Unlimited: How to Build an Exceptional Life [Hardcover]

Jillian Michaels (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 5, 2011

Many self-help books offer a lot of new age platitudes and sappy mantras  like "Just love yourself," "See the glass as half full" and "Believe it and it will come."

Really? That’s not how it works, and you know it. A lifetime’s worth of struggle is not overturned in a small moment of positive thinking. But if you have the right attitude—attitude and skills—you can and will accomplish anything and everything you want. This book gives you both, attitude and action. By its end you will have all the tools you need to change your life. No hype. No false promises.

You will learn to:

• Cultivate your passion and embrace your uniqueness to create a purpose-filled life . . .on your own terms.
• Transform your suffering into peace, wisdom, and strength.
• Work through fear, worry, shame, and negative self-talk to blast through obstacles and create self-confidence, self-esteem, and a healthy self-image.
• Take powerful, informed, deliberate actions to make your dreams a reality.

Forget surviving: it’s your time to thrive. You do have the ability and potential to achieve unlimited health, wealth, and happiness. Getting there won’t all be easy—nothing worthwhile ever is—but take this journey and your life will change dramatically. Your possibilities are unlimited, and your life is waiting for you to break free and claim it

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Guest Reviewer: Rita Wilson on Unlimited
Rita Wilson is an actress, producer, writer and lover of life. She has appeared in numerous films and television shows, produced the most successful independent movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar magazine, has appeared on The Oprah Show discussing fashion and style, and is writing her first screenplay for Fox called Terms of Embarrassment. She is married, has two sons and is thankful for every day of her life.

We all know how to lose weight. There is no mystery. Eat less. Exercise more. Sounds simple enough, right? What about losing the habits that keep you locked into a mindset that doesn’t work for you anymore? Simple, yes. Easy, not so much. Jillian Michaels’ Unlimited helps one lose the excess baggage that one carries while trying to live a full life, a life that uses one’s God given gifts. Unlimited gives you the tools to accomplish letting go of bad habits, unsuccessful mindsets, and stifling fears. Jillian’s experience with people from all walks of life, her own experiences, combined with her keen insight about human nature has allowed her to decipher what it is that really keeps someone from reaching their true potential. But she makes it simple. Notice I didn’t say “easy.” She gives you assignments to start you on a path of articulating the things that keep you stuck. How many times do we dare ask ourselves why we aren’t doing we want to do when it is so “easy” to blame someone, or find an excuse. Jillian teaches us that we have it within us to make changes now. And then she shows you how to do it. When someone has had success altering the patterns of people’s lives for the better, as Jillian has, we can consider it a gift that this book has come along. We get the benefits of all her years of experience, trials and errors. Why shouldn’t we live life without limits to our happiness? Unlimited can help you on your journey. Pick up a copy. It’s that simple.

Review

"Like a friend patting the reader on the back before kicking them in the rear...offers inspiration for people who are taking those first rocky steps on the road to self-improvement."--Kirkus

“From the first page, readers will feel her enthusiasm; a winning mix of humor, contestant case studies, personal experience, and motivation (she demands that readers wake up; "Screw surviving," she says, "It's time to THRIVE") never feels platitudinous”--Publisher's Weekly

"Unlimited is a very candid and thorough book that aims to help people lead more fulfilling lives."-- Chicago Sun-Times 

"Michaels  offers a three-pronged approach to changing your trajectory: imagine, believe and achieve. Using examples from her own life, and those from "Biggest Loser" contestants, she shows how to shake off the fears holding you back and embrace the future."--Washington Post Express

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; First Edition edition (April 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307588300
• ISBN-13: 978-0307588302
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JILLIAN MICHAELS, best known as a strength trainer and life coach for the NBC hit series The Biggest Loser, is the author of the bestselling Making the Cut and Winning by Losing.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#93 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#93 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

175 of 177 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A "real" review! April 9, 2011

