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A Whole New You: Six Steps to Ignite Change for Your Best Life by Brett BlumenthalEnglish | 2012 | ISBN: 1612186157 | 254 pages | EPUB | 1 MBFrom the author of the bestselling book 52 Small Changes comes a smart, practical approach to reinventing any aspect of your life that’s not working for you. Whether you want to start eating healthy, switch careers, or improve a relationship, Brett Blumenthal’s A Whole New You will inspire you to take control of your life and to live at your very best.Drawing on her own experience with personal reinvention, her professional work as a change management consultant, and her studies in the fields of psychology and human behavior, Blumenthal breaks down how to successfully reinvent your life in six steps. Each stage is comprehensively explained, with action items, tools, and resources to enable you to follow through and effect change in your life. In A Whole New You, Blumenthal will lead you through:• The three times in your life when you’re at your most ready for change, including during life transitions and after trauma• The symptoms—rational, emotional and physical—that indicate you need change• How to stay motivated by making an investment in your success• Finding ways to capitalize on your strengths, making change easierA Whole New You is for anyone who wants to make a change but not sure where to begin, or for those who’ve tried to make a life improvement in the past but failed. With the right tools and knowledge, you’ll be able to reach your goals and live not just a good life or a better life—but your best lifeAbout AuthorBrett Blumenthal is bestselling author of A Whole New You: Six Steps to Ignite Change for Your Best Life (December 2012), 52 Small Changes: One Year to a Happier, Healthier You (January 2012) and Get Real and STOP Dieting! (December 2010). Her next book 52 Small Changes for the Mind, is due to be released December 8, 2015. She regularly speaks at conferences, spas and wellness centers on topics of change and wellbeing. Her writing is regularly featured on popular sites including: Huffington Post, Yahoo!, GalTime, Divine Caroline, Intent and Gather. She has also been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Spa Magazine, Stuff Boston, American Fitness, The METRO and Organic Spa Magazine. Brett has appeared on NBC, FOX and CBS, as well as on Martha Stewart’s Whole Living Radio Show – on Sirius Radio. She is a regular guest on Better Connecticut (WFSB – CBS, Hartford, CT) and MyFox – 25 in Boston.She has 20 years of experience in wellness promotion and almost 10 years experience in management consulting; including branding, change management, and training strategy and development for Fortune 100 companies. Brett has received numerous awards including: Shine from Yahoo! “Woman of the Year;” Divine Caroline’s Love this Site! award; Intent’s Best Healthy Living Site Award; and Healthy Heart from Nature Made.Brett received her MBA from Johnson at Cornell University, where she graduated as a Park Fellow; she also earned her bachelors degree from Cornell University. She is certified by WELCOA (Wellness Council of America) and AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America). Amazon Reviews4.0 out of 5 stars Good Step-by-Step BookBy nashvillegirl VINE VOICE on December 16, 2012This book provides a really good step-by-step program for those who want to reinvent their life, but aren’t sure where to start. If you have taken professional development seminars and found the worksheets and exercises done in those seminars useful, you will probably benefit from this book. Given that the author is a former management consultant, it’s not surprising that this is the format that the book follows.The reason I think this book is good for people who just don’t know where to start is that not only does the author break down the steps, but also covers steps within steps and includes a large amount of detail. For example, in the “Identifying the need” stage, the author draws a distinction between “rational” signs (facts, such as being underpaid) and “emotional” signs (dreading going to work every day). This style continues throughout the book, with so the steps, tasks lists, and suggested activities are easy to follow and provide a good base on which to create an action plan. I like the focus on all of the steps along the way as well, because all too often, people focus on the end goal without realizing that change can be a long journey with pitfalls and roadblocks. This book helps keep the reader focused on the smaller steps instead of focusing purely on the big picture, which I think helps.There are anecdotes throughout the book, although I think even more would have been helpful. Note that there are worksheets in the back of the book, so getting a paper copy is probably better than getting it electronically.2.0 out of 5 starsNothing NewBy Dave English VINE VOICE on November 26, 2012There’s almost nothing new here, and a lot that is rehashed from many other sources. The opening quote is cited to St. Jerome, but a little research shows that not to be reliable. The blurb says the book draws on “her studies in the fields of psychology and human behavior” but no original research is ever mentioned. Her bio is strong on media appearances and short on actual achievements.Following one-page summaries of several good books on human behavior, the bulk of the book is bunches of worksheets and lists of action steps. These make buying the paper edition a must, as you can’t write in the kindle version. It all felt cliched superficial self-help pulp. But if a page of blank lines with the title “My Ideal Tomorrow Worksheet: What would my life look like if I erased all the negativity in my life?” is what you’re looking for, well, here it is. I hope this review helps you.5.0 out of 5 starsA Real How To GuideBy John Chancellor TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on October 11, 2012If you are truly ready to make permanent changes in your life, this is a terrific resource. This is not just a book with lots of information about changing your life. This is truly a real workbook with a step by step, in depth guide to creating your best life.The book is divided into three parts. Part one is an introduction or overview of personal reinvention. It tells you how to use the book. Part two is contains the six steps to your own personal reinvention. And part three is the activities journal which contains worksheets and templates for carrying out the exercises contained in part two.The meat of the book is in part two. The six steps are Identify the need, Discover yourself, Design your vision, Create the Plan, Make it happen and Monitor your progress. Within each step is an overview of the step with a