Customer Reviews

Life Makeovers (UAB)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

If you read _Take Time for Your Life_ and thought, this book is soo great, but I don't know how to organize this, then you want this book. Richardson takes the steps presented in her first book and breaks them down into 52 tasks (neatly designed to take 1 year obviously). The titles to the chapters are catchy, the exercises are useful, helpful, and not designed to take massive chunks out of your life, in fact, they are designed to put more time in your life, I think. Her style is easy and not too preachy -- she makes this fun as changing your life should be. Consider this a personal consultation with Cheryl Richardson (with a much lower price tag) :)

The author comes across very direct. She tells you what is wrong and how to correct it. She feels that only truth heals. She offers valuable solutions to some of our common problems. I gained significantly from reading the book. I would also highly recommend the book An Encounter With A Prophet where much healing truth also abides.

This "book" is excellent if you look to it and use it as a self help "tool" or "mannual" and not as a book for spiritual guidance or merely an enjoyable read. It is simply written but very well written .Precise and to the point and this is why it is so effective.However, to improve your life using this book you must be willing to work with it over a long period of time and not to just read it over a couple of hours or a couple of days.It should be used slowly to affect change and you're supposed to work with one chapter at a time over a period of a year.I think this makes lots of sense as old habits die hard and good new habits take time to set in.For example: the first week you're supposed to write 25 things you are most proud of accomplishing over the past year.It took me about 4 days to find all 25 things , but at the end I really felt good about myself, before that I used to (negatively)think that my time flew without getting anything done.Many books will spend pages and pages telling you about the benefits of positive thinking,and how to achieve it. This book actually fostered positive thinking with one very simple exercise. This is the beauty of this book! Another example:The next week I found one goal that I felt I needed to focus on and then wrote three actions that I will take each week to achieve this goal.Prior to that I used to set so many goals to work on at the same time , with no clear plan of action as to exactly how to achieve these goals. Over the past few months this book made me feel good about myself, introduced me to the satisfaction of self-care , made me respect my priorities and now I have a schedule that reflect these priorities, it helped me find time slots for doing things that really matter to me like excersising and spending quality time with my family, and helped me create a much needed balance between my different roles in life.I finally achieved some goals I've been talking about wanting to achieve for years. Highly recommended.Two other highly recommended books for a better life are: The seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey and the 10 dumbest mistakes smart people make and how to avoid them by Arther Freeman and Rose Dewolf.

This book is designed for the work-obsessed, and will be most valuable to women who have both demanding jobs and busy home responsibilities. It is easy to turn the demands of others into a compulsion to work all the time. In that process, you can lose sight of yourself and the purposes you want to serve. The main weakness of this book is that it has you take on a great many new activities without letting most of them continue long enough to become good, new habits. Converted into a book from 52 weekly on-line newsletters, this book would have been greatly improved by editing it into a less demanding regimen with more repetition and fewer new things to do.

Ms. Richardson is a personal coach, and normally meets with her clientele weekly to check on how they are doing and to give them new direction. She has attempted to match that model by encouraging you to find a friend or a group to provide support for you, and to prescribe (blindly) exercises for your weekly pursuit. Although this one-size-fits-all approach may work fine for some, for many it will not be optimal.

I suggest a different approach. Treat this book as a resource guide instead. Start by reading the whole book. Make notes about which sections relate to problems that you are sure you have, and are having trouble dealing with. Then think about how solving these problems with help you have a better life. Next, reorder the sequences to get help for yourself in the areas where you need it first. When doing this, continue with a set of exercises until they become new and improving habits before taking on the next thing. Otherwise, I think you will find your busy schedule simply filled up with new self-oriented activities. If you are not careful, this will just create a different kind of stress, being busier and having spent more money.

