Product Description

If you’ve ever felt overworked, overwhelmed, or just plain unlucky, this book is for you. Through this collection of stories, wisdom, and practical advice, readers will meet four ordinary women who have faced extraordinary life challenges. Together, they have a history of six marriages, ten children, four stepchildren, six dogs, two miscarriages, two cats, a failed adoption, widowhood, and foster parenthood. They have built companies, lost companies, and sold companies. One of them was shot and left for dead on a tarmac in South America, and two lived through the deaths of spouses. Raising babies and teenagers together, they have known celebrity and success along with loneliness and self-doubt. This book started simply with four friends getting together at the kitchen table to talk about their lives. Week by week and story by story, they realized their support of each other could help other women struggling with life’s myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. For over a decade, the power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled these women to not only survive but to thrive. The remarkable results are in this collection of lessons and stories and wisdom, which can help any woman turn any misfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity. This Is Not the Life I Ordered is the culmination of weekly "kitchen table coaching" sessions that took place for more than a decade and were designed to support one another through life's ups and downs. The women realized their support of each other could help other women struggling with life’s myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. The power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled these women to not only survive but to thrive and the remarkable results are in this collection of lessons and stories and wisdom, which can help any woman turn any misfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity. * Features practical "Wit Kit" tips - exercises and actions for readers to become their own life coach and start their own kitchen-table cabinets.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51267 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781573244138
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
“Inspiration to survive the worst luck and . . . climb into a new life with unexpected happiness.” --Amy Tan

“I wish I had this book 30 years ago. What a welcome source of inspiration and insight.” --Linda Ellerbee

“These women inspire us to go for the gold in our lives. They all deserve 10s!” --Kristi Yamaguchi

About the Author
Deborah Collins Stephens is the cofounder and managing partner of the Center for Innovative Leadership.

Michealene Cristini Risley is an entrepreneur who has created some of the largest deals in the consumer products and entertainment industries.

Jackie Speier was sworn into Congress in April of 2008. She represents California's 12th District.

Jan Yanehiro is the executive producer of Pacific Fusion TV syndicated in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Customer Reviews

Can't say enough good things about this book!
Destiny threw four women together more than a decade ago who started a monthly Kitchen Table Friends. They created a place every woman needs: where she can say the unsayable about her life and those in it.

These women are successful in their own right, so I'll introduce them here with just a sampling of their many accomplishments:

* Deborah Collins Stephens is an author (3 bestsellers).
* Jackie Speier is a lawyer, California State Senator and Jonestown shooting victim.
* Michealine Cristin Risley is an award-winning documentary producer.
* Jan Yanehiro hosts Appraise It! on HGTV and has won three Emmys.

Reading this list might indicate that these successful women "have it all." Not true. They've been divorced, widowed, left without money or a home, fired, lost elections, etc. etc. Marlene Dietrich famously said, "It is the friends you call at 4 o'clock in the morning that really matter." And that's what these women are for each other.

When they were asked to speak about their Kitchen Table Friends concept to a group of professional women--400 packed the room.

The sections show the 50 ways (subtitle), and have wonderful quotes by women. My favorites are:
1. Gratitude (finding it even in the worst of days, like "at least the ...).

2. Saying "how" instead of "why"--as in "how" can I use this
experience--"how" denoting future, and "why" dwells on the past.

3. Facing your fears. Discouragement has courage at its root--and courage has the French word for heart as its root.

An overused word today, but I thought this book was AWESOME. This is a read-every-word, think-about-it-a-while, call-a-girlfriend-to-talk-about-it book. It is both powerful and meaningful. It is filled with humor, hope, handholding and the humanity only women can show to each other.

Recently I received a book to review where the women called each other the B word (I said no). Women of any age should NOT be doing that to each other!

Armchair Interviews says: This is a 10-star book that women will tell friends about and buy as gifts because it is empowering and gives hope.

Reading this Book is like Having Coffee With your Best Friends
This book fairly reeks with positivity. But I mean that in a positive way. This good-hearted book was both inspiring and comforting at the same time. In a way it reminded me of Elly, the character in my favorite comic strip "For Better or For Worse." I just see myself in Elly all the time. In this book, it is the same. You feel the compassionate connectedness of like-minded people just reaching a hand out to you from across the pages of the book. As you see how they handled their difficulties you feel elevated as a fellow human being right along with them. This book is also about the healing power of honesty. It reminds you that the very thing that you might be tempted to hide out of some feeling of shame is the very thing that immediately opens up the hearts of those around you. I'm a board-certified cognitive behavioral therapist who teaches people to re-wire their brains to get out of depression. People mistakenly think they are depressed because of their problems but, in fact, they are always depressed because of their depression. Of course, once depression is taken care of the problems still remain and this book is a huge support for seeing problems in a more positive light. Bravo! A. B. Curtiss, author of BRAINSWITCH OUT OF DEPRESSION.

This Is Not the Life I Ordered
Once I started this book I could not put it down. I was at a family gathering and all my sisters started reading it too. In todays society we can fool ourselves into thinking we are in control. This book reminds us we are not and that it is okay. When life throws a curve ball we CAN rebound. I highly recommend this book