Creativity Books

My 8-yr old daughter just loves this fashion design kit. This is her 2nd one... she received the fancy party dress kit last year for Christmas. She entertains herself for hours & comes up with the most creative designs. It is wonderful for ideas, creativity, motor skills, patience. Highly recommend it.

Got this for my 11 yr old daughter and she has really enjoyed making outfits and putting them on the hangers. We found scrapbook paper to make even more outfits. We love Klutz.

So cool !!! Great for fashion divas in the making. A great creative gift for girls ages 9-12.

I highly reccomend this item! I am a paper crafter, and I love using these paper fashions to make quick stylish cards. I love this item because unlike some paper fashion books, it offers paper and templates, not precut paper or stickers. This is a great product for scrapbookers and cardmakers, and for all girls big and small. Also, there are miniature hangers included that add an extra touch to my cards, and I even hung ties on them to make a father's day card.

We bought this for our 10 year old granddaughter and she was delighted with the kit. It's simple to use, everything is included and it gave hours of fashion fun for a young girl. These kits as a whole are very appealing to preteen girls.

Sam Rocks!

I saw Sam speak at Mark Victor Hansen's Mega Speaking Event and I can tell you, she knows how to captivate an audience. Sam has a genuine style that comes across as sincere, professional, and experienced.

If you've never seen her speak, you're missing out. Sam delivers on content, humor, and info that each of us wants. She helps people re-evaluate their thinking in order to connect in a personal way with your audience by re-creating statements for personal branding.

Sam will teach you how to be creative in away that's practical. Pop is not about hype, it's about bringing your message to your people in a way that is unique and powerful at the same time.

I found that POP is for anyone who wants an edge over the competition because it's not about cheesy tactics to woo people, it's more about reaching people with the essence of who you are and transforming it in a punchy way in order to attract people to what you are selling/marketing.

I recommend it because it's valuable for people wanting to cut to the chase and grab the gems.

Need something different, something special to kick your business into overdrive? You'll find it in POP. When Sam Horn says you can stand out in any crowd, believe her! Rather than just talking about it, Sam Horn shows you how to make your own business "pop."

Like a cookbook, POP is filled with recipes to inspire your imagination with fresh ideas and fun exercises. Start anywhere. Keep going until you arrive at your own unique inspiration.

Way out of the ordinary . . . step out of the mundane and become extraordinary! Innovate with Sam Horn! This book can help you get there.

Five Stars and then some!

This is an amazing book! Sam shares with her readers new ways to grab our audience's interest and attention. She really does know how to help people get noticed in a crowd. This book has shown me how to positively inspire others to read my book, LifeChimes: A Collection of Simple TruthsLifeChimes: A Collection of Simple Truths, when they are looking for simple ways to stop zapping their energy. Because of Sam Horn's book, my work as an author and a motivational speaker has been made so much easier. Thanks Sam!

I'm an advertising copywriter. The one thing I have to do every day is to come up with fresh ideas for myself and my clients. I have to keep learning and growing. And I want my messages to stand out from the crowd. I'm pretty good at that. But, after reading this book, I'm better!

If you love words, you'll love this book. You'll learn how to create slogans and elevator pitches and messages of all kinds. You'll learn how to make them powerful and how to make people remember you, your brand, or business or whatever you want them to remember.

You may already be a good writer. But you'll be a better writer, a writer who sells, if you follow the advice in this book.

Above all, your message will make you stand out from the crowd.

The thing is, not much does stand out from the crowd. Most slogans are the same. Most messages are the same or similar. So, if you're different, you'll be more successful.

This is an excellent book. Get a copy now --- unless you're one of my competitors.

An awesome book for jazzing up your writing and speaking. Sam Horn crams so many ideas for creating buzz and imprinting your message and brand in the minds of listeners and readers that I found myself making checklists as I ran through the draft of my last book trying to find places I could use her principles and ideas. It's not all about marketing either. She has great ideas on the use of stories and quotes in your writing, how to create memorable content using lists and alliteration, and plenty of other techniques to make your writing come alive.

It's easy and fun to read as Sam is very clearly one of her own best students. Her writing is tight and wonderfully informative with no filler. The ideas are things nearly anyone that has to communicate (verbally or in writing) can use right away.

I felt a little bit self conscious rating this 5 stars: every other reviewer thus far has given it 5 stars as well. But 5 stars it is! I'd say that's a pretty clear message about the strength of the material.

It's the best marketing lesson you can buy for $15.

This is basically a 'self help' sort of book. According to the author, if you buy this tome, read it, and apply the contents, something great will happen.

So I bought it. And I read it. And I applied the contents.

What this book is about is thinking more creatively, not thinking more deeply, as it were.

The core premise of the book is that typical thinking relies heavily on what we've done previously. Learning by experience is what humans do. Hurson calls this 'reproductive thinking' as it reproduces the past. This is frequently a good way to do things. But no amount of reproductive thinking will turn an adding machine into a spreadsheet. To make this leap, you need "productive thinking."

