Review by Ajanta -- From Drift to SHIFT by Jody B. Miller

[Ajanta]

[Following is a volunteer review of "From Drift to SHIFT" by Jody B. Miller.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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12 years of professional experience as a life coach have helped Jody B. Miller who has earlier authored Hired! come up with a winner in From Drift to SHIFT.

Digging from her personal experiences as well as those of her friends and acquaintances, Jody B. Miller brings forward stories of fortitude and bouncing back.

For all of us who are stuck with a career, relationship or situation which is normal but not ideal, Jody B. Miller proposes making what she calls the shift. She supports her case by sharing with us stories from her life as well as of several others.

A school delinquent, a cancer survivor, an extreme athlete and amputee, sudden paraplegic, a Hindu deity art collector, a depression survivor are among those who feature in the book. Jody elaborates on their stories as she intersperses it with data and anecdotes. She summarises every story with a takeaway list. She shares in detail how she met each of them.

What stands out is Jody’s total empathy with the people she interviewed, not just the eventual win but their hardships; she is as awestruck with their courage as we are.

This book is actually many books condensed into one for example it has a section on learning life lessons from the simplicity of Achuar tribe. To me this appeared to be a diversion and I couldn’t help feeling that some sections deserved to be a separate book.

Yet that does not take away from the fact that the book throws up stories of some real-life heroes and their inspiring journeys.

If you are looking for motivation, just go for this book and relish one chunk at a time and read the tale which connects with you must. You may skip the takeaway sections if you do not want to be hand-held through the process.

But it would be great if you could read each and every sentence at least once as you never know which one
will strike a chord with you. She makes apt use of both science and religion to get the message across.

Jody should be credited for her research and the way this book opens the door to several other interesting resources.

It also contains samples from her blog which make for an interesting read. Of course there are some anecdotes which are already overused like the one about Abraham Lincoln. Appendix describes in detail the work by the people featured in the book.(It is almost like an advertisement for few organisations) The resources list is exhaustive.

I will go for three out of four stars for this book as even though the book may not jolt you into taking action; it will certainly nudge you to do so.

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From Drift to SHIFT
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[EvaDar]

I liked reading your review. It sounds like you really enjoyed the book. I just finished reading it. I didn't like it as much as you did, but I felt some of the stories were inspiring. Check out my review if you like. viewtopic.php?f=114&t=55189