualize it happening. Write and say affirmations about it. Do whatever you can to get clear and stay focused on what you want. 2. Act! Take action toward your goals. Do the legwork. Continue to take steps toward what you want in your life. 3. Let Go and Let God! There is a Higher Power at work in your life. Surrender to it. Know that everything is always happening for your highest good. You do not need to try to "make things happen." Note: If the action you are taking is clearly not working, change it. There is a saying that: "God moves mountains, but remember to bring a shovel." We have a part to play and it is our responsibility to play it as best we can.

(Page 77) How many of us carry around beliefs and opinions that no longer fit with who we are, simply because we have always believed them? How many times have you held onto a limiting belief because "that's the way I have always felt?"

Edition details

• Publisher: Austin Bay
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0965053407
• ISBN 13: 9780965053402
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 85