A Guide to Living On Your Own Terms
This is my first true book review because quite frankly it’s not something I set out to purposely do here at the blog. However I finally found one worth sharing.
I chose to start with a book by Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. I featured Jonathan recently as one of my top 6 people you should be connected to for self growth. (In my humble opinion)
Why?
Because it’s his passion and he’s making it his mission to assist you in living purposely and consciously if you so choose.
Jonathan doesn’t go anywhere near attempting to be a guru in this book, he doesn’t have to. He just delivers clear concise step by step direction in uncovering, defining and reclaiming your dreams.
Uncovering
One of the major things I love about this book and something that has become a serious passion of mine is uncovering & discovering your shadow beliefs that are creating competing commitments in your life. These competing commitments are divorcing you from your true authentic self who truly desires to live a passionate life doing what you love.
Jonathan simply calls it unbrainwashing yourself.
He provides what I consider safe reliable tools to help you uncover and discover what those core beliefs are that have you stuck in a current self image that stands between you and your dreams.
I’ll just tell you I’ve read a lot of personal growth, self help and spiritual books in my time. Some are just meant to share with you their philosophy. Some are just meant to educate you on a different perspective. Lots of them attempt to tell you their path leads to riches, fame, spiritual enlightenment or pure bliss only to fall short…Ok very short.
“Accepting negative things in your life is like knowing that a
certain food makes you sick, but you still continue to eat it. You
wouldn’t do that with the food you eat, so why do it for the rest
of your life?”-Jonathan Mead from Reclaim Your Dream
Defining Your Dreams
“90% of living your dreams is based on how much you live in alignment with your values.“-Jonathan Mead
That quote alone resonated with me, hopefully it resonates with you. If you’re not sure what your core values are though he even provides you a sweet resource that assists you defining them. Until you know what those are, can you really be consciously & purposely living in alignment with them? If you’re not sure of the answer do the exercise. You’ll love the feeling of clarity.
He asks the question,”What is your purpose?”
“Keep in mind that your purpose is not necessarily your career.
it’s not your resume, title, or formal credentials. But it can,
however, be the vehicle for your purpose.”-Jonathan Mead
His ability to facilitate you in defining what exactly your purpose is, is worth the whole book. Gaining clarity here is crucial and he seriously delivers with the tools again to assist you.
Reclaiming Your Dreams
“In order to remain focused on what’s important, we have to make an effort to constantly re-center ourselves. we have to keep pulling ourselves back to what really matters. to keep focused, it helps to block out time in your day that’s only used for working toward your biggest goals.”-Jonathan Mead
The key behind this book is it’s practicality in what he facilitates.
Moving purposely towards our dreams every day could be as simple as showering or bathing every day. If we looked at staying connected to what’s important to us everyday and taking time to do it, like we do showering or bathing, we would do it effortlessly. Why? Because we already know in advance what the benefits are going to be and we immediately see as well as get the benefits.
After gaining clarity of our values and defining our dreams, reclaiming them could be this simple.
Conclusion
Jonathan’s depth of understanding and passion of uncovering, discovering and reclaiming your dreams is nothing short of refreshing. No hype. He doesn’t act as your guru, he’s your facilitator.
“Dreamers focus on being resourceful, instead of waiting for resources.“-Jonathan Mead
I’ve always said and quoted here that it’s not our resources that are crucial but our resourcefulness that is key to our growth. However I assure you Reclaim Your Dreams is one resource he under promises and seriously over delivers:
- Even down to the fact that he not only gives you exercises in each chapter but points to meditate on after each chapter.
- He goes even further by providing a separate worksheet (PDF) for you and I to dig even deeper into these exercises provided in the book. Allowing you and I to ask powerful questions that assist us in discovering what juices us.
- If you put paper to pen in these exercises I can’t imagine you unlocking a full boat load of potential inside of you right now. (I know I did)
- He pushes it even further by providing you a serious surprise bonus that hidden in the PDF. I can’t tell you anything more than it’s a link to something super hot and valuable (and zero price tag)
If you’re ready to divorce your obstacles Reclaim Your Dreams page and pick up the book.
For the longest time I didn’t have an affiliate link above but just so you know it is an affiliate link now.