Product Description

“Explorers depend on the North Star when there are no other landmarks in sight. The same relationship exists between you and your right life, the ultimate realization of your potential for happiness. I believe that a knowledge of that perfect life sits inside you just as the North Star sits in its unaltering spot.”

Martha Beck has helped hundreds of clients find their own North Star, fulfill their potential, and live more joyfully. Now, she shares her step-by-step program that will help you take the exhilarating and frightening journey to your own ideal life. Finding Your Own North Star will teach you how to read your internal compasses, articulate your core desires, identify and repair the unconscious beliefs that may be blocking your progress, nurture your intuition, and cultivate your dreams from the first magical flicker of an idea through the planning and implementation of a more satisfying life. Martha Beck offers thoroughly tested case studies, questionnaires, exercises, and her own trademark wit and wisdom to guide you every step of the way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #520 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-29
• Released on: 2002-01-29
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.com
Put the telescope away; the North Star mentioned here is a human body, not a heavenly one. And like Polaris, which has guided sailors for centuries, the human body's gut feelings and emotions can help guide a wayward soul back to his or her "essential self." In this absorbing combination of detailed self-awareness exercises and true stories from her own counseling experience (equal parts sobering and hysterically entertaining), Harvard-trained sociologist Martha Beck invites readers to explore their heart's desires and the vast social webs that keep such desires in check. The goal is not to forsake the "social self" and indulge every emotional impulse of the "essential self." Rather, Beck gives readers the tools and the encouragement to achieve maximum happiness by harmonizing these typically divergent voices.

Beck (author of Expecting Adam) admits that repairing a damaged emotional compass and setting out on such a vital journey--which often involves painful realizations and changes--"has all the combined attractions of suicide and childbirth." But the payoff, she concludes, is a love affair with real life. To that end, she walks readers through a lengthy exercise to evaluate their current lifestyle's pleasures and pains, teaches the process of listening to the body for directional cues, describes how to extract "soul shrapnel" (healing all those nasty, self-defeating emotional wounds), and provides an intriguing "Map of Change" to achieve an authentic life. Beck's impressive knowledge, her engaging (if somewhat irreverent) voice, and her ability to parse this scary process into achievable steps make her a new champion in the self-help arena. --Liane Thomas

From Publishers Weekly
A fixed point in the sky that helps mariners stay on course, the North Star emerges as a symbol for realizing one's true potential in this cheerful and perceptive but too-long book. Though her navigational metaphors lose force with repetition, Beck's voice is light, down-to-earth and refreshing. Having found her way on her own journey from academia (she was a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School) to becoming an author (of Expecting Adam, a warmly received memoir about the birth of her Down's syndrome baby), Beck currently consults with clients on redirecting their lives. She teaches that each individual has a core personality that encompasses one's desires, emotions and preferences, which is sometimes blocked by a social self that responds to external influences and cultivates survival skills. By far the most fascinating material is on how to read warnings from the essential self: low energy, lapses into illness, forgetfulness, addictions, Freudian slips and mood swings. She advises steering toward the correct path by eliminating negative influences and practicing elaborate self-esteem exercises. A section on navigating change weighs the book down while suggestions for dealing with serious emotions like grief and anger are somewhat breezy. In the end, however, the numerous self-quizzes, exercises and chances to laugh will allow many readers to overlook these weaknesses. (Mar.)Forecast: Given the success of Expecting Adam and Beck's freelance contributions to Mademoiselle, Real Simple and Redbook, the author is likely to shine in a constellation of media venues and has a solid shot at capturing the imaginations of self-help seekers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Beck owns her own consulting firm, Life Design, Inc., where she redirects "lost" souls to their true paths in life. This, her third work after Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Behavior and Expecting Adam, puts her company's philosophy into print. By combining thought-provoking exercises with play activities such as visualization, affirmations, and intuition, Beck here explores readers' inner thoughts on true happiness. She recommends that they set wildly improbable goals (WIGs) in order to find their personal North Star. This title differs from other self-help books by specifically defining a four-stage change cycle that happens to all humans many times during a lifetime. Stage 1, death and rebirth, defines a life-changing event; dreaming and scheming, the hero's saga, and the promised land follow. Other authors with similar messages are Judith Orloff, Anna Quindlen, Cheryl Richardson, and Bill O'Hanlon. Beck's humor, experience, and highly readable style make this a worthwhile purchase for public libraries. Lisa Wise, Broome Cty. P.L., Binghamton, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Finding Your Own North Star
Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Liveis a life changing book. Beck's examples are all ones we can relate to no matter where we are in life.

Martha Beck does not disappoint....
Her humor and intelligence amaze me with every book I read of hers. I'm a big fan. This is a timely book for me as I try to sell my business, raise 2 young boys and figure out my next career move. I share the main points of this book with all of my friends. There is a reason why Oprah publishes her work every month in her magazine. Martha Beck speaks to me a lot in this book and I am listening.

Fast
This product was shipped and was in excellent condition. Would do business again and recommend highly.