Kickstart Your Motivation: The Complete Guide to Challenging Yourself to Win (The Kickstart Series) (Paperback)

The writing style is clear, concise and refreshingly accessible. Having read it in one sitting, I felt that I had been taken, step by step, through a psychological rites of passage that I could relate to one hundred percent. The author's integrity and honesty are never in doubt and the correlation between her survival experiences in the arctic and what we all face in our own personal endeavours is certainly no mere publisher's marketing spin.
The book benefits from a very user-friendly layout with subject headers clearly defined plus chapter summaries at the end. Even better are the 'kick-start tips' highlighted in boxes to reinforce our learning.

It is refreshing to find a self-help book that acknowledges that even high flyers are fallible human beings with softy wobbly centres. If we were to do no more than cut and paste the author's 'kick-start tips' on our computer, or around the morning tea kettle, we could go some considerable way toward understanding our fear and negativity and turning it round into positive actions that allow us to win.

'Kickstart Your Motivation' is an upbeat guide explaining the processes that involve motivation. What makes an individual motivated, how to sustain motivation and even how to renew that motivation after some goals have already been achieved.

You can take great comfort in the fact that Sue Stockdale literally practices what she preaches i.e. having had to endure some very challenging situations including adventures in Kenya, the former Yugoslavia as well as the North and South Polar regions. So her advice has been tried and tested the hard way!

So for anyone feeling they lack that spark, that inclination to get out there and do stuff, 'Kickstart Your Motivation' is an essential tool in your psychological armoury.

The heart of the book is built around the concept of Learned Powerfulness  (developed by Dr Alan Beggs) - that most top performers have acquired the following abilities:

Focus: on what they want to achieve in the future and have a high level of awareness
Authenticity: Ensuring their goals are set against their beliefs and values.
Resilience: They can withstand the knock backs and critics (both internal and external)

'Kickstart Your Motivation' explores many themes: where motivation comes from i.e. the value of role models, and mentors in encouraging motivation; recognising the fact that we have to take responsibility for our own success. The chapter 'Testing Your Capabilities' addresses the issues of flexibility, preparation and planning. All essential ideas that are key in adopting a more motivated lifestyle and obviously characteristics that Sue Stockdale has had to acquire in her many adventures.

'The Ultimate Challenge' is a particularly important chapter that focuses on fear and a lack of confidence that stops many of us taking a chance on things. It looks at what stops us from achieving our goals, how to address those internal critics and ultimately how to control them.

Motivation or lack of it, is something that will affect all of us and some point in our lives. Sometimes we feel on top of the world, and sometimes we feel the world is falling in on us. We therefore need a way to keep motivated on a more regular basis - 'Kickstart Your Motivation' will enhance our understanding of achieving this...