How to Make Your Dreams Come True by Forster Mark, 0340786299, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Unusual style, but a gripping and intriguing read containing good advice

This book is written in admittedly a quite different style from Mark Forster's others, and I can see why some reviewers disliked this, but I personally very much enjoyed it.

I read it in a single sitting, fascinated both by the advice contained within in and by the insight into Mark's own life -- I really like the fact he was willing to experiment on himself with his techniques, and it was an interesting look into the writing process, also.

I have to admit that I was initially rather sceptical about the self-dialoguing ideas, but I did give it a go the day before one of my University finals (an exam I had prepared hard for but was anxious about) and was surprised how much it helped me to relax and be confident that I'd done enough revision and preparation.

My one niggle might be that there is rather less concrete excellent advice in this book, compared to Mark's others, due to the style -- however, I think it's very much worth the price and the time spent reading.

Read the poor reviews and save some hard earned cash

I bought this book because (a) it's cheap (b) I'm a sucker for this kind of book (read hundreds) and (c) the positive reviews. Thing is, I really wish I'd saved my money. I picked it up at seven in the evening on the day it arrived and I'd finished it by seven-thirty - mostly be skipping the absurd dialogues between the author's future and present selves, which are irritating, insipid and puerile to say the least and become more so. Don't say you haven't been warned.

I daresay that if you have read NO books of this type before (and I suspect that the majority of good reviews belong to people in this category) you just might get something from it. But there are too many great self-help books (look for the books by Tom Butler-Bowden to give you a start) for this to even be in the running.

Good ideas but only for some people

I have read a plethora of self help books, mainly for research purposes and would agree with some of the reviews that this book won't suit everybody. However,you have to give the author credit for doing something different and giving people the tools to be pulled towards their goal rather than just pushing all the time. His style of writing is sometimes difficult to read and if you want to speed read this book you will struggle. If you are a motivated person who wants some good ideas on visualisation and questioning your motives in life then this book is for you,. If you want a step by step guide that will will push you towards your goals in a concious and well guided way then this won't suit.

I enjoyed the book and have been employing some of his techniques with some success, I am not drifting but actively pulling myself towards my goal. My only fear is that if you are a bit of a drifter you could mis-use his techniques and never get anywhere.

Overall a good read with ideas that do make you think about what you are doing and why you are doing it.

Disappointing

I bought this after reading "Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play" by the same author, a book that gave great tips and was extremely helpful when organising a hectic workload. Unfortunately I was not as impressed with the 2nd book. Right from the start I found the author talking to his future self in a 'question and answer' format strange, irritating and difficult to read. It appears to be more about how the author managed to get the book written in the timescale given rather than a self help inspiring read.

I tried it - and it really worked!

I was very sceptical indeed. I have read many self-help books that promised to change my life. But this book was very different, in style and in method. And it sounded like fun.

So I tried it. And it worked!

I created a vision that I guessed would take five or six years to achieve and began a dialog with my future successful self.

Just six months later I had to re-write my future vision - because most of my previous goals were already achieved! Since then I have continued to achieve major life goals with this method.

The approach seemed to provide me with a gentle but powerful incentive to keep focused and motivated to attain my dream - even taking setbacks and upsets in my stride. In the past I had been great at planning, dreaming and scheming - but found it hard to keep up momentum and motivation and almost impossible to take action. These dialogs with my future self seemed to effortlessly overcome those tendencies.

In a way it was the opposite of getting in touch with my inner child - I got in touch instead with my inner wiser older loving guru! One that knew my strengths and weaknesses. One that was loving but firm and tolerant of my defects. One that encouraged me to see the progress rather than the failures. Mark has hit on a lovely magical way to let me coach myself to success.

Now I'm back to buy more copies to give as gifts to my friends.

This may not be for everyone - NLP 'experts' will cringe at some of the steps since it does not follow their specific methodology for visualisation and one can find many shortcomings with the format and content of the work as pointed out by previous reviewers - but it worked for me despite my strong scepticism.

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