very detailed action plan for that step. Each step comes with a number of pointed questions you must work through if you are going to successfully complete the section and reinvent yourself. The six steps are tied to the Activities Journal where there are worksheets and templates for recording your work.This book presents a well thought out plan for reinventing yourself. It is well researched and well written. But the magic will not come from the information in the book. The magic comes from actually doing all the steps set out in the book.If you have read many self-help books, you will find that you are probably familiar with a lot of the information in the book. But this book goes a couple of steps further than most self-help books I have read. Take for example the idea of setting goals. Most people will be familiar with the concept of SMART goals. Brett Blumenthal, the author, goes one step further introducing SMARTE goals. Adding the final “E” stands for Emotionally Driven. It is great to have goals but unless there is emotion driving the goals, you will not have the will to keep going when things start to get difficult.Ms. Blumenthal also is realistic about the journey. It will not always be smooth. Far too many teachers focus entirely on being positive. She says to expect some failure. If you anticipate some failures and realize that is normal and natural, you are much more likely to regroup and continue working.She cites the work of many other experts in this field. She also provides highlighted text boxes for things to look out for or special areas which need mentioning. And at the end of each chapter is a recap of the lessons in that chapter.While there is extremely good information in this book, the purpose of this book is not to provide information. This book is designed to give you a road map for changing your life. That will only happen if you do the work necessary. There are a number of questions and exercises which you must work through if you hope to gain the full benefit available from this book. It will require some real work and some honest assessments on your part. But do the work and you will change your life.4.0 out of 5 starsA Worksheet Based Book – Be Prepared to WriteBy Lisa Shea HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on May 17, 2013There are a plethora of self-help books out there, each with different angles, different methods. It’s not that the information they present is new. It’s that they use a specific point of view which might connect with you. That’s fine. So it’s important to know what the style of this book is, so you can see if it’s going to be the one you relate to. Otherwise there are plenty of other options out there for you to choose from, that might match you better.Brett Blumental went heavily for the “fill in list” technique to help you figure out your path. That is fine! Many people benefit from that technique. Others don’t, and that’s fine too. One thing to realize is that this is going to take time. It took me a solid month to go through the book, giving the lists the time and energy she recommends. That is, it doesn’t help to race through the tasks. You want to take it slow, give them thought, and ponder them.The entire back half of the book – pages 169 to 217 – are worksheets. So again, a substantial amount. On one hand this could mean you want to get the book in paperback so you can fill them in. However, even though I did have a paperback copy, I chose to journal my answers. That way I could do it again in a year or two and have a fresh set of answers, and compare them. I would recommend not writing in the book. You could even scan / xerox those worksheet pages. That way you could do this multiple times over the years and see how you change.On one hand I found it annoying after each statement in the book that I had to go flipping to the back section to track down where the matching worksheet was. I would have preferred to have them integrated in the book so I could read the instructions and then see what the worksheet looked like. However, I do understand that for those who want to copy the forms that it’s easier to do that with them all in one spot.I disagree with some things she says. For example, Strengths are those things that you do well, seemingly effortlessly. They come very naturally to you and aren’t a result of acquired knowledge or skill but instead are a result of your natural abilities.” What? From my point of view, the reason I’m good at motivating people is that I’ve practiced it over the years. Just about every single thing we do well is because we have practiced it over the years. We are trained from birth by our family and friends to be a certain way. “Natural abilities” are abilities we were encouraged in and kept doing.I don’t like at all the “My Failures Worksheet” with a column labeled “Failures”. How we word things makes a critical difference in our minds. How about “My hurdles” or “my learning experiences” for that page? Why label it as “failure”? Edison “failed” many times before he succeeded – and to him they were all important experiments which he learned from. A self-help book, in my mind, shouldn’t have a chart called “failures”.There are other similar things. We work on good experiences, and then work on bad – so now it’s the bad experiences which linger in our mind. A legacy page focuses on our children and grandchildren – why? Why exclude people who don’t have any, either for choice or tragedy reasons? Why not leave more open the idea of legacy to explicitly encompass all forms of legacy?I certainly appreciate a lot of what she teaches, and again it’s what you’re taught in pretty much every other self help book. Write down your goals. Be honest. Sharing them with others helps to make you accountable. Learn to say no to things which do not fit your own priorities.But for me I didn’t find the “six steps” to be clearly defined. There were lists after lists after lists and it often felt you were mired deep in a list-fest. There needed to be more connective tissue to keep the “theme” of the step alive. There also needed to be more examples and background supplied before each list was tackled. Sometimes it felt as if you barely got a paragraph of “this is what the list is, now go do it”.Still, again, some people thrive on lists, and this is definitely very list-intense. So if you’re a lister by nature, give this a try. Be sure to critically think about what is being presented to you, so you can see for yourself which aspects fit with your point of view. Be honest in your lists. In the end, if you examine the issues honestly, and then plan out priorities which work well in your situation, you’ve achieved what the book has set out to help you with.I received a review copy of this book via Amazon’s Vine program.