Customer Reviews

The Gift: The 12 Greatest Tools of Personal Growth -- and How to Put Them into Practice

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a speaker and trainer for over 20 years, I have often quoted Dr. Helmstetter's earlier books in my presentations on self-esteem and successfull goal setting. This book is the best yet because of how concisely he isolates 12 major-but-simple techniques anyone can use to improve their lives. In fact, a reader can pick and choose what chapter to read to fit a particular circumstances.

I bought extra copies of this book to give to people I care about. Recently I was visiting a friend in her real-estate office. She pulled out her now well-worn, bookmarked copy of the book I had given her several weeks ago to help her through a business slump. She told me how priceless she thought the book was and how much she was benefiting from it. However, she was equally excited because she been able to share parts of it with her teenage daughter, who then asked to borrow the book to share with another friend who needed to work on her self-esteem. (My friend got another copy for the girls because she will not give up her own!)

I have read all of Dr. Helmstetter's books and know that he has already changed many lives, but I truly believe this is his best book yet. There is something in this book for everyone, and the real gift you give yourself when you have this book is the joy of sharing it with someone else.

Normally, I read a book because I feel it "calling me."

But this book was given to me by a sales rep for Arbonne International who was trying to convince me to not only become a sales rep, but to also give her a list of prospects in an area that she had been trying to tap into for some time.

While she learned from me that neither of these approaches worked for me, because I know what I am meant to be doing, and I not only am doing, but I also value my resources too much to even consider parting with them, I did choose to read this book.

The "Gift" is that we are all born with the ability and right to not only dream, but to also fulfill our dreams.

And, to fulfill our dreams we all need twelve tools. They are:

1. Surrounding yourself with success;
This comes down to envisioning yourself amongst people who
bridge what you lack, who encourage you to be your
authentic self.

This also requires you to take time everyday to check in
with your spirit, and reaffirm your partnership with your
spirit.

2. Choice;
With a healthy sense of what is right and wrong, you create
choice for yourself.

3. Helping other people to grow;
This requires excellent listening skills, where you are
fully in the moment, compassionate and whole.

A by-product of helping others to grow is that you too will
grow.

4. Believing in yourself;
One of the most important things that I do that affirms my
belief in myself is to introspectively write everyday,
about my experiences with others. I write from the worst
to the best, then, respond in the same introspection from
the other person's perspective with these 6 sentence stems
(Thank you ..., for ... I understand ... I am sorry ... You
deserve ... I want ... I love/admire ...)

The results are always wonderfully amazing.

5. Changing your self-talk;
Because we are all influenced by attitudes of those who we
interact with, our self-talk may be limiting what we are
capable of. We need to compassionately respond to our
inner selves, as though we are talking to little children.

This is how we evolve.

6. Exceptional attitude;
To me, this doesn't necessarily mean always being positive,
because to always be positive means to not allow yourself
to experience what is not right, for you.

You've got to find balance, where you are free to own,
admit, experience and express your truth; direct yourself to
matter you desire.

7. Finding your focus;
Deep, relaxed breathing does the trick.

8. Setting great goals;
Great goals take you further along your life's mission.

9. Taking control of your time and your life;
When you know what your life mission is, and you choose to
live everyday doing what is within your life mission, you
take control of your time and your life.

10. Putting yourself into action;
If you have trouble executing your goal, maybe that goal
isn't yours. To achieve, and actually surpass that goal,
you must have intention. And you must enjoy seeing yourself
doing what it takes to achieve that goal.

Sometimes this takes getting indignant with yourself - then
choosing to rise like the phoenix.

11. Never giving up;
This is where being around successful people is
important. They will freely encourage you to stay
focused upon remembering your dreams.


12. Doing something you love.
This is giving yourself permission to be yourself. And it
is something that if you don't do it, for some time, your
life is not balanced.

The 12 concepts are great...but getting to them isn't. The book reads like an infomercial for a company which shall be nameless (in this review at least.) You will get a lot more out of Helmstetter's book "What to Say When You Talk to Yourself." There's really nothing new here. Good information hidden among the sales pitch for <the company which shall be nameless>.

