It has been a while....

I feel really awful that I have neglected this blog that I really do love for so long! I've been thinking in my head about all that I want to say and share....and finally today I decided I just needed to bite the bullet and just share. It's been a very challenging last year and instead of embracing my business and hobbies, I have thrown myself into my boy's activities completely. Their sports and other activities are incredibly important to me and I enjoy them, but I feel like I have lost the spark that I had for anything outside of that.

About a year ago I was at a point were publishers were regularly sending me books to read and review and I was really growing in that aspect of becoming a credible reviewer. Randomly getting a package from a publisher was never a surprise and when all is said and done, reading and reviewing books IS something I have a passion for. I have a stack here right now that I still owe reviews to and I will make good on that commitment! I want to get back into that and see where it takes me and I feel like it was definitely the best escape from any stress going on in my life.

My business has definitely been put on the back-burner as well this past year and I am really unhappy about that. All I can do is learn from the mistakes that I have made and move forward and if I really do have the desire to succeed, than it is time to put everything in motion again. I believe in Beachbody, all our programs and Shakeology, and it is just about helping others reach the goals that they have set. I am going back to the basics again and just focusing on helping one new person a day! If I can do that, then I know I will be making a difference in this world. :)

In closing, thank you for reading this! Thank you to my followers and to my friends who have stuck by me this last year. I made it a lot harder on myself than I needed to that is for sure!

Starting up the 21 day fix again since I have had some pretty awesome results my last two rounds with it. Let me know if you are interested in join my support group and going through it with us! To my publisher/author friends, I AM going to be carrying your books with me from here on our with me at all times and I am determined to get the books done ASAP and the reviews to you very shortly. :)

I wish you all the best and you WILL be seeing more of me around, I promise! :)

My review of "The One Thing"

I was fortunate to receive a copy of “The One Thing” to read and review from my online book club 12 books and the author Gary Kelly with Jay Papasan. Thank you very much to 12 books! If you are not yet a member, you should absolutely check it out http://www.12booksgroup.com/ .

The idea this book is that in order to the most effective version of yourself, at any given time, it is important to maintain your focus on one thing at a time. The book uses a lot of visual examples which I found to be incredibly helpful in truly grasping the authors point of view.

I absolutely felt that at times the author was speaking directly to me. The ability to stay focused on one task at a time can be incredibly challenging when we have so much distracting us at any given moment. When you write out your daily to do list (and should if you don’t already), there is so much we put on the list that is not actually productive to hitting the ultimate goal that you.

The author used many many examples of individuals who have become successful through having the focus and drive in the field that they have chosen. It is honestly making the choice to make new habits and having the discipline to follow through on the activities that are inline with our “one thing”.

The One Thing does not simply apply to business and career objectives. I believe that it can apply to any situation going on in your life in which you feel needs to be focused on more. I would recommend this book to fellow business leaders, friends, and anyone that is looking to understand why things might not be going the right way for them. After reading this book, I have taken a more direct and concise approach to my business. I am focusing on the activities that are in fact get me where I want to be. This book can definitely change your life for the better if you will simply apply the advice Mr Kelly and Mr. Papasan give.

A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear: Using Psychology Christianity and Non-Resistant Methods review

A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear: Using Psychology Christianity and Non-Resistant Methods was an excellent, to the point, read. I enjoyed the way that the author wrote the book so that it would be easy to understand by all.

The content of the book was based on the fact that anxiety and fear is something that we generate within our brain. Often times it is irrational and not well thought through and I know from personal experience that this is true. I enjoyed the examples that the author used to describe how scenarios can play out in our head and how we fail to recognize how scenarios can play out okay if we would just let it happen.

The religious aspect within the book was also of interest to me because it is not often discussed in anxiety/fear books. I do believe that my friends that are non Christian would not want to read a book with any religious aspect to it, but I would still ask them to look past it in order to receive the overall message of the book. This book was a quick read, but don’t mistake it for lacking substance. It is something I would recommend to friends that battle anxiety and/or fear.

Start With Why review

I received a copy of “Start With Why” to read and review from my online book club 12 books and the author Simon Sinek. 12 books has been a great source of personal development and I am very grateful to be an active member of this group.  This book was a book that I had heard about from other leaders in my network marketing business, so I was very glad to have the opportunity to review this book for the book club.

The basis of this book is that there is more to being a leader than just getting things done. As a leader you need to be able to inspire everyone to take action and to do that you need to be able to reflect your why clearly. Your why is your reason for being in business, the underlying goal you have to help others, your mission in life; Your why can be simply what gets you up every morning and what motivates you to work through the rough patches you will inevitably hit.

I really enjoyed all of the examples that the author used to show examples of businesses having success by following their why and examples of businesses that have been in it for the wrong reason and have failed. Simon Sinek was excellent in conveying these stories to the reader and uses examples of businesses that we are all well aware of (Southwest Airlines, Apple, Microsoft, Walmart, Costco, etc).

I would recommend this book to fellow business leaders, friends, and anybody looking to understand business dynamics (why many fail and few succeed). After reading this book, I have found myself thinking often what is the driving force behind what I do? What gives me energy just when I think I have none left? Very important stuff to reflect on if you want to have a successful business and leave a legacy that others will use as an example in their lives.

