Follow Friday Series
An Admission, A Review & A Spotlight
Follow Friday Series
The Admission
I started talking to Tim Brownson about having him in the spotlight months ago. I wanted to combine the Friday spotlight with a review of Tim’s book (co-authored with John P. Strelecky) and that’s when my procrastination kicked in.
In my 15+ years as a student of personal development and 10 years of coaching I’ve read a helluva lot of books, and the title How to Be Rich and Happy made me groan aloud.
Really Tim?
How to Be Rich and Happy???
Sounds so. . .I don’t know. . .too good to be true maybe?
It’s fair to say I had a reaction to the title, which began the cycle of procrastination, putting it off time and again.
If I’d told him, he’d probably have laughed and had me read An Easy Way to Beat Procrastination where he says,
“As a human being your brain is pre-programmed to avoid pain whenever it can.”
At first I thought, “What pain? I love doing these spotlights!” but the pain quickly became clear.
The pain was related to my reaction which lead me to believe I wouldn’t like the book itself which lead to “I shouldn’t review this book”which lead to why the hell read it then!? I’d completely forgotten it had started with a desire to have Tim in the spotlight.
The worst thing about the procrastination was the blow to my integrity, one of my core values. Honouring my word is essential to my well-being. I’m not kidding, it really is that important to me and here I was putting off something I said I’d do months ago.
When you’re committed to walking your talk, the only thing to do when your integrity goes out is clean it up. That I hadn’t kept my word became a fierce thing in my mind, staring me in the face like one of Tim’s Dobermans!
So I read the book.
The Review
I read it and right away was immediately taken by this definition,
“Rich and happy is the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want.”
The key is knowing what your ‘whatever’ is!
Wait a minute. . .that’s how I’m committed to living my life! Why didn’t you say so earlier Tim? 😉
I’d been so triggered by the title I hadn’t stopped to consider what it meant to me which is Step 1 in the Rich and Happy formula:
Define what Rich and Happy means to YOU.
[pullquote]“People who are Rich and Happy get that way by knowing what it means to them. They know it in their mind before they become it in their life.“[/pullquote]
Despite a bit of apprehension that I’d read it all before, it didn’t take long for me to get into it.
The book is based on NLP – Neuro Linguistic Programming so it was familiar in subject, however Tim and John combined voices to create an easy reading style that kept me engaged.
As a coach, I was most drawn to the processes used throughout the book that make up the formula to a Rich and Happy life and I found myself taking notes as I read. Always a good sign!
I especially appreciated the section on values, and how being true to your values is a big step in helping you become Rich and Happy.
This question stopped me in my tracks,
“What would you be willing to die for?”
Let that sink in a moment.
What is so important, so meaningful for you that you would give your life to serving it? Some call that a purpose. Isn’t that the point?
I’ll admit that I’m sometimes a wee bit cynical about personal development blogs and books, but How to Be Rich and Happy got through to me in ways unexpected.
- It left me thinking more clearly about what I want.
- It had me reexamine my reaction to the words Rich and Happy.
- It got me questioning a few areas of my life that perhaps had gotten a bit stale.
Where’s the “Like” button?
Here’s the thing that really differentiates Tim and John from so many other self-help professionals: they have a dream to give away 1,000,000 copies of the book.
1,000,000 free copies to people around the world who most need to learn these skills and that dream is funded by your purchase of the book as 90% of the proceeds goes towards meeting this goal. You can read more about their dream here: The Giveaway.
Note: I’m not an affiliate. All proceeds go to getting more books out there!
And now. . .
The Spotlight
All that angst I shared above? I should have known better because after following Tim the past year I’ve become quite used to his quirky sense of humour.
It’s one of the things that really makes him stand out as a life coach and more than likely contributes to his success. On his About page he writes, “If you don’t like smiling and laughing then I”m probably definitely not the Life Coach for you!”