Most people will find that they need to repeat something 45 to 60 times before it becomes a firmly entrenched habit. Since many of these exercises are to be pursued once a day, I suspect that you will be able to add a new exercise (unless you have a lot of spare time) only about every 6-9 weeks rather than once a week. So if you found all of these exercises helpful, it would take several years to make the adjustment. I see that as good, rather than as slow progress. If you made 4 or 5 major changes in important areas for you in the next year, that would be an exceptionally good year for personal progress.

Once you are ready to begin, I commend the first two weeks to you. The first one suggests that you begin by "acknowledging yourself for what you've already acomplished and . . . who you've become over the last year." This perspective is a good one for thinking about where you need to focus and how much progress you need. The second one calls for goal setting. Writing down your goals is the best advice in this book. If you review those goals regularly, you will undoubtedly make a lot of progress. Research on personal progress continuously validates that method to progress. The rest of the book is mostly a set of techniques to break you out of old habits and routines, so that you consciously choose how you focus and spend your time.

Having taken a lot of self-improvement courses, I agree with her advice to both keep a journal in many of these areas and to regularly check in with your buddy or self-help group. That provides perspective, structure, as well as motivation to continue.

Early in the process, be sure to do one or more of the exercises that is designed to help you reduce your commitments. Otherwise, you will become even more overwhelmed. You have to start doing less of something unimportant before you can do more of something important.

This book seems to encourage a lot of self-indulgence . . . massages, new goodies for the house or office, and relaxation. However, that may not be what's missing for you. You may need more excitement and company. So part of the answer may be to go skiing more often, and to have that experience be more companionable by doing it with family and those you love.

After you have done the exercises that make the most sense to you, I suggest that you try a few that don't. Sometimes it's hard to understand a message about something you haven't experienced before. For example, I don't like to tidy up, and this book encourages that a lot. I plan to do some straightening up to see if that does add something for me psychologically that I am missing.

The exercises and resource materials referred to in the book are stronger than the 52 essays. For that reason, I suggest that you focus on the exercises and resource materials. In the areas where you decide to focus, read at least some of one book on the resource list. The essay material here is pretty sketchy and will not be enough to shift your focus otherwise.

After you have finished with the program you have designed, I suggest that you repeat the process I have outlined here. Having had more experience as your own personal coach, you'll be in a better position to design and implement the next program you pursue. If you are no longer overly busy and stressed, consider what besides time and repose are missing from your life and rebalance to create more in those most missing areas.

Be deliberate in designing your life to fit what makes you most satisfied with yourself! Then, you can be yourself . . . naturally.

I had read Cheryl's other best selling book called "Take Time For Your Life" and enjoyed it so much that I picked up this one. I recommend both these books. I read through this book once already and am now revisiting different chapters where I want to "take (the) action challenges" Cheryl suggests at each chapter ending. I have started writing a daily morning journal outlining my priorities for the day and the week. I have found this "action challenge" to be very helpful in completing tasks at work and at home, keeping me centered and focused on what I want in my life, including more fun and productive work time. I also appreciate the generous resource listings Cheryl provides. It definitely makes "taking action" easier. Such as great web site listings for finances, humor, health, etc..

Another book I enjoyed and recommend highly that has a "no work" approach to personal transformation is called "WORKING ON YOURSELF DOESN'T WORK" by Ariel and Shya Kane. In this book the authors write about a non judgmental way of seeing what is in your life as being a tool for lasting transformation. And it works! Since reading this book my life has become more satisfying, meaningful and rewarding. The Kanes have some great audio tapes too, such as "THE ROOTS OF SATISFACTION."

I liked the tone of this book, it's all about taking care of yourself and prioritizing your life so that what matters to you comes first.

There are very good suggestions, like making a list of 25 good things/improvements/etc. you've done in the past year. It's amazing how often we only see the bad and never the good in our lives, so this is an eye-opener. Cleaning your work area not only betters your physical space but it's amazing how lighter you do feel when you are not thinking (subconsciously or otherwise) about the files and folders that are everywhere.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by life and work, and while not all the exercises were my cup of tea, at least try the ones that make sense to you.

