Life's Golden Ticket

So, last week I received a book in the mail. I do love to get books that I’ve ordered off Amazon, but this one was not one of those. It came unexpected and with a little note that said “I love this book and figured you’d like it too. Enjoy!”

The retrun address was the address of a marketing company. Before reading it I just wrote it off as a marketing ploy, but as I got into it I imagined someone who cares reaching out, giving me a hand. I’ve fallen so many times in conjunction with my struggles and it felt like…

Well, let me tell you the circumstances under which I received this book…and it might make a little more sense. Yeah?

So several weeks ago I had felt renewed energy to take control of my life again. I had been missing the 12-step group I was attending, I had been inconsistent with my devotion to my God and hadn’t been practicing the skills I needed to have in order to triumph when temptation came. In short, I had been wallowing in self-pity, trying to stay afloat.

In the midst of these feelings and inconsistent behaviors I received the book. “Cool,” I thought and tossed the book on the passenger’s seat of my car, driving off to continue in the rut I’d been operating in on and off now for many years.

Last year I had stumbled across a little movie called The Celestine Prophecy and while not agreeing with all its premises, it had touched me. A major theme of the movie was that there are no coincidences in life.

I bring this up because when I finally sat down and turned the book over I saw a testimonial from James Redfield, the author of the book from which this movie was made. A coincidence? Perhaps. But if I had learned anything from the movie, then no.

The second “coincidence” that helped to push me on to read the mysterious book I had received in the mail was an incident at the library. I needed to buy a computer pass and had to spend a minimum of three dollars in order to use my credit card – the computer pass was only a dollar. So I grabbed a book or two. After I got home I noticed that this book too had a testimonial from James Redfield on it…I got the hint!

After starting the book I recognized its literary style. The Five People You Meet in Heaven had been similar, a journey of self-awareness. I also recalled having gone through a similar process when I devoured Leadership & Self-Deception twice. I paused many times to write down answers to the questions asked the main character in the book.

So, I can’t really give to you what I got from the book. It would not even be the right way to go about it… Let me change directions for a second, then I’ll bring it back to Life’s Golden Ticket.

I started a couple weeks ago to offer a little report for download to a small group of people. I call it my “Hope Report – Who You Really Are.” In it, I try with all I have to share with others the hope I’ve seen as I’ve started to give attention to healing from my addiction. Before reading it I challenge people to look inward, loosen the soil so to speak, so the roots of hope can go deep.

This book is JUST the type of book to help one “loosen the soil” before hope can take root. It’s about getting honest with yourself, a necessary component of moving forward to achieve any goal that we set out for ourselves.

I would recommend Life’s Golden Ticket to anyone looking to break down a few walls, but ONLY if they’re willing to be open with the process. Life isn’t what happens to us, but rather, how we choose to react to it. In other words, we get out of life what we put into it. So, if you’re not ready to put anything into this book, don’t bother. But, if you have even a small inclination to change and get real, it’s a real good place to start!

OFFER: Read it, let me know what ya think and I’ll send ya my free Hope Report and add ya to my book give-away list!