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50th out of 520 books
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95 voters
Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want
Finding Your Way in a Wild New World
is a remarkable path to the most important discovery you can make: the knowledge of what you should be doing with your one wild and precious life. It’s a journey to the thing that so fulfills you that, if someone told you, “It’s right outside—but watch out—it could kill you!” you’d run straight toward it, through the screen door withou...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
December 27th 2011
by Atria Books
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Martha Beck is a sociologist, writer, life coach, and regular columnist in O, the Oprah Magazine. I’ve always enjoyed her writing and point-of-view, and was happy to take this book (published in Jan/12) along with me on my trip to Ecuador in March. There, I had the time and space to take in its message – perfect – as the book is about creating in ourselves the time, space, and attention that helps us 1) understand the kind of life we want, and 2) achieve our “true nature”.
Beck offers up four too...more
Beck offers up four too...more
From The Daily Muse:
Now, bear with me: Although not directly business-related, Oprah’s life coach, Martha Beck, provides some crazy-challenging personal inquiry in her latest book that will speak directly to your inner entrepreneur. If you approach this with the idea of outing your real and passionate business self, you’re going to get rather serious rather quickly about what you’d actually like to do to make money. If you’re a somewhat New-Agey-hippie masquerading as a yuppie, so much the bett...more
Now, bear with me: Although not directly business-related, Oprah’s life coach, Martha Beck, provides some crazy-challenging personal inquiry in her latest book that will speak directly to your inner entrepreneur. If you approach this with the idea of outing your real and passionate business self, you’re going to get rather serious rather quickly about what you’d actually like to do to make money. If you’re a somewhat New-Agey-hippie masquerading as a yuppie, so much the bett...more
Martha Beck is a joy to read. She knows how to get her message across through entertaining stories, and she has a mine of amazing experiences from her own life and those she has coached to draw from. As well as being insightful, spiritually attuned, and hilarious, she so much wants to help others find their right lives and express their true natures, and gives practices and guidance to enable them to do so. That is what she is here to do, she believes, as well as a little thing like save the pla...more
New Release December 27, 2011
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” is a truth that will manifest itself over and over as this exciting new book is read and shared and read again. The number of markers and underlines and margin notes in my preview copy are testaments to the fact I was ready. I devoured it and now am going back to start practicing the many exercises. The book’s purpose is to help you more clearly identify “what you should be doing with your one wild and precious lif...more
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” is a truth that will manifest itself over and over as this exciting new book is read and shared and read again. The number of markers and underlines and margin notes in my preview copy are testaments to the fact I was ready. I devoured it and now am going back to start practicing the many exercises. The book’s purpose is to help you more clearly identify “what you should be doing with your one wild and precious lif...more
Martha Beck is a genius and she has done it again. Now, I will admit. I'm partial. I am a certified Martha Beck Life Coach and I have read all of her books. The first one I read was Finding Adam and it is still my favorite. Now, saying you have a favorite Martha Beck book is like saying you have a favorite child. All of Martha's books are wise and witty, sage and sarcastic, insightful and irreverant. This book is a map, your own inner GPS for connecting to our primal yet universal way of being h...more
I checked it out from the library but this is the kind of book I would like to own and go back to over and over. First of all it touches upon so many useful, thought-provoking things one reading is not enough to fully grasp them. But then there's also the matter of how it makes you feel. Finding Your Way will never fail to lift you up from despair and make you look at things from a new, more positive angle. If you are in a difficult life situation or under a lot of stress, reading sections of th...more
I tried to like this book, but I did not. Just a little too out there for me and I found her writing style annoying, though I agree with her basic sentiments. The author glosses over just how difficult it is to forge a path of one's own in terms of career and life work. It would be a good thing if we could all do this, but the world is more complex than that, and many people who try fall through the cracks. I found her stories about "coincidences" with animals and bent spoons, etc, hard to belie...more
I got tired of this book. However, that is not surprising given I have a very low tolerance for new age self-help books. I read this book because my mom sent it to me because of its section on "wordlessness" and exercises to help you drop into this state of openness and attuned awareness. I liked this section very much and thought it was useful for cultivating a state of being that is under constant attack in our hyper-connected (but weirdly disconnected) world. I would give that section 5 stars...more
This book came into my life at just the right time and brought together many threads that I've been aware of and dabbling with for several years now. It's sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, full of magic moments and practices to cultivate our innate gifts of perception and connection. Martha Beck is a gifted and fearless writer, and her message is critical for our time, as we struggle to find a balance between our highly industrialized way of life and the deeper mysteries of the living world. I can...more
Well, I wanted to wildly love this book. After all, I have enjoyed other Martha Beck books and I like the spirit behind what she writes about.
However, there was something almost too overly dramatic and cheesy about most of this book. And I found the first half or so very difficult to connect to. Africa? Down Syndrome child gurus? Oneness? Animals talking? Weird practices that I didn't really "get."
