Customer Reviews

Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want

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"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear" is a truth that will manifest itself over and over as this exciting new book is read and shared and read again. The number of markers and underlines and margin notes in my preview copy are testaments to the fact I was ready. I devoured it and now am going back to start practicing the many exercises. The book's purpose is to help you more clearly identify "what you should be doing with your one wild and precious life."

The author, Martha Beck, has outstanding educational and life experience credentials for writing this book. It is both a sharing of her own life journey as well as a manifesto for anyone ready to embrace their own best life. With a B.A. in East Asian Studies and master's and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from Harvard University, Beck is a trained observer and analyst. Her coaching specialty is helping people design satisfying and meaningful life experiences. She first got on my radar screen as a columnist for Oprah Magazine, where I am regularly impressed with her no-nonsense, delightfully humorous approach to issues about life's questions, fears, and psychological roadblocks.

I recently read Beck's bestselling book EXPECTING ADAM, the story of her 1987-88 pregnancy and giving birth to a Downs syndrome child (new edition in 2011). Its subtitle is "A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic." The unabashed revelation of her own fears, neuroses, and personal/professional challenges at the time was both heart-wrenching and inspiring. Martha has known and overcome tragedy, sadness, and self-limiting thoughts. She is an excellent guide for empowering others to overcome their own life issues. FINDING YOUR WAY IN A WILD NEW WORLD is her ultimate guidebook, the best of her teaching and philosophy in one zinger of a book.

FINDING YOUR WAY IN A WILD NEW WORLD is not going to resonate with everyone. Some will dismiss it as just another pop cultural self-help book. Others will use terms like "woo-woo" and "New Age nonsense." They'd be selling it short. I am a devout Christian with an insatiable curiosity and open mind about spirituality and human potential. This book was filled with research-based findings on the power of our connectedness with each other and with all living things in nature (flora and fauna), and I believe people of any faith will find it enriches, rather than contradicts, their core beliefs.

Beck includes many practical exercises for each section of her book, all designed to exercise the parts of our brain that we don't use enough, to train ourselves to focus our attention, and to tap into the energy that is mostly likely to allow us to find and cultivate our own best selves. They're designed to get us out of our mental ruts!

Here are some hints that this book might be perfect for you right now:
* If you feel a yearning that you can't identify or suppress.
* If you feel the need for clarity and purpose in your life.
* If you're afraid to do things that you think you'd love to do.
* If wild success and abysmal failure both scare you.
* If you feel fragmented with no clear focus in your life.
* If your wild fantasies seem impossible but won't let you go.
* If you feel you're about to explode with possibilities and potential but can't grab on to that one thing that feels just right.
* If you suspect your self-talk is holding you back.
* If you feel like you're bumping your head against one obstacle after another but you're certain there's something better on the other side.
* If you feel the world is changing so fast you can't keep up.
* If you feel stuck and unproductive.
* If you feel in need of emotional healing before you can move on to your real purpose of healing others.
* If you desperately want to make a difference with the rest of your life but don't know what on earth you that might "look like."

If any one of these rings true, you owe it to yourself to read this book. There is a generous excerpt available for free on Amazon. If it doesn't grab you by the time you finish reading those pages, either the book is not for you or the timing is not right in your life.

If the timing is right for you, you'll gain clarity, focus, and powerful tools for living abundantly in the best sense of the word.

I was excited to read Martha's new book Finding Your Way in a Wild New World until I found out that it was about MAGIC. Oh no I thought would this be too woo woo? Would my clients now think I was crazy since I trained with Martha Beck and am one of her coaches? Would my radio listeners turn the dial and look for something else that really applied to their life?

Then I read the book. WOW! I invite you to go beyond the language that Martha uses in her book. Maybe you do not understand what Wordlessness means right now. But when you read the book and practice her tools you will experience and understand Wordlessness. Don't let the ideas or what you think MAGIC, WORDLESSNESS, or some of her other words Martha uses to stop you from at least exploring Martha's latest book. When I read this book I let go of my resistance to the language in her book and Martha opened up information and powerful experiences for me. Her book makes so much sense and her tools can help you.

And like all of Martha's other works she encourages you to test it out for yourself and see if it works. Don't just take her word for it since she is a best selling author and columnist in O, the Oprah magazine.

Unlike other self-help books where you ask yourself, "how can I REALLY apply this to my life?" Martha gives you tools that you can do while living your life in her latest book Finding Your Way In A Wild New World.

I rarely write book reviews eventhough I have used the reviews for 1,000s of books/items for years as a buyer and this time I decided to write a review, because maybe you are skeptical like I was and I wanted you to know that once I let go of my resistance, Martha's book gave me more insight and tools to help myself as well as my clients and listeners on my show.

Did you ever hear one of those interviews when someone says "I feel SO lucky because I get up everyday and I get to do what I love and get paid for it!" ?

Finding Your Way in a Wild New World is a guidebook to enable you to do just that!

After serendipitously being introduced to "Expecting Adam" several years ago, I became huge fan of Martha Beck's writing: intelligent and insightful, yet self-deprecating and silly.

You're having so much fun reading that you hardly realize how much you are learning and that she has equipped you with tools that can change your life.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of some the exercises in the book. Do them and you're on an expedition that will help you dust off your unique talents, combine them with the lessons you've learned in life (aka bumps in the road) and put them to "work" (play!) in a way that no one else can.

