personal growth book summaries

Archive for personal development

Book Summaries – the best path to personal development

By Nina East · Comments (0)
Thursday, June 10th, 2010

“With the economy headed for even more dramatic changes it’s as important as ever to know both how to stay ahead of the curve in business, and how to stay happy and fulfilled.”  – Tony Robbins

TonyVideo 300x177 Book Summaries the best path to personal development

Wise words from a wise leader in the personal growth industry.

Of course, you already knew that reading books was important and valuable – that’s why you’ve been buying them, right? And then life steps in and all of a sudden weeks or months have passed and you still haven’t read that book.

Tony’s suggestion is that what we need to do is constantly find new ways to make ourselves more valuable – and that reading (and applying) the right books (great books) is an essential ingredient.

He also points out that in order to be more fulfilled in our lives, we have to have meaning beyond ourselves.
And remember, we’ve named 2010 The Year of Fulfillment here at Personal Growth Princess.

You already know that growing yourself so you can grow others is paramount. The years of self-improvement being “selfish” are long gone. Anyone who has ever had a relationship with another human being knows that the more we love ourselves, take care of ourselves, and grow ourselves, the more love, care, and generosity we have to give others.

The problem is…how to actually find the time to find new ways to make ourselves more valuable.

That’s what PersonalGrowthPrincess is here to help with. You can read more of the details about the foundation  here and here.

But the bottom line is if you are like most women, you already know what to do, and that you “should” be doing it, but you don’t have the time…or by the time you do have the time, you’re too exhausted to pick up a book and read it, must less understand and apply it!

Unfortunately we just don’t get more time. Time is what it is.We all have the same number of minutes in a day.

But, you can change the way you use the time you do have – and that will change everything. Read More→

Comments (0)
Categories : Recommended Resources
Tags : , , , , ,

Personal Growth Princess on Blog Talk Radio

By Nina East · Comments (0)
Monday, December 14th, 2009

On Tuesday, December 15th, PersonalGrowthPrincess.com will be featured on the Blog Talk Radio show “I’m Ready 4 Me” hosted by Yvonne McCoy. The show airs at 2pm eastern time.

Join host, Yvonne McCoy, as she interviews Nina East, founder of Personal Growth Princess about the most common BTRYvonne Personal Growth Princess on Blog Talk Radiomistakes people make when they “do” personal development, and how most personal growth books and seminars actually set you up to feel WORSE about yourself.

This is the 3rd part in a series addressing successful follow-through and making decisions that stick. Information, alone, isn’t enough. You need Activation, Motivation, and Evaluation to be successful.

Think you need more than a New Year’s Resolution? A Life Resolution will carry you farther. In Part 1 & 2, we talked about how you want to be and how you can make changes. This week, guest Nina East will be sharing information on how to ensure successful follow-through.

Nina is a personal growth expert, published author, and the founder of PersonalGrowthPrincess.com – a site providing self-help book summaries for smart, busy women.

Comments (0)
Categories : Announcements, Goals
Tags : , , , , ,

Being a Personal Growth Master

By Nina East · Comments (0)
Friday, November 20th, 2009

What does it take to master something?

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell studied what it takes to become masterful – at anything. What is surprising is how little talent and luck have to do with whether someone becomes a world class expert – regardless of the field they are in.

You may not be interested in becoming known as an expert in something, but there are things you would like to be able to do extremely well. There are areas you would like to master. My guess is that “personal growth” falls into this category somewhere. Not that anyone can really become a master at personal growth (I don’t even know what they might mean), but you can become an expert on yourself…and on who you are becoming. In fact, part of the reason you have been drawn to this site, or become a member, is that you want to find ways to gain knowledge, experience, and insights that are meaningful.

While natural talent or affinity affects whether you end up being drawn to a particular field – such as, if you have a natural talent for playing the piano or speaking in public, you may have been drawn to fields that require those skills without thinking about it – but talent or affinity will not determine whether you are a “success” at either. And though opportunity and luck play a role in who you get exposed to as you make your way toward mastery, even people with the same talent and same opportunity don’t achieve the same level of mastery. Talent and luck are not enough.

