Check out this review of The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)

The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life by Hal Elrod

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

like most reviews here the book has a fair bit of marketing spiel but past that I really enjoyed it. I have been doing the core program for 1 month and am amazed at how much more productive I am. he presents a very compelling background story to how he got where he is. He is likeable. He also does a podcast you can listen to when you sign up for some of the free downloads. I have listened to a couple and they are actually quite good. Read this if you are in need of something prescriptive and actually works. Dont be put off by the marketing bits; there is real gold under that.

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: A simple, effective way to banish clutter forever by Marie Kondo

In an attempt to follow KonMari method this is written to spark only joy!

My first Kindle book purchase! Written in a way that does inspire to pick and read again for what is quite a tedious subject. Though I cringed/ cried out loud/ when she wrote about tearing pages out of books to keep the best bits I persevered and read on.

Tidying in her sense means throwing everything but those that ‘spark joy‘ – a new paradigm for me certainly. How do you know what is ‘joyful’? You have to touch and fell everything when you are deciding. Instead of choosing things to throw out you choose things to keep. That was mind bending for me! The idea being that if you surround yourself with things you love you cant help but love handling them. You love your space and everything about it….sort of makes sense. She is ruthless but  in a good way.

I tried out this approach in my smallest of rooms ~(she does say not to tidy by room but by category of things) I used the bathroom because it was the only area of things I could immediately experiment with….Wont bore you with details but by the time I finished ‘tidying’ the bathroom I was a very happy bunny indeed. Its been 2 weeks and my bathroom is still in immaculate condition (a rare feat I can tell you).

One of the best bits of this book is how she really understands why people hang onto stuff and you will find ‘you’ in one of her typologies. I had a small fancy bottle of room spray that I had bought 8 years ago but I didn’t really like the fragrance. I think I only bought it because it matched a colour scheme I was going for at the time. It was quite extravagant for me as well. So I have been hanging on it  (now about half full) and each time I saw it as I washed my hands or brushed my teeth I would tell myself off for not using it more, remind myself that I just need to use  it and finish it. Feeling guilty that I wasnt using it. Anyway the point is I didnt realise how much headspace this was taking up until I got rid of it! Thanks to Konmarie these past 2 weeks have been guilty free teeth brushing and handwashing for me 😉

SO in my humble opinion this book is a worthwhile read. KonMari REALLY knows her stuff, is not apologetic and will definitely give you some ideas about how to do more with less.

Rated 7

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This was an impulse selsction at the library. I quickly picked it up on my way out….probably someone had just returned it. Anyway…….

It toook a long time before I really got into the story and really wanted to know what happens. Some of the ideas were repeated throughout so as to make a dent in my memory. This book is wierd in that when I think of it I do not think of the plot or picture the protagonist. I instead keep remembering the core message that I got which was that nothing ventured nothing gained and that the universe conspires to help you when you are seeking out your destiny. Those were very powerful words and concepts for me and since then I have been slowly using them.

SO thats the beauty of this book. I didnt get it at forst but about two thirds of the way I did. Can see why this book has sold soo many copies.

Highly reccommended.

Rated 9