Last month I felt a sudden urge to order a book I have been meaning to read for years. And am I glad I did! They say when the student is ready the teacher appears and this time my teacher is this book: Susan Jeffers’ Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway is filled with good advice, practical exercises, and inspiring feedback from people whose lives have been transformed by her book. When I read a self-help/personal growth book, I begin immediately to follow the advice and do the exercises given in it. I have picked a handful of affirmations Jeffers shares with readers and posted them around my home. My aim is to get me back into the right frame of mind for a major shift I am preparing to make in both my work and life. We all need inspiration on a daily basis and even more so when massive change is in the air. I highly recommend you check out this book and please enjoy the short extract from it below.

Say YES to life. Participate. Move. Act. Write. Read. Sign up. Take a stand. Or do whatever it takes for you. Get involved in the process. As Rollo May wrote in Man’s Search for Himself: “Every organism has one and only one central need in life, to fulfill its own potentialities.” He goes on to say that joy is the result of using our powers to their fullest, and for that reason, joy, not happiness, is the goal of life.

And what is joy? It is something that expresses the ebullience of the spiritual part of ourselves. Joy is characterized by lightness, humor, laughter and gaiety. Lighten up. If you have ever been around a person who is centered and enlightened, you are struck with their humor and ability to laugh at themselves. All the brittleness is gone and only fluidity remains.

Recommended reading: “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers