No Matter What Padded Board Book (Send a Story)

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We learn from Sally that adopting children who have suffered neglect and abuse, requires not only resilient parents but expert advice, support and understanding from a range of professionals and from family and friends. With a title focused on writing, and a chapter devoted to 'Using tools that work', I was nevertheless a little bit disappointed with the actual writing (productivity) techniques. She touches upon the fundamental use of a 'project box', for example, but is at the same time very prescriptive (this is what you should do) and vague (I won't tell you exactly how to) in explaining how this works. Given that I already use some version of this project box (digitally, not materially), I have an idea about how this works in practice (and that it does!), but she gives very little information about how to use this core 'taming technique'. Tal Ben-Shahar taught at Harvard, where his classes on Positive Psychology and The Psychology of Leadership were among the most popular courses in the University's history. Today Tal teaches at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.

Just cute little foxy touches that make the story that much better, more interesting, and more enjoyable. The author did make a good point of creating a "reverse day planner" wherein you log what you are doing for every hour of the day after you do it, which allows you to better assess retroactively how efficiently you're using your time. I like the idea of this, but personally I find it quite hard to strictly schedule my time, because I prefer to go on outdoor runs, which are highly contingent on weather and my general level of busyness. That, plus other contingent/difficult to plan issues (how long will cooking take? will it just be reheating leftovers or making something brand new? what about going to the store?). When I try to plan I inevitably find too many floating items for it to really be helpful, so I just eventually give up and only schedule out the big things that don't change... which doesn't help me. Lisa snapped out of her misery and decided to own her problems so she could do something about them. And she did. Normally, when this happens, the rest as they say becomes history and people go on to make it big in the area of motivational speaking and use their story as a reference point: throw in the sexual molestation she experienced at age five, and the picture is complete. This is the ordinary model and of course Lisa was also sexually molested when she was only five! Tal Ben-Shahar (Hebrew: טל בן-שחר‎, also known as Tal David Ben-Shachar) is an Israeli teacher and writer in the areas of positive psychology and leadership.

About Debi Gliori

I have mixed feelings about this book. In the introduction, the author explains she is trying to enumerate what is often left mystified, specifically how to write at an academic level in addition to all the other responsibilities one has in grad and post-grad academic life. But ultimately the book feels like it trades one pathology for another, namely the one found in the title. "Write No Matter What" just sounds so unhealthy as a mantra, as if you are so busy you can't afford not to write, so you have to cram it into any free moment you have, like all your other work. It was this overwhelmed/bragging about being busy atmosphere which alarmed me most about returning to school. I don't think the author of this book intended to give off that vibe, but much of her advice felt like it was still operating from a place of fear rather than a place of love.

I implemented her three main points of advice immediately and for what it's worth, in the two weeks I've done that, it has really helped me to work more on a paper I would otherwise never have started already. Tal received his PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University. His dissertation, completed in 2004, is titled "Restoring Self-Esteem's Self-Esteem: The Constructs of Dependent and Independent Competence and Worth." Additionally, he also holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from Harvard in Philosophy and Psychology. His undergraduate thesis, completed in 1996, is titled "Honesty Pays: Bridging the Gap Between Moral Theory and Practice." Her approach to self-growth is so powerful, that I realized I've been neglecting myself way too much all this while and now I need to thank this book for waking me up to start 'doing myself' first, only by doing so I can serve my purpose and enrich others. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in personal growth and experiencing more wellbeing. As I was reading, I kept thinking of people I would love to gift a copy to.Every time I say that I am through with reading self-help books, then another one falls into my lap.