“If life is a journey, doesn’t it make absolute sense to enjoy every step and stage of that journey? With my new book you will learn how to do just that.”
If life is a journey, doesn’t it make absolute sense to enjoy every step and stage of that journey?
Wouldn’t the most important thing be to ensure that every moment, every experience and every relationship matters and was adding to our journey not taking away from it?
Going through the book and exercises is a journey in itself.
The different sections and strategies are ways in which others have changed their experience of their lives and in doing so felt more resourced to make the bigger changes and decisions that were needed.
They are about starting where you are and working with what you’ve got and with what is within your control.
You don’t need lots of time, money or degrees to put them into practice. You just need to be open to the content and suggested exercises and have the willingness and follow through to put them into practice.
They have worked for countless others just like you.
They can be a prompt, a reminder or a catalyst.
They can work for you if you take the journey.
Adding Life to Your Years is a book which offers practical strategies which can change the way you think and feel about yourself and life.
There are three themes which also run through the book and exercises. Self-Awareness, Self-Acceptance and Movement.
It is based on a coaching approach, the basis of which is twofold …it should be thought provoking and creative. Through the process someone gets some insight, awareness, new perspective or clarity and then there is action which builds on that. The action integrates it from being just information to experience and wisdom.
There are 26 sections, each one offering some information or questions to provoke thought and then some suggestions for practical ways in which you can integrate that into your life.
We are what we repeatedly do. Consciously applying some of the information and exercises in this book for a set period can interrupt the old patterns or habits and introduce more useful and supportive ones.
The various sections and exercises are not just what I or current thinkers and bloggers recommend. They are what I have seen working for people just like you to improve the quality of their lives
They are some of the ways in which people have shifted from just ‘doing’ to being.
They are the questions or shifts which people have said really worked…that really made a difference, that was the turning point for helping them see how they can change their experience of their life….regardless of what the circumstances of that life may be.
So this book is not claiming that it will change your life but that it can be the start of improving your experience of the one you have. It can help you feel more positive and empowered and the energy that brings can move you on to bringing about the bigger changes you want.
It can be a starting point or a prompt, a reminder or a catalyst.
There are 26 sections. If you focus on a section for two weeks at a time you will have completed them all over the course of a year. If you do it a week at a time, over 6 months.
One suggestion would be to go through each section in the order they are. Pick a day and time to start and let that be the day and time each week or fortnight that you revisit and move to the next one. Take time to read through, reflect and then think about how you want to apply it to your life or situation. Perhaps put a prompt or reminder of the theme in a prominent place (screensaver on phone, bathroom mirror, fridge, or just the book itself) so that it is a constant reminder of the fact that you are committed to change and improving the quality of your life.
Another suggestion would be to go through and pick a section randomly, whatever page you open the book on or think of a number and open it on that page. The same then applies in applying it for the week or fortnight that follows.
You may want to pick out the one that seems most relevant or needed at that point in time for you. If you are doing it this way that is brilliant but please also take the time to do the ones that appeal less. They may the ones you need the most or the ones which will provide the most challenge… Often the magic happens outside our comfort zone.
You may want to read through it all to start and then go back and start to work your way through it.
You may like to do it as a couple, family or group of friends. That way you can support, encourage or hold each other accountable as appropriate (which is another reason why coaching works so well!!). Doing it with others can help to make it more enjoyable and sustainable.
You might like to get a new journal or book or open a section on your iPhone/iPad/computer where you chart your journey through the book, different sections and how you get on. Note your initial reactions to it, how you go about putting it into practice and what impact it has. It can be a reminder of how we were feeling along the way and a way of charting changes.
At the end I would love to hear which one enjoyed the most or found of most benefit.
My hope would be that if you found something of help or benefit you might pass it on to someone else.
Leave some feedback in the form below with your thoughts on the book.