Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Last Year of Your Life (BOOK REVIEW)

The Last Year of Your Life:
A Personal Exploration Experience
by Clint Arthur
Industrial Cheese Supply Corporation
Paperback, $23.94
202 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-1453633649

Book Review by Kam Williams

“Do you think it’s possible for a person like you to transform your life in just one year’s time? I was a taxi driver, surviving on less than $500 a week... I was beginning to become terrified that I would never be able to escape the rut that had become my life…
Then, I sat down to write out my list of goals… and I had a divine inspiration. I asked myself a question: What would you want to do this year if this was going to be the last year of your life?
That question inspired me and… that year I lost forty pounds… I opened a factory… I even sat down and wrote a book that I had been procrastinating about for ten years. Most importantly, with the help of my wife I was able to turn around my marriage.
‘Living the Last Year of Your Life’ is one of the most exhilarating and rewarding experiences I’ve ever known, and I’ve designed this workbook to deliver the same results for you… All that matters is that you begin in earnest and live each day moving forward as if it is precious, and as if it were one of your last. Once you do this, your life will never be the same.”

-- Excerpted from the Introduction (pgs. 2-4)

“What would you want to accomplish if you only had 52 weeks left to live?” This is the thought-provoking question posed at the point of departure of this potentially life-transforming, self-help manual. Its author, Clint Arthur, had been down on his luck himself despite having read a number of New Age and Men’s Movement bibles by such esteemed gurus as Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins.
But then, on his own, he came up with a novel approach which got good results, namely, making believe that he only had a year to live. And with a newfound sense of urgency, Clint quickly cultivated the clarity of mind and the drive to implement the change which had previously proven so elusive.
He shares the secrets of his magical metamorphosis in The Last Year of Your Life: A Personal Exploration Experience. However, the book is not so much an autobiography as a how-to designed to shake stuck folks out of the doldrums so they might similarly find fulfillment.
In readily-accessible layman’s terms, Clint sets out a strict program for you to follow, week-by-week, complete with fill-in-the-blank, positive thinking exercises. For example, during Week One, which is devoted to “Loving Yourself,” he directs you to “Eat Well,” “Look Your Best,” “Be Physically Fit” and “Be Loving to Yourself.”
In Week Two, he has you listing your childhood and adulthood accomplishments, so that by Week Three you’ll be eager to create a practical plan of what concrete goals you expect to reach by year’s end. And so forth.
Provided you’re capable of summoning up the gumption to implement a lot of life-altering changes, here’s a viable, 52-week road map to the ideal you you’ve always just dreamed of.

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