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Friday, October 12, 2012

Fully Alive: A Journey that Will Change Your Life

This is basically a motivational book. The author discusses what he has learned or discovered to have a more vibrant and meaningful life. It seems to focus around his struggles and the way he challenged himself to deal with weight loss. It touches on other aspects, such as meaningful relationships, too. Honestly, I got about halfway through and could not go on. Here's why: The author discusses that to "Lighten Up" you need to let go of baggage. That certainly is a bit obvious. However, the author proceeds to claim that you must let go of not only bad baggage, but "good baggage", too. "Good baggage"? Really??? I read it several times trying to get an idea of what the author meant by "good baggage". I have no idea what the author means by "good baggage". Other than quoting the Apostle Paul's advice on keeping your eyes on the prize and running a good race (paraphrased). To keep your eyes on the prize, you have to let go of good baggage. What??? What is good baggage? I can think of a lot of possiblities of what good baggage is, but it does not make sense to let go of it. For example, it could be argued that a mother keeps good baggage because she is focused on raising her children. Her children and the energies she expends raising them being "good baggage". Really??? Should the mother just abandon her children and be freed of "good baggage"???? Really???? This is where I stopped reading the book after much thought. Is this author just trying to stretch out the length of a motivational speech to book length by making and encouraging seemingly outrageous actions like getting rid of "good baggage"? Supporting my point is the fact that the author gives examples to help explain his motivational ideas, except he gives no example of how he got rid of "good baggage" or even examples of what defines "good baggage". The author is certainly able to have more pages in his book by discussing, albeit vaguely, "good baggage". This "good baggage" turned me off from the book. I am so turned off, I don't even think I could recommend this book. "Good baggage". What ridiculous concepts do the latter half of the book discuss? In taking the author's advice, I will "lighten up" and not read the rest of this book, freeing myself from the "good baggage" by not wasting anymore time on it. Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."