The crux of the book is how to think this way. Suppose you have some problem. You assemble your team of people (works individually too, but that isn't his focus) and write down every solution the team can think of to that problem. Analysis is not allowed - just raw ideas. Within a few minutes, people have called out the obvious solutions. The leader of the group keeps writing them down and asking for more using a number of techniques in the book. Before long, people will start giving dubious solutions. This is good. Finally, at some point, the answers become bizarre. This section is what Hurson calls the "third third" of the list. He posits that the good stuff - the truly innovative solutions - are at the bottom of the list. Most of the time, they are worthless. But if you allow these fledgling ideas to live for a while, sometimes they attain flight status.

While we had our power outage, I had 9 days to try this. I am designing some software. I started making a list of the solutions to my problems (this software has many facets which constitute many problems.) I wrote down ideas, concerns, drawings - anything. What I found was that once I ran out of ideas, I'd make some connection, and I'd get 25 more ideas. Then I'd be empty. But the next day it would happen again. It was difficult, but I finally - finally - made it to 100 ideas and thoughts, an arbitrary goal designed to make me stretch. Then I saw another connection and wrote down 30 more ideas! I stopped because the ideas, if valid, were straying from the actual problem domain and started applying more to an alternative piece of software.

I ended up with 3 really good innovations. (I'm sure others would think of these things instantly, but by God they were new to me!) One of these innovations would allow the software to perform a seeming completely different function with only trivial modifications - if it's built right.

There's a lot more to the book, as it talks about how to make the ideas to concrete solutions, walking through phases of idea-to-solution. Again, posing each step a problem then using these free-flowing lists of solutions to find the most innovative answers to problems.

So, the pros:

1. The technique seems to work for me as an individual.

2. Trying it is cheap. You need a) the book and b) office supplies. You do not need a guru, a Change Process Facilitator, pure Tibetan mountain spring water, or to sacrifice a chicken.

3. There are probably 6 phases and numerous sub-phases in the full solution process. So there are other parts of the book that I didn't mention but are worthwhile. For example, he mentions that some people in the organization may work against you. Commendably honest. Such a person is treated as a problem to be solved. You write this person's name down so you can make lists of solutions to this persons behavior. This section is short and I can't help but feel he stopped short for political correctness - and perhaps legal reasons!

The cons:

1. The book is almost certainly a sales tool for the author's consulting company which he mentions repeatedly. Perhaps the book is an answer to the problem, "How can we educate people about our system and thus make more money?" in which case it's a very practical proof of concept!

2. I can't imagine a team of people using this technique because it feels 'new age.' You'd have to have a lot of trust among coworkers.

3. The book is repetitious. Make lists! Make lists! Blah.

4. TMCBSHA. I mean, Too Many Cute Business Self Help Acronyms. The industrial strength solution he discusses has many phases and sub-phases. It seems like every one of them as some hokey acronym associated with it. examples:
IF (imagined future)
DRIVE (do, restrictions, investment, values, essential outcomes)
AIM (advantages, impediments, maybes)

Now, each of these sections may be worthwhile but my god it's killing me. This is what makes me suspicious about the technique. I feel like he's putting the sizzle before the steak. I don't need sizzle to work a problem. But Hurson might need it to sell his book!

5. The numerous steps (and their acronyms!) in the full solution need to be in a diagram so I can follow them.

Finally, if you make your living by thinking (versus, say, by chopping off ninja heads) and you're in a rut, consider _Think Better, an Innovator's guide to Productive Thinking_ by Tim Hurson. I give it a 4 of 5, where no such book can possibly score a 5 due to the built-in hokiness and cheerleading of it all.

http://tony-stormcrow.blogspot.com/2008/10/think-better-innovators-guide-to.html

The last book from my `vacation reading list" is Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking by Tim Hurson. Some of you may remember a brief mention of this book in a post titled "Critical Thinking vs Creative Thinking".

This is a very interesting book full of great information....kudos go to the author for writing in a style that is engaging and easy to read.

The premise of the book is to stop trying to think `creatively' or `critically'....start thinking productively. The author introduces the "Productive Thinking Model" that helps to combine and balance both creative thinking and critical thinking.

This model is made up of six steps, which are outlined below.

Step 1: What's going on?

In this step, you are encouraged to answer five questions to get a feel for what issue you are trying to resolve. These questions are:

* What's the Itch? This question helps you determine what needs to be fixed or improved.
* What's the Impact? This question makes you think about how the issue is affecting you.
* What's the Information?This question forces you to examine the information that you have about the issue to determine if you have enough information to address the issue.
* Who's Involved? This question takes a look at the stakeholders and what might be at stake for each one.
* What's the Vision?This question helps you make the switch from `what is' to `what might be' by asking things like "What would the future look like if the issue is resolved?"

Step 2: What's Success?

Using the Vision developed in Step 1, begin to think about the future if the issue is resolved. Begin to imagine what life would be like with the problem solved. Once you've got a good feel for how life might change, you would then create a list specific, measurable outcomes.

Step 3: What's The Question?

In step 3, you begin to develop the questions that must be answered in order to reach the vision of success that you developed in Steps 1 & 2. During this step, you rephrase each issue/problem as a question to help your subconscious understand there is something `to work on'. An example conversion given as the Problem Statement "We don't have enough budget" can be converted to the Problem Question "How might we increase our budget?". During this step, you would try to generate as many problem questions as possible....you want a long long list. Once you've exhaustively listed your questions, you can then begin to narrow them down to the two key questions that would have the most impact on the issue.

Step 4: Generate Answers

This is where you generate the ideas to answer the questions created in step 3. You again create a very long list of answers and then sift through them looking for the most ideal and promising answers.

Step 5: Forge the Solution

This step is where you take your most promising answers from step 4 and develop them into a robust solution.

Step 6: Align Resources

This final step requires you to identify the necessary steps and resources for implementing your solution. In addition, you ensure that all implementation steps are assigned to a designated resource who will be held accountable for their implementation.

With these six steps, the author has provided a framework for thinking more productively. The key throughout all six steps is to keep an open mind at all times. Do not criticize ideas. Do not discard ideas. By keeping an open mind, you'll be amazed at how many ideas you are able to generate.

If you are the least bit interested in the topic of creative/critical thinking, go buy this book.

what a fascinating book! unfortunately it is littered with typographical errors which are REALLY irritating. examples: "The stem brain or gator brain processes and teacts to sensory input(p. 21)"..."Nothing is perfect. The word is full of things we can do better(p.7)."..."As Nicholas Negoponte, the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, has written...(p.43)"

such a shame. if there is ever a second printing, perhaps these and other unnecessary errors can be corrected.

Tim Hurson explains that the premise of this book "is that success in our business, professional, and personal lives is less a matter of what we know than of how we think. If we can develop the thinking skills to generate more options and then evaluate those options more effectively, we can all live richer, fuller lives - and so can the people around us." The focus of the this book is on the thinkx Productive Thinking Model (PTM), developed by Hurson and his colleagues after rigorously evaluating a number of other methodologies that include the Creative Problem Solving Process (CPS) and Integrated Definition (IDEF).

There seems to be greater emphasis on improving problem solving than on improving any other function of better thinking (e.g. generation, evaluation, and selection of innovative ideas), although the PTM process consists of six interlocking steps that can help to achieve a variety of objectives. Each step includes a variety of tools and techniques that Hurson explains, citing relevant real-world examples throughout his narrative to illustrate how various companies have used the PTM. Hurson devotes a separate chapter to each step.

For example, Step One responds to the question "What's Going On" and requires a situation analysis. Here are some issues to address at the stage of the process:

1. "What's the Itch?" (i.e. problem to be solved, question to be answered)
2. "What's the Impact?" (i.e. pay-off, benefits, improvements)
3. "What's the Information?" (i.e. what is currently known about the situation)
4. "Who's Involved?" (i.e. Who are the stakeholders? Who else will be affected?)
5. "What's the Vision [or "Target Future]?" (i.e. ultimate objective as well as its implications and consequences)

In Chapter 13, Hurson recaps the Productive Thinking Model (PTM) and offers a number of observations and suggestions to those who are considering use of this model as well as those who have made it commitment to it and are now engaged in the difficult but necessary processing of making appropriate modifications of it to accommodate the needs, resources, and objectives of their own organization. Then in Chapter 14, Hurson suggests four essential criteria for developing productive thinking skills and embedding productive thinking in organizational cultures.

In this final chapter, he also asserts that -- as practiced in much of corporate America -- training "is an astonishing waste of resources" when there is no follow-through on front-end training to embed and then strengthen even more the skills taught. In fact, the word "training" has lost its meaning because it is now more commonly used to refer to information transfer rather than skill development. "Hurson prefers the word "entraining." Why? "In chemistry, to entrain means to trap suspended particles in a solution and carry them along. This concept is an apt metaphor for skill development...Entraining results in a new and different workflow. Keeping those new skill particles suspended in your workflow requires the forging of new synaptic connections, new neural pathways."

Hurson includes an especially apt quotation that I now use also when concluding this review:

"In theory there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." Yogi Berra

* * * * *

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Tom Kelley's discussion of how IDEO conducts brainstorming sessions in his two books, The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation. I also recommend two of Henry Chesbrough's books, Open Innovation and Open Business Models, as well as John Medina's Brain Rules, Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future, and Creativity in Business co-authored by Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers. Those feeling especially frisky and convinced they are up to the intellectual challenge are encouraged to consider reading Gerald Edelman's Bright Air, Brilliant Fire and Albert Borgmann's Holding On to Reality. Most of these books are available in a paperback edition.

Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

This book is based on the outstanding premise that how we think is more important than what we know. Tim explains why thinking skills are likely to be even more important in the rapidly changing future. The book then expands on exactly what productive thinking is and why we need to do it! Although initially based on the proven concepts of the Osborne Parnes Creative Problem Solving Model, Productive Thinking takes the ideas of divergent and convergent thinking, and together with an excellent choice of thinking tools and techniques, weaves them together in the 6 step Productive Thinking Model. Elegant in design, thoroughly researched and proven in practice. An easy to read and very informative piece of work. Well done Tim.

Ken Wall - Australia

A wonderful book to aid anyone in the process of discovering who they are and how to find a path to their dreams. Barbara gives lots of positive reinforcement, but is surprisingly practical. By the time I had filtered through numerous chapters of discovery exercises, I was exhausted. I wasn't sure I would really find the focus I needed to define myself and articulate the next phase of my life. However, when I got to the chapter on defining "touchstones" the homework paid off and I found something at my core that defined everything I wanted in my life. Hats off to Barbara for her humor, style, and wisdom to make the process so enjoyable. Bravo!

I thought this book offered some different ways in the effort to learn more about myself. The exercises are thought provoking and easy to do and provide a good insight into my own thoughts, habits and self. I don't think it is ground breaking or the answer to the million dollar question "Who am I?" but it does offer exercises to learn more about self and I think it is an excellent read and book.

I had heard really good reviews of this book from many people I respect for their life vision and general success. It was a quick read, and while I'm not usually a big consumer of the self-help genre, I found it had a lot of very practical applications that helped me get a bit closer to discovering just what it is that I can contribute to this planet. I was reading Erckhart Tolle's A New Earth, which was a great primer in basic Buddhist concepts, but which I found didn't quite deliver on the promise of its subtitle: Awakening to your life's purpose. It did perhaps help to prepare me and make me more open to finding Wishcraft, which did a pretty good job of digging deep and really directing me toward the discovery and acceptance of myself as a creative person, and in turn, that creativity is a gift to share with the world and not stuff down in favor of more "practical," "useful," work. I found the emphasis on childhood and over bearing parents to be a bit much -- maybe because I come from the apparently rare position of having been encouraged to pursue my creative side from a very young age, but decided independently that it was too frivolous and self-indulgent to make my life's goal. I am grateful for my personal journey beyond my talents and into worlds that have only served to reinforce that I am indeed supposed to exercise my creativity. Wishcraft has some great tools that helped me take this realization to the next step, to decide exactly what it is I need to do to make my creative side an active part of my everyday life.

This was Barbara Sher's first book, but until now I'd only read (and loved) her follow-up books. I've read alot of other books on positive affirmations and projecting to the Universe what you want and was stunned to see that this "oldie, but goody" was really one of the most simple and straight-forward approaches to that concept.

Even if you've read lots of other self-help books, this classic is still one everyone should read.

I got the 1979 copy of this book about 4 years ago on a recommendation from a therapist who saw that I was drifting along with no real goals. I had tried college twice before (by this time I was in my late 30's) and each time quit because I didn't know what I wanted to do or to be. The "college career center" was no help whatsoever. The test I took there had me taking courses for industrial engineering, which I had zero interest in, but I figured maybe the test saw some hidden talent that I didn't know I had. Wrong. I started reading this book and doing the exercises and slowly discovered what it was that I wanted to be....an interior designer! I would have never thought of it in a million years without this book changing my way of thinking. I felt like it was a huge revelation! It was a relief to finally know, at the age of 38, what it was that I wanted to do! I started college again and had to quit after a year and a half due to a pay cut at my job. The old me, the pre-Wishcraft-reading me, would have just given up right then. Actually, I DID freak out for about a week. But the new me sat down and brainstormed like in the book and thought long and hard about what needed to be done to be able to stay in school and follow my dream. I'm happy to say that I only took a year off of school and am actually now in a better school. I've also been so inspired by the other reviews for this book. I have recommended this book to friends and will always keep my copy no matter where I go in life.

I purchased this book after reading the glowing recommendations here and was very disappointed. I like these parable type business books, but this is the worst one I've read. As mentioned earlier, the final 1/3 is the best -- but it is only of marginal value. Too much time was spent being "cute" with the story and not enough time was spent incorporating useful information. Sorry, I can't recommend this one at all.

I LOVE everything Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff and his company, Idea Champions, comes up with. His book Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling, is no exception.

It's a story about inspiration, ideas, taking action and applying the lessons in your life. Don't fear -- it's not about systems, processes, lists and all that boring stuff. No one tells a story quite like Ditkoff. He takes you through the life of Og the caveman, as Og follows his instincts, leading him to invent the wheel. It's fictional, of course, and that's what makes it so awesome.

That's all I'm going to say, 'cause I don't want to ruin it for you.

It's a small book -- perfect for a quick, powerful and inspiring read. Ditkoff's clever and witty style will have you wishing for more. You can easily read it in 3-4 hours.

Read it -- I promise you won't be disappointed. In fact, I think I'll read it again.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a fast read mainly because the story is clever and funny which creates interest right from the get go. Along the way, I got some really great advise that I was able to apply to my business and see results within days.

"As a writer, I have a very fertile and vivid imagination and ideas for stories, short stories and novels and novellas, come to me often.

