Recently I have been reading a book called “Notes from a Friend” by Anthony Robbins and it’s been an amazingly inspirational read! I discovered the book when I won a Jack Petchey Award earlier this year. With a medal we were given little booklets called “Notes from Jack Petchey”. Extracts from this booklet were taken from Anthony Robbins’ book which Jack Petchey keeps beside his bed as he valued the advice given in “Notes from a Friend” so much. There was an opportunity to obtain a copy of the book and I at once asked my sister to purchase it for me – it was lucky that I did.
As a teenage girl, there are many “teenage disasters” that I’ve been going through lately and one morning, I woke up feeling blue as I had been throughout the past week or two. I saw the book next to my Johnny Depp biography which my cousin had brought me for Christmas and I picked it up and began to read. I couldn’t put it down. I was initially put off at the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ted Danson and Andre Agassi had found this book helpful. Three completely different men, but men all the same – was this book aimed at the male sex? Would it therefore be completely useless to me – a teenage girl?
Regardless of my first impressions, I read the introduction and I was immediately hooked. The introduction told the story of a boy whose life seemed to be completely in shambles. It spoke of one thanksgiving where the boy’s family couldn’t afford a turkey or a feast, and how a man came to the door with a feast fit for a king as a present from someone “who knows you’re in need and wants you to know that you’re loved and cared for”. The story goes on to tell of how the boy grew up to give things to others, to share the love that he was shown that thanksgiving.
I couldn’t help but continue to read and I finished the book in the space of an hour. There were fantastically inspiriting references to Walt Disney, Soichiro Honda and Ed Roberts. As soon as I finally put the book down, I got ready and went downstairs to find my mother and sister watching the London Marathon. There was a story of a soldier who had been severely hurt by a grenade during an attack and was now blind – he ran the marathon. Stories like this never seemed to move me as much as it had after reading “Notes from a Friend” and I’m glad that I ignored my initial instincts and read it.
A lot of my friends think that I’m crazy to do what I do – because I happen to be the editor of the school magazine, because I prefer spending my time at home then time going out and getting drunk with them, because of the idea that I have a theme tune which turned out to be Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life”, and most of all, because I am who I am, I listen to what I want to listen to, and I watch what I want to watch, no matter how outdated they believe it is. This book was better than any therapy session suggested by my friends could ever be; it was defiantly a million and one times more beneficial.
I realised that I could make my dreams a reality and that although it wouldn’t be easy, I can achieve it if I believe in myself and if I don’t let people pull me down. Sandra Bullock said that “there is no such thing as failure” and I didn’t really understand what she meant by that until I read this book; until Anthony Robbins said that “there are no failures in life. As long as I learn anything from something, then I’ve succeeded”. The book put a lot of things into perspective for me and I can 100% say that it really has changed my life for the better – my friends and family might not see a change in me straight away, but slowly and surly, the teachings from this book will show on me.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was right. This book is “more than a note from a friend – an indispensable guide!” and like Jack Petchey, this will be one that stays on my bedside for years to come. It’s well worth the read.
As a teenage girl, there are many “teenage disasters” that I’ve been going through lately and one morning, I woke up feeling blue as I had been throughout the past week or two. I saw the book next to my Johnny Depp biography which my cousin had brought me for Christmas and I picked it up and began to read. I couldn’t put it down. I was initially put off at the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ted Danson and Andre Agassi had found this book helpful. Three completely different men, but men all the same – was this book aimed at the male sex? Would it therefore be completely useless to me – a teenage girl?
Regardless of my first impressions, I read the introduction and I was immediately hooked. The introduction told the story of a boy whose life seemed to be completely in shambles. It spoke of one thanksgiving where the boy’s family couldn’t afford a turkey or a feast, and how a man came to the door with a feast fit for a king as a present from someone “who knows you’re in need and wants you to know that you’re loved and cared for”. The story goes on to tell of how the boy grew up to give things to others, to share the love that he was shown that thanksgiving.
I couldn’t help but continue to read and I finished the book in the space of an hour. There were fantastically inspiriting references to Walt Disney, Soichiro Honda and Ed Roberts. As soon as I finally put the book down, I got ready and went downstairs to find my mother and sister watching the London Marathon. There was a story of a soldier who had been severely hurt by a grenade during an attack and was now blind – he ran the marathon. Stories like this never seemed to move me as much as it had after reading “Notes from a Friend” and I’m glad that I ignored my initial instincts and read it.
A lot of my friends think that I’m crazy to do what I do – because I happen to be the editor of the school magazine, because I prefer spending my time at home then time going out and getting drunk with them, because of the idea that I have a theme tune which turned out to be Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life”, and most of all, because I am who I am, I listen to what I want to listen to, and I watch what I want to watch, no matter how outdated they believe it is. This book was better than any therapy session suggested by my friends could ever be; it was defiantly a million and one times more beneficial.
I realised that I could make my dreams a reality and that although it wouldn’t be easy, I can achieve it if I believe in myself and if I don’t let people pull me down. Sandra Bullock said that “there is no such thing as failure” and I didn’t really understand what she meant by that until I read this book; until Anthony Robbins said that “there are no failures in life. As long as I learn anything from something, then I’ve succeeded”. The book put a lot of things into perspective for me and I can 100% say that it really has changed my life for the better – my friends and family might not see a change in me straight away, but slowly and surly, the teachings from this book will show on me.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was right. This book is “more than a note from a friend – an indispensable guide!” and like Jack Petchey, this will be one that stays on my bedside for years to come. It’s well worth the read.
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