motivational

This website is about motivational poetry, and also contains resources about motivational speakers , motivational picture , and fish motivational .

Title : Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More
Author : Joe Vitale
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Written proof and instruction on how to wipe out all problems easily and enjoyably

In this amazing book Joe Vitale describes his encounters with Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len, the Hawaiian psychologist and healer, where they tell us about many different applications of the Hawaiian method Ho'oponopono.

These examples cover areas like
* violent inmates in a prison hospital who become calm,
* a room that needed to be acknowledged before allowing a large dinner party to occupy it or
* the innocence of hamburgers because the real enemy is what you think about the food

Dr Hew Len teaches that we alone, each one of us, are responsible for everything outside ourselves.

Joe describes the steps through the book's many examples. Many of us would have some difficulty in recognising the situations where we could apply the extremely easy and simple steps to heal the situation by healing ourselves. Joe's examples make it much easier to recognise where we can use this method.

Trusting in gratitude, love and forgiveness enables us to lead healed lives in a healed society.

Try it for a few days and you'll see.

Title : E-myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company
Author : Michael Gerber
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Zen and the Art of Entrepreneurship

The book is about the 'Self' as businessman/woman. The key is the, periodic, precisely ordered and focused exercises.

These are questions, Michael Gerber, aims at the heart and soul of being/becoming an entrepreneur. And so one is, if one is open to the questioning, able to pinpoint within oneself the barriers to becoming a truly creative person. Then, after self-reflection, one may come from a space, which was previously closed and oppressive, to an open and experiential one.

There is a storyline in the book showing clearly how the entrepreneur becomes so easily a robot and a machine in the current business ethos. So how does one stay alive and renewed in what is essentially a mechanised business world? Well, this book tackles this dilemma - by making one confront oneself and ones susceptibility, and then enabling one to recover integrity and creativity from within oneself. Because, ultimately, it is not the techniques and methods which make for success, but who one is and how well one knows oneself, and continues to discover oneself.

The book has its highest value in enabling self-knowledge as an entrepreneur.

Michael Gerber in the book does, however, always present the avenues and methods for success in the greatest of practical detail (for example on sales he covers internet portal, direct mail etc. etc. etc. etc. - it's all covered - with advantages and disadvantages and practical application). There are downloadable worksheets, all very ordered and practical where one can try out, test and keep records about ones experiments with oneself, the business and the marketplace.

I would have liked to say more on the practical side of the book, because it is hugely practical and applicable. But it is a year since I read a borrowed copy and don't have it in front of me. I am now ordering a copy for myself.

Entrepreneurship, in my view, is a difficult business. It is one of the greatest challenges to oneself. It can be a disheartening and even degrading experience. Thank you, Michael Gerber, for enabling me to know the dangers, and for giving me clarity and understanding at the beginning of my new business.

Finally, this is not a quick fix book, although because of the practical detail it can be used like one. But beware, for the book is about a journey one decides to make/take - and there are many adventures to be had along the way! :)

Title : You Can Heal Your Life
Author : Louise L. Hay
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Life-changing!

This book was literally life-changing for me. It made me see that my thoughts actually could change my life. I also found out that I am worthy and deserving. And so are you!
The exploration of the mind-body links is fascinating. If you've ever suffered from an ailment or dis-ease this book gives you the probable emotional and mental reasons why, and an affirmation to help.
If you've suffered from bad life experiences or a traumatic childhood, read Louise's story. You'll be inspired.

Title : Sink Reflections
Author : Marla Cilley
Rating : 3 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Great system - poor book

I came across Flylady last year, starting with the BabySteps, and found very quickly that I could keep my over-cluttered home clean and tidy by following these routines - this was a great help when my flat went on the market, as it would be ready for viewings with a simple 'swish and swipe' each morning!

I bought the book to help me move onto the next stage of Flylady - decluttering, zone cleaning and the control journal - but I was really disappointed. I found the book poorly laid out (the chapter on babysteps introduces a number of new steps, numbering them would have made the book easier to read and the routines easier to follow) and the tone of writing grated on me after a couple of chapters - too many references to God and how cleaning your home will demonstrate to yourself and your family how much you love yourself and them (I'm not a lazy frump with a filthy house, I'm just a busy full-time worker who can't keep on top of the housework and can't afford a cleaner). All of the recommendations in the book, and more, are already covered on the Flylady website.

The Flylady system does work, but I would recommend saving yourself a few pounds and using Flylady.net instead of buying the book. 5 stars for the system, 1 star for the book itself.