By Nataliya

Format:Hardcover

I am shocked by the fact that I actually loved this book! Shocked! Look at my other reviews and you'll see that I have in the past reviewed another one of Jillian's books ("Master your Metabolism") and I didn't love it. I wasn't going to even bother reading another one of Jillian's books, but I picked up a copy at the book store just out of curiosity. Imagine my surprise when half an hour later I was well in to the book and couldn't wait to read more. I bought the book and finished it in one day, it was that good!
You should note that most other reviews posted so far are from the people who received advanced copes and were thus "compelled" to be more favorable about reviewing it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not belittling the "advanced reviewer's" efforts. But I have seen it more than once where these types of reviews are not entirely objective. I haven't received an advanced copy and as I mentioned above, I'm not one of Jillian's rabid fans.
About the book - if I had to describe it in a couple of words, I would say it's a sort of "shrink-in-a-box". You know, like Jack-in-a-box, but with a side of psychology instead of fries. If I had to describe it in more than a few words I would say this:
Jillian had written a book about the most important part of any endeavor, whether it's weight loss, fulfilling career or finding love. The book is about the "Head stuff" as opposed to the "Body stuff". It addresses the things that keep us from reaching our full potential.
Anyone who had tried dieting or starting a new exercise program or getting a dream job knows on some level that the mindset with which you approach these things is more important than anything else. So many people set off on these "journeys" without having their head in the right place. That's why so many diets fail! But if you do your mental, psychological and emotional homework first, you are much more likely to succeed. Most diet books completely ignore the "Head stuff". And those that do address it, give you a bunch of platitudes about "believe and you shall achieve" and "if I can do it, so can you". I'll be honest with you, I hate it when people say that!
What Jillian does, that I haven't seen anyone else do, is tell you how exactly you are supposed to accomplish tricky things like finding out why you got fat in the first place and how are you supposed to go about fixing all the "Head stuff".
Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of New-Age-y type of blubber like "we are the universe and the universe is us" type of stuff. But it is done in a very tongue-in-cheek way. She tells you ahead of time that you don't have to buy in to that stuff in order to take advantage of all the tools she gives you.
All-in-all I am thoroughly impressed and will buy a copy of this book for a few of my friends and family who I'm pretty sure will benefit from it. And believe you me, coming from a life-long skeptic who used to hate seeing Jillian "get in to people's faces" on TV, this is quite a recommendation! I am now finally getting why she does that "get-in-your-face" stuff. Kudos, Jillian! Nice work!

101 of 107 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is outstanding! A must read for everyone! April 5, 2011

By Danielle

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is fantastic. It's Jillian's first self help book but you would think she has been writing them for years. "Unlimited" isn't your ordinary live in the now, forget the past, smile, just be happy yada, yada, yada kind of self help book. Being happy, healthy and in control doesn't just happen overnight or gets delivered to you from a genie on a magic carpet. You have to take steps and do the work it takes to achieve the goals you want in your life which are provided in the book. There is no nonsense mumbo jumbo to read or words that you have to Google to figure out what the author is talking about and it's not sugar coated. I found this to be an easy read and didn't want to put it down. Jillian writes, "I can't promise you it's going to be easy... But what I can promise you is that I will cut out the crap and tell you what works. Come with me on this journey, and your life will change dramatically, for the better."

There are three steps in the book called Imagine, Believe and Achieve. My suggestion is to read the book from beginning to end and not just open a certain part of the book that might interest you more at first. Of course after you read it there will be many sections of the book you will probably want to go back to. You're going to read everything from identifying your passion, forgiving and accepting responsibility, strengthening your will power and taming emotions to getting organized. Jillian also shares personal stories about herself, family members, close friends and past Biggest Loser contestants. Reading their stories and what they did to overcome different obstacles throughout their lives is very inspiring. And I am pretty sure there will be at least one story you will relate to if not more.

You will also be doing a lot of internal work while reading the book. This work is a must. Throughout the book there are sections called "Working it out". You're definitely going to want to get a separate journal or a notebook as there will be writing to do. When working in these sections there is going to be a lot of self exploration done by way of visualization techniques, answering and thinking of questions about yourself and even others in your life past or present, replacing items in your environment that might be sabotaging you and releasing shame and guilt. Those are just a few of the many self exercises. You will be digging deep inside facing your demons in a way that you may never have before or never wanted to face while working them out and realizing things about yourself that you may never have imagined existed. That might scare some people but do not let it scare you. Its part of the process and you really need to have an open mind. As Jillian says in the book, "no one ever died from an open mind".

"Unlimited" is a book that will help you become aware of yourself on so many levels. It will help you to understand and use your power to make positive choices that will lead to making your dreams become a reality in every aspect of your life. It will help you shed light on unhealthy behaviors that may be holding you back and/or interfering with your potential to be the best version of yourself. I guarantee you will have many "wow" or "yep, that's me" moments while reading. I highly recommend this book to both men and women of all ages. We can choose to make changes at any time in our lives so do not use your age or any circumstance as an excuse to not read this book. If you think that you have it all figured out and your life is perfect, then buy this book for sure. You're most likely clueless. And if you are someone who thinks self help books are a crock or for crazy people, buy the book. Again, this is not an ordinary self help book. In my opinion it's not just "a book", it's a tool for life. So if you're ready to take control of your life and become the person that you envision and want to be, get this book!

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Benevolent! April 5, 2011

By Black Jack

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I received a preliminary copy last month and this is Jillian's Best Book thus far. It's an easy read like her first book Winning By Losing. Jillian explains how one can Live their Dreams through three in depth approaches * IMAGINE * BELIEVE * ACHIEVE * . Jillian uses personal stories and analogies expressing how one can accomplish their own personal Dreams as others have done and are doing so today. She is very precise about how just reading this book will not make ones Dreams come true, that work is involved to achieve such. She has questions at the end of each chapter to help one figure out how to get to where they want to be with their goals & Dreams. She also has an Unlimited mini site on her website which has quizzes, workbooks, message boards, journals, photos, music downloads that all go along with Unlimited. This is a book that I can always use as a resource. She teaches you how to get to where you want to go if you're ready to get there and do the work. It takes a lot to grasp my attention when it comes to reading and this book definitely got my attention. It is Beautifully written!

Thanks Jillian for dropping another seed into the Universe!