A book review by Luke Thomas, Performance Coach & Director of Spring

I heard Lara Morgan speak at an event by Entrepreneur Country – it’s a great publication and their quality of speakers is top-drawer.

Lara’s energy, frank sometimes brutal advice, and often un-politically correct style is refreshing.  It’s a slap in the face and shot in the arm all at once!

She knows her stuff, has a well balanced outlook on performance success and is fully aware of sensitivities and nuances too – it’s not all “bish bash bosh”

I love books that are easy to read – get their message across clearly without too much fuss.  ‘Chapter Goals’ and ‘Lara’s Laws’ summarise things well and offer a fast route to overviews and dipping back in for inspiration, counsel and ideas.

Click here to buy More balls than most

A book review by Luke Thomas, Director of Spring

Stand-up performance, building a career and identity, chasing a true love and finding a niche for yourself.  Michael McIntyre covers a lot of subjects.  This book had me crying with laughter on a good few occasions – plus plenty of ongoing chuckles!

It’s very much written in Michael’s trademark style that’s for sure.  Which will probably help you decide in advance whether you’ll love or hate it.

Honesty, observations of life and self-deprecation are the order of the day with this read.  The things that stood out to me in relation to my blog and the Spring business in general were Michael’s:

• number of failures before real success
• perseverance
• luck
• networking and connections
• role-models
• attention to quality
• tenacity
• clarity of vision… in the end!

He took a long time to refine and develop his craft – way before ever going stratospheric with TV and setting so many new records.

It reminds me of the autobiography by Steve Martin – Born Standing Up – he too slogged away becoming an expert in his field, which then led to incredible results and new found success.  Another book I highly recommend.

Click here to buy Life & Laughing

A book review by Luke Thomas, Director of Spring

In 2008 I was coaching a Director in a large bank.  He was very long in the tooth, pretty cynical and had a dry sense of humour.  We got on well – once we’d got over the inevitable… “so how old ARE you Luke?”  And my stock reply to that… “I’m twelve!”

This guy had recently attended a conference talk by Debra Searle MBE.  He was excited about hearing her story and told me to go and buy her book.  I did – and then somehow mislaid it.  This August I found it, and read the whole thing in one evening – that’s how powerful a read it is – so I urge you… Don’t wait as long as I did!

Debra had rowed the Atlantic solo in a 23ft plywood boat after her experienced oarsman husband retired, due to an uncontrollable fear of the ocean.

The 3000 mile journey from Tenerife to Barbados took 3½ months instead of 6 weeks – and included 30ft waves, force 8 squalls, sharks and supertankers.

Her story reads easily and addictively.  The photos and layout used, are beautiful.  By the end, I was moved to tears.

Three of the valuable things she highlights in battling her fears, solitude and doubts are:

Run the movie – a technique I’ll often use myself and rooted in NLP modelling, anchoring and state shifting – call me if you’d like a run through

“Choose your attitude” – Debra’s motto that helped combat negativity and limiting beliefs to maintain her level of stamina, endurance and performance

Family and friends – the strength and encouragement derived from text messages whilst in the middle of the Atlantic ocean

It’s a read that inspired me to contact her personally and talk more.  And I hope to include a guest blog by Debra before long.

Click here to buy The Journey

Everything in life that you haven’t done yet or isn’t yet the way you want it to be, boils down to one of two problems:

o You know what you want but you don’t know how to get it

o You don’t yet know what you want

There is plenty of help around for the first problem but this can overlook the most common reason that people do not set clear goals – they are not clear about what they really want.

Andrew Halfacre’s new book is direct and refreshing.

He argues that not knowing what you want is a bad habit rather than something you are born with and suggests a number of ways to develop the new habit of ‘finding and using your inner compass’.

The book suggests 12 ways to develop this new habit and the experiments he suggests will appeal to a wide range of learning styles from the more analytical to the purely intuitive. He closes with creative ways to maintain the good habit of knowing your own mind and building that into your work, life and play.

Inside you will discover and read:

• How a polar bear can help you know what you want

• Choosing desire on a cold, wet morning

• How to distinguish fantasy from dreams that can come true

• How to untangle what you want from how you feel

• Why motivational speeches rarely work

• The second most powerful question in the world

• How to uncover the values that drive you

So if your organisation is going through a restructure. If you want to get clear on leading your team and setting direction. If you’re feeling scared or daunted by the sales figures you need to deliver.

If you’re wanting to be more proactively setting your own direction in whatever context is relevant to you – I’m sure you’ll benefit from reading First Know What You Want.

This is not just a book about getting. It’s a book about being. Punchy, direct and designed for easy reading.

Click here to buy First Know What You Want

The Procrastination Equation is a weighty read.

Dr Piers Steel is touted as the world’s leading researcher and speaker on the science of motivation and procrastination.

