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Book Review: Relatable guide for making necessary changes

In a world so rife with denial, especially when it comes to lifestyle choices, the combination of sheer honesty and sincerity of Stop Making Excuses and Start Living with Energy might just be what you need.

Bookmate (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, November 1, 2016

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Book Review: Relatable guide for making necessary changes "Stop Making Excuses and Start Living with Energy" by Alyssa Abbey. (Shutterstock/I AM NIKOM)

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ou’re too busy; too emotionally drained. Traffic is taking a toll on you. You’ve done enough to validate cutting yourself some slack—haven’t you? Think about the excuses you tell yourself; the “maybe tomorrows” and “later ons”; the things you believe stand as good enough reason to not make the necessary changes in your life.

In a world so rife with denial, especially when it comes to lifestyle choices, the combination of sheer honesty and sincerity of Stop Making Excuses and Start Living with Energy might just be what you need.

We all have the energy to make lasting changes, according to author Alyssa Abbey. And with a little bit of help understanding our strengths and weaknesses, everyone has the ability to move forward and do more.

Self-help books often get a bad rap for telling people the obvious; advising them to do things they’ve heard a thousand times from friends and family. But in Stop Making Excuses, Abbey offers a simple and relatable guide to getting one’s ducks in a row in four parts: an overview of what it means to live with energy; how to deal with the excuses we tell ourselves; strategies to achieve vitality; and making realistic action plans.

(Read also: Book Review: A soul search for modern spirituality)

It opens with the question “what do you really want?”—a call to contemplate our priorities and appreciate the fact that there really are only 24 hours in a day. “We tend to be overcommitted to work and under-committed to our own health, our families and friends, and the pursuit of happiness,” she writes, comparing life to a treadmill running at 90 miles per hour.

In another chapter Abbey discusses the role of language—the phrases and words used when talking about ourselves—in shaping our habits. The difference between ‘having to’ do something and ‘choosing to’ do something takes center stage, as she emphasizes how humans tend to use language that takes away their free will.

Aside from making no-nonsense, easy to understand points, and using simple writing to explain them, what’s great about this book is that it comes with worksheets, making the whole book more than just a reading journey, but a well mapped-out observation of our own thought-processes. (kes)

Click here to read the book.

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Category: Novel

Author: Alyssa Abbey

Publisher: Capstone

Published: 2011

Reviewer: Christabelle Adeline Palar

 



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