However, at times I find it difficult to break past the initial inspiration of the idea and actually manifest it. Ditkoff's brilliant book has given me several tools to break out of the "stuck phase" of the original idea and bring it to life; tools like 'Play With Your Idea' in the chapter 'Wheely Good Best Practices,' and 'Brainstorm' in 'The Tooling Up Tool Box,' and 'Write On!' in 'Attend.'
Plus the quotes from luminaries like Rumi, Jung and Einstein sprinkled throughout the pages are encouraging and inspirational.
And Og and his family and friends are a pure delight!"

Having good ideas is easy. People do it all the time. The problem comes when the ethereal thought-stuff of a nascent idea has to turn into the hard nuts and bolts of a working innovation. The bigger problem comes in getting that idea, and its value, across to the people who need to participate in its deployment.

Ditkoff addresses parts of the process of originating and refining an idea. He acknowledges that the problem is more often one selecting from among many, or refining the good ones, rather than in having the basic idea in the first place. And I have to agree: a good idea gets you, not the other way around. I know I've had some ideas sit like a lump in my stomach until I expressed them, one way or another. His advice applies to many domains - the breadth is helpful, but people who deal in specifics might have trouble narrowing it to their applications. The real innovation in this book lie in treating an idea as a problem in communication. If getting it straight in your own mind and as a working prototype is hard, conveying it to someone else is even harder.

The book's real value comes from about 1/3 of its content, towards the end. There, Ditkoff lays out his strategies, almost as a bulleted list, so the busy executive with minimal time can pick them out clearly and succinctly. The first more-than-half of the book expressed the same ideas in user-friendly parable about inventing the wheel. These features represent both a strength and a weakness, depending on your cognitive style - I tends towards a deeper, more thorough style, so Ditkoff's breeziness didn't always work for me. Still, what's here is good, especially Ditkoff's mention of "immersion." Productive minds like those of Twyla Tharp and Santiago Ramon y Cajal stress that, and it's refreshing to see a popular-style book emphasize the value and necessity of plain hard work.

-- wiredweird, reviewing a complimentary copy

Suzanne Falter-Barns has given the gift of added inspiration to anyone who needs vindication for taking time out to pursue their own dreams, not just writers, but aspiring spirits of all walks of life. We are often made to feel guilty for seeking our own path, or the 'road less traveled', especially if we're not following traditional or 'money making' careers. In my opinion, this book should be required reading for all graduating high school seniors to give them that extra gust of wind beneath their wings...
Chrissy K. McVay
author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

This book may look small, but it packs a wallop for everyone who's having trouble starting - whether it be starting "the great American novel", a painting, new business or screenplay. Suzanne Falter-Barnes also shows us how "failures" actually help us in the creative process, and be positive experiences along our path. It's not necessarily a matter of having talent, it's all about having the passion to follow our dreams.

I was browsing the table of contents of this book online here at amazon, and was so excited by just the titles of each chapter I knew I had to have this book immediately if not sooner. So for the first time in my life, I dowloaded the digital version of the book and was reading it within 5 minutes. Now I am a person who has read all the Robbins,Chopra, Dyer, Sinetar, Moore, Quantum Physics and Abraham materials you can think of. Every book on Doing what you love and the money will follow theme. This book is the best of all of them.

I read almost all the "You can do anything you want once you find yourself, believe in yourself and focus" books anyone on earth can claim to have read and this book had me up all night and the next and I read it in just 2 days I couldnt put it down. What struck me about it if you read it clearly, is that this book isnt so much about doing anything and succeeding, its about just getting out of the way of all your doubts,excuses and mental reasoning and just living who you are. It doesnt even matter if you fail or succeed as the doing it becomes the divine calling of your life. Nothing else is important...or satisfying!

All the other books focus on succeeding or getting from A to B but Suzanne just tells you to do it, do it forever and let the chips fall where they may. Wow, what a relief to know that I can spend the next 30 years of my life as a public speaker, never make a dime and on my death bed know I did what my soul came here for me to do! The success and fame is just gravy.

Thank you Suzanne for giving me permission to live my life with no hidden agendas of meeting anyones expectations including my own. Damn, life may actually start to be fun again. As a financial advisor who has few paying clients I've done so well for, Ive made them millions of dollars and never even got a thank you, nor have I got the fame and exposure for my website or message board called:momsonlinestocks(ok, ok, so I threw in a little plug. lol) that I deserve after having one of the best stock picking records in the country for 2 years! Nor have I been able to live the way I want financially because they dont reward me very well, Ive felt very resentful about life. Now I know it is ok to do the things I really love even if they never pay my bills. In fact, without doing what you can say is your life/soul mission(s), no success anywhere else will ever make you feel complete. I cant wait to read Suzanne's other book which is on its way in the mail. BEST book I ever read!