My review of Covet by Tracey Garvis Graves

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley, I was given the opportunity to read and review Covet by Tracey Garvis Graves. I was very excited to read this book as I am a fan of the author and her other book On the Island.

This book grabbed my attention from the beginning and held it through the end of the book. The basis of the book is a woman who is married and feeling lonely as her husband cuts her off emotionally and is traveling a lot. The woman meets an Police Officer who takes an interest in her as a friend at first, but he begins to develop romantic feelings towards her. She resists the feelings at first, but the loneliness gets to be too much for her and she begins to let herself return those feelings.

The main character of the book, Claire Canton, was very relatable in her emotions and you could not help but understand her feelings and have empathy for her. While the book is predictable in many ways, it was well written and you had a deep understanding of all the characters and what was going on in their head. There was definitely a lot of psychological understanding as to the characters point of views as it switched every few chapters. I felt that it gave the book a little more depth as to how the emotional connection developed between the characters.

I enjoyed the ending of the book and felt that the author did a great job of giving the story a good ending from all of the main character’s perspectives. It was definitely something that made me think and even after finishing the book, I thought of the situation that Claire got herself into and ultimately understanding the start of an emotional affair. It made my eyes mist up at the ending of the book and how it played out in the final chapters. I would recommend this book to fans of the author and those looking for a good book that is an easy read, but at the same time has some depth to the feelings of all the characters.

My review of The Third Peril

Thank you very much to Goodreads and L.P Hoffman for the opportunity to read and review a copy of The Third Peril. I would like to start out saying, why on earth did I put this book off for a few months to read some others?!?! When I first received this book sure it did not jump out at me, but when I started it two days ago, I found that I just could not put it down.  

There are many different characters and it switches often through the book. That was probably the biggest reason that I didn't want to put down the book….I enjoyed all the characters and their stories that I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. For me the description of the book does it little justice. This book does begin with a child (Connor) receiving a message from an Angel and while that plays a large part of the book, the book is so much more.

The character that I enjoyed the most was Zeke as I am certain he was an Angel, or at least it appeared as so in the book. His unwavering faith and how he affects each and every character in the story was incredible to me and made him so likable I thought the author did a nice job of slowly piecing together what had occurred between David and Paige to cause a strain in their brother-sister relationship, and I kept waiting for Paige to give in and forgive her brother who was so obviously still hurting from the situation. Nora was another favorite character of mine and she really was such a sweet lady that just wanted to see the good in everybody. I started to guess that Joel had something to do with Nora after he met with his sister in New Orleans and was thrilled he was able to find a way to North Dakota with Zeke to figure out his family situation. It had a pretty intense, but very realistic story line.

I honestly loved how the book played out from start to finish and I am glad that in the end, the unwavering faith that Connor had regarding everything he had been told by the Angels, was proven true. I stayed up very late both nights I was reading this and can admit it was so very hard to put the book down at times. I cannot remember the last time I have read a book that had me wanting to read through the entire night just to finish it. In the end I smiled at the end of this book because while most would say it ended stereotypical, I would say that yes…most of it was very happy, but there were also some very sad situations that ended as such. I would recommend this book to both my friends of faith and those that might not quite be there yet because the ultimate message that I took from this book is that we all need something to believe in.

Narcoland: A review on drug trafficking in Mexico and the history of how it began.

Through NetGalley and Verso Books, I was given the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of Narcoland, which will be published on September 10, 2013. This book was written by Anabel Hernandez, an investigative journalist, that currently resides in Mexico.The original edition was released in 2010, and the translated version (with a few updates) is what will be released in 2013 in the states.

I was expecting this book to be more along the lines of what is currently going on in Mexico and the current cartels that are controlling the drug trafficking. What Ms. Hernandez delivers is that and much more than expected. The book was a little hard to get into because there were so many individuals that were involved in the trafficking that it took a couple chapters to begin to remember which one was which. Once I did, the pieces began to fit in together quite well. Hernandez does an incredible job of giving a very thorough background into how drug trafficking began and how it has exploded into the problem that it is right now.

Hernandez has does an incredible job with quoting her sources and specifying which ones asked not to be credited. Unfortunately she has written in the updated version that many of those sources have been murdered and/or are missing. She lists documents and their numbers in which they were filed with the different agencies in the government. She names all of the individuals who were involved; whether they were businessmen, government officials, the police, the American government, and even the President of Mexico, she does not hold back. She speaks regarding all of the assassinations and why many of them occurred. She speaks of the problems between the cartels and that much of the murder is due to the fighting of the different territories in Mexico. She explains very clearly how the drugs have been able to be trafficked into the United States for so many years, a lot of it to do with the American government assisting them in many cases, as well as an incredible amount of paying off government officials to allow traffickers to cross.

I would highly recommend this book to anybody that is looking to gain a better knowledge of the problems with drug trafficking in Mexico and what appears to be a problem with no solution in the near future. I definitely enjoyed learning more of how all of this began and how in the last 20 years it has turned into the problem that it has. It was definitely a book that I enjoyed reading and would absolutely read it again (especially now having an understanding of who is who in that field).