Tag Archive for: books – personal growth

 

 

The difference in success, or failure, is not how you look, not how you dress and not even how you're educated. It's how you think. One can't overstate the importance of being able to maintain a positive attitude but let's be honest...it's not easy.

That's why there's so much to love about this book, Attitude is Everything...10 Rules for Staying Positive. It breaks down the #1 key to success in a simple, but unforgettable way. The bottom line is that no matter what you do in life, the wisdom in this little book will help you succeed!

Today, we have an excerpt from a chapter titled: "Wait to Worry," which is great advice for everyone we know! Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Excerpt from Attitude is Everything
by Vicki Hitzges

 

 

The excerpt is only available to PIVOTAL Members.  Log in to access it or join now (membership is free)

 

 


This beautiful little book makes a treasured gift for any occasion

and offers a great reminder to be self-less.

For more information, or to look inside the book, just click here.

 

In this extract from Tim Costello’s new book, he writes that hope can be found in unexpected places.

Hope by Tim Costello 
Hope is a powerful and transforming force – it’s the liberating change that happens when people are able to imagine and believe in a future. It’s the driving emotional strength that sits beneath resilience and purpose. From demoralised and marginalised people in Australian cities to rural communities in Africa, I have encountered people being touched by hope, often in times and circumstances that are totally unexpected.
A year or two ago, I drove five hours south of Addis Ababa into the Ethiopian highlands – the region where coffee was first cultivated 3,000 years ago. With me were two philanthropist friends, the Australian actors Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness, and together we began exploring this ancient settled landscape and meeting some of the local coffee growers.
The farmers here are poor and 90 per cent of the trees are gone – cut down for firewood, the only source of fuel and energy for cooking. Of course, it is the women who must collect the firewood and, because of the scarcity of trees, they are venturing further from home to find timber. Their long journeys exacerbate their risk of injury, rape and abduction. The farmers’ cottages have thatched roofs and no chimneys or windows.
On the trip down, we saw smoke leaching through the thatched roofs of the cottages. The fires that burn in the centre of the homes, providing light and heat for cooking, also give respiratory illnesses to the children inside.
World Vision had provided some of the farmers with a methane digester. A simple trap to be placed over the rubbish-and-manure pit, it captures the methane produced from the waste and then pipes it into the hut. Immediately the family is cooking on gas, eliminating the need to cut down trees and breathe in the smoke, and the women are no longer putting themselves at risk travelling huge distances to collect wood.
For a few hours, Hugh stripped down and toiled with a farmer called Ducale. They wheeled rubbish into his manure pit, patting it down with a spade as they did so. All of this was done by Hugh in his Gucci boots, mind. Ducale did not speak a word of English and had no idea who Hugh was.
I watched as later they sat having coffee together in Ducale’s hut holding hands, laughing and hugging – all without a word in common. Thanks to the methane digester, Ducale has opened a coffee shop in his hut and has become an energy exporter to the village. His income has skyrocketed, his children get to study by smokeless gaslight at night, and they are doing better at school.
As Hugh and Ducale sat and drank coffee together after their sweaty work, I learned that physical work transcends words and culture. And it was refreshing to see once again that hope can pop up in the most unlikely places.
I have found it spring to life among people coping with homelessness and mental health challenges in St Kilda and in Aboriginal communities in outback Australia. And now on the rooftop of Africa it flowers too for a coffee grower named Ducale.
Hugh and Deb planted two coffee trees at the back of Ducale’s hut and named them after their kids, Oscar and Eva. They promised to bring them to Ducale’s farm in a few years. Two families separated by global extremes, so different and yet all part of the one humanity, celebrating joy and family.
Hope always springs to mind whenever I smell coffee.
Hope by Tim Costello was published by Hardie Grant.

The 7 Blessings is the spell-binding fable that takes place deep within the great subterranean city known as the Septropolis hewn from the bedrock beneath The Great Mountain by the legendary King Termaine to protect his beloved people from the dangers of invasion and the perils of a hostile world. 

Accompany Nena, Ohma, Plabius and Ishim as they embark upon their noble quest to discover the secrets of the seven blessings in hope of saving their world from the devastation and destruction at the hands of the power-hungry and ruthless rulers whose actions threaten its very survival. 

With so many parallels to our modern day world, the lessons that await our heroes are the same ones that our own world leaders need to grasp and implement if we are to live in harmony and peace and avoid self-annihilation and the destruction of our planet. 

The Seven Blessings will fascinate and entertain you as it teaches you the key principles you’ll need to live your best life. 

  

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

by Carol Dweck

World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea-the power of our mindset.

Dweck explains why it's not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn't foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals-personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.

“A good book is one whose advice you believe. A great book is one whose advice you follow. I have found Carol Dweck’s work on mindsets invaluable in my own life, and even life-changing in my attitudes toward the challenges that, over the years, become more demanding rather than less. This is a book that can change your life, as its ideas have changed mine.”

From Publishers Weekly
Mindset is "an established set of attitudes held by someone," says the Oxford American Dictionary. It turns out, however, that a set of attitudes needn't be so set, according to Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford. Dweck proposes that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as... well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity. Which mindset do you possess? Dweck provides a checklist to assess yourself and shows how a particular mindset can affect all areas of your life, from business to sports and love. The good news, says Dweck, is that mindsets are not set: at any time, you can learn to use a growth mindset to achieve success and happiness. This is a serious, practical book. Dweck's overall assertion that rigid thinking benefits no one, least of all yourself, and that a change of mind is always possible, is welcome

The book is available in the latest edition at Amazon

and yes that's an affiliate link. I will earn a few cents if you buy through it.  Thank you!

 

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is a bit of folk wisdom that illustrates a powerful truth: the remedies that provide true health come in daily doses! You can’t work out one day a month for twelve hours and expect to get in shape. But if you work out thirty minutes a day, you’ll see definite results.

Spiritual life is the same way. Going to church on Sunday and attending an occasional seminar or special service might be great for a growth spurt, but we still need to practice a daily “walk with God” if we want to mature and develop as people of faith. That daily walk needs to include time in God’s Word, prayer, and giving thought to those things that matter to God—so that they will increasingly matter to us.

Inspired Faith 365 Days a Year is just what the doctor ordered for your spirit. Simple and profound new writings are combined with a weekly selection from one of the great devotional writers from history like Spurgeon, Wesley, and Tozer. Each selection includes a Scripture verse, a suggested Scripture reading, an inspirational quote, and a prayer starter.