I have enjoyed Dr. Helmstetter's various books over the years, and I expected that this book would be every bit as good. I was very disappointed that there was so much verbiage dedicated to a multi-level marketing skin care company. I just couldn't get past the thought that every chapter seemed to be a commercial for this company, and that every Arbonne sales associate would be using it as a tool to recruit to their "downline."

If you have not read other books by Dr. Helmstetter, this may be a good read, but I sadly found it to be redundant and a bit stale.

This book is basically an advertisement for recruitment into Arbonne cosmetics. The underlying message is very good but you have to wade around the book to find it. I have read "What To Say When You Talk To Yourself" by the same author and it is very good. No advertisements. Just a good book. I was expecting the same with this one. I will not be recommending this to anyone.

This book covers all the basics of self-help in a concise, easy to follow format. It works equally well for those who, like me, do a lot of self-help and self-improvement reading--or for people who have never used this kind of tool. I've given it to many people and every one of them finds it useful! I highly recommend this book as I think it's Dr. Helmstetter's best along with What To Say When You Talk To Your Self.

What a pity that a man with such integrity and expertise in the personal development field ends up tainting his work by trying to market and manipulate you into Arbonne International. His principles are good but ends up compromising himself. Its still worth the read.

Dr. Shad Helmstetter has written 12 previous books in the field of personal growth. In our view, "The Gift" is the best of the best.

After writing many best-sellers, (including the multi-million best-seller "WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOU TALK TO YOUR SELF") in his new book, "THE GIFT," Dr. Helmstetter has brought together "the best of the best." In one book, that is very easy to read, Helmstetter has identified the most life-changing concepts he has found in his more than thirty years of research in the field of human potential.

From the first page to the last, Dr. Helmstetter informs, teaches, inspires, and motivates the reader. (We especially liked his chapters on "self-talk," "surrounding yourself with success," and his life-changing ideas on setting goals.)

If you would like learn from one of the "greats" in personal growth, and read a no-nonsense book from one of the most respected researchers and authors of our time, we highly recommend "THE GIFT" by Shad Helmstetter. It is a life-chnging book.

In the field of personal growth, we rate "THE GIFT" by Dr. Shad Helmstetter as "the best of the best."

I have been a reader of personal growth books, including Dr. Helmstetter's previous books (Including "What To Say When You Talk to Your Self") for over twenty years. I ordered his latest book, "The Gift," from Amazon.com, and read it in just two days.

After all of the others, I would rate "The Gift" as one of the best books on motivation and personal growth that I have read. In this one he cuts to the chase, and presents the twelve best concepts for individual or professional success that he found in his thirty-something years of working and writing in the field.

This one is a "must read" if you are at all interested in getting the best from yourself or from the people you are working with.

I bought this book mainly because I enjoyed "What To Say When You Talk To Yourself" very much and also because of the straight forward self-improvement information it promises to provide. I should have taken a closer look at the content of the book itself before I went ahead with my decision to purchase it. This book is the most blatant example of product placement in publishing that I have ever come across in my life. And that's saying something because I read very regularly. He immediately starts off by talking about a company that I've never heard of and will not bother to mention here, as an example of a great company that espouses each of the self-improvement concepts that he describes in his book as the 12 greatest tools of personal growth. At first it was fine; I can understand referencing a company to make your point more relevant. But then he goes on about how the employees are working for themselves and their families and not for someone else. How they were able to regain their happiness and joy for life when they joined the company. How they were able to quit their day jobs and gain financial freedom as a side effect of working in this company. And how you can make it work for you too if you should choose to do so. And that's when he gives the url of their website to read about the company yourself and learn more about what it can do for you. No, I'm not kidding. He continues to reference back to the company and its employees throughout the rest of the book. He must have gotten a really bad royalty deal with "What To Say..." because he obviously needed some fast cash with this one.