Reading the book from cover to cover A-Z style, I’m sure would be valuable, if a bit heavygoing.

It’s one of those books that you can dip in and out of very nicely. There are so many gems within its covers, that you can gain value on multiple quick reads.

If it’s motivation you need to pick up a read like this, then see if one of the following areas Steel covers would offer the carrot required:

Health. Career. Education. Community. Romance. Finance. Self. Friends.  Family. Leisure. Spirituality. Parenting.

There is a lot of scientifically-based research which does play out well in his practical applications and examples – which we like at Spring: he’s keeping things real!

Evolution. Procrastination in the genes? Now this angle to the book could easily help a chronic procrastinator simply justify their actions to themselves even more – thankfully, he offers lots of helpful tips.

For those of you leading and managing teams, projects, and stakeholders, it’s got some really useful information around motivation theory, ideas and practice, too.

He writes a great blog that you can access here.

So if this taster tempts you, buy the book here.

The title is pretty catchy. But why read it?

The reason for including this book for review is because it’s all about self-leadership.

Everyone has different methods to be at their most effective – by increasing your self-awareness of these, you’ll have a greater toolkit at your disposal.

Depending on how you read the book and choose to apply it, so you’ll get different things from it.

Sounds obvious, but like anything, your mindset will play a big part in the value you gain.

The cynics view might be… “oh no, another self-help book.” Another might be: “I’ve got no intention of making radical changes to my career, so why read it?”

Applying some savvy to this book however, could see you finding gems that will help you out immediately on a range of topics:

o   Marketing

o   Commerciality

o   Time Management

o   Relationships

o   Personal branding

o   Entrepreneurship

John Williams packages things up under the heading of “10 secrets to transform your working life.”

So whether you’ve got a sales target to hit, a team to lead through change or the burning need to exercise more, you’ll find management and leadership ideas to help you.

When it comes to creativity and innovation, Spring like to get busy when developing people. There is a quote in the book that stood out by Robert Fritz, who is a composer, filmmaker and organisational consultant:

“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.”

The beauty of thinking like this, is the invitation to dream and come up with new ideas.

And that can apply to the mundane boring problems that you face daily, just as much as the big “out there” goals that seem too far off.

And to quote from secret #6 “Play it out, explore, experiment. Find your unique voice, discover your brand.”

Email info@springccr.co.uk once you’ve bought it and had a play… share what it’s done for you. If you’d like to do a guest blog that’s an option too!

Click here to buy “Screw Work, Let’s Play” and browse our other recommended titles

For people considering their personal branding, influencing style, or ability to read and lead others, this is a fresh and intriguing book.

What does your ‘stuff’ say about you? That’s what Snoop aims to answer. Your desk. Your living room. Your emails. Your clothes.

They all speak volumes, especially when combined to tell your story.

I like the way author Sam Gosling covers new ground. He challenges some existing material on this subject, and has really robust research behind it.

I tend to get annoyed with authors who write without crediting others – yet here you have full acknowledgements and references.

You can read and apply his ideas easily. It’s got a common-sense feel to it. For example:

o   Feelings regulators

o   Behavioural residue

o   Identity claims

These are all straightforward to understand when considering the photos you have on your screensaver, the things you have in your car, or specifically placed in your office and home.

His reference to music and emotional state shifts is brief, too, but powerful.

It helps sharpen up your perception of others, and become more self-aware in the process. Well worth a read.

Click here to buy Snoop.

Tim Ferriss travelled the world for a whole month, and his boss didn’t even know he’d gone!  Unbelievable?  Almost.  But he systematically describes the process he used to manage his workload to the degree that he achieved the lifestyle of his dreams – and a 4 hour work week!

This is so much more than a self-help book though.  I applied just a few of the basic principles from it and bought back 25% of my week to channel into the things I want to focus on.  It taught me to speed read in minutes and inspired me to start a second business – which was also priceless.

Click here to buy “The 4 hour work week”

So yes, Chris Evans is a high energy, fun (or annoying to some) and self-promoting kind of guy.  “Memoirs of a fruitcake” is his second autobiography that Chris has genuinely written himself.

He very honestly shares the wild success after years of well crafted hard graft – with highs and plenty of lows.  Yes he’s a show-off, but he’s also self-deprecating and pretty conscious of his mistakes.

Judgements.  Making them, rushing them, missing them altogether!  It’s the making of judgments that stood out the most in this book – a real challenge to the reader in terms of how they weigh up decisions.

If you are even vaguely interested in any of the following list, then you’ll definitely benefit from reading our recommended book of the week:

• Being a boss
• Making sound or dodgy decisions
• Sleep, drink, money or marriage
• Learning acceptance
• Being visionary & creative

Click here to buy “Memoirs of a fruitcake”