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Matthew Kelly – The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose5/5 stars with 39 customer reviewshttp://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Life-Living-Passion-Purpose/dp/… (link to paper book)The most helpful favorable review:Quote:If you’re checking out this review, you’re interested in becoming a better person, or as Kelly says, a better version of yourself. Kudos. This book will help you do it. It has brought a certain clarity to my inner monologue that I have never before felt. And just so you know, I’ve read so many self-help books and books on seeking happiness I can’t begin to list them here. (Relatively) Recently written books like “The 7 habits” and Dale Carnegie’s “How to”, all the way to Existentialist writers like Camus and enlightened thinkers such as Thoreau and ancient philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. Whether or not you have, this book will put all the others into perspective. It will show you how those books, and this one, will help you on your journey of becoming the best version of yourself, and the byproduct (happiness) which comes from embracing this journey. One last note…I subscribe to no particular faith, and I have avoided reading Kelly despite some of my friends recommendations because his books are always in the Christian section of the book store. I guarantee you that whether you are a born again Christian or an agnostic, this book can help you. I don’t know how else to put it: I give this book my strongest recommendation. You will do well to read it.Do you ever feel that if you weren’t so busy you would be happier, healthier,more effective, more fulfilled…and maybe even a better person?Once every twenty-five years or so, a book comes along that perfectlyidentifies our common search and struggle for happiness, and teachesus how to find lasting fulfillment in a changing world. This is thatbook. Not since M. Scott Peck published The Road Less Traveled havewe experienced a voice as refreshing and authentic as Matthew Kelly’s.-The Rhythm of Life will help you to bring into focus who you are andwhy you are here. Through this book Matthew Kelly will help you discoveryour legitimate needs, deepest desires, and unique talents. He willintroduce you to the-best-version-of-yourself and lead you to a lifefilled with passion and purpose.Here are just a few of the timeless creeds that he presents in The Rhythmof Life…”You were born to become the-best-version-of-yourself. This is youressential purpose. Embrace this one solitary truth and it will changeyour life more than anything you have ever learned. In every situation,ask yourself, Which of the options before me will help me become the-best-versi-on-of-myself?””Everything is a choice. This is life’s greatest truth and its hardestlesson. It is a great truth because it reminds us of our power. Notpower over others, but the power to be ourselves and to live the lifewe have imagined. It is a hard lesson because it causes us to realizethat we have chosen the life we are living right now.””The measure of your life will be the measure of your courage. Courageanimates us, brings us to life, and makes everything else possible.Fear stops more people from doing something with their lives than lackof ability, contacts, resources, or any other single variable. Fearparalyzes the human spirit. Life takes courage.””Energy is our most valuable resource, not time. The rhythm of lifeis a way of life that brings our legitimate needs, our deepest desires,and our unique talents into harmony with each other. The result: passion,purpose, and energy.”Kelly has a way of thinking and writing that cuts through the stiflingclutter of our everyday lives and delivers a clarity that is both refreshingand liberating.Everything Is a ChoiceThis is life’s greatest truth and its hardest lesson. It is a greattruth because it reminds us of our power. Not power over others, butthe often untapped power to be ourselves and to live the life we haveimagined.It is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize that we have chosenthe life we are living right now. It is perhaps frightening for us tothink that we have chosen to live our life exactly as it is today. Frighteningbecause we may not like what we find when we look at our lives today.But it is also liberating, because we can now begin to choose what wewill find when we look at our life in the tomorrows that lie unlivedbefore us.What will you see when you look at your life ten years from now? Whatwill you choose?Life is choices.You have chosen to live this day. You have chosen to read this book.You have chosen to live in a certain city. You have chosen to believecertain ideas. You have chosen the people you call friends.You choose the food you eat, the clothes you wear, and the thoughtsyou think. You choose to be calm or restless, you choose to feel appreciativeor ungrateful.Love is a choice. Anger is a choice. Fear is a choice. Courage is achoice.You choose.Sometimes we choose the-best-version-of-ourselves, and sometimes wechoose a-second-rate-version-of-ourselves.Everything is a choice, and our choices echo throughout our lives…andinto history…and on and on into eternity.Most people never fully accept this truth. They spend their lives arguingfor their weaknesses, complaining about their lot in life, or blamingother people for their weaknesses and their lot in life.You may argue that you are forced to live in a certain city or drivea certain car, but it is not true. And if it is, it is true only temporarilyand because of a choice you have made in the past.We choose, and in doing so, we design our lives.Some may say that we do not choose our circumstances. You’d be surprised.We have much more power over the circumstances of our lives than mostmen and women would ever admit. And even if circumstances are thrustupon us, we choose how we respond to those circumstances.Others may argue that they did not choose the country they were bornin or the parents they were born to. How do we know we didn’t choosethese things? We are all endowed with free will. Did we not have thisfree will before we were born? Perhaps one day we will realize thatwe have chosen much more than we have even imagined.I hope that day is today.For the day we accept that we have chosen to choose our choices is theday we cast off the shackles of victimhood and are set free to pursuethe lives we were born to live.Learn to master the moment of decision and you will live a life uncommon.