Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Bounce Back Book by Karen Salmansohn


The full name of the book is The Bounce Back Book how to thrive in the face of adversity, setbacks and losses. How is that for a mouthful? Karen Salmansohn has 29 books in print and has sold over 1,000,000 books. I figure there must be something special in her books, so I read The Bounce Back Book. The first thing you notice is the red rubber cover. That’s right, it’s just like a red rubber ball. When you open the cover, you see colorful pages with vivid graphics.

Karen Salmansohn claims that her books are written for people who wouldn’t be caught dead reading self help books. This book is packed with information to help people “bounce back” from all sorts of adversities, setbacks and losses. Entrepreneurs know that major problems in our personal lives can impact our day to day work. As entrepreneurs, we need to be focused on our business and one way to do that, is to learn how to deal with those problems life hands us – personal or business problems. That’s why I think this book is beneficial for business people.

Each person has their own way of dealing with problems. Some people ignore them and pretend they will simply go away. I don’t know about you, but my problems never just disappear. So, I had to learn to face these problems head on and to learn how to get past them. That can be incredibly difficult, depending on your situation and the problem, but it is possible.

In the Bounce Back Book, Karen Salmansohn shares 75 tips on how to face problems. Some are very easy, others require more thought and effort. I put a paper clip on every tip that I thought was really beneficial – there are a lot of paper clips in the book. But, don’t’ skip the introduction, she gets to the heart of the matter in the opening pages. A couple of thoughts in the introduction include:

· In life, you always have a choice. Be weak or be strong.

· Who you are as a person is best revealed by who you are during times of conflict and crisis.

Those are two powerful and true statements. I contend that people can be a victim or a survivor – that’s another way of saying we can be weak or we can be strong.

Throughout the book, she presents a tip and then gives further information about that particular tip. Some of the details are simple common sense and other areas include examples or a bit of philosophy to support her suggestions. Below are some examples of the tips in the book.

Tip # 4 - We’ve all heard of the stages of grief – these steps show we are beginning to heal and beginning to deal with a crisis or a problem. At the end of this section, she gives 4 assignments for people to begin the healing process.

Tip # 9 – “It’s not only the event itself, but the way we explain the event to ourselves that causes depression.” That is so true. Our perception of an event can make it easier or harder for us to get past the problem. How do you view problems or troublesome events in your life?

Tip # 10 – “Happiness is a choice, not just a matter of genes or good luck.” Will you make the choice to be happy?

Tip # 16 – “Write a complaint letter. Then answer it.” Make a list of each thing that is a problem, fear, concern for you and then write a reply. If someone else came to you with the problem, how would you try to help them?

Tip # 35 – “Don’t just write a ‘To Do’ list. Write a ‘To Be’ list.”

Tip # 39 – “Shrink negativity into nuggetivity.” Think about whatever it is that is bothering you and let yourself think about it for 3 minutes. At the end of 3 minutes, you cannot think about it any more.

These are just a few of the bits of wisdom that Karen Salmansohn shares with us. What problems do you need to deal with and to handle? I feel pretty sure that there is a nugget in the book to help you with the problem. This book is a quick read and it is entertaining. If you wouldn’t be caught dead reading a self help book – this book was written for you.

For more information about Karen and her virtual book tour -

Karen Salmansohn - The Bounce Back Book (May 27th to June 30th, 2008)

Author and Book Information - http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/05/upcoming-virtual-book-tours.html





1 comment:

e m o j a b. said...

Did you actually read the entire book? I couldn't make it past chapter 3. So much for the new Walden.

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