Review: Coping with Life's Problems
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 28, 2013
"Growing Up and Liking It" by Dolores Ayotte is empowering and inspiring. Written in an easy-to-read, conversational and light-hearted style and infused with warm humor, this book encourages the readers to "choose the way of life. Choose the way of love. Choose the way of caring...It's up to you. It's your choice."Without promising quick fixes or unrealistic miracle solutions, Dolores takes us through a number of simple yet effective steps on the way to a happier, more fulfilled, and a more balanced life. How does she know these steps work? She tested them all through her personal experience, by living the way she's advising others to live - and that a strong enough proof of her credibility for me.Dolores Ayotte discusses the importance "fulfilling a dream when the time is right" and setting time aside to do "some soul-searching" - wise and needed suggestions in today's rushed world.Her wisdom applies to a multitude of human relationships: with children, grandchildren, spouses, parents, and friends. One of the points that appealed to me was her point about "My NO Means NO!" and a follow-up explanation that "saying YES to everything all of the time is no more appropriate than saying NO all of the time." Somehow, this explanation made saying NO much easier for me.Dolores discusses effective ways of dealing with people from a number of different perspectives, from the damaging power of gossip and misinformation to the importance of feeling gratitude to ways of distilling information needed to make the right decisions.One of the fables that Dolores Ayotte reminds us about, the one about the Wind and the Sun, has always been one of my favorites, the moral of it being that sheer force is not as strong as the power of gentle persuasion. And it's with that gentle persuasion that Dolores Ayotte imparts her wisdom and her advice on the readers. A great book!