{ Relentless Solution Focus }

 

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education; 1st edition (January 7, 2021)
• Hardcover: 256 pages

From bestselling author and mental toughness expert Jason Selk comes a mind-training regimen for reframing every problem into an opportunity for productive action.

The most common cause of failing to reach our professional and personal goals is hardwired in us: Humans instinctively focus on problems. Over millennia, our very survival relied on our ability to be alert to any potential dangers that could threaten our existence. But today this negativity bias significantly limits our potential and increases stress, pressure, and underperformance.

The one characteristic all phenomenally successful people share is mental toughness. Mentally tough people are better at making decisions more quickly and with better results. They possess the uncanny ability to control what goes on between their ears. Instead of allowing their minds to focus on their problems when adversity strikes, the most successful people have learned to direct their thoughts in a systematic manner that produces positive emotions and productive actions: they have a Relentless Solution Focus.

In this book, top performance coach Dr. Jason Selk, former Director of Mental Training for the World Series champions St. Louis Cardinals, and his colleague Dr. Ellen Reed provide the insight, tools, and proven step-by-step framework for you to do the same. When you have Relentless Solution Focus, you think better. Your decisions garner positive results. You take action and follow through, every time. And when you do get off track, you get back on with less effort and less drama. Weakness shrinks and strength grows, creating confidence and momentum, taking you and your team to higher levels of performance and achievement.

Social Media

Please use the hashtag #RelentlessSolutionFocus, and tag @tlcbooktours and @jason_selk.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

About Dr. Jason Selk

Dr. Jason Selk, one of the nation’s premier performance coaches, has worked with business titans and superstar athletes. As Director of Mental Training for the St. Louis Cardinals, he played an important role in the team’s first World Series victory in over 20 years, in 2006, and their second in 2011. He is the bestselling author of Executive Toughness, 10-Minute Toughness, Organize Tomorrow Today, and Lead Any Team to Win.

Find out more about Dr. Selk on his website, and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

About Dr. Ellen Reed

Dr. Ellen Reed has worked side by side with Dr. Selk for 15 years, and has extensive experience in mental training for consistency, accountability, and execution in business, athletics, academics, and the performing arts. She helps business leaders and elite athletes reach their peak performance by developing the mental toughness necessary for success.

 

REVIEW: 

This is not an easy book to read, but mainly because it's a workbook and obviously not a fiction or easy read.

I need to be in the right mental state to read this kind of material, otherwise it's pointless because my mind constantly drifts and I end up not taking in what I'm reading.

With that said, it looks to be a really good book, chock full of information and tips and tricks to help you focus on the positive things in life and not so much on the negative.

I think we've all been guilty of focusing on negative things, negative thoughts, problems or thoughts that cloud our mind constantly.  That battle between control and not being able to fix certain things, is quite difficult to deal with.

The truth is, if you are allowing conflict and negativity to take over your life, you will never be content and happy.  

RSF takes you through these steps and teaches you along the way.

Now, I have not finished the book, and I think it will take me some time to get through it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially given the type of content it is.  I feel that books such as these need to be read slowly, so that you can really gleam as much from it as possible, learn along the way, and start applying the techniques to your life.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and McGraw-Hill Education, for providing me with a review copy of this book.  All opinions and thoughts are my own.

 

 

{ Happy Homemaker Monday - 02/22/2021 }

Good morning, and a very Happy Monday to you all!

 

How was your weekend?  I sure hope you were able to get a lot of family time in, and also were able to relax and get ready for the new week ahead.

Our weekend was spent cleaning up after the snow storm.  The amount of dead birds we have found, is quite heartbreaking.  I will be honest, I can't dispose of them, I don't have the heart to, so Curt does it for me.  

 

Thankfully, all the snow is now gone, the streets are now safe to drive, and our grocery stores are starting to get shipments in.  Thank God!

Anyway, I'm hoping to get a few blog posts done this week, and I would love to finally make it over to my food blog and update it as well.  Fingers crossed.

Have a blessed week friends and thank you once again for stopping by and participating.

 

♥♥The Weather♥♥ 

Here in Texas, we are all very glad to see the snow behind us, and are very much looking forward to our normal temperatures.  This week brings quite a bit of rain, and I do love rain so looking forward to that.   

