Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen - Book Review by Mike Matthews
- Rating - 4 out of 5 Stars
- The Best Advice in the book
- Best Prices for the Book, CD and Cassette
- Joel Osteen's 7 steps to your Full Potential
- Critics and Followers
- What I Liked
- What I didn't Like
- Joel Osteen's bio
- On-line Streaming Videos, Interviews and the Blog
- Your Best Life Now - Why you should buy it today
To get the full impact of this book, Your Best Life Now, I recommend that you see one of Joel's sermons. Did you know he has one of the largest congregations in the U.S? Did you know he didn't want to become a minister because he didn't think he could effectively talk in front of large audiences? If you've never seen him preach, you're in for a treat - take some time and:
- Watch one of his TV broadcasts at http://www.joelosteen.com
- Check out one of his on-line streaming videos
- Visit the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas
Joel Osteen's ability to deliver a message is a gift
and he uses all his talent to deliver his message. His
smiling face, his accent, his stage presence, his sincerity,
his analogies to real-life situations and his enthusiasm
are just a few ways that Joel captures your attention
for the 30-60 minute talks. Listen to Joel at least once
before you read his book, Your Best Life Now. As you
read, you will easily visualize him up on the stage in
front of you as he personally reads you the book. His
writing style mirrors his Sunday morning messages and
you'll find the same enthusiasm while reading this book
Rating - 4 of 5 Stars
Overall, Your Best Life Now is a very good motivational
book. Many chapters will hit you directly with a positive
force, while others will cause you to ask "...why did he include this in book...".
I would have rated this a 5, but there were a few conflicting
points in the book and there were a few times he strayed
from the topic of living to your full potential.
One of the best points is Joel's discussion about making
time to focus on your pursuit of true goals, instead
of crowding your day with mundane tasks and other people's
priorities. Losing focus on the important goals is so
easy to do and his thoughts on this subject are well
written in the book. One of points that I found difficult
to accept is, trusting God to bring justice into your
life. In my opinion, this belief is too simplified and
naive.
Even though I am not a strong religious person, Your
Best Life Now contains more good points than 'not so
good' points and for that, it is a must read. His enthusiasm
will help motivate you to improve your life and to improve
the life of others. If you want to listen to him read
the book, then consider ordering the CD version or cassette
version of Joel Osteen's book, Your Best Life Now. Check
out the best prices at http://www.your-key-to-success.com/yourbestlifenow.html.
The Best Advice - Enlarge Your Vision
Joel starts with a great analogy about a gorgeous house
in Hawaii that a vacationing friend was admiring. The
friend's comment was something like "I can't imagine ever living in a place like that." In the book, Joel states it well with one of his many quotes; "We have to (first) conceive it on the inside before we're going to receive on the outside." You
need to change your mindset and first, imagine yourself
living in that fabulous house. Your Best Life Now discusses
the need to create a larger vision for your life and
your personal goals. He also mentions the need to avoid
getting stuck in a rut and you'll see more successes
with your relationships, personal finances, health, etc.
Joel also proceeds to tell us that God expects much more
from all of us and settling for a small vision is not
what God or others expect.
Personal Commentary
Do you think Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Bill
Gates, Thomas Edison, Warren Buffet - had small visions?
Absolutely Not! Every successful person starts with a
great vision of possibilities. They were not born with
a set of grandiose goals and a lifetime vision. Their
goals and vision were developed over time and became
a focal point later. You too can create a vision, make
it your personal focal point and use it as your driving
force to succeed with your personal goals. You can check
out some other great motivational secrets and articles
at http://www.your-key-to-success.com/index_articles.html.
End of personal commentary.
Best Prices for the 'Your Best Life Now' book, CD and
cassette version
I've found the best pricing and availability for this
book, CD and cassette on Amazon.com, Booksamillion.com
or Simplyaudiobooks.com. Other sites such as ebay and
Joel Osteen's site also have this book, but I've always
had good better experiences at Amazon.com. Your Best
Life Now can be purchased as a book, CD or cassette version.
Prices range from only $12 to $18 and you can get a direct
link to those prices at http://www.your-key-to-success.com/yourbestlifenow.html#bestprices
The 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
Enlarge Your Vision - (in my opinion, the best advice)
Develop a Healthy Self Image
Discover the Power of your Thoughts
Let Go of the Past
Find Strength through Adversity - (another good chapter)
Live to Give - ('Give some, Receive More' would have
been a better title)
Choose to be Happy - (Personally trying to make some
changes with this one)
Critics and Followers
On a blog I created specifically for this book (http://yourbestlifenowreview.blogspot.com),
I've listed some links to other web sites that contain
reviews, testimonials and other personal thoughts about
Joel Osteen, the Lakewood Church and his new book, Your
Best Life Now. There seems to be two extreme views that
range from "Best person that touched my life" to "His use of 'God' to increase his personal wealth is not the Christian Way".
