Living Your Joy: A Practical Guide to Happiness [Hardcover]

Suzanne Falter-Barns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2003

In a fast-paced world where you work far more than you relax and reflect, Suzanne Falter-Barns has made it her mission in life to inspire you to be “your sweet old self–the one you’ve always known was there.” In Living Your Joy, she gives you the courage to trade the job you hate for the work you love, find time and space for creative expression, start your dream business, and live the life you have always wanted.

Suzanne’s fresh, funny, and utterly practical book helps you melt your fears and tap into the inner wisdom that is your true guide to fulfillment. Dozens of inspiring true stories and many exercises are designed to bring clarity to your thinking and help you master the nitty-gritty of getting from where you are to where you want to be; create your spiritual base camp; know when to leap and when not to leap; and discover the incredible value of emptiness. Master the essential art of staying focused and everything else you need to know to change your life for good–really good.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Falter-Burns strikes an encouraging but realistic tone in this down-to-earth self-help manual aimed at people struggling with doubts about pursuing their dream, whether it's writing a screenplay or creating kiln-fired glass jewelry. Instead of new-agey cheerleading, the author, who lived "the hand-to-mouth existence of a happy, impoverished artist" until her late 30s, offers instructive tools for dealing with the time, money and energy deficits that interfere with achieving big goals. She insists that people have more time than they think they do, and provides advice on structuring and protecting that time as well as ways to avoid wasting precious minutes that can otherwise be devoted to working towards the dream. Her list of "Thirty Guaranteed Time-savers," for example, includes tips like primping less, screening calls and holding breakfast instead of lunch meetings. She advises on how to create a workspace, choose the right "day gig" and avoid habits that suck energy (e.g. compulsive shopping, drinking and even perfectionism). In chapters entitled "When to Leap...and When Not to Leap," "How to Keep Your Job and Live Your Dream at the Same Time" and "How to Live with Financial Insecurity," Falter-Burns weighs the pros and cons of the slow, safe transition towards a dream versus a more impetuous plunge into the freelance life. Aspiring artists, writers and entrepreneurs will find basic and creative tips in this succinct motivational guide.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Praise for Suzanne Falter-Barns
and How Much Joy Can You Stand?

“Filled with straight talk, lighthearted humor, and a wealth of practical advice.”
–CHERYL RICHARDSON
Author of Take Time for Your Life

“Use this book as your joy mentor! It elegantly shows how to let go of suffering and accept joy.”
–SARK
Author of Transformation Soup

“Joy is everywhere around us. Suzanne Falter-Barns teaches each of us to reach out and grab some.”
–LAURIE BETH JONES
Author of Jesus CEO
and Grow Something Besides Old

“The ultimate handyman’s special for unblocking creative juices.”
–DR. ROBERT AKERET
Author of Tales from a Traveling Couch

“How Much Joy Can You Stand? helps us to see that we all have passion and inspiration and creativity and genius residing inside us. [Falter-Barns’s] book teaches us how to coax it out and live a truly joyful, lively existence!”
–BARRIE GILLIES
Senior Editor, Fitness

“You’ll come away from this book experience with renewed optimism, a greater understanding of how big you’re willing to be, and a good sense of how to actually live from your greater, you-based self!”
–PENNEY PEIRCE
Author of The Intuitive Way:
A Guide to Living from Inner Wisdom

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (September 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345439171
• ISBN-13: 978-0345439178
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,418,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond The Usual and Into the Application, November 30, 2003

By 

Julie Jordan Scott "Writer, Life Coach - Owne... (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living Your Joy: A Practical Guide to Happiness (Hardcover)

One of the most exceptionally valuable aspects of this book is its clear, concise, simple to follow guidelines for how to move beyond TALKING about how SOMEDAY you will live your joy..... it goes into LIVING your joy right here right now by following this step and that step and the other step... clearly, concisely AND ALSO with signature Suzanne Falter-Barnes style.

Its kind of like getting down to the brass tacks of the situation... actually getting the fingers-- the palms -- the fists into the fingerpaints and just going for it in whatever way you can right here right now and then getting up tomorrow and doing the same thing so that in two weeks, two months, two years from now you will be LIVING your joy... rather than two weeks, two months, two years you would have been still TALKING about someday.....

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Things Do Come in Small Packages, April 11, 2006

By 

Susan Reynolds (Loudoun County VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Living Your Joy: A Practical Guide to Happiness (Hardcover)

Even before you get to the meat of the book you'll likely notice the delightful size, perfect for tucking into your bag as you're heading off to who knows where.

And when you get the opportunity to open it up there are golden nuggets on every page. There's nothing fake or sugary about the advice given and Suzanne avoids sounding like a re-run of cheerleader camp or wearer of rose-colored glasses.

Her warm conversational style and easy delivery make the material in the book an encouraging gift to the reader. And both author and content contributed to its spot on my recomended reading at http://susanreynolds.blogs.com/

? 2006 Susan Reynolds

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gifted words: http://www.broadjam.com/khor, September 1, 2005

By 

Vivian Khor "Khor Books" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Living Your Joy: A Practical Guide to Happiness (Hardcover)

As an artist/engineer/music composer, I found this book very helpful in easing some of the things that I have on becoming Joyful...is to follow the dream...yet there is so much that I am trying to "protect". This book is an all round words of wisdom and the author seems to know how to express what my difficulties are and what to do about it. I am not so alone and it is great that she followed her dream to fruition. She made it possible for herself to share her gifts, in return, help us to share our dreams.