This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down [Hardcover]

Deborah Collins Stephens (Author), Michealene Cristini Risley (Author), Jackie Speier (Author), Jan Yanehiro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2007

This Is Not the Life I Ordered is for anyone who has ever felt overworked, overwhelmed, or just plain unlucky (and, who hasn't?!). Through this collection of stories, wisdom, and practical advice, readers will meet four ordinary women who have faced extraordinary life challenges. Together, they have a history of six marriages, ten children, four stepchildren, six dogs, two miscarriages, two cats, a failed adoption, and foster parenthood. Two have lived through the death of their spouses and one was shot and left for dead on a tarmac in Guyana -- which is documented in "Jonestown" airing on PBS' American Experience

This book started simply with four friends getting together for "kitchen-table coaching sessions" to talk about their lives. Week by week and story by story, they realized their great advice to each other could help other women struggling with life's myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. For over a decade, the power and strength of their collective friendship enabled these women not only to survive but to thrive. They invite readers to join them to learn how they, too, can turn "misfortunate" events into joy-filled opportunities. Readers will want to share this book with every woman in their lives!

* Authors are best-selling business-book author, Deborah Collins Stephens; Emmy winner Jan Yanehiro; State Senator Jackie Speier; and entrepreneur Michealene Cristini Risley whose Flashcards was screened at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

* Authors' support circle includes Debbi Fields, Kristi Yamaguchi, Danielle Steele, Gerry Laybourne, and other power women.

* Features practical "Wit (Women in Transition) Kit" tips at the end of each chapter to help readers to be their own life coaches.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Inspiration to survive the worst luck and . . . climb into a new life with unexpected happiness.” --Amy Tan

“I wish I had this book 30 years ago. What a welcome source of inspiration and insight.” --Linda Ellerbee

“These women inspire us to go for the gold in our lives. They all deserve 10s!” --Kristi Yamaguchi --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Deborah Collins Stephens is the co-founder and managing partner of the Center for Innovative Leadership, which consults with leaders and organizations on improving customer service, creating inspired teams, and building the link between employee motivation and customer loyalty. She is the author of six books, three of which have been best sellers: Maslow on Management, One Size Fits One, and Revisiting the Human Side of Enterprise. Stephens lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Michealene Cristini Risley is an entrepreneur who has created some of the largest deals in the consumer products and entertainment industries. As an executive with twenty-plus years' experience, she launched the first-ever branded maternity license for Adidas. As vice president of licensing and character development for Sega of America, she championed the Sega Girls Task Force. She also produced, directed, and funded a documentary called Flashcards, which garnered status at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Christini Risley lives in Marin County, California.

Jackie Speier served in the California State Legislature for 18 years rising to the Assistant Pro Tem of the State Senate and Chair of Committees on Banking, Finance and Insurance and Government Oversight. Previously Speier served 6 years on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. She ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2006 and lost by 3% of the vote. She gained national attention in 1978 as legal counsel to Congressman Leo Ryan accompanying him on an ill-fated trip to Guyana to investigate Jim Jones and the People's Temple. Ryan was killed and Speier shot 5 times. She is featured in the PBS documentary American Experience

Jan Yanehiro has skydived with the Army's Golden Knights and ventured up a frozen waterfall...all in the name of getting a good story! Jan pioneered the magazine format on television as co-host of Evening Magazine, a nightly program in San Francisco from 1976-90. Currently, Jan is the host of Everyday Angels on Comcast Cable TV and the Executive Producer of Pacific Fusion TV. Her latest documentary, Resettlement to Redress, examines the resettlement of Japanese Americans after WWII and the apology from the US government regarding internment. Married and mother of six, Jan has won multiple awards and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award. She holds seats on several boards including the Kristi Yamaguchi Always Dream Foundation and The Bank of Marin.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (March 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573243051
• ISBN-13: 978-1573243056
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't say enough good things about this book!, March 31, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down (Hardcover)

Destiny threw four women together more than a decade ago who started a monthly Kitchen Table Friends. They created a place every woman needs: where she can say the unsayable about her life and those in it.

These women are successful in their own right, so I'll introduce them here with just a sampling of their many accomplishments:

* Deborah Collins Stephens is an author (3 bestsellers).
* Jackie Speier is a lawyer, California State Senator and Jonestown shooting victim.
* Michealine Cristin Risley is an award-winning documentary producer.
* Jan Yanehiro hosts Appraise It! on HGTV and has won three Emmys.

Reading this list might indicate that these successful women "have it all." Not true. They've been divorced, widowed, left without money or a home, fired, lost elections, etc. etc. Marlene Dietrich famously said, "It is the friends you call at 4 o'clock in the morning that really matter." And that's what these women are for each other.

When they were asked to speak about their Kitchen Table Friends concept to a group of professional women--400 packed the room.

The sections show the 50 ways (subtitle), and have wonderful quotes by women. My favorites are:
1. Gratitude (finding it even in the worst of days, like "at least the ...).

2. Saying "how" instead of "why"--as in "how" can I use this
experience--"how" denoting future, and "why" dwells on the past.

3. Facing your fears. Discouragement has courage at its root--and courage has the French word for heart as its root.

An overused word today, but I thought this book was AWESOME. This is a read-every-word, think-about-it-a-while, call-a-girlfriend-to-talk-about-it book. It is both powerful and meaningful. It is filled with humor, hope, handholding and the humanity only women can show to each other.

Recently I received a book to review where the women called each other the B word (I said no). Women of any age should NOT be doing that to each other!

Armchair Interviews says: This is a 10-star book that women will tell friends about and buy as gifts because it is empowering and gives hope.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading this Book is like Having Coffee With your Best Friends, March 17, 2007

By 

Arline Curtiss (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down (Hardcover)

This book fairly reeks with positivity. But I mean that in a positive way. This good-hearted book was both inspiring and comforting at the same time. In a way it reminded me of Elly, the character in my favorite comic strip "For Better or For Worse." I just see myself in Elly all the time. In this book, it is the same. You feel the compassionate connectedness of like-minded people just reaching a hand out to you from across the pages of the book. As you see how they handled their difficulties you feel elevated as a fellow human being right along with them. This book is also about the healing power of honesty. It reminds you that the very thing that you might be tempted to hide out of some feeling of shame is the very thing that immediately opens up the hearts of those around you. I'm a board-certified cognitive behavioral therapist who teaches people to re-wire their brains to get out of depression. People mistakenly think they are depressed because of their problems but, in fact, they are always depressed because of their depression. Of course, once depression is taken care of the problems still remain and this book is a huge support for seeing problems in a more positive light. Bravo! A. B. Curtiss, author of BRAINSWITCH OUT OF DEPRESSION.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Is Not the Life I Ordered, March 26, 2007

By 

Kristine Goodrich (Menlo Park, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down (Hardcover)

Once I started this book I could not put it down. I was at a family gathering and all my sisters started reading it too. In todays society we can fool ourselves into thinking we are in control. This book reminds us we are not and that it is okay. When life throws a curve ball we CAN rebound. I highly recommend this book