Please.....get this book for everyone who is not really happy with their work and lives. In fact, get this for everyone who is as well. I'ts loaded with inspiration from cover to cover. If this book wont do it for you, nothing else will. Dont know what you want from life? No problem. Suzanne will help you. In fact, I'd love to correspond with all readers of this book and maybe even start a cyber support group or board. The most liberating and validating book I've ever read. I'm even thinking of making a career out of teaching her concepts! Coaching anyone? -) Be prepared to miss work the next day if you start this book late at night. You wont be able to put it down. In fact, tomorrow I am going to attend a workshop on a particular love of mine I have had for years knowing there will be only superior and more experienced people there. Now I am going because it is my calling to do so, the fear of measuring up is completely gone. What an epiphany! I wish I read this book at age 15, instead of in my 40's. My whole life would have probably turned out different.

I have always affectionately been know as the "maker of miracles' or the "grantor of wishes" but never was able to get paid for my personal coaching/consulting. Now I have the emotional tools to do so and it doesnt even matter if I never get one paying client. My e-mail is:mince38@yahoo.com if you'd like to comment or chat.

Marc

Unlike the last negative review, though I did find some things that have been said in many other books of this type, for me the reminders were just that--a reminder to get back into the work I love, but with a practical stamp upon it to make it happen (me being an ungrounded Gemini, being 'practical' is difficult!). I just finished Suzanne's other book, "Living Your Joy" and I am so grateful I found it as well. Both books inspired me to do the work (play) that is REALLY important to me, yet still keep the day job going for the daily bills we all face here on Planet Earth. Bravo, Suzanne!

Speaking from my own point of view when trying to pursuing my dream, I have faced the fear of failure. I think we all have in some way, more or less. We need encouragement to go on, and if we don't get it, we need courage to do it all on our own.

To me, failure is wisdom and something we shouldn't be afraid of. What's important is that we must never give up. The dream is out there and it's reachable if you don't give up. In some way you'll always be able to achieve it.

Author, Suzanne Falter-Barns is in her book `How Much Joy Can You Stand?' giving us inspiration and encouragement to never giving up on your dream. The book is based on other peoples stories as well as on Suzanne Falter-Barns own experiences. In the book are exercises to go forth and back whenever a situation occurs.

Take the advices from others and start pursuing your dream today. When you're 70 years old, it might be too late and you'll be annoyed over what you didn't do. Everything is up to you - get started!

As someone who has been a writer and teacher in the personal development and spirituality realm for many years, I love this book. It is so direct and straightforward, and quite profound in its simplicity. Srikumar Rao offers a step-by-step exploration into who you are, what you believe, and how what you believe is impacting your success. He offers this deep personal work in a language that is accessible to anyone. And his writing style gives the reader complete confidence that they can do the work! Thank you, Srikumar, for this accessible and powerful book!

Excellent exercises to re-think one's current life and work situation. Carried through, these lessons can have a profound impact on those struggling with serenity and purpose.

For all of those people who bought Eat Pray and Love with the notion that it would change their lives, buy this book! Srikumar Rao's gentle introductions and guided exercises allow you to contemplate what you want to change in your life and actually work at doing it. I was amazed at the changes I noticed in my thinking and my life in the space of a few months. Do not rush through this book. Let it guide you to finding the real you.

"Life is short. And uncertain. It is like a drop of water skittering around on a lotus leaf. You never know when it will drop off and disappear. So each day is too precious to waste. And each day that you are not radiantly alive and brimming with cheer is a day wasted"

Who wouldn't be interested in what this man has to say, right? You'd have to lack a pulse not to want - better, profoundly yearn for - the life affirming perspective and deep joy in being alive he describes.

But have you or I got the vision, guts and discipline to commit to what it's going to take? That's the central question this book poses on every glorious and uplifting page.

Like Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits", Rao proposes that meaningful change happens from the inside out: You'll recall Covey's first 3 habits are about "Personal Victory".

This book is more powerful because it doesn't deal with practices - "habits" - for cognitive behavioural change, like Covey. No, Rao challenges the fundamental fabric of our life experience: our very consciousness.

In one sound bite, the rallying cry of this book is: "live a conscious life".

I'm excited by this. As someone who has lived in a coma - mindlessly propelled by the "conveyor belt of life" - and has jumped off, this resonates very deeply with me.

But this isn't a quick fix. Rao invites you on a very tough spiritual journey that will last a life time.

Brutally simplified, he invites you to become conscious of your self-limiting, self-defeating models of the world, your judgmental critical dialogue, and to develop insight to shift these, partly using the meditative practice of mindfulness.

The outcome: "Gradually, you get to the point where you can control what you are consciously comfortable with letting into your mind. And that is how you start straightening out of your life"

But that's not the tough part. What comes next is far more challenging. What if you believed the Universe wasn't "a dumb, insentient mass" but "a conscious entity that is intimately intertwined with you and not separate from you. It wants to give you what you desire and you can influence it"

Wow! If that was your operating principle, just imagine how different would life be? How much more time and energy would you spend focusing on and manifesting what you want in life instead of worrying and complaining about what you don't want?

