The Power of Focus

Have you read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People [Stephen R. Covey]? Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Well even if you hated it, The Power of Focus [Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt] might be for you. If you hated the topic in 7 Habits; just skip this whole review!

I feel guilty comparing these two works as some might feel I am doing the other work a discourteous gesture. However, I feel that the two books not only share the same heart, but they are conveying the same message with the same desire to help people. I am a organization freak in that I love to organize things and make them efficient. I, however, am not ultra organized nor am I efficient. I love watches, I am fascinated with time and I am overly anal about every clock I own not being more then 15 seconds off from the correct time. I, however, am RARELY on time…in fact I loath dedicated times; I prefer suggested times.

Where 7 Habits falls short; or lacks a “for dummies” type of action plan, The Power of Focus brings relief. It’s a clean, nice almost “For Dummies” feel and well laid out action plans. It is a collection of 11 chapters; 10 action plans with a conclusion. After each chapter you find out a little more about yourself…but not in a quizlette you might in the back of cosmo magazine type of self realization – I mean the type were you might want to lie on some questions because you really don’t want to face reality.

For anyone in business or anyone trying to reach new personal goals I think this book is worth the $12. The authors are known for the Chicken Soup for The Soul books…so it has quite the motivational flair that you would expect. There is an occasional comment related to God and religion in general, but I think there is less then 5 references overall. None of them seemed to be out of context.

Overall: a great weekend read and worth rereading a few times.