Book Review: Intention: Building Capabilities to Transform Your Story by Dr. Ian D. Brooks, MS

 

Your story. Ever evolving, with and without your consent. The management of either is fraught with angst, excitement, and an "always," that we struggle to meet or sustain.

The foundation of this struggle is rooted in an imbalance of who you are and what you want, says Dr. Ian D. Brooks, often resulting in frustration. Written in a story based narrative, Dr. Brooks integrates research, experience and fictional imagery to illuminate a path for your transformation in a digestible way. "Intention" shows that successful personal transformations - from leaders influencing their teams, to losing weight, to just being better - starts with you and is sustained through a gift of knowledge.

"Intention" provides a step-by-step guide in transforming your story, by reinforcing and building new capabilities to move forward. if you're ready to:

Prioritize who you are in understanding your stories characters, its set, and script that influence you
Explore beyond your immediate reasons for change to reflect on your wants
Take manageable action for something new, while adjusting old habits
Build capabilities to manage changes for an unknown future

..then your personal journey of transformation begins with "Intention".

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Now, I don't normally review non-fiction titles on my blog. Fiction, in general, is my wheelhouse. That's not to say that I've never read non-fiction titles; I just don't post my thoughts about them. Anyway, I generally enjoyed reading Intention by Dr. Ian D. Brooks, MS. In the same realm as vision boards (a vision board is a collage of visual images or words that represent the life you want to live, i.e. a dream board). Vision boards are essentially physical/visual representations of your goals and desires. Vision boards serve as motivation to work towards your goals. That's all good and well, however, it doesn't work for everyone. Intention was an inspiring and enlightening read. Written in an anecdotal style, Dr. Brooks puts a spin on "self-help" books, geared towards personal growth. Dr. Brooks' writing is clear and concise, something I greatly appreciated. The exercises are practical and self-reflective. Intention indirectly hinted at issues I didn't even know I had. At the end of the book, I found myself reflecting on my priorities and motivations in life. I am not overexaggerating when I say that I saw my true self after reading this book. I tend not to dwell to much on my actual self. This book helped me acquiant myself with who I truly am, what I really want, and how to change my point-of-view. Overall, it was a quick read and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone entering college or in a rut in their professional or personal life. 

4.5 Stars

About the Author

Dr. Ian Brooks is the chief executive and founder of Rhodes Smith Consulting, leading transformations of peope and organizations for over 24 years. Ian has extensive experience in executive and leadership development, change management, business performance consulting, and communication planning. Ian holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Marshall Goldsmith School of Managment at Alliant International University, a Master's in Clinical Psychology from Auburn University at Montogomery, and a Bachelor's in Psychology from Morehouse College.

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Promo Post: Animal Quintet: A Southern Memoir by Colin Dayan

In this haunting, lyrical, luminous book, Colin Dayan meditates on her family history, her relationship with animals, and her upbringing in the South. Examining memories, family documents, and photographs, Animal Quintet takes a raw look at racial tensions and bourgeois respectability in a region struggling to change. Famed Southern war horses ridden by Civil War generals, doomed Spanish fighting bulls, the misunderstood possum hunted by generations of Southerners, and the chickens slaughtered by family servants—these animals frame and inform a haunting picture of a doomed childhood in a riven society.

In these stories, Dayan asks readers to envision another political life, a reorientation of our ways of seeing and thinking, to examine our ethical and conceptual assumptions from the perspective of other creatures, to imagine an alternative way of being in the world, of thinking and loving. Animal Quintet is a coming-of-age story that depends on an unexpected attentiveness, on another kind of intelligibility beyond the world of the human.

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About the Author

Colin Dayan is the Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Law. She studies American literature, Haitian historiography, and American legal scholarship—the focus of her two most recent books. In her 2007 book, The Story of Cruel and Unusual, she exposes the paradox of the eighth amendment to the constitution, showing that in the United States, cycles of jurisprudence safeguard rights and then justify their revocation. Her 2011 book, The Law Is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons, examines how the fictions and language of law turn persons—and other legal non-entities, such as slaves, felons, terror suspects, and dogs—into “rightless objects.” The Law Is a White Dog was selected by Choice as one of the top 25 “outstanding academic books” for 2011. In her other work, she introduces an English-speaking audience to Haitian poet René Depestre’s early epic poem about the vodou gods and their journey to the American South. In Fables of Mind: An Inquiry into Poe’s Fiction (1987), she discusses Edgar Allen Poe’s fictional works as complicated critiques of the traditions of romance and the gothic. Professor Dayan is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received fellowships from the Danforth Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Davis Center for Historical Studies, and the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

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