When I chose the Leeza Gibbons book, Take 2, I was drawn to this writer and well-known television celebrity primarily because of her philanthropic work with the Alzheimer’s Association. AD hit Leeza and her family hard in that the disease took the life of her mother. I lost my own mom this past October to this disease. My wife’s mother is in the end stage of AD, having struggled with it for the past 9 years. It was the caregiving commonality that struck a cord with me.
As a result of the caregiving work she and her family provided to her mother, Leeza founded Leeza’s Place and Leeza’s Care Connection. More information about both of these is available at Leeza’s web site: www.leezagibbons.com.
As I dug further into the book, my next impression was, Oh no, this is gonna be just a book by a woman for other women!
So then I compelled myself to read through the whole book.
Guess what? Aside from the sections devoted to women’s fashion and makeup, there was a treasure trove of empowering information for both men and women. A lot of information about self motivation, personal accountability, staying healthy, empathy and compassion towards others and finding your own spiritual purpose was thoughtfully woven through Take 2.
By the time I finished reading all of Leeza’s book, I discovered that I had used up two yellow-highlighter pens in my marking all of what I found were helpful passages, headlines, or just plain memorable quotes from either Leeza or those whom she admires.
Her eleven chapter book is packed with personal and professional shared experiences of both the failures and successes of this acclaimed television entertainment reporter, celebrity, mother and wife and ambitious businesswoman.
In essence, Take 2 is an instructional book on how to start and remake your life over after living your first forty or so years, although as Leeza says, it could be any age. While it is primarily directed towards women, I think many male readers will find a lot of steak and eggs content to take away for themselves in this book.
Besides what Leeza has done with respect to Alzheimer’s awareness and caregiving, I enjoyed many of the quotes she included in her book. One, dealing with our ability to change ourselves, is a Marianne Williamson quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
In Chapter Four, dealing with self worth, Leeza shares a great quote she used to hear from her mother while she was young.
“Think of yourself as a thoroughbred, honey. Thoroughbreds don’t look at the other horses; they just run their own race.”
Chapter Six is entitled, Find Your Story, Make It Count. That chapter is best summarized as follows. Lead with your strength. Have a vision. Be gracious in your dealings with others. Stand your ground when circumstances call for it. Be good at being yourself. Take your time: let success marinate. Be coachable and open to learning from others. This was one on my favorite chapters in her book.
Next, I loved this bit of advice on living one’s life.
Show up, do your best and let go of the rest. Commit to finding humor wherever you can. Can you see the worth in all the events of the past?
And finally, also from Chapter Four, I loved this quote of contemporary wisdom:
“Give yourself credit for doing something right. You must be able to hold yourself in high regard. We are a look at me nation now more than ever, so it’s easy to dismiss our daily accomplishments as insignificant.”
The second sentence here is very much on point. We have allowed ourselves to become distracted with so many ninety day fads, unwanted intrusions into the privacy of others, and an endless stream of gawdy, bizarre and outrageous digital clips on YouTube, Pintrest, Twitter, Facebook and the like. All designed to grab your momentary attention but truly lacking in anything to do with empowering life lessons.
I recommend this book to both male and female readers. This talented celebrity author has worked in front of a camera and occupied a place on our television sets for many years. Take 2 is a book packed with personal disclosures and tips on how Leeza transformed her life for the better and how others can as well regardless of their stature or the professional field they have made a career within. Take 2 contains valuable take-aways for both men as well as women.
Jeffrey A. Dodson
March 18th 2013
FTC Disclosure: I received this book free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.
No comments:
Post a Comment