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First, Know What You Want - why goals don't work and how to make them
95% of people do not know what they want and nearly all of them wish they did... First, Know What You Want is a hard hitting guide to knowing your own mind and finding your inner compass. If you've ever dreamed of changing your life (if only you could work out what you really wanted) then this is the guide for you. This is not just a book about getting. It's a book about being. Being able to discover a more authentic and joyful way to live a life you can look back on and say, "that was just how I wanted it."
- GenresSelf HelpNonfiction
212 pages, Paperback
First published May 20, 2011
9 people are currently reading
385 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 4, 2013
This was a surprising book. When I won this from the Goodreads First Reads Program I thought, oh great, another book on goals and how to get what you want and blah blah blah. Then I read it. Note top self, stop doing book reviews in your head before reading the book. While a lot of this had a familiar ring, some things really stood out. First, it was easy to follow and well-written, no ring around the subject or word banter that babbled on without getting to the point just to fill pages. This author has something to say. Then I came to the Bug List and I caught in the trap, but for the best. Things that you need to do but constantly forget, sound familiar, yes, those things, often little things you need to do that are buzzing around in your head, a constant noise and irritant. Write a Bug List of all the things you need to do no matter how small. This gets 5 stars just for the Bug List idea. It is fantastic. This book is amazing. A must read whether you're just hopelessly rambling around in your life like a zombie looking for food or a fairly well-organized person with goals that is bogged down and needs a little nudge. Read this book. Make it Number One on your any list.
March 8, 2013
Goodreads First Reads Giveaway Book.
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This is a book full of useful tools, which most everyone could use. It's written in an informal way, similar to someone telling us in person with the information. It's easy to understand, giving the reader valuable information quickly.
The book also contains several analogies to illustrate the author's messages in a way to help the reader fully understand his ideas. These included a fly hitting the glass window, Adam and Eve failing to take responsibility for their decisions, bus drivers instead of passengers controlling the bus, and a polar bear acting poorly in captivity. The author implies that people perform better if they have sustained focused attention, instead of believing in the multi-tasking illusion.
He also believes that most people are "sheep looking for a shepherd." The shepherd is a person who knows what he wants. Identifying what he wants is hard, mainly because he could be looking in the wrong way or is scared. To help us know what we want, this book describes twelve rules, which is a good step-by-step process for doing this. The book also provides us a link to the author's website which contains additional resources and downloads (such as a journal). It also provides us a link to his Facebook page. These Internet resources complement the information provided in the book. The tools, such as questions, within the book were very valuable. I really liked the "what do you want instead" question to help transform blame into solutions.
A concern I had with this book, though, was the author's lack of sources, such as the source of the statistics involving 95% of people not knowing what they want. Much of the information appears to be from the author's own personal opinion on why people do what they do and what should work to improve them, which probably came from his working coach work. Of note, the author was diagnosed in 2011 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, and had several rounds of chemotherapy. He re-evaluated his life, with some of his thoughts from this scary ordeal written in this book.
The reader should be cautious with the "Squash the Bug" step because it doesn't discuss the importance of the tasks listed, or an effort to prioritize them. These then can lead to waste of our time by doing tasks that are neither urgent nor important. We can spend our day squashing bugs, lots of them, even feeling good about it. At risk, the important tasks with urgent timing don't get done.
If you want a good informal book to help you look inside yourself and discover what you really want, then this book is for you. Otherwise, reading this book won't help. Let me remind you that if you don't know what you want, everything you do will get you there. Since knowing what you want is the first task, knowing how to obtain it should be the next. As such, the author's follow-on to this book should be "Second Know How to Get What You Want - Why Just Knowing What You Want Isn't Enough."
Highly recommended for anyone desiring to know how to start getting what they want.
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This is a book full of useful tools, which most everyone could use. It's written in an informal way, similar to someone telling us in person with the information. It's easy to understand, giving the reader valuable information quickly.
