Nick Hutchison reviews Natasha Vaswani's Perseverance, a book on mental and emotional health by a certified life coach. Vaswani teaches brain rewiring through environmental cues and spaced repetition, plus shifting from victim to third-person perspective using Stoic ideas like amor fati to gain emotional control.
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Show of hands, how many of you actually read every single page of a book, right? Cover to cover, including all of the miscellaneous sections. I know that I do. I still carry that habit to this day, and I was probably 100, maybe 200 books into my reading journey before I realized that not everybody reads sections like the dedication and the author's notes. But like I said, I still carry that habit to this day, and if I didn't, I would have missed this. The book that I'm reviewing today has one of the best opening dedications that I've ever read, so listen to this. The author says, quote, I would like to dedicate this book to not just those who stood by me during tough times, but also to those who put me in difficult situations throughout my life. And a couple pages later, she goes on to say, today I reflect on my life with gratitude for each experience I encountered. They shaped and molded me into the best version of myself. Every fear and trauma has helped me realize my true potential. No matter how many times you fall, you will in the end learn to bounce back. Book Thinkers family, today I'm reviewing my biggest takeaways from a book I just finished up, Perseverance, by author Natasha Vaswani. And the subtitle reads, unleash the power within you to create the best version of yourself. I really love that opening dedication because the author has matured to this ultimate space Of gratitude and fulfillment, happy with everybody who helped her get to where she is in life, and also happy to everybody that taught her personal development lessons through the trials that they caused. That is the ultimate level of gratitude. This book was fantastic. It covered a wide range of personal development material. Natasha is actually a certified life and transformation coach and counselor focused on mental and emotional health. So the Those were the primary subjects, mental and emotional health. There was a lot of conversation about the brain, rewiring things, emotional stability and intelligence, and I really enjoy reading about those subjects. What I would like to do is read 2 of my favorite sections, kind of expand on them a little bit. That'll give you a great introduction to the book. And by the way, those subjects are a little bit intense, but Natasha breaks things down in a very clear and concise way. The writing was very easy to understand. It was very actionable, and it was based on a lot of real-life experience with some great testimonials and stories from people that she's helped. So I hope that helps as well. The first thing that I'd like to talk about is something that Natasha says is positive reinforcement, right? During the process of creating behavior change and setting new goals, you want to reinforce your behavior. How do you do that? Environmental cues. And so Natasha talks about writing your goals on little Post-it cards, keeping them in your pocket, reviewing them throughout the day. That's called spaced repetition. And it reminded me of something that I've implemented from all of the books that I've read. It's very similar to this. I call it play bigger triggers. It's a little steal from Evan Carmichael, one of my mentors. I take this to the extreme. I have motivational artwork. I have motivational tattoos. I have motivational phone backgrounds and reminders on my phone that just pop up throughout the day. I have motivational coins that I keep in my pocket, right? Everything is branded. Everything is a play bigger trigger. It reminds me of who I'm becoming, the behavior change that I'm creating. And so if you want to learn more about that subject, I would highly recommend getting a copy of Natasha's book and reading about it here. It's very important for basically any area of personal development and behavior change. And then the second thing that I wanted to talk about in the book Natasha says, quote, we humans have an unlimited power to change emotions just by changing our standpoint. This is important. From a victim to that of a third person. This will enable us to detach ourselves from the pain and discomfort and accelerate our learning journey. From the Stoics, I love the term amor fati, and I think it's actually a Nietzsche thing, but it's very related to Stoicism. It's a love of one's fate. And nothing is inherently good or bad, right? We have the choice to respond in whatever manner we want to. Nothing is inherently good or bad. You can separate yourself from the standard narrative and emotional cycles that are kind of pushed onto a lot of us, right? In the societies that we grow up in, you're supposed to be this way and react this way to certain stimuli, but it doesn't always have to be like that. And throughout the book, Natasha gives you the keys to gain more control of your emotions by stepping back and detaching, going from victim to third-party perspective. I really enjoyed those lessons. So that was a preview, some of the things that I learned about in this book. If you're looking for a gift during the holidays, I think this is a great gift. If you are looking to improve your own life, I would recommend grabbing a copy. So comment down below if you resonate with any of those subjects, or if you read dedications. I might be the only one that actually still does that. Um, and yeah, share this with somebody who could benefit from it. Go read something. Bye!