After viewing about 50 of these comments, it's about
a 25 to 1 ratio in favor of Joel, his teaching methods
and his new book, Your Best Life Now. You can check out
the full range by going to this blog at http://yourbestlifenowreview.blogspot.com.
Here are a few quotes from the Followers:
Chuck Norris, Actor - "As I was growing up, my mother
taught be two essential principles for success: trust
in God, and look for the best in people. Today, my wife,
Gena, and I benefit greatly from Joel Osteen's similar
positive messages of hope and encouragement."
Rudy Tomjanovich, coach, Los Angeles Lakers - "Joel has
the unique ability to communicate the most complex spiritual
principles in simple everyday language. He will motivate
and inspire you to live a life of excellence and to fulfill
your God-given destiny.
What I Liked
Enlarge your Vision is by far the most important point
in his book. Without a big vision, you can't expect big
things to occur your life.
Finding Strength through Adversity is another great perspective
and realization. If we all lived without challenges,
we'd never reach our potential. Some of toughest challenges
can be both what is given to us as well as what we give
to ourselves. One of his quotes sums it up well, "…turning your challenges into stepping stones for promotion…".
Choose to be Happy is a great way for Joel to end his
book, Your Best Life Now. Smile more often, show enthusiasm
and make the choice to be happy. It is your choice, no
matter the circumstance, to be happy.
What I didn't Like
Chapter 22, Trusting God's Timing is personally difficult
for me to absorb. Often, I will hear the phrase, "I'm going to pray for the (solution)." It is my opinion that praying may be a positive step for you in finding a solution and it may give you a sense of possibility, but it can't be the answer. Joel's comment to trust God's timing might lead some to simply give up and let God handle it. I believe you need to take some specific actions to get a solution & I
don't think only praying, will get you a solution. In
another section of his book, he states that perseverance
is important in living to your full potential and getting
all those things that you create in your vision.
Joel Osteen's Bio
Joel Osteen is the senior pastor of the Lakewood Church
in Houston, Texas. An unbelievable 30,000 members listen
to Joel each week and millions more watch him deliver
his messages on national TV. Joel lives in Houston with
his wife, Victoria, and their two children, Jonathan
and Alexandra. Joel's book, Your Best Life Now has been
#1 on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold
over 1,000,000 copies. Joel started the television outreach
ministry with his father and remained behind the scenes,
until his father passed away. He dedicated this book,
Your Best Life Now to his father, John Osteen (1929-1999),
On-line Streaming Video, Interviews, Quotes and a Blog
dedicated to the Book
Check out some of his most recent messages at his web
site, http://www.joelosteen.com. (You may need to register
to view).
Read the interview with Laura Sheahen or Bill O'Reilly
at the blog site listed below.
I created a specific Blog to post as much as I could
about Joel Osteen and his new book, Your Best Life Now,
both the good and the 'not so good'. Take a peek at the
Blog, you'll enjoy the interesting facts, interviews
and personal comments. http://yourbestlifenowreview.blogspot.com
Your Best Life Now - Why you should buy it today.
Here are a few quotes from his book:
"You must conceive it in your heart and mind before you can receive it" (Enlarge
Your Vision)
"Don't worry about things you can't change" (Happiness is a Choice)
“It's in the tough times of life that we find out what we're really made of" (The
Purpose of Trials)
"It's time to think about what you're thinking about" (Choosing the Right Thoughts)
Joel does a great job in enthusiastically conveying his
ideas and principles with the reader. His use of humor,
sincerity and analogies make the book both easy and inspiring
to read. (It was tough to put down).
"Dreams will determine what you want in life,
Actions will determine what you get in life.”
Do you truly have a desire to make your life better,
do you just think about it and never take action? If
you don't get this book, you'll miss out on hearing the
message of one of the great motivational leaders of our
time. Today is that day to take action, and buy Joel
Osteen's, Your Best Life Now! For less than $12 (the
cost of one dinner) is a small price to get the advice
of one today's top speakers. Remember to check out a
direct to the best prices at this link, http://www.your-key-to-success.com/yourbestlifenow.html#bestprices.
End of Product Review by Mike Matthews
About the author:
Mike Matthews is a writer for http://www.Your-Key-to-Success.comwith
many personal successes in the areas of personal finance,
small business, real estate investments and reaching
fitness goals.
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