Why Am I Sharing Parts Of My Forthcoming Book, The Power To Choose?

For links to the preview of the book, online or PDF form, skip to the bottom of this page.

These are strange times, aren’t they? And many of us are sitting here wondering, what should I do? What can I do to help?

Last week, I was doing exactly that.

I had had a few ideas (you can read more about them at the top of this page) including gifting some coaching to those who might need it and several pieces of writing as part of my 12-minute blog. But that wasn’t quite enough.

I have spent a number of moments in the previous few weeks, as the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak became clearer and clearer, being grateful for all the work I have done on myself which enables me to deal far better with the uncertainty and chaos of the outbreak than I would have done years ago.

And then, inspired by an interview with Brené Brown on the Tim Ferriss Show, I had an insight: I could share my book. Not all of it, but some of it. The most important part. The part which is about how and why I think I am dealing far better with the uncertainty and complexity of the current situation than I would have years ago. This part, in fact, is almost ready. And that’s what you have, linked to from the bottom of this post.

It’s not perfect – I’m sure you’ll find the odd typo and confusing phrasing – so please forgive me that, and it may not be well-formatted if you want to read in on a Kindle or similar. And it’s not complete: I’m sharing Part One of the book, but Parts Two and Three include far more context about taking the ideas from Part One out into the world. So also please forgive the references to parts of the book I haven’t shared yet. And it’s not finished: when this book is finally complete, there will be changes to these sections, some of which I already know about, and some of which I’m sure I don’t. But what it does have, even at this unfinished stage, is the spirit of what I am trying to offer it: a set of practices which, if you take them out into your life, I believe will enable you to more often be the skilful, wise and noble self that you are on your best days. And the world - and most importantly the people around you - need that you more than ever in times like these.

This is, among other things, a book about the complexity of the modern world and about being our most skilful selves so that we can cope with uncertainty. It is about understanding the power of choice that we have, inside our minds, to help us cope with what life throws at us. It is about transforming our relationships so that we can respond to those around us as we would hope they would respond to us. And it is about dealing with the most difficult times by deepening our understanding of ourselves, allowing us to continue to grow and change and respond, even when things get really tough.

Those are the three capacities that I have found have helped me respond to the multifaceted, complex, uncertain challenges of the modern world. And have there ever been more multifaceted, complex and uncertain times than these?

If you find this writing useful, please share it with someone else who, in these uncertain, complex times, might need a helping hand.

Read the preview in articles on this site:

The Power To Choose Introduction

Chapter One: You Can Choose

Chapter Two: What If Everyone Is Doing Their Best

Chapter Three: Curiosity Is The Antidote To Contraction

Download a PDF of the entire preview, with a couple of extra bits:

Download a PDF version in A4

Download a PDF in A5

(The A5 version might make it easier to read on e-readers like Kindles - did you know you can email PDFs to your Kindle, so you can read them there?)

Read the preview in articles on LinkedIn:

The Power To Choose Introduction (TPTC Preview I)