What Matters Most: The Power of Living Your Values

Loved this book. It is well worth reading as it takes the reader through a painless and revealing journey to discover what is truly important to you and this helps to define your values. I realised that my unhappiness with my career was to do with living the wrong values for mr. Now I know I am confident and purposeful.

Love this book. Wish I could attend a seminar as it’s a lot of effort to get it done by yourself.

This book has ensured that I wrote my mission statement and that I live by it

If you are already familiar with the other books written by Hyrum W. Smith, you will know that his words inspire confidence and encourage people to find greater meaning in life. This book is similar and will help readers discover their values as well as their goals. The two are inseparable and the author shows how and why. Establishing a mission statement is recommended to encapsulate aims and aspirations. There are wonderful exercises that develop self-understanding and to assess what the author calls "governing values".Smith is a clever writer, creating short and catchy phrases to get his meaning across and to make it memorable. "Be yourself, but be that perfectly" is the theme of this book and that phrase itself could be meditated upon for a while. There are many of these short and snappy expressions in the book, which highlights the author's ability to take an issue and whittle it down to bite-sized pieces. That's so important in a book like this. After all, the reader will want to take something significant from these pages, and Smith recognizes that and even helps to make by making these principles clear and concise.There is a genuine emotional appeal here, as he discusses the real fears of failure and change. He has many anecdotes that make his ideas come alive. It's obvious that he understands the path to success and is really reaching out his hand for the reader to come along. At times though, he attitude seems a bit condescending and even smug, but that may be because it's the printed word. He is a sought-after motivational speaker and these same ideas are presented to audiences with outstanding results.He expounds on the idea of acting perfectly and describes it as the feeling we have when we act within our moral values. This is an exciting concept and most readers will nod their heads in agreement. Basically, the book rests on exploring ways to verbalize and recognize these values, and then incorporating them into every aspect of our lifestyles. When a person's values are allowed to set their course, they will understand their life's work and actually enjoy it.Smith knows how to connect with people and his discussion of hero qualities is excellent. He demonstrates how each person is unique, filled with certain traits and qualities that give them their own brand of personal magnetism. This is like a breath of fresh air. Every reader will go away from this book knowing they are special and are made for something important.The author is also to be applauded for recognizing the agony of deferred dreams. Instead of just glossing over this lament, he urges everyone to start right now--today. We can stop the loss of time by grabbing hold of these principles and putting them into effect now. There is hope on every page and the emphasis is on renewing character and developing integrity. Change comes from within, but first the author shows how to start it happening.Readers who want a new beginning in their lives will love this book. Smith tells us how to take control of our lives by first finding out its true meaning. Once we are set on a course that is steered by our values, the only way to go is up!Raymond Le BlancAuthor of: Achieving Objectives Made Easy.

If you think you know what matters most in your life think again! This book helps to point out to you exactly what it is you are doing that proves that the things that you think and say matter most to you are actually being pushed to the side for things that are not so important. If you really want to turn your life into a well managed, productive and purposeful one, I recommend this book highly.

Mr. Smith's book will inevitably be compared to Dr. Phillip McGraw's book, Life Strategies. In What Matters Most, the emphasis is on uncovering your values as well as your aims. That value-oriented element is better developed here than in Dr. McGraw's book. On the other hand, Life Strategies and the Handbook that goes with it provide much better material for implementing the changes than What Matters Most does. My suggestion is that you read all three books, starting with What Matters Most, followed by Life Strategies, and then the Life Strategies Workbook."Be yourself, but be that perfectly" is the theme of this book. The problem is that " . . . too many have lost contact with the deeply held values that matter." As a result, being yourself perfectly " . . . won't necessarily be easy." This argument is based on the observation of the sense of peace and comfort we feel when we act in alignment with our values, and the unease that follows acting out of alignment with those values. Many anecdotes are shared that will ring true in almost everyone's experience to make that point.The bulk of the book focuses on helping you uncover what those values are and how to act more in alignment with them by using the benefits of more planning, action, and discovery in coordinating your roles with your life's mission and values. Mr. Smith is part of the Franklin Covey Company (for which he helped create the Franklin planner), and much of his thinking on mission and values will seem familiar from reading Dr. Stephen Covey's many books, such as Principle-Centered Leadership. Mr. Smith's treatment here is more practical than Dr. Covey's is in his books, and Mr. Smith provides many more examples. Dr. Covey's writing style is more lyrical, but Mr. Smith information is easier to work with.One of the great strengths of this book is its discussion of hero qualities. These include self-awareness, confidence, self-worth, a sense of urgency, a personal mission, personal magnetism, awareness of and respect for one's own uniqueness, having consistency in one's life, and having a sense of calmness and serenity. The book is worth buying just for this section, which is chapter one.One of the book's strengths is that it taps into our emotions very effectively. One of my favorite ways this was done is in describing the common lament "someday I'm going to . . ." and pointing out that today is a good time to get started with all of those important tasks. This is explored in chapter two.Part one focuses on explaining the clarity and power you can get from knowing who you are. Part two is the heart of the book -- discovering what matters most to you. Part three is a practical exercise in working on something that matters greatly to you. Part four expands your perspective on this process by looking at how it applies to organizations, over a lifetime, and to wider groups (there's a nice discussion of Nelson Mandela and Gary Player here). You are also encouraged to adopt an abundance mentality. This last material is very much like the Tony Robbins work on this same point. In part five, there is additional emotional reinforcement for starting to make the necessary changes.After you have finished reading and doing the exercises in the three books I have recommended to you, I suggest that you find someone who is in dispair about their own life and offer to help them learn these lessons, too. This will be a good way for you to both reinforce your new learning and to live a life of broader meaning and caring.Be part of the ever-expanding network of caring heroines and heroes who help others improve!

Excellent service!! Thank you.

must read for any entrepreneur or businessman and public person.

Maybe it was sent bookrate, but it was SHIPPED VERY SLOWLY by the private shipper.EXCELLENT---Mind Blowing summation, received the book yesterday, and I'm already 50% through this book! Combine this with 80/20 and the Best Self-help books on the market AND apply the tools/insights personally AND your certain to become a PERSONAL PERFORMANCE ROCKSTAR given a few years of practice. Wish I would have bought this book 10 years ago, when I really needed the help!!! I can still see it helping me make great strides moving forward over the next few years.KUDOS to the Great Amazon Reviewer(s)!!! Who suggested this via another book review.

There are no quick fixes that last forever. This book brings you to an understanding of what drives you, how to improve that process and how to create or embrace values which support you in taking responsibility for your life and your results. Once you follow the exercises and apply the information, change happens naturally. Values, roles and your own mission-3 simple ingredients: learn how they work together and how to leverage them.

This isn't the kind of book you read while eating potato chips. You need a highlighter and a notepad and a pen. I could only read a few pages, then I would have to sit back and reflect.It's not that this is totally new stuff. This book has been around. It's that I need to be pulled back to center from time to time and this book really does that.