Review: Seven Dragons: a guide to a limitless mind
- By Paula Buermele
- Published November 10, 2008
- Self Help
Paula Buermele
Reviewer Paula Buermele is the author of The Dream Catcher Tour and has extensive experience in corporate writing, process documentation, and writing training materials.
Paula is a member of the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association and the Metro Detroit Creative Writers group. To read more of Paula's Reviews CLICK HERE
Author: Jen Blackert
ISBN: 978-1434811721
Publisher: Create Space
Removing Mental Limits
Author Jen Blackert recognizes that today’s
self-help audiences are looking for easy-to-read descriptions of the
thoughts patterns that inhibit our growth in so many ways and ideas
for changing them. She delivers that in Seven Dragons and her
entertaining writing style engages the reader right from the
beginning.
The inhibiting thought patterns are presented as dragons. By effectively exploring the principles behind each one, she reveals different strategies and exercises for dealing with them.
The seven dragons address the ideas of aligning your
subconscious feelings with your logical thought, clarifying your
needs, changing your procrastination habits, understanding how to
increase your focus and concentration, how to “reset your mindset”,
learning to be comfortable with the flow of money, and overcoming
feelings of unworthiness.
Key to getting the most out of this book is being disciplined about keeping the “dragon diary” while working through the various exercises Blackert suggests. Other than the journal, all you need is an open and reflective mind to take advantage of the ideas Blackert shares.
The book’s format consists of a chapter each
devoted to the ten rules of living that Blackert has derived from her
learning and experiences as a life coach. Using Rule #6, “Know Your
Dragons” as an example: the chapter begins with a famous quote and
a personal anecdote. This leads into a discussion of the king
dragons, the negative thinking “king dragons” that most people
fight daily. These limiting beliefs are the core of Blackert’s
work. An excerpt: “Do you carry on a conversation with yourself?
Maybe you are questioning yourself and your thoughts? Do you tell
yourself about all the things that you “should” be doing, but
never take the action to make it happen?” This is what she
identifies as the seeds of negative self-talk and the remaining
points of the chapter deal with how to answer these dragons and
re-train them.
I found it interesting that Blackert does not advocate killing your mental dragons. She instead encourages the reader to acknowledge the power of the negative thought patterns and how they have tried to be protective in the past. But the next step is to be assertive and descriptive in announcing to them that things are going to change. She gives good examples of both the old thinking and the new self-talk that will replace the destructive talk.
While the book attempts to find a balance point between being too deep and yet deep enough to be taken seriously, I found it to be more on an introductory level than I would have liked. Admittedly, I did not keep the dragon diary as directed so perhaps some of the depth I was looking for in a book of this genre was therefore missed. It does serve as a nice, concise summary of the ideas and popular philosophies regarding self-growth that are common today, yet with a personal stamp of personality to keep the reader intrigued.
Click Here To Purchase Seven Dragons