I have to confess, I had never read a Stephen King book before this one. But now he has become an inspiration and an “unauthorized” mentor for me. This book was a joy to read. I couldn’t put it down.One of my dreams has always been to be a writer. I’m still not published, other than technical stuff. But what is worse, is as until a few years ago, I hadn’t even written a complete story since High School! Damn! And I want to be a writer? What is that all about?

That’s where Stephen King’s book came into play. Originally I got the book because I thought it was more about technique and style. That’s me, I’d rather analyze, think about, and study something rather than actually do it. Well, in the book he gives an assignment to write a story. I did the exercise, in fact, you can read it here. My first completed story since High School and I felt awesome after! I never could finish my stories (novels mostly). I would start them or just think about them, but never finish them. So this was a cool exercise for me.

From his book, I got a message that said stop trying. Forget about the syntax, forget about learning how to write, forget about all the rules and procedures…just do a lot of reading and a lot of writing. Simple as that. Well, I tried it. I sat down and just started a story.

There are two sections to the book. The first section is basically a mini auto-biography. Originally, this part didn’t interest me. I had purchased the book for the second section, his tips on style and technique. However, two pages into the book I was hooked. I loved reading the first section. His frank, open, vulnerable, and revealing stories were entertaining, touching, and encouraging. Stephen King sounds like a cool person. I appreciate his book. As a writer who only dreamed about writing, it pushed me in the right direction.

I want to work for an organization which follows the ideals of this book…cooperation, collaboration, and teamwork! A company where people walk around with a spark in their soul, not just dollar signs over their eyeballs. We don’t have to focus our eyes, efforts, and attention entirely on driving to reach a profit. We can be kind, conscientious, and empathetic individuals yet still realize financial success.The work environment has been changing over the past years. Organizations are realizing that it pays to encourage your employees to be more than drones. Employees should be human, capable of feeling and emotion. But there are still too many corporations out there who prefer workers to be nothing more than a robotic machine whose sole purpose is to drive profits.

On one level, it can sound tempting to a manager to have an employee who eats and breaths for the company’s bottom line. As this book illustrates, there are major drawbacks to having employees with this mindset. Although I can state numerous reasons (and I hope you can too), a critical one is that a robot cannot empathize with co-workers or customers. Empathy, it turns out, may be the most critical skill of leaders and managers.

When financial success is alone as the top priority, people (and I use that term loosely) have tunnel vision. When we make hard-nosed, business savvy, money-hungry workers we destroy the human being inside. Is this the kind of person you want for a boss, neighbor, friend, spouse, parent, or child? Now before you answer, think about it. We all seem to make choices every day that suggest that perhaps we’d rather have the lunatic with the cash than the human with a soul.

This book discusses why a company is is actually better off financially by addressing these issues. The social and environmental issues are all just a nice side benefit. It was cool to read examples of many CEO’s and upper management teams who are participating in programs to enhance emotional intelligence in the workplace. Imagine the leader of a large million dollar organization being told to volunteer at a local shelter to learn empathy (as part of a management training program) and then actually doing it! Well, it’s happening, and it’s damn cool. It’s exciting what The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations is doing.

There are a handful of books that have made a huge difference in my life, and this is one of them. I doubt I would have this website up, submitted many of my works to publishers, or be as content as I am in my life had I not read this book and did the exercises in it.Reading this book slowed me down and gave me time to think and feel. I dug through my burried passions and dreams, faced some fears, and figured out a few things about myself. Through writing, a part of me woke up. It’s a lifelong process, of course, but this book gave me nice boost in the right direction.

Zipping through the text is easy because it’s great reading. But, like anything, if you really want to see some change in your life, it’s going to take some time and effort. Just like we can’t turn into a superhunk or wonderbabe by going to the gym for three days, we have to do more than read the book. If you really want to tap in to your creative power, follow the instructions and read one chapter a week while doing the writing assignments.

Optimism is a key to avoiding depression and building self esteem. It drives learning, happiness, and the courage to walk away from trouble. This book is full of studies, techniques, and ideas to help our children find happiness and reach their potentials.Depression can be linked to many social disorders. In recent acts of high school violence, an attempt to pinpoint a demographic failed. Violence came from poor kids, rich kids, A students, and F students. There was only one common thread for violence: depression. In addition to violence, depression is linked to alcoholism, drug use, poor grades, misbehavior, and suicide. Depression has been labeled the epidemic of our time.

Learned helplessness is an underlying catalyst to depression. One way parents teach learned helplessness to their children is by solving their problems. When a parent continually solves a child’s problem, the child learns that he cannot do things on his own. In an attempt to help, encourage, and push our children towards success, we inadvertently begin to teach our children they are not capable of solving their own problems. This, coupled with repeated failure (which may be in the form of not getting it perfect for the parent), is a breeding ground for depression.

Dr. Martin E.P. Selligman suggests the formula for vaccinating our children against the dangers of depression is ground in optimism. The research conducted by Dr. Selligman offers not only insight into predicting who is at risk for depression, but also a program for reducing current and future depression. This program involves teaching our children to examine thinking patterns, encouraging parents to structure activities where children can succeed, and strive to reduce pessimism while increasing optimism. There are several characteristics of a pessimistic child, which greatly increases the chances of future battles with depression. Read the rest of this entry »

Summary

This is my list of books I enjoyed and may eventually write reviews for…

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Blink
Reviving Ophilia
Deadly Persuasion
Crazy Times
The Truth About Love
Getting the Love you Want
Learning to Fly
I don’t want to talk about it
How can I get Through to You?
The Pleasure of My Company
Da Vinci Code
Middlesex
Women Can’t Hear what Men Don’t Say
Father and Child Reunion
Learned Optimism
Authentic Happiness
What you Can Change and What you Can’t
Passionate Marriage
Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child
The Relationship Cure
Destructive Emotions