Monday - Sunny, 62
Tuesday -  Mostly sunny, 71
Wednesday - Mostly sunny and windy, 54
Thursday -  PM showers, 45
Friday - AM showers, 56
Saturday -  PM showers, 62
Sunday -  AM thunderstorms, 60

♥♥How I am feeling this morning♥♥

Exhausted.  My insomnia has been so bad lately.  I would love to lay down, fall asleep and stay asleep all night.  But mostly I fall asleep, and in two hours I'm awake and can't get back to sleep.  It's frustrating.      

 ♥♥On the breakfast plate♥♥

Just a cup of coffee right now, not hungry at all, so not sure what I'll have later.

♥♥On my reading pile♥♥ 

Ezequiel book in the Bible.

My daily devotional book.

Cilka's Journey

All Creatures Great and Small

(my reading list hasn't changed the past few weeks, as I haven't been reading as much as I usually do) 

 ♥♥On my tv♥♥

Portuguese Soaps, Bem Me Quer and Amor Amor

Watched the documentary on the Cecil Hotel and Elisa Lam, on Netflix.  Also watched Night Stalker and a few other crime documentaries.

♥♥On the menu this week♥♥ 

 

Monday - Baked Potato Soup, Homemade Bread Bowls

Tuesday - Bacon Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread

Wednesday - Korean Beef Bowl, Basmati rice

Thursday - Basil Chicken with Egg Noodles, Steamed Broccoli

Friday - Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole, Fried Cabbage

Saturday - Homemade Pizza and movie night

Sunday - Grilled Bratwurst, Potato Salad

 

♥♥From the camera♥♥

Elliott is getting so big, and he is finally starting to calm down too.  My plants especially appreciate this.  Hahah

 

I just love watching him play.  One of his favorite toys?  A ball of aluminum foil that he throws around, drags around and has so much fun with.  He will play with it for an hour or more at a time.       

 

 

♥♥Looking around the house♥♥

It is still dark outside but the sun is starting to rise.  Marley is asleep on the couch next to me, my husband is about to walk out the door to work.  Kids are sleeping, but Jasmine will be up for work soon, and Elliott is laying by the back door watching the birds on the feeder.  

 

I need to give the house a good deep clean, so I'll be sitting down today to work on a list, so I can tackle each room during the week.      

♥♥To relax this week, I will♥♥

Read and crochet, as always, but I'm just going to throw in a couple naps, if I can.  I have never been a napper, never napped, always felt like they made me super cranky.  But with my insomnia lately, I need them to be able to function, so hopefully, if I have time, I will try to get in a quick nap in between homemaking chores or homeschooling.  

♥♥Something I want to share♥♥ 

Bringing you another video from the channel The Lime Tree.  This one is called Country Life A Food with Fruit of Paradise Fesenjoon.  Hope you enjoy :) 

 

 

♥♥Devotional, inspirational, prayer list or Bible verse♥♥

Encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. - 1 Thessalonians 2:12

♥ Praying for my sister in law, she lost her uncle yesterday.  He had been sick for a long time and went home to the Lord yesterday afternoon.

 

 

{ Slowly coming out of this winter weather }

First and foremost, thank you Lord!

 

Thank you for watching over and protecting my family, this past week.  

 

Our State has been hit so hard. My heart breaks just thinking about the difficulties that so many Texans have had to endure. The loss of life, the loss of property, the fear and the heartache so many families have had to go through. 

 

The great thing about Texans, is that they pull together and help each other. Thankfully, the weather is starting to warm up. 

 

We are all in this limbo, where we watch the temperatures go above 20 degrees and we pray that it hangs around long enough to melt the snow. Then we realize the sun starts going down and all that melted snow is now turning back to ice. Driving in this weather is terrifying, I'm thankful my husband has been home and the 2 times we had to leave the house, we took his truck. 

 

Even then, we are slipping and sliding all over the road, along with the other drivers out trying to get food or gas, and other necessities. 

 

But it will be ok. 

 

We will make it through this, and I want to thank all of you who have been praying every day for me and my family, and for our State in general too. 

 

 

Our week was basically spent, trying to keep the house warm, feeding the outside animals and trying to find them shelter. 