The year is young, but I doubt I'll read another book in the next twelve months as inspiring, smart, and challenging as this one. Ten years ago, reading "Finding Your Own North Star" gave me the tools and the courage to leave my high-paying, high-prestige job. I've used its principles to build a new career that's so much rewarding and just as remunerative. Now Martha Beck's new book is showing me the tools that will help me take my living to a whole new level. I'd been hearing Martha talk about Wordlessness, Oneness, Imagination, and Forming for a while, but it's a revelation to read the depth of research; clear, cogent exercises; and inspiring storytelling in these pages. I've already started sharing the book with my kids and their friends so that the next generation can shape their life paths right out of the gate instead of waiting until their forties the way I did! LOVE this book!

I saw this book in my local B&N on New Year's Eve day and immediately bought it. It was calling out to me. I couldn't put it down and devoured the entire book within 24 hours. It felt like I had been given a fantastic gift to start the new year. Perfect timing, although as those of us who are wayfinders know, there are no accidents. Martha Beck writes with a solid grounding in psychology and sociology, yet the book is written in an accessible way. Allow the words to seep into your heart, body and mind and you will realize she is bringing forth profound information. She is a superb writer; witty, poignant, insightful and brings a deep level of knowingness to the world today. As a life-long wayfinder who has written on the power of guided imagery, [[ASIN:1572244941 Visualize Confidence: How to Use Guided Imagery to Overcome Self-Doubt] I can attest to the power of Wordlessness, Oneness, Imagination, and Forming. Be open to Martha's book and your life will begin to change.

I'm a big fan of Martha Beck, and her new book Finding Your Way In A Wild World is her latest amazing book. She manages to synthesize new ideas about personal transformation in a way that I wish I had thought to do. Her writing also reflects a self deprecating sense of humor that always makes me feel she is one of us. In this book, she provides everything from a recipe on how to make a green "gorilla" smoothie to fun games to play to do your job better.

She covers four technologies of "magic":

Wordlessness
Oneness
Imagination
Forming

Those ideas alone aren't so unusual or new, but the way in which Martha weaves through adventures in Africa and personal experiences is nothing short of genius. If you're interested in approaching personal change through a fun set of writing exercises, this is a great book to buy or get on loan from your local library.

This is my favorite book of hers since reading Finding Your Own North Star. I read that book back in 2003 and it helped me change my life in so many ways, I'll always read everything she writes. '

This is an excellent book, the best that I've read so far from Beck. She gives practical exercises to tune into the skills she is teaching. This book is more spiritual guidance than her other books, but it also goes deeper. It has already changed my life for the better, and I am looking at everything with a new understanding. I highly recommend this book both because it teaches so much and because it is so entertaining.

Have you ever been so captivated by a book that you didn't want to put it down for anything? This is THAT book. I've read most of Martha's books and Finding Your Way in a Wild New World is my new favorite.

On the release date, I purchased the Kindle version because I didn't want to wait for the hard copy. From the very first page, Martha's story telling captured my attention and I continued to read for the next 4 hours. I devoured the book. Finally, at 1am, my eyelids shut down or I would have kept reading. Then I dreamed about what I read and woke up with new awareness and curiosity about everything around me. Finished this powerful book the next night.

Martha's writing combines epic storytelling, powerful metaphors, pragmatic tools and exercises, all infused with humor. You'll laugh, you'll gasp, you'll love it. When you finish, you'll have all you need to find your path back to your true nature; a state of rest and play. I'll go right ahead and say it, I predict it's the best book I'll read all year.

I will read any book by Martha Beck. She is one of my heroes, for her courage in confronting and leaving the totalitarianism of the Mormon church, and one of my saints for the compassion and love with which she wrote about her journey away from a religion and family that caused her untold sorrow and suffering. In my personal life, her earlier coaching books, starting with Finding Your Own North Star, have steered me through huge life changes and troubles with difficult people. I take at least one of her books on each duty trip, to keep up my spirits and keep me connected to my true self.

Nonetheless, I wondered whether she could write another book that was as good, as helpful, as rereadable, as her earlier ones have been for me. The answer is yes, I am happy to say. The general message of Finding Your Way could be thought of as broadly the same as her earlier books: There is a way for you to live in the world that is right for you; you must live that way to be happy and healthy; here are the steps you can take to find that way for yourself. But this book is not a repetition of what she's said before in any way that detracts from its usefulness. This time, she focusses her advice on a group of people she calls the Team: people who feel they should be doing something to help the world, and that the time for them to do it is now. As she says, if you're reading her book, you're probably on the Team--I agree. Her stories, her insights, her advice and practical exercises are all new and very helpful. They don't repeat and they don't supersede the material in her earlier books, they just add a whole lot of wonderful resources. I am already on my second reading--got the book late last week--and expect to cherish and reread it as much as her others. Thank you, Martha!

For me, this book is the culmination of the right-life seeking tools Martha's been teaching in Finding Your Own North Star and Steering by Starlight. As someone who always knew deep inside that there was more for me yet had no clue how to access that inner wisdom, I love how Martha gives the reader concrete science-based information about how to do just that. And in this book, she unleashes her storytelling skills to tell us about the magic that happens as a result using the tools she teaches. This book is the perfect mashup of Martha at her best: spiritual storyteller plus pragmatist with more than a liberal dash of humor. Loved it!