Location: Canada
Member Since: Aug. 10, 2011
Michelle Wright
Books
This member has not published any books.Smashwords book reviews by Michelle Wright
- The Happiness Workbook: Take Control of Your Happiness - Dozens of Proven Ways to be Happier
on Aug. 26, 2011
(no rating)
Jerry Lopper’s The Happiness Workbook is a practical self-help guide to greater happiness, using a happiness evaluation, tips on relieving stress, and useful examples for positive goal setting. An easy read, The Happiness Workbook is simply for anyone who wants to be happier. The Happiness Workbook begins with an explanation of “seven fundamental areas of a happy life” (p.4) and a helpful questionnaire to guide readers into understanding their own happiness level in each aspect. The questionnaire not only causes readers to rate their true level of happiness, but to truly contemplate what it is that makes them happy. Once the questionnaire is completed, The Happiness Workbook is designed to help readers set priorities and realistic goals. Each of the seven areas of a happy life is touched on with advice and practical activities that are meant to help readers achieve their goals, whether they be literal or figurative. The advice therein is well-researched, using several written sources, as well as Jerry Lopper’s own experiences as a personal growth coach. With its practical advice, The Happiness Workbook can be useful to anyone with a desire to set proper goals and live well, no matter their current level of happiness. Moreover, the overall tone of The Happiness Workbook is encouraging and uplifting – a welcome aspect in a self-help book. Its only downfall is, perhaps, in its brevity. The Happiness Workbook offers thorough, yet brief advice and explanations that may require further reading, depending on the reader. With thorough advice designed to help a reader focus on particular aspects of life, The Happiness Workbook can be read a little each day. If the advice is hard to follow the first time, it is worth another read.
- Sample Personal Development Plan and Workbook
on Sep. 22, 2011
Jerry Lopper’s Sample Personal Development Plan and Workbook is a short, but fully stocked book designed to help personal growth and to ultimately find happiness and purpose. It is for anyone who seeks to improve their quality of living. Beginning with a personal questionnaire to help readers define which areas of life need improvement, the workbook helps readers properly focus from the onset. The book is structured on eighteen modules, each one defining a different aspect of life – an area of potential improvement – and offering practical advice. The workbook emphasizes the idea that one needs to choose to change – something many readers may not yet understand. The book digs deep when it comes to personal problems, and some readers may find it difficult, at first, to comply with the book’s suggestions. This is a good thing, as it means that the concepts presented in the development plan can truly touch people. The Sample Personal Development Plan is comprehensive in that it includes advice and practical activities on a wide range of personal issues, from mind and body health, to relationships, to emotional health. The workbook helps readers learn positive attitudes and actions, as well as healthy lifestyles both for their body and their mind. The workbook neither sways away from, nor mocks, nor embraces the idea that a life purpose is given by God. Rather, it helps to find meaning through the things people do that make them who they are. Regardless, the development plan includes several aspects discussed in the New Testament – qualities and behaviours that are inbred in good people, whether they know it is Biblical or not – and that is admirable. Jerry Lopper’s understanding of the importance of beliefs and values, as well as the ability to quiet one’s mind and refocus life, shows through the writing. The Sample Personal Development Plan is well supported, as it references and suggests several other books which may be useful in learning to set proper goals and values and living well in general.
- 5 Keys to Balancing Work and Life: Get Back to Basics and Balance Your Life
on Feb. 29, 2012
(no rating)
Jerry Lopper’s 5 Keys to Balancing Work and Life is a concise and comprehensive workbook that can help a reader realize where his life is imbalanced and to visualize future improvement. The workbook is complete with non-judgmental, practical advice that works towards creating a balanced life. The workbook uses the senses in that it helps one relax and visualize. The practical advice within includes writing lists, the organizing of ideas on paper helping to bring clarity to thoughts. Complementing this visualization is a useful illustration of a planned trip; in a planned trip, there is a clear beginning and a clear destination. Jerry Lopper uses such exercises and others to help readers set goals and realize what a balanced life means. Moreover, the workbook outlines the “foundations of life” in five easy concepts, then devotes a chapter to fully examining each concept. The book connects all five concepts to each other to show how they must work together to create overall balance. 5 Keys to Balancing Work and Life is encouraging in that it emphasizes that it is not what you do, but who you are that counts. It is also written in a generally uplifting tone that allows readers to relax as they work through the book. Throughout the book, Jerry Lopper makes use of trusted practical reference material that supports the concepts and exercises presented therein. Readers can trust 5 Keys to Balancing Work and Life to help them set goals, understand what balance is, and improve.