Confidence is something that everyone holds differently. For me, I’m incredibly confident in my hobbies but when it comes to the things I do in my day-to-day life… my confidence needs work. Back in September, my mom had sent me an article from the Toledo Blade about a girl who became a photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. One of her inspirations was a book called It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be written by Paul Arden. Self help books, not generally my thing; books with a whole bunch of one-line quotes and large print, those are my thing. It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be was definitely my thing.
Overall the book was a lot more about making money then it was gaining the motivation I needed. Granted, it was still a good book and helped me put a new perspective on life. I’m generally a person who plays by the rules, or sticks close to them. One of the best quotes that from the book was
“If you can’t solve a problem it’s because you are playing by the rules.”- It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be
It seems like a simple quote and a simple answer, but it made me step back and think a little bit about everything. This book was far from a book teaching readers how to play by the rules. In fact it was encouraging readers not to.
When I say not playing by the rules, I’m not referring to going out and robbing a bank. His advice was focused on making people take you seriously and making them listen. At the same time, he was encouraging readers to be realistic about things. For example, one of the headlines is “Don’t promise what you can’t deliver”. A headline not too much further on in the book is “Don’t take no for an answer”. Both are two great pieces of advice and both go hand in hand when working with anyone. The book is more focused on a work environment, but did a great job of advice for all aspects of life.
The design of It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be was also well done. It’s a smaller book so it was easy to throw into a computer bag without taking up too much room. The font was bigger so it wasn’t squinting to read and there were plenty of pictures to illustrate his points. It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be was not your every day self help book, it was far from it but it had some great advice to offer and of course, was filled with some great quotes!
Some interesting advice he had to offer at the end of the book was “Present on Tuesday”. Why is that? You’ll have to pick up a copy of the book to find out why!