The key distinction, according to Gladwell, Read More→

Comments (0)
Categories : Confidence, Goals
Tags : , , , ,

Are you a Doer or a Dabbler?

By Nina East · Comments (0)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

What’s the difference between doing and dabbling?

Seems a bit silly to ask that, doesn’t it? After all, everybody knows the difference, right?
Well, perhaps not so much…

Dabblers are people who “try” something out. They think about it, maybe take a teensy bit of action, but always have a reason they don’t fully commit. They don’t have time, they don’t have money, they aren’t sure, they aren’t sure if it will work…

Doers, on the other hand, well…Do. They make a decision and then take action. They may not get exactly what they want, but by DOING, they are at least moving in the direction they want, and can make course corrections along the way.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of places where it makes sense to dabble to your heart’s content – hobbies, entertainment, maybe even gardening (depending on your penchant for beautiful flowers or healthy vegetables), etc. I’m sure you can think of many places in your life where it makes sense to dabble.

But the question is, are you dabbling where you ought to be doing?
If you don’t like the word “ought”, ask yourself if you are getting the results you want in a particular area. If not, are you dabbling there, or have you truly committed, past the “trying” stage? Are you taking consistent action toward what you want?

For me, the distinction between doer and dabbler was a mind-altering one. Read More→

Comments (0)
Categories : Choice, Goals
Tags : , ,

Are You Too Sensitive?

By Nina East · Comments (0)
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Highly Sensitive vs. Too Emotional?

Common beliefs are that if someone is “highly sensitive”, chances are they are pretty emotional or attract drama into their lives. This misconception, and the subsequent comments and judgments, have led highly sensitive people to look on this trait as a weakness – something they need to change, and perhaps ought to be ashamed of.sensitive Are You Too Sensitive?

Highly sensitive people tend to hide their sensitivity – not showing their true reactions to a person, situation, event, or even a thought. Because of this, they aren’t showing up authentically – aren’t playing fully in their lives. This presents obvious challenges…and Princesses want to show up authentically.

Many people who are drawn to personal growth, who crave personal development, have at least a bit of the super-sensitivity trait. We are very attuned to ourselves and how we are responding to the outside world as well as the inside world. But, because the cultural bias is toward suppressing this trait, we may mistakenly use personal growth opportunities and resources as a way to become less sensitive, rather than finding the value in the sensitivity and how we can use it to serve others as well as ourselves.

To put your mind at ease a bit, there is some evidence that super sensitivity may have a biological component. Some people have blue eyes, some have green. Some people are tall, others are short. And some people are very sensitive, and others are not. Thinking of it this way makes room for the possibility that being highly sensitive might actually be an advantage.

What are the advantages of being highly sensitive?

You are more tuned in to what is going on around you.
Highly sensitive people tend to be highly affected by their environment and the “energy” in the space or among people. This high susceptibility means you need to set up environments that support you. It ALSO means that you recognize what is happening in a situation before others do. This highly tuned sensitivity means you pick up on nuances – more quickly and more accurately. (More accurately because you are so well practiced at it.)

Read More→

Comments (0)
Categories : Confidence
Tags : , , , ,

Women are not as happy as they used to be!

By Nina East · Comments (1)
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Women can do more and be more than ever before. The logical assumption, then, is that we must be happier. After all, more choices equals greater happiness, right? Well, maybe not. Or at least it’s not that simple.

It turns out that while women used to report being happier than men – at least on average – that trend has reversed. This “Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” is the subject of a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Russ Douthat wrote about this in the New York Times op-ed section.

It’s disturbing, to say the least. Especially in this culture of “happiness is next to godliness”.

geekchic300 Women are not as happy as they used to be!

Are we happy?

Is it that as women we have more and more to do than ever before? That having more choices also means having more responsibilities? Could increased responsibilities be at the root of increasing unhappiness?

Is it that we are having more and more health issues that used to belong just in the male column of health woes?

Is it that we are just now becoming aware that we are less happy?

This is such a multi-faceted issue that there probably isn’t any one primary cause. Or even just a handful of causes.