The book also contains several analogies to illustrate the author's messages in a way to help the reader fully understand his ideas. These included a fly hitting the glass window, Adam and Eve failing to take responsibility for their decisions, bus drivers instead of passengers controlling the bus, and a polar bear acting poorly in captivity. The author implies that people perform better if they have sustained focused attention, instead of believing in the multi-tasking illusion.
He also believes that most people are "sheep looking for a shepherd." The shepherd is a person who knows what he wants. Identifying what he wants is hard, mainly because he could be looking in the wrong way or is scared. To help us know what we want, this book describes twelve rules, which is a good step-by-step process for doing this. The book also provides us a link to the author's website which contains additional resources and downloads (such as a journal). It also provides us a link to his Facebook page. These Internet resources complement the information provided in the book. The tools, such as questions, within the book were very valuable. I really liked the "what do you want instead" question to help transform blame into solutions.
A concern I had with this book, though, was the author's lack of sources, such as the source of the statistics involving 95% of people not knowing what they want. Much of the information appears to be from the author's own personal opinion on why people do what they do and what should work to improve them, which probably came from his working coach work. Of note, the author was diagnosed in 2011 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, and had several rounds of chemotherapy. He re-evaluated his life, with some of his thoughts from this scary ordeal written in this book.
The reader should be cautious with the "Squash the Bug" step because it doesn't discuss the importance of the tasks listed, or an effort to prioritize them. These then can lead to waste of our time by doing tasks that are neither urgent nor important. We can spend our day squashing bugs, lots of them, even feeling good about it. At risk, the important tasks with urgent timing don't get done.
If you want a good informal book to help you look inside yourself and discover what you really want, then this book is for you. Otherwise, reading this book won't help. Let me remind you that if you don't know what you want, everything you do will get you there. Since knowing what you want is the first task, knowing how to obtain it should be the next. As such, the author's follow-on to this book should be "Second Know How to Get What You Want - Why Just Knowing What You Want Isn't Enough."
Highly recommended for anyone desiring to know how to start getting what they want.
March 28, 2013
First. Be excited! (That's one thing I learnt in this book that really helps!)I bet you suddenly became more energised and excited when I said that.
Working out the small bite-sized chunks that will lead us to realising our fantasy is one we've heard before but it's indispensable and had to be said.
Lots of pithy truths in this book. I liked: " We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year"
I like the "Wheel of Life". I liked the list of further reading at the end.
There's a lot here to like. If I didn't give it 5 stars, it's not because of the content, but because I felt the layout could have had more bolding and space around sections to make it a bit easier to read.
Thank you author, Andrew Halfacre (and Goodreads). You sound like a good person.
Working out the small bite-sized chunks that will lead us to realising our fantasy is one we've heard before but it's indispensable and had to be said.
Lots of pithy truths in this book. I liked: " We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year"
I like the "Wheel of Life". I liked the list of further reading at the end.
There's a lot here to like. If I didn't give it 5 stars, it's not because of the content, but because I felt the layout could have had more bolding and space around sections to make it a bit easier to read.
Thank you author, Andrew Halfacre (and Goodreads). You sound like a good person.
March 18, 2019
There's one thing that i really got to agree on with this book, it is the fact to distinguish between desire and mood. This book greatly draws a thick line to differentiate that, it teaches one skills used to tackle motivation block by actively being resilient.
February 20, 2018
its a very inspiring book perhaps it enlightens an individual quite enormously
December 18, 2016
The first 13% was taken up with telling me what the book was going to tell me. Section two gave some basic platitudes about doing stuff rather than making excuses - then repeated it all again in bullet points! At that point I gave up, as it all seems to be waffle and padding, continually referencing me to go to his website. If I wanted to use a website rather than read a book I wouldn't have bought the book.
July 20, 2012
Life changing and yet so darn practical and down to earth I wish I had written in myself!
April 30, 2013
A great book for people like me who are not quite sure where to start when setting goals.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews