Interview with Alison Jones, author of Exploratory Writing: Everyday magic for life and work
Alison Jones, author of Exploratory Writing: Everyday magic for life and work recommends a stellar selection of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Alison's book:
Description from Bookshop.org:
Everything we’re learning about how we function best as humans in the digital age is pointing towards one of our oldest technologies: the pen and the page.
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Exploratory Writing: Everyday magic for life and work
Exploratory writing – writing for ourselves, not for others, writing when we don’t know exactly what it is we want to say – is one of the most powerful and lightweight thinking tools we have at our disposal. It’s also been, until now, one of the most overlooked.
But the world’s most influential leaders are increasingly using the techniques in this book to support the key skills of the 21st century – self-mastery, creativity, focus, solution-finding, collaboration – and so can you.
Alison Jones has been helping business leaders identify and articulate what matters over a 30-year career in publishing and as a coach. The founder of Practical Inspiration Publishing and host of The Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast and community, she is passionate about the power of writing to change ourselves and the world.
Buy On:
Easons €20.99
Bookshop.org UK £14.24
Bookshop.org US $20.45
Blackwells £12.99
Waterstones £14.99
Wordery $16.70
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
I have SO many favourites but one that I keep coming back to is Gay Hendricks’s The Big Leap. It’s beautifully written, warm and wise, and he has a knack for naming something that you hadn’t seen until he gave you the words for it (inner thermostat, upper limit problem, zone of genius…). I had the good fortune to interview Gay on The Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast some years ago and was delighted to discover that he’s exactly as warm and wise in person as he is on the page.
Description from Bookshop.org:
"The Big Leap" reveals a simple yet comprehensive model of life fulfillment, presented in a way that engages both mind and heart. Gay Hendricks, a major voice in the fields of relationship transformation, and body-mind therapies, developed these methods over the last thirty years by working closely with more than one thousand extraordinary achievers in business and the arts. Readers will discover what prevents them from fulfilling their true potential so they may enjoy the highest levels of success.
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The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level
Through a step-by-step program, Hendricks shares his proven method for identifying and breaking through our personal upper limits to achieve ultimate success - our 'Zone of Genius'. "The Big Leap" offers not only a path to financial success, but success in love and life as well.
Buy On:
Easons €16.79
Bookshop.org UK £11.39
Bookshop.org US $16.73
Blackwells £8.99
Waterstones £11.99
Wordery $22.66
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
This feels a little like picking a favourite child but I’m going to bang the drum for a recent Practical Inspiration title – Ageing Upwards: A mindfulness-based framework for the longevity revolution by Berit Lewis. It’s a thoughtful and inspiring call to think differently about ageing, which is so culturally loaded. As a mid-life woman I found it fascinating, and a very hopeful, helpful read.
Description from Bookshop.org:
Congratulations! (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Ageing Upwards: A mindfulness-based framework for the longevity revolution
You have been given about 20 more years to live than your grandparents. But does that just mean a longer decline?
Berit Lewis shows that the story we so often tell ourselves about ageing – that it’s all downhill from 50 – is simply wrong. In fact, research reveals we are at our happiest aged 80! Combining her extensive experience in teaching mindfulness with her knowledge of how to live and age well, she reveals a simple framework that can help you make the most out of those extra years of living. Rather than wait for society to solve the challenges of longevity, she invites us to explore what each of us can do to take responsibility for our own life and ageing process.
Ageing Upwards will help you navigate life after 50 with acceptance, self-compassion and mental flexibility. It’s also invaluable to leaders who wants overcome unconscious beliefs, limitations and discriminations related to age to create more diverse organizations.
Buy On:
Easons €20.99
Bookshop.org UK £14.24
Bookshop.org US $20.45
Blackwells £11.55
Waterstones £14.99
Wordery $16.70
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
I loved Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. I grew up near Alderley Edge (and in fact live not too far away now!), and it was such a thrill to me as a child to overlay the real place I knew so well with layers of fiction and myth: the contemporary story of Colin and Susan, the Arthurian legend of the knights sleeping within the Edge, and the folklore and supernatural elements hiding just below the surface. It’s one of those books that changes how you look at the world!
Description from Bookshop.org:
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is one of the greatest fantasy novels of all time.
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The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
When Colin and Susan are pursued by eerie creatures across Alderley Edge, they are saved by the Wizard. He takes them into the caves of Fundindelve, where he watches over the enchanted sleep of one hundred and forty knights.
But the heart of the magic that binds them – Firefrost, also known as the Weirdstone of Brisingamen – has been lost. The Wizard has been searching for the stone for more than 100 years, but the forces of evil are closing in, determined to possess and destroy its special power.
Colin and Susan realise at last that they are the key to the Weirdstone’s return. But how can two children defeat the Morrigan and her deadly brood?
Buy On:
Easons €11.99
Bookshop.org UK £7.59
Blackwells £13.99
Waterstones £7.99
Wordery $9.69
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Yes! Don’t make me choose.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
I love EVERY bookshop, obviously, but my absolute favourite has got to be Toppings in St Andrews. I don’t get to go very often but I think ideally I’d like to live there. Comfy chairs, knowledgeable staff, a HUGE selection of books, just the right mix of order and chaos. And in a beautiful place, too.
Many thanks to Alison for recommending a stellar selection of books! Please don't forget to check out Exploratory Writing: Everyday magic for life and work.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Practical Inspiration Publishing (Exploratory Writing), HarperCollins Publishers (The Big Leap, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen), Practical Inspiration Publishing (Ageing Upwards).
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