Most of the rest of book is dedicated to building the "Benevolent Universe" model. Rao coaches us on how to let go of guilt, blame, destructive habits and anxiety about what we can't control. This all uses up valuable energy and makes us feel powerless: far better to channel energy into constructive and resourceful practices that serve us.

Specifically he shows us how to use the "Law of Increase", the reality that "Whatever you are truly grateful for and appreciate will increase in your life" and how to manifest our deepest desires simply by being resolutely and single-mindedly focused on them with a deep conviction that they are already ours.

Freedom and happiness? We already have them: they're inside, not outside us.

Thinking we have to "acquire" something to be free or happy is misguided, according to Rao: "The talons of our addiction shred our minds and wreck repose... There is nothing you have to get in order to be happy"

Why go on this journey at all?

Because fundamental to our purpose is contribution: the unique gifts we're on the road to discovering and manifesting in the world will contribute to the greater good: literally make the world a better place.

"When you stop explicitly focusing on yourself, on what you want and don't have, and start focusing on how you can be of service to a larger community, then you set loose some very powerful forces"

The reward of accepting the challenge in this book is enlightenment: a deep understanding of your purpose in life and the insight to manifest it.

It will make a leader of you, if you let it.

Before enlightenment, chop wood carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood carry water.*

I read the book's title as meaning "You're successful, are you ready for that?" rather than "Do you want to succeed?" emphasizing the word "ready". And just as reaching enlightenment does not obviate the need to perform the more mundane chores of life, being ready to succeed does not obviate earning a living or making friends. You can do both but if you're not ready to see your success, you won't realize that you are successful and you won't be as happy as you could be.

Rao only indirectly writes about increasing the material and social markers of success, i.e. how wealthy you are or how many friends you have. He stresses that we need to give less importance to these markers and to appreciate what we already have. (And when adversity strikes, we should appreciate that it wasn't worse.) Success breeds success but only if you nurture it properly and that's what he writes about.

Rao's techniques are simple and effective. He first gives examples of what he calls mental models, or predetermined thinking patterns. For example when you are preparing for meetings you always assume that people will argue with you, this predetermined pattern in which you think is a negative mental model. Rao wants us to become conscious of our mental models, especially the negative ones. Next he wants us to detach ourselves from them. He has us create an imaginary friend, who's actually not a friend but an unbiased observer. We're to imagine this friend to describe what we're saying or thinking.

Rao offers many more exercises, with the later exercises building on the earlier ones. The best thing about "Are you Ready to Succeed?" is that the exercises are practical and not too New Age-ish.

Vincent Poirier, Dublin
*Thanks to Eric for the "Buddhist saying". VP

Very inspiring. It really helped me finish my book, "My Vow of Silence - the roughest 3 minutes of my life"...

Great for writer's block. Read one essay per day and call me in the morning.

[...]

Sometimes this series seems wussy but this particular book is absolutely great. You get to read about authors during their struggling years and times of doubt, and, it's all across the board in writer types.

Enjoy.

I'm going to admit it. I love the books in the series CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL. I became an addict almost from the beginning. I even remember the first time I read a story in one of the volumes. I was having a terrible day, and all I wanted to do was complain, but no one was listening. It was suggested I sit back, relax, and enjoy a fire roaring in a fireplace. I grabbed the first volume in the series, the only one available at the time, and read a story at random. It was about a little boy battling cancer who dreamed of being a firefighter. I read the first paragraph, figured it was going to be sappy, and if it was too gooey, I'd throw the book in the fireplace as kindling. Well, that's not what happened. The child did not survive, but the local firefighters made his frame come true and as I read, I became emotionally involved in the story, almost feeling as if the kid was my own son. But it did more than just make me realize I was getting a bit to cynical in my not so old age, it reminded me of what writing can do for a reader: make a connection to a person's heart in a way no other medium can. Over the years the books in this series have made me take a few moments to reflect, appreciate life, and see the good that is out there even if we don't always realize it. No, not every story moves me, but I do believe that every story in the series moves at least one reader, and if writers claim to be pouring out their heart and soul on the page, isn't this the point? In some ways I have this series to thank for reminding me of my dream to write something that will be published. As I read many of the stories in this series, it reminded me that we may all have a story to tell, but writers take that story one step further and put it on paper.

Now, while I love the books in the series, I wondered if CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE WRITER'S SOUL would have enough of an edge. I guess I believe books on writing should be challenging in order to be credible. I've read the books on writing theory by people such as Eudora Welty, John Gardiner, Anne Lamott, and Brenda Ueland as well as the "you can write a best selling novel in thirty seconds" type of books. Of course I read the former as an artist, but the latter for research purposes. The main character in my novel in progress is a popular writer so I need to know how popular writers write, right? Right. I wondered if the CHICKEN SOUP volume would have the critical push I need, or whether it would be enjoyable stories without a bite, so I avoided the book. Then I remembered something. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen are two of publishing's most successful writers/editors, and the first volume was rejected by publishing houses that thought the idea would never succeed. I'm willing to bet they regret rejecting Canfield and Hansen now, but it also reminded me, these two people know the ins and outs of writing and publishing, and they may know what writers need to read.