But I plugged along, and I really found some awesome things in the latter half of the book. That i...more
However, there was something almost too overly dramatic and cheesy about most of this book. And I found the first half or so very difficult to connect to. Africa? Down Syndrome child gurus? Oneness? Animals talking? Weird practices that I didn't really "get."
But I plugged along, and I really found some awesome things in the latter half of the book. That i...more
An amazing book, one I couldn't put down. Members of "the team" described by Martha Beck include those who have "a sense of having a specific mission or purpose involving a major transformation in human experience," "a strong sense that the mission, whatever it is, is getting closer in time," and "loneliness stemming from a sense of difference, despite generally high levels of social activity." How many of us are out there? Quite a few, according to Ms. Beck.
Martha's writing consistently cracks me up, no matter the topic. Here she takes on saving the world, one leopard at a time. I don't know that I will make it to safari in Africa (which she uses as a frame for her content) but I can certainly practice her advice on being present, connected, imaginative, and playful at home. She can't write books fast enough for me.
I adore Martha Beck and her mix of pragmatic, spiritual advice on living your right life, along with her goofy prose style and her wonderful stories. This book chronicles the time she has spent at Londolozi, a natural game preserve in South Africa, and what the animals have taught her about how to serve and thrive in a world that is changing at a bewildering pace. I will be re-reading this book and deep-practicing what it teaches all year. If you read it and it connects with you, let me know!
I'm not even sure what to say about this book. I've been reading it over a long period of time. I think I really like what it's saying, though there is a part of me that wonders if it's all hogwash. And I'm a little embarrassed by the part that thinks it's lovely. At the very least, it got me spending more time outdoors, enjoying nature.
I love Martha. She always offers a creative perspective with a lot of humor. I saw a talk she gave last October when she'd just finished writing this book and it was inspiring as well. She makes you realize you can do anything - not just as part of the human race but as it relates to the animal kingdom, which was amazing.
Absolute bollocks. Reads like Diablo Cody with an Ivy League Doctorate. Prepare to roll your eyes as you learn how to communicate with animals, how to psychically influence everyone around you, and how to become a superhero just by dreaming about leopards. I came dangerously close to finishing this, why I'm not sure.
I wasn't sure what to think when my friend gave me this book, but it actually rang so true with me that I could not put it down. At a time when I needed comfort, it gave me direction, which is more than I expected. If you are some one who takes care of others and feels that you have a bigger purpose, pick this up.
Since the first moment I heard her speak, in person, at an Oprah-sponsored thing in San Francisco in October 2008, I have been completely hooked on Martha Beck. I was sneary of the whole life-coach idea, but then she opened her mouth and I realized: holy shit, she's on the Team! Here's my blog about it, written when I started reading Finding Your Way: http://tinyurl.com/7o9l2zb
I LOVED Finding Your Way -- it's exactly what I needed to read right now, at the start of this big Water Dragon year of...more
I LOVED Finding Your Way -- it's exactly what I needed to read right now, at the start of this big Water Dragon year of...more
Loved the ideas in this book. Have tried some of the exercises and want to do even more. And, I'd like to visit her new ranch and continue to follow her work!
Why did I love this book? One, it's optimistic in a quirky sort of way!
Why did I love this book? One, it's optimistic in a quirky sort of way!
Aug 23, 2012
Janet
added it
While a tad more woo woo than her other works, still a thought provoking work. A good challenge to really stretch and use the talents and insights of our nature
Please read my comments on this book at my blog post: "You are not alone."...more
Pretty cool, but I only read part of it. Its just not the right book for me right now. I have had enough of this personal development stuff for now.
I have to admit that this book has been life-changing for me. It has helped me, already, to reach a deeper state of meditation, and I look forward to continuing to work on the four technologies of magic. Or, in other words, "reclaiming my true nature and creating the life I want." Not only is the book inspirational, but Martha Beck offers some very practical ways to bring this to fruition.
Jan 11, 2012
Liz
is currently reading it
Excellent so far I find myself re-reading pages to really get the concepts. Very thought provoking
Jan 01, 2012
Judy
marked it as to-read
I read an article by this author in Parade magazine which made me wonder what her book has to offer.
Insightful and humourous accounts of a normal woman leading a very extraordinary life.
Loved this book! If you feel like you have something special to offer the world but don't know where to start Martha is your girl!
awesome! Read it twice already
Good Read.
Transformational!
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Martha Beck is a writer and "life coach" who specializes in helping people design satisfying and meaningful life experiences. She holds a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies and master's and Ph.D. degrees in sociology, all from Harvard University.
She worked as a research associate at Harvard Business School, studying career paths and life-course changes in today's economic and social environme...more
More about Martha N. Beck...
She worked as a research associate at Harvard Business School, studying career paths and life-course changes in today's economic and social environme...more
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