Author Erika Oliver’s book Happy Crap is a source for motivation and inspiration for restricting your negative thoughts to positive that can transform your lives.
Oliver provides eight tools for your journey to living a more positive life with a Happy Crap attitude. Begin by choosing your thought. Oliver writes, “The quality of our thoughts – negative or positive – determines the quality of our experiences and our lives.”
While that seems a simple strategy, if it were there would not be so many people living with negative crap thoughts in their lives. Negative crap, or crappy crap thoughts, influence daily lives that are not recognized, until you are willing to see the positive side.
Without realizing, crappy crap shows up through assumptions – which are simply guesses. How many times does anyone start his or her day with an assumption – whether it is a crappy crap day or a Happy Crap day?
Oliver advises for Happy Crap days; make “daily decisions, set goals, and craft long-term plans using assumptions.” Other people will also make their own assumptions, whether positive or negative. Their assumptions could well be towards you. However, you are not responsible for the assumptions of others, only for yours.
How does negativity affect your life? Oliver suggests it impairs problem solving, communication skills, health issues such as depression, physical, and relationships.
Positive thinking allows you to see life with possibilities, a willingness to take on challenges, and seeing life with a Happy Crap attitude. It means taking control over your thoughts. In Chapter 9, Oliver provides the Happy Crap Tool Box with Eight Tools, a Color Exercise, and a Happy Crap Pledge.
It is your life, your future that you have control of – through your thoughts – make them Happy Crap thoughts – and a happier, more positive life.
BIBLIO: February 2011, In the Affirmative Publishing, Adult NF, $14.95
REVIEWER: Debby Willett
FORMAT: Adult
ISBN: 978-0-9799025-3-6
Reviewed for KSB Promotions Visibility Specialists, ksbpromotions.com
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Monday, February 20, 2012
Saturday, August 28, 2010
The Seventh Level
Jody Feldman
Travis Raines is 12 years old and in middle school. His greatest desire is to be able to join The Legend. It is, however, very secret, by invitation only, and no one ever, ever talks about it. Then one day, a shiny blue envelope mysteriously shows up in his locker. One of the requirements of The Legend is staying out of trouble. It is too bad for Travis that he keeps getting into trouble. That first letter from The Legend somehow goes flying out the second story window. To retrieve it, Travis makes a daring rescue from the roof, where he meets Assistant Principal Mrs. Pinchon when he comes back up. She is in charge of discipline, but for some reason she decides to take it easier on Travis. She also keeps telling him, “Things aren’t always as they appear, remember that.” Shiny blue envelopes continue appear in his locker, and soon he finds other blue envelopes addressed to him in another locker. Some messages could get him into trouble, and others remind him to stay out of trouble. What’s a 12 year old to do when he can’t talk with anyone about any of the messages – they are supposed to be secret! Travis has a dilemma on his hands. He has to follow the directions in the blue envelopes, but are they really from The Legend? And, why are the envelopes different? Travis tries to remember what Mrs. Pinchon said, “Things aren’t always as they appear.” Will he succeed, or will Travis wind up in more trouble?
Ms. Feldman’s story of a struggle for a 12 year old boy trying to determine what is the right thing to do in light of such great motivation. This chapter book was written for the 10 and up audience, perhaps they are a better judge of this type of story. It was a laborious read; perhaps the same story could have been told in half the pages.
BIBLIO: 2010, Greenwillow Books, Ages 10 and up, $16.99.
REVIEWER: Debby Willett
FORMAT: YA
ISBN: 978-0-06-195105-3
REVIEWED FOR: Children’s Literature, Online Version, 8/10/10
Travis Raines is 12 years old and in middle school. His greatest desire is to be able to join The Legend. It is, however, very secret, by invitation only, and no one ever, ever talks about it. Then one day, a shiny blue envelope mysteriously shows up in his locker. One of the requirements of The Legend is staying out of trouble. It is too bad for Travis that he keeps getting into trouble. That first letter from The Legend somehow goes flying out the second story window. To retrieve it, Travis makes a daring rescue from the roof, where he meets Assistant Principal Mrs. Pinchon when he comes back up. She is in charge of discipline, but for some reason she decides to take it easier on Travis. She also keeps telling him, “Things aren’t always as they appear, remember that.” Shiny blue envelopes continue appear in his locker, and soon he finds other blue envelopes addressed to him in another locker. Some messages could get him into trouble, and others remind him to stay out of trouble. What’s a 12 year old to do when he can’t talk with anyone about any of the messages – they are supposed to be secret! Travis has a dilemma on his hands. He has to follow the directions in the blue envelopes, but are they really from The Legend? And, why are the envelopes different? Travis tries to remember what Mrs. Pinchon said, “Things aren’t always as they appear.” Will he succeed, or will Travis wind up in more trouble?
Ms. Feldman’s story of a struggle for a 12 year old boy trying to determine what is the right thing to do in light of such great motivation. This chapter book was written for the 10 and up audience, perhaps they are a better judge of this type of story. It was a laborious read; perhaps the same story could have been told in half the pages.
BIBLIO: 2010, Greenwillow Books, Ages 10 and up, $16.99.
REVIEWER: Debby Willett
FORMAT: YA
ISBN: 978-0-06-195105-3
REVIEWED FOR: Children’s Literature, Online Version, 8/10/10
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