From a Personal Growth Princess perspective, the question is…what do you want to do about it?
What is your current happiness level? And are you OK with that?

How does your focus on personal growth help you be at peace with your level of happiness? Does that even matter to you…or has the “happiness craze” made you crazy?

And what’s so wrong with being happy anyway?

There is lots to say on this subject…and in a future article I’ll be discussing a provocative book which addresses how the cultural pressure to be happy (or at least act like you are) is actually decreasing your satisfaction with life, adding to your stress, and actually putting the breaks on your personal development.

What do you think about the Paradox of Declining Female Happines?

Comments (1)
Categories : Happiness
Tags : , ,

Letting Go – quotes for the soul and mindfulness

By Nina East · Comments (0)
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

From Transforming The Mind, Healing The World, by Joseph Goldstein

What Happens When We Do Not Let Go?

What happens when we do not let go? Asians have a very clever trap for catching monkeys. People hollow out a coconut, put something sweet in it, and make a hole at the bottom of the coconut just big enough for the monkey to slide its open hand in, but not big enough for the monkey to withdraw its hand as a fist. They attach the coconut to the tree, and the monkey comes along and gets trapped. What keeps the monkey trapped? Only the force of desire, of clinging, of attachment. All the monkey has to do is let go of the sweet, open its hand, slip it out, and be free. But only a very rare monkey will do that.

What kind of monkey are you?  [superemotions file="icon_wink.gif" title="Wink"]

dandelion300 Letting Go quotes for the soul and mindfulness

From Living Meditation, Living Insight, by Thynn Thynn

Clinging is a Stressful State

The moment we want happiness, we start to cling to it in our mind. First, we cling to our own idea of happiness. We relate to the outside world as a source of satisfaction and look outward for the things we normally associate with happiness – accumulating wealth, success, fame or power. As soon as we become attached to any idea – happiness, success or whatever – there is already some stress. Clinging isitself a stressful state, and everything that derives from it is also stressful. For example, try to clench your hand to make a fist. As soon as you start to clench your hand, you have to use energy tokeep your fingers clenched tightly. When you let go of the clenching, your hand is free again. So it is with the mind. When it is in such a state of clenching, it can never be free. It can never experience peace or happiness, even if one has all the wealth, fame and power in the world.

Comments (0)
Categories : Mindfulness
Tags : , , , ,

Are you a personal growth enthusiast, or merely a junkie?

By Nina East · Comments (0)
Sunday, January 20th, 2008

The distinction between being a personal growth enthusiast and a personal growth junkie may sound like mere semantics, but it’s actually an important one - especially to those of us who have experienced both sides of this personal growth coin.

As a personal growth junkie, you are intensely focused (obsessed?) with reading self-help books (or at least purchasing them). You attend seminars, and generally do whatever you can that has the self-help label attached. You charge up your credit cards, maybe even take out loans, and plan your vacation leave around attending personal growth seminars.  You can hardly help yourself.

As an enthusiast you may do many of these same things – after all, using your vacation leave for personal expansion makes sense, right? Of course.

mountain Are you a personal growth enthusiast, or merely a junkie?The difference is as a junkie you keep attending, reading, etc. hoping to find “the answer” that will either explain everything to you, or finally catapult you out of your current existence, while as an enthusiast you know you won’t find the “one true answer” in any one place. You get excited about attending seminars and reading books, but you aren’t banking on finding “the answer” in any one particular place. You know that whatever the answer might be for you, it is multi-faceted and ecclectic.

Another difference is that while a junkie can’t help themselves, so to speak, the enthusiast can’t help but look at virtually everything in their lives through the personal development/self-help filter. They don’t have to attend another seminar in order to experience the high of inner awareness - a billboard inspires them into action, a movie unleashes their own greatness, or a conversation shifts their understanding of themselves.

The other significant distinction is that as a personal growth junkie,

Read More→

Comments (0)
Categories : General Musings
Tags : , , ,

Get your free Gift Book Summary!

free self-help book summary for women
first name:
primary email:
Personal Growth Princess
Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved
iThemes Builder by iThemes
Powered by WordPress
Powered by WishList Member - Membership Software