Book Club: Succeed Because of What You've Been Through by Rhonda Sciortino

If it seems WAY too soon for another Book Club book review it's because the last one was out of order. I read October's book before September's!  Luckily for me this month's book was a short easy read and I've had a decent amount of down time to read.

This month's book was Succeed Because of What You'e Been Through by Rhonda Sciortino.

I put off purchasing and reading this book.  I suppose it's partially because I'm still working through The Dark Tower Series, but I also just wasn't in the mood for a self help book.  A surprising fact given the shear volume of self help books I've read over the years.  I think part of the problem is that I was put off by the title.  "Because of what I've been through??  What does it matter what I've been through?  Succeed because you put your body and spirit into it, it doesn't matter what's in the past!!"  Turns out that's kind of the point behind the book.

Overall, I think the book had some very good points.  It's the type of book I would have read in college and enjoyed, although at some points it was a little too "Law of Attraction" heavy for me.  While it has always been my belief that hard work and perseverance will pay off and are the only way to success, it has never been my belief that hard work, even coupled with REALLY believing, can guarantee you achieve ALL of your financial and personal goals.  I guess I'm just too much of a pessimist for that.  Too much of life is out of our control for me to believe that, although I'm totally on board that hard work, sacrifice, changing negative past behaviors, letting go of mistakes and recognizing the cost of your goals will get you closer to your goals than you are now.

I was also impressed with the author's ability to state the facts of her past without hosting "The Pain Olympics."  The Pain Olympics is a concept used sometimes in my grief group.  The idea is that it's easy to look at other's and insist that my hurt is worse than your hurt.  From the outside it's easy to make these types of judgement, but they are useless, hurtful and inaccurate.  Everyone has faced their own unique set of challenges.  Some of us have been luckier than others, but everyone has fought their own battles and faced their own demons.  

Personally, what I took from the book was a relatively small exercise.  I'm trying to look at negative things in a more positive light.  In particular, to phrase them verbally in a more positive light.  I'm creative and I can creatively describe the same situation in lots of different lights.  My goal is to actively work on using brighter lights for darker moments.

I'm looking forward to tonight's discussion.  I'm interested to learn more about the women in my book club.