Fiona Harrold

It's been a LONG time since I've read any self help books. I went through a glut of them when I was living in the UK and thinking about setting up a stress management business, and then again when I was doing Success University as a business model, but very little (nothing?) since. And to be honest, my response to dipping my toe back in the water is mixed.

On the one hand, I miss having this kind of a source of inspiration and motivation in my life. On that front, The 10-Minute Life Coach was a reminder that I really need more inspirational reading in my life.

On the other hand, I seem to have grown and changed somewhat since I was last involving myself in the personal development scene, and I'm a lot less patient with platitudes and exhortations to 'Love yourself!', 'Believe in yourself!' or 'Just decide to do something and then follow through!' school of self improvement that makes it sound like making a decision and then following it through is really all there is to a perfect life. I like a little more substance - a little more in the way of practical exercises - a little more recognition that, no, really, not everyone is the same, and not everyone works the same way.

I found The 10-Minute Life Coach captured (or reflected) this mixed reaction to the personal development scene generally perfectly. On the one hand, there's some reasonably good advice (nothing particularly original, but some good reminders) in several of the chapters, and some valuable self-awareness and inner exploration exercises that I'll be continuing to work my way through even after finishing the book. On the other, it starts with a level of 'rah rah, life's wonderful, you're wonderful, start loving and believing in yourself already!' that just got annoying quickly.

To be honest, I think the main value of the book for me was that it reminded me that there's a personal development shaped hole in my life right now. It's a field that's always fascinated me - not because I think there's something wrong with me that needs fixing, but because I'm interested in learning more about what makes people (and myself) tick, and ways to motivate and inspire myself in my daily life. So other than having fun with some of the exercises, my main response to reading The 10-minute Life Coach will be searching out some of the personal development titles I've never got around to reading, but always meant to; and adding them to my TBR pile.

The book itself, however, I'd probably give a 6.5/10 to. It's OK... but not great.… (more)