Title : Think and Grow Rich
Author : Napoleon Hill
Rating : 2 Stars out of 5.
Summary : This edition not the best

I have owned this book for years, but I recently have discovered another, newer version that is far superior. It is "Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised" published by Aventine Press. For one thing it is a bigger book, both in size and in pages (412). It turns out that the book that this review is about is an abridged version of the original, something I never knew in all the times I have read it over the years. This smaller version, while good, contains nothing like the additional information in the "Restored and Revised" version. There is just a ton of fascinating facts and information in the back of the book. In the older book (the plain "Think and Grow Rich"), the print is somewhat difficult to read, there is little space for writing notes. The newer version reads better and by comparison is a far more useful learning instrument. Napoleon Hill's work is probably the most important ever done in the motivational and self-improvement field. Whichever version you read, it will change your life forever.

Title : Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Author : Robert Cialdini
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Excellent content somewhat marred by impractical conclusions

3rd edition/publication (2007), Collins Business Essentials, 320 pages (of which 280 pages for actual book)

Influence is another of the twenty books Charlie Munger recommends in the second edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack. Its content is excellent (and sometimes even hair-raisingly remarkable - as when he shows that media reporting of suicides actually causes more of them via the social proof bias) but I think Cialdini could have done a much better job of turning the research evidence into useful/practical advice. (The same problem manifests itself in Gilbert's book `Stumbling on Happiness' - though Cialdini's is the better book.)

I was discussing this book with a friend who had also read it and I thought he put it very well: Cialdini is one of those clever people who is not very wise. That is also why Poor Charlie's Almanack is so good and unusual: Munger is both clever and has deliberately attempted to distil a lifetime's worth of reading over a broad subject matter area into practical advice on how to live a successful/useful life.

In particular, Cialdini shows us clearly that a significant number of our psychological biases work completely unconsciously. (By that I mean it can be demonstrated that a certain bias has affected a group of individual's actions/conclusions whilst they strenuously deny they have paid any attention to or are even totally unaware of the biasing factor.) For example, Cialdini quotes one study where "men who saw a new-car ad that included a seductive young woman model rated the car as faster, more appealing, more expensive-looking, and better designed than did men who saw the same ad without the model. Yet when asked later, the men refused to believe that the presence of the young woman had influenced their judgements."

He then goes on to suggest various complicated ways to try to monitor ourselves to see if we are being affected by some of these biases - in order that we can attempt to limit the damage from faulty decisions (often in situations deliberately set up to cause our faulty decisions to be detrimental to us and advantageous to some other). For example, he highlights the "extreme caution" needed in auction situations where one encounters the "devilish construction of scarcity plus rivalry" - and suggests that we watch ourselves for signs of arousal so that we can stop short.

Well, I think Munger and his partner Warren Buffett have a much more practical and simpler way of dealing with that problem, based on the wisdom of the rustic that Munger likes to quote: "all I want to know is where I'm going to die so can avoid going there." The whole thrust of Cialdini's book is that these biases are often unconscious and are in any case often very strong (and usually much stronger that we believe/expect) - which is another way of saying you're unlikely to have good results fighting against them.

Much better to simply bypass the problem where possible and do as Buffett does and refuse to get involved in auction situations. Using rules like this, to paraphrase Munger on a different subject (tax shelters): if you always avoid auction situations you might miss out on the odd good deal, but overall your life is likely to be better.

This is also why I consider Taleb (Fooled by Randomness) to be much wiser than Cialdini: he understands that being aware of biases doesn't make them go away. You need tricks and methods to live successfully with them.

I also think the advice in Cialdini's epilogue is very poor. He suggests that we rise up to fight people/organisations who misuse our psychological biases for their own ends: "In short, we should be willing to use boycott, threat, confrontation, censure, tirade, nearly anything, to retaliate."

This is crazy advice: the effort and time required to do it would leave little for anything else and would also guarantee a miserable life focussed on negativity. It also shows Cialdini's lack of familiarity with good training principles (an excellent book on the subject is Karen Pryor's `Don't Shoot The Dog'). Plenty of research now shows that positive reinforcement (rewarding behaviour you like) is at least as effective as negative reinforcement and much more so than punishment. It also has the huge benefit of leading to a much more pleasant life.

However, even with those caveats (essentially that you have to do your own thinking about how to cope with the biases that Cialdini does an excellent job of laying out) it is still a very useful book.