That said, there were a few suggestions that were a little bizarre. For example, when a friend calls to complain, to tell them they have 2 minutes and then they have to come up with a solution to their problem. I understand if this is someone who continuously calls to whine about their boring life, but I'm sorry, if a friend needs comfort, then they should get comfort, not a "2-minute" limit. Also, the suggestion to change your call back time from one day to a week made me laugh out loud. I'd be out of a job if I told people I would get back to them in a WEEK! This is just not feasible and I sure don't want to do business with people who take a week to get back to me.

Overall, like I said, this is a good idea, but take it, like everything else, with a grain of salt. This won't work 100% for everyone. I've taken some ideas I liked and ignored what I know won't work for me.

Cheryl Richardson's writing style and thought processes are what distinguish this book from other self-help books in this area. People in search of this type of book are frequently mystified either online or in the bookstore wondering which one is right for them. For a good majority of these people, including myself, I can enthusiastically recommend all of Cheryl's books.

Cheryl's suggestions are pragmatic and realistic, yet she has the unique ability amongst writers in this area to suggest pragmatic and realistic solutions in a gentle, compassionate, and most importantly, non-condescending way.

Anyone looking for a self-help book to literally give themselves a 'life makeover' (an *extremely* apropos title for this book!) should at the very least give this book a try.

Is this the book for everyone? No. Everyone takes to different styles. Everyone's path to a 'life makeover' is different. However, I think this book will at the very least provide a jump start for people needing one. At its best, it will, via it's day-by-day structure, keep you on the path to a revitalized outlook on your life.

I give this book a wholehearted recommendation and have recommended it to friends, which I do not often do.

I hope the readers have the same results as I did.

You can't sit around on your hands and expect your life to change. That's the basic message of LIFE MAKEOVERS. If you truly want to make over you life, you need to take ACTION, and author Cheryl Richardson (a "life coach" and frequent guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show) provides readers with plenty of action steps that will jump start a life makeover. Written in a format of weekly exercises, assignments, and thought-provoking essays, this book offers readers who may be "feeling stuck" a way to get started on making the changes they want in their lives. The "figuring out what to do" part is taken care of for you. Richardson sees to it that you know exactly where to begin and how to follow through. The author does tend to over-do the "self-care" portions of the book (her enthusiasm for maximum self-care sometimes seems more tiring than encouraging), and she's a little overboard on the "positive thinking" aspects of change, as well. But, in general, she has the right idea. If you like "to-do" lists and the feeling of accomplishment that comes from completing exercises and crossing things off such lists, then you'll like Richardson's approach to making over your life.

Having come to a point in my life when I'm realizing things are not as they should be...yet not really knowing what to do about it...Cheryl's book was like a light in the darkness guiding me in the right direction. In just 10 days, this self-admitted procrastinator has started a personal journal, started 2 gift journals (an idea in the book), created 2 life maps (another idea in the book), and began taking proactive steps in reconnecting with friends that have drifted away from neglect. Last night, I created my list of goals for the NEXT 10 days. I'm so full of ideas and inspiration, thanks to Cheryl, that I now know which path to take...now it's up to me to stay on it.

It is a shame that some of the reviewers here have obviously misunderstood the book. According to Cheryl, cleaning your office does more than help you to work more efficiently. If you read closer, she is saying how cleaning your work space, and therefore some of the physical clutter in your life, allows for better things to come in, and not necessarily in the form of more efficient work. The clutter drains some energy, not allowing you to focus on what you'd rather be focused on. So, contrary to some of the reviews here, the information is far from basic and trite. It really makes you take a new approach to handling your life, and ultimately offers you a chance for true fulfillment, whether it be spiritually, financially, etc.

You need to be on a different level to really appreciate Chery'l work. You need to be able to look beyond the obvious and appreciate the magic in life. Give this book a shot. You'll be glad you did! I know I am!