 

Shoveling the driveway, and putting out salt and sand on our country road to help the neighbors needing to drive by. 

 

The roof of our house and garage got so much snow, that we feared it would cave in.  Curt tried his best to remove as much of it as he could, but short of having to climb up onto the roof, there wasn't much we could do.

 

 

Our local stores are overwhelmed. I wasn't able to get to the base commissary because it was closed, so I did a Walmart pick up. Many items were sold out or not available, which is understandable as they couldn't get trucks in to replenish the groceries. 

 

On Thursday Curt and I stopped at Walmart to get milk and bread and had noticed that all their freezers were empty. One of the workers informed us that they had lost power and had to throw all their food out. How awful!

 

 

It does make for some very pretty pictures, but I must be honest, I am beyond ready for the snow to be gone and for Spring to come around.

Anyway, as I said above, I got a Walmart pick up but it was missing quite a few things, so this afternoon, before picking Jasmine up from work, I am heading to the store to get what I still need.

In the meantime, I am starting a baked potato soup in the slow cooker, and will probably make some bread bowls later to serve and eat the soup with.

Tomorrow morning we are hoping to get to church, it all depends on the weather and if service will resume.

I wish you all a very blessed weekend, hope you stay warm, stay safe and enjoy your time with the family. 

{ Historic Winter Storm }

 

I am sitting here with my cup of coffee, staring out the window at the beautiful white blanket of snow.  

 

I've always loved snow, always loved winter, but even I have to say, I'm ready for this all to melt and for Spring to spring forth.

It's been a cold past few days.  Actually, let me rephrase that, it's been a frigid bitterly cold past few days.

I know many of you are in the same boat, watching the same snow, enduring the same bitter temperatures from inside your warm homes.

 

Snow is not something we get often in our area.  Truthfully, when we do, it's nothing like this, at all.

It will snow for about an hour and then melt right away.  This?  This has even surprised the meteorologists.  They're calling it an Historic Winter Storm, the likes of which have not been seen in our State.  Yesterday we set record low temperatures.  Goodness!!!

 

We set out food for the outside animals, as best as we could. 

 

The snow came down hard, blowing all over the place and leaving snowdrifts that left us scratching our heads in amazement. 

 

We were told to prepare for a huge storm, to prepare for power outages and below freezing wind chills of -30.  In Texas, IN.TEXAS!!! 

Our wonderful Lord kept us protected and we didn't lose power, although there are millions of people in our State without power at the moment.  My prayers have been constant, for my family and I, but for everyone in the path of this weather, and especially those without electricity.  

 

It broke my heart to see the birds out there. They were trying so hard to get out of the blustering snow. They would sit up against the walls of the house, against the fences and under anything they could find.  If it were up to me, I would have opened my doors and brought them all in.  

 

Within a few hours, everything was blanketed in white. It looked like the movies, blowing snow, high winds. I've never seen anything like it, not even when we lived in Idaho. 

 

Marley was so happy playing outside. He loves snow and anytime we get some that sticks, he is immediately at the door barking to get out. It's so cute watching him running, jumping and munching at the snow on the ground. 

 

 

 

We woke up yesterday to blue skies, but the bitter cold still remains. And now? We are hunkering down and preparing for the next snow storm that is incoming this afternoon. It is supposed to drop another 6 inches of snow. Work and school has been cancelled the past 2 days, and I'm not sure how it will be tomorrow, since we have a 30% chance of snow for then too. 

 

It feels so strange even talking about a Winter storm in our area.  

 

We've been indoors, keeping busy, relaxing, reading, watching movies, eating yummy food and spending time together.  

 

I actually made food and some sandwiches to have on hand, in case our power went out.  It helps to prepare as much as you can, but it's also good to keep in mind that no matter what happens, we can sort it out and get through as best as we can.

 

If I have to cook in the fireplace, then I will.  My family actually started laughing and were saying that if it came down to it, I would just bring forth everything I have learned over the years, about the Amish and the pioneer way of life.  My son said "if anyone can do this, it's you, and I'm sure you'll be smiling from ear to ear."  Hahaha

He is not wrong.  I think that we can always learn from our ancestors and days gone by.  We don't have to worry about any of these things on a day to day basis, but when times like these come around, it's good to know that we have the skills and the knowledge to get by .

