You Can Get It Done by Liisa Kyle (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

  

18th Book of 2024

I remember reading a book by Jan Yager named “How to finish everything you start” which obviously talked about how we can ensure that we just don’t end up starting a lot of things but not completing most of them. Thankfully, after couple of years, I got to read a book almost on the same topic named “You can get it done” written by Liisa Kyle who’s a PhD holder. This 136-pages book published by Aleph also has a tagline- “Choose what to do, plan, start, stay on track, overcome obstacles and finish”.

 

Liisa’s writing style is very friendly which makes this book readable for everyone right from school to senior citizens. She has divided the book in small chapters which makes it easy for the readers to read the whole book in a single sitting or continue reading a chapter every day and finish it gradually in 10 days. I read the hardcover version and it is very portable to carry while traveling. In the initial chapters, Liisa helps us understand how she has structured her book and it is something I have read for the first time. She mentions different stages where we are stuck in our journey of starting something to quitting it and helps us navigate directly to the chapter which shall provide resolution to our current problem in the process.

 

This makes this book of a great utility value. It’s not only about reading the theoretical knowledge but understanding the direct application of it. The book starts with the concept of a Plodder or Burster which helps us understand our approach towards a particular task. Author motivates us here telling that we can be both depending on various tasks hence even if we aren’t on track for few, we need not get disappointed. This tells about the empathy value that author has added in her writing.

 

Initially itself, at a segment, author asks us to leave the book and identify our issue with the task completion for a week and then come back to understand further. I liked reading this unique way of engaging readers with the book in a passive manner. Every chapter is full of activities which are real fun.

 

I enjoyed reading the section where author tries explaining how morning time has more energy as well as creativity due to the uniqueness of this phase where we have just got up experiencing dreams which gives wings to our imagination. This is a totally new concept about morning times and what a way to introduce it to us.

 

In the vision board chapter, author tries to help the reader group who have not even identified what tasks to get involved in. Author explains the process in stepwise manner which is so exciting to understand how a human being can identify the work of their interest and joy. Amazing!

 

As mentioned above, again at a middle junction in the book, author mentioned how we can get back to our project rather than continuing to read the book as the sole reason for picking it is to understand how to work on our project and finish it. Haha! At this point, she tells which chapters to target ahead in the book in terms of how we are doing with our tasks that we have started monitoring since we started reading this book.

 

In the last chapters, author describes different kinds of inner enemies sitting within us who gets activated at different trigger points. She also provides amazing solutions to help us kill those inner enemies and proceed ahead with our goals.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I felt that the book is written getting inspired by the new Agile methodology under which corporate world has started working. It makes us start something, review it in between and accordingly quit few irrelevant tasks and ensure other important ones get finished by the end of the sprint cycle. I wished if author could have focused more upon the personal goals along with professional perspective as well. She tries to specify the personal elements as well but the solutions sound similar to the ones which are effective in the professional setup. Author also ends up repeating several concepts in different chapters which makes it boring at times to read the same thing twice or thrice.

 

Overall, this book is surely a good booster for us when we get stuck in a phase where we are unable to pursue whatever we started doing. I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA

High-Functioning Anxiety by Dr. Lalitaa Suglani (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

  

17^th Book of 2024

We have found many articles and stories asking us to concentrate more upon our mental health and give it priority just like we give to our physical health. Unfortunately, not many institutions/public figures walk the talk. I am glad that one of the publication houses I follow, Hay House India, regularly publishes books which are based upon the topics related to our mental health. I read their previous book which was about self-love and this time, I read a book which is about anxiety. “High functioning anxiety” is written by Dr. Lalitaa Suglani in around 225 pages which also comes up with the tagline- “A 5-step guide to calming the inner panic and thriving”.

 

Lalitaa introduces us to the concept of High functioning anxiety which is not like regular anxiety but a different purview wherein people experience anxiety while still being able to function well in their daily lives. People with high-functioning anxiety may appear successful and well-accomplished, but they may also be struggling with internal feelings of stress, self-doubt, and fear. This made me curious to read further as most of us go through such phase where we process normally but we always feel anxious within.

 

The initial chapters are a different experience to read as author introduces us with various types of HFAs wherein she explains how some childhood experiences and treatments transform a certain kind of our attitude which starts defining our personality. The chapters help us relate with several types as we can associate them with us. Author also clarifies that we can be completely one of them or a combination of multiple types. In further chapters, she tries to mix up two HFA types and explains how we might be struggling with such personality traits. These writings help us understand the concepts well and evaluate how we have been processing ourselves until now.