Obviously I purchased this volume, and I've read it as I do most of the books in this series. I look for a story that interests me and read it. Usually I take something with me. This volume shows the variety of people who take words and put them together in an attempt to find meaning. Some of the writers with stories in this volume include esteemed authors such as Ernest J. Gaines, best selling writers such as Clive Cussler, and writers from the world of entertainment such as Garry Marshall and Art Linkletter. Most of the stories are written by lesser known names that may not have the notoriety but have the same desire to put words to paper.

I'll admit, most of the stories in this book I use in teaching, usually when teaching junior high students about the importance of pursuing dreams or having confidence in one's abilities. Yet as I teach these lessons and remember where the stories come from, I am reminded of my own desire to write, and since that's the purpose of the book., it succeeds.

This notable volume of "Chicken Soup" consists of eighty stories within ten chapters to thoroughly inspire and give voice to the value of writing, whether for profit and as a career or for the sheer joy in the outlet of creative expression.

Each true-life story was written by a professional writer within some genre of the field, and I found myself turning the page to find any familiar to me. Regardless of familiarity of name, each story will inspire, even if you have no inclination to write. And if you do write, you will find helpful tips, comradeship and motivation along with the encouragement.

As with all books of the Chicken Soup series, this one can easily be book-marked and read at leisure. I enjoyed every page and every story.

This is a collection of approximately 80 stories from various writers, some famous, some not. The stories are personal anecdotes of the obstacles faced in becoming a writer. Most of the stories seem to have a hardship story to tell, for example, overcoming poverty or illness. My favorite story was from the Christmas Box author, telling how he wrote and self-published the book.

If you are looking for writing instruction, this is not what you want. However, if you need to be reminded that many other people who have aspired to become succesful writers have faced and overcome overwhelming odds, then you will enjoy this book. I recommend this book to any aspiring writer who is currently feeling discouraged from rejection or self-doubt.

This coloring book is the perfect coloring book. It's non-traditional, but it encourages your child to build upon his/her imagination and express their individuality as well as personal artistic flair. It provides the foundation for a lot of coloring fun!

Love this series of book!! I ended up buying one for each of my eight kids ranging from 16 to 4 years old.

My four year old got this out of my gift pile (to give to others), and had a great time doing the first half of the book. Needless to say, it works for almost any age! It gives you the beginning of a picture (usually) and gives you guidance on what to draw. Here's an umbrella, draw some rain. Fun and creative gift for any age!

I bought this book as something my 3 y/o and I could do together. We finally pulled it out tonight (I was saving it for some quality alone time) and I LOVE IT! This is just very basic generic coloring book and each page has a simple instruction to add to or finish the scribble on the page. You can interpret it however you want and do with it what you please. Follow the instructions literally, abstract something, create something completely different. This book definitely inspired creativity in both me and my son. My mom is pretty artsy and I am going to order one for her. I'd love to see what she'd do with it. Great choice if you're looking for something different and I totally agree it's good for any age.
As for the dead person...if your child can read, let them draw a dead person. It's about interpretation and creativity. They don't have to draw a corpse. Maybe they choose to draw Abraham Lincoln or Jesus. If they can't read, tell them to draw whatever you'd like to see.

I bought this for my 3 year old who loves coloring books, as long as they have dot to dots and "design the cookie" type pages. This is perfect for her. She loves it just as much as i thought she would. What I don't like is that some of the pages are landscape style. I mean, they go across the binding of the book which makes it difficult. I tried ripping the pages out, then glueing them to a bigger piece of construction paper. That can olny be done if you have already done the pages on the back sides (unless you want to waste pages out of a 20.00 book, i don't) it would be nice if the whole book were landscape, and the worst thing about this book is the page that says to "draw a dead person." What in the world? I ripped out that page, and good thing i saw it before she did. It has a box that resembles a coffin that you are supposed to draw the 'dead body' in. I would have considered returning the book for that reason alone had she not used over 1/2 the book already,a nd been in love with it. Seriously everyday since she got it, she has done 10-15 pages.

This book as it is published here is an abosulute must read. The first time I read this book I honestly felt happy inside. When I spoke to others I know who read the book, they said the same thing. They really felt happy inside while reading it. I will always keep this book.

For anyone who is looking to improve their lives and their views of success...i fully recommend this book by Robert Collier.

This was one the of first books I read about the the law of attraction, attracting wealth and using your subconscious mind.

Our Subconscious Minds are the Genies and it's up to us to let them out of the bottle and command them.

I learn a great deal about the power of the Subconscious mind from this book. I learned about the Law of Supply; how to get strong desire working for me; the impact of visualizing; the formula for Success, and much much more.

Please read it, you'll be glad you did!

If you want to know more about your subc.I heartily recommend these CDs

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
The Master Key System
Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World
The Science of Getting Rich
The Science of Mind
Think and Grow Rich: Original Version

I highly recommend the MP3 AUDIOBOOK version of this book: The Secret of the Ages