Anyway, I am going to finish this post up.  I need to read my Bible and my devotional for today, I'll also be crocheting some more, reading my next book for review, and hopefully watch some period dramas on the TV.

Ohhhh one of you had asked me where to watch All Creatures Great and Small.  I watch it on PBS.  It is also where I'll be watching Beecham House, Miss Scarlet and the Duke and a few other great ones.  Give it a try, you should be able to find it on your local TV channels or at the PBS website online.

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone and thank you for dropping by my little corner of the world.

{ Falling Home by Hallie Lord - TLC Book Tour }

 

 

About Falling Home: Creating a Life That Catches You When You Fall

Paperback: 208 Pages

Publisher: Thomas Nelson (February 2, 2021)

Beloved speaker and radio host Hallie Lord shows how to use unexpected hardships and challenges to build a life that will make you more secure and grounded than ever before.

Hallie Lord understands the upheaval life can bring. From her parents’ divorce when she was a preteen to moving eleven times in fifteen years with her family, the radical changes she faced relentlessly pushed her toward fear and helplessness. Yet by digging into her faith and through much self-reflection, she realized that even though those challenges had left her a bit battered and bruised, they had also equipped her for any difficulty that may arise.

In Falling Home, she describes the four interconnected foundations that now give her strength and security during life’s upheavals:

• committed, supportive friendships,
• healthy family relationships,
• an intimate love affair with God, and
• a compassionate sense of self.

Inviting readers into her hard-fought journey, Lord shows them how they, too, can embrace whatever life brings their way. With lyrical prose and a tender, inviting voice, she shares how hurts and sacrifices are also the groundwork for creating a beautiful life that can catch them whenever they fall.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

 

About Hallie Lord

Hallie Lord is the author of On the Other Side of Fear and Falling Home: Creating a Life That Catches You When You Fall, cohost of the Beatbox Gospel podcast, cofounder of Mixi Media, and the mom of eight kids. In her free time she can be found searching for her inner peace on Sephora.com or in the drive-thru lane of the Charleston, SC Starbucks near her home.

Connect with Hallie

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

 My thoughts:

First and foremost, I loved that the book was not super long, it was a small, short and quick read, which is great when you have a busy life and can't always find the time to sit and read.

I will start by saying that I don't have anxiety, not on a daily basis.  The only experience I've had with anxiety was a few years ago, and I've mentioned that here on the blog.  It lasted only a month but that month was excruciating for me and since then I've tried very hard to familiarize myself with everything and anything about it.

Why you may ask?  Well aside from wanting to know how to deal with it, if I am to ever go through it again, my daughter, niece, sister in law, stepmother and many friends, suffer from anxiety.  I see them struggle and don't always know how to help or what to say.

That was the main reason for me wanting to review this book.

Hallie Lord brings forth her struggle with anxiety, and takes us through her life, the lessons she learned, her therapy and the tools she used to get through the bad days, always with God at the forefront.  As a Christian woman I could completely relate to those moments where the struggle is so real, that all we can do is turn to our Heavenly Father for comfort.

 

But over the past year or two, I’ve gained peace and confidence in who I am and what God put me on this earth to do. They have settled into my bones. I am no longer so easily hurt by the opinions of others, and I’m far less impressionable than I once was. Now, when I ask myself why I did that thing or reacted that way or made that choice, I am almost always, after a little self-examination and consultation with God, able to answer. 

 

This quote right here, was one of the moments I found myself nodding in agreement. Along my journey with God, my whole life, but most specifically the last year, He has taught me that my worth is no dependent on what other people think of me, or say to me.  

Hallie's life story is not only interesting but so poignant.  Her vulnerability throughout the chapters, is palpable but she also exudes this incredible strength and faith that so many of us only wish we had.  She gives us the tools to know how to deal with whatever life throws our way.  The battles, the hurt, the grief, everything moves us continually towards our Heavenly home, towards unshakeable faith,  and towards living a full, happy life no matter the obstacles in our path.

I learned so much through her journey, and I know that I'll take many of these lessons with me.  

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Thomas Nelson Publishing, for providing me with a review copy of this book.  All opinions and thoughts are my own.