 

In one of the sections, Lalitaa explains Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in such a way that even after knowing about it previously, it felt like knowing it in an easier and better way. Author highlights upon the fact how we are always striving to please people and become favourites by killing our inner desires. She throws upon the light to the fact that we should be concentrating upon our real self and lead the path to self-awareness.

 

Author has nicely divided the 5 chapters where she concentrates on each of the 5 steps before moving on to the next. Each chapter consists of case studies, author’s personal experiences, self-reflection questions for us, setting the boundary section etc. which helps us understand the topics rather than just reading blindly. There’s one concept of the “Wheel of Life” in the latter part of the book which nicely divides our life in different sections and help us understand how to give weightage and priority to each of them than missing one of these important elements of life.

 

In the end, author ends the book giving us few reference points to follow in order to overcome the High functioning anxiety. Reading the last step and chapter gives a relief as mostly the book is about the problems thriving within us whereas the last pages give us positivity and hope that we can push ourselves out of this zone.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I must say that author has explained each concept a lot which could have been summed up in a better way by reducing the length of each chapter. The case studies and examples used are repetitive which starts becoming a painful experience to read time and again. The chapters have so many sections and their respective sub-sections that I have ended up missing the flow couple of times. Author could have structured the sections within the chapters in a better manner.

 

Overall, this book is insightful and helps us understand how we can treat the anxiety within us which is gradually taking us towards mental health issues. I would give this book 4 stars out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA

Time to Come Home by Damini Grover (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

  

16^th Book of 2024

There are many self-help books which tells us about multiple things to fix which ends up being ineffective as we tend to forget most of the pointers. There are rarely any books which focus on one aspect of many things we need to do which can itself help us solve many critical issues we are facing in our life. There’s one such book which happened to be beneficial in this aspect which I have just completed reading – “Time To Come Home” written by Damini Grover. This book published by Hay House India in around 275-pages also has a tagline- “Sowing the Seeds of Self-Love for Lasting Happiness”.

 

As the tagline is self-explanatory, the book talks about the benefits of bringing in the aspect and quality of self-love in our attitude and daily lives to ensure that we give prominence to ourselves before anyone else. Damini just doesn’t pick self-love out of many qualities that we must possess to chase happiness. She starts the book by helping the readers understand why self-love is important and how we end up becoming a confused and lost personality by keeping ourselves last in the last of our priority list always.

 

Damini’s writing skill is such that it made me tough to believe that the book has been executed by an Indian author. She has a writing style which is global that makes it relatable for readers across the world. She has chosen very friendly language to make us delve into the concept and apply it in our lives. She is a counselling psychologist herself but doesn’t complicate things by adding jargons related to several theories and chemical reactions happening within us. She keeps things simple to help readers understand how they can understand the missing patterns in their behaviour and start correcting them gradually to achieve long-lasting happiness.

 

Damini takes the readers through the journey in a manner that it never bores you. She has included many conversations between a psychologist and the person seeking therapy which helps us understand the mindset of the victim and relate with it. We tend to understand how we are also facing issues that one of these communicators are. It helps us concentrate more in these sections where we find things which signifies our own status quo. Similarly, there are many stories/incidents mentioned by the authoress that helps us understand the concepts well.

 

Rather than just providing theoretical insights, Damini also includes written exercises after important chapters that helps us recollect our thoughts and revaluate our approach and provide answers as to how we are going to improve those aspects immediately. These exercises are mind-juggling and helps us get into the groove and apply the actionable. It provides us the clear path to walk upon to achieve the ever-aspiring happiness.

 

There is a section where authoress mentions how even after knowing everything and being certified psychologist, even she falls into this trap now and then but she makes regular habit to get out of it by following the mentioned steps. She helps us understand how we need to treat a lot of personality issues that we have acquired from our childhood and experiences. She throws light on concepts such as reparenting where we need to nurture values again in our core system in a new way to lead a better life. She introduces us with concepts on how we can embrace gratitude and forgiveness, follow affirmations rightly, cultivate the art of authenticity and follow the journey even after achieving the goal.

 

Overall, this is a great book which is enough interesting for you to finish in few sittings yet I would suggest to go slow to grasp the beauty of it. I give this book 4.5* out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA