The Invisible Mentor

When I saw this book a couple of years ago, I bought it because I know how important it is to ask the right questions to get the answers that you are looking for. I was in a rush so I grabbed the book without reading the back to see what it was about. Because I was in such a rush, I didn’t notice the subtitle, all I saw was THE RIGHT QUESTIONS. I think that the book should be titled “How to Make the Right Choices.” Even though the book wasn’t what I expected, I still enjoyed it.

What Are The Ten Questions?

1. Will this choice propel me toward an inspiring future or will it keep me stuck in the past?
2. Will this choice bring me long-term fulfillment or will it bring me short-term gratification?
3. Am I standing in my power or am I trying to please another?
4. Am I looking for what’s right or am I looking for what’s wrong?
5. Will this choice add to my life force or will it rob me of my energy?
6. Will I use this situation as a catalyst to grow and evolve or will I use it to beat myself up?
7. Does this choice empower me or does it disempower me?
8. Is this an act of self-love or is it an act of self-sabotage?
9. Is this an act of faith or is it an act of fear?

10. Am I choosing from my divinity or am I choosing from my humanity?

According to Debbie Ford, “These questions supply you with the wisdom you need to make what was previously unconscious, conscious, so that you can choose with all the power that comes from being fully aware.”

Let’s focus on question six, “Will I use this situation as a catalyst to grow and evolve or will I use it to beat myself up?” Ford suggests that every person and situation in our lives is “behaving in exactly the way we need them to at every moment in time.” This concept would be difficult for most people to understand and accept. However, she further adds, which I agree with, that we look at the situation with perspective and ask ourselves what can we learn, and how can we use this to evolve. I would ask what opportunities exist in the situation.

Five Great Ideas

1. The quality of our choices will dictate whether we will struggle in frustration or live an extraordinary life… Choice allows us to pick, to select, to decide between paths. To go right or left. To move forward or backward, be happy or sad, loving or hateful, satisfied or discontent. Choice gives us the power to be successful or unfulfilled, to be good or great, to feel pleasure or pain
2. We are where we are because of repeated unconscious or unhealthy choices that we’ve made day after day that add up to the reality we find ourselves in. if we want to understand why and how we created our present reality, all we need to do is look at the choices we made in the past… Our futures are determined by the choices we are making in this moment… If we want our lives to be different, all we have to do is make different choice
3. We’ve all been blessed with free will, which provides us with the power to choose how we react to our experiences in life
4. Faith invites us to believe in something we cannot see, feel, or know. Fear destroys dreams and exterminates possibilities… Our fears cause us to hold on to habits and behaviours that no longer serve us
5. The ability to rationalize behaviour that goes against what we truly want might be our biggest curse because it makes us masters at justifying our actions

What are your thoughts? How do you anticipate where your “puck” is going to land? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed.

The book review first appeared in Ambeck Edge June 2006

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3. Do You Know The Right Questions?
4. Planting to Reap Full Rewards: A Book Review of The Seasons of Life by Jim Rohn
5. “Say Yes to Life,” A Book Review of Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

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