It’s that kind of straight-talk and humour that put him on my radar. Giving away 1,000,000 copies of a book to make a difference for others IS extraordinary and I’m delighted to have him in the spotlight.
1. Why are you here?
Purely and simply, to help people.
It doesn’t matter whether that is as a coach or just a Human Being. It’s cheesy I know, but why the hell would anybody ever get into coaching if they didn’t have a strong drive to help people. It sure aint for the money 😉
Not totally sure it is calling for anything any more because I’m doing what I want to do for the vast majority of the time.
I guess the goal to giveaway 1,000,000 copies of How To Be Rich and Happy is a calling because I know it can have a huge impact on people’s lives for the better if we can pull it off.
3. How do you honour that calling?
With the rich and happy project it’s never going a day without doing one thing that will move the process forward. Today for example, I made contact with a local charity that feeds homeless people. I want to donate 200 of the books for them to give to the people they serve.
4. What is both effortless and life-giving to you?
I don’t think there is anything effortless per se. Sometimes coaching calls feel effortless, but other times they can be a lot more challenging. The same goes for writing. Sometimes it just flows and seems easy, other times it’s a slog. I think it really depends on so many permutations that aren’t always within our control..
Life giving is positive feedback from clients, or simply to hear a client say “Oh, I never thought of it like that before.” That is so cool because I know I have shifted their thinking and without doing that I can’t really help them.
5. What do you do best?
Laugh at myself. By definition nobody else can do it, but even so I like to think I’m good at it. I take my work seriously, but other than that there is very little in life I take too seriously, least of all myself.
I’m also a pretty brilliant reframer and have never met anybody that can reframe a negative event quicker than I can.
6. What is extraordinary about your work?
Wow, extraordinary is such a big word that I hesitate to use it. I think I bring a sense of fun to what I do and I have never read a self-development blog that is quite as irreverent and tongue-in-cheek as mine, but I’d stop short of saying it’s extraordinary.
I think I’m different to most Life Coaches in terms of the speed at which I work. I don’t do long-term and accountability coaching because it bores me! That’s unusual, but again I’m not sure it’s actually extraordinary.
{Note from me: It IS extraordinary in that many life coaches strategize how to keep clients longterm and put their needs ahead of their clients. Not cool.}
7. What is guaranteed to inspire you?
Any story about somebody overcoming massive odds.
I believe every single person on the planet has the ability to be inspirational if they’d allow themselves to be. Also any win by the St Louis Rams will also inspire me for a few hours!
8. What will your epitaph say if you’ve lived life on your terms?
I used to be a massive hypochondriac. I guess I still am a bit, but nothing like I used to me. So I always wanted to have “See I told you I was sick” on my headstone, but I guess that’s not what you’re really looking for.
I really don’t like the idea of anything too grandiose.
“He was quite a nice guy” would be perfectly sufficient.
Tim Brownson is a certified Life Coach, NLP Master Practitioner and published author from the UK now living in Florida. In case you were wondering, he doesn’t really care for tea, cricket or the Royal Family.
Connect with Tim
On Twitter
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Last but not least: If you want another review of How to Be Rich and Happy you’ve got to read Matthew Kimberley’s review. Truly snorting out loud material!
Hey Sandi!
Great post. I love the giveaways to the homeless shelter. I’d thought of that for family history, too.
Tim, thanks for being fun! I love that you get bored with long-term and accountability! Gave me a good chuckle!
It’s a great goal, I know! As for Tim giving you a chuckle, you should talk to him 😉 That Brit sense of humour (or is it just specific to him, hmmm) is awesome!
Hi Sandi,
From some tweets I exchanged with Tim, I can say he’s a very cool person with great communication and class.
When I sent him a crazy sort of marketing approach/plan for their book “How To be Rich And Happy,” he was very open to it and replied with simple yet very positive considerations.
This makes me want to imagine another marketing plan and send it his way (To Tim: LOL!) because I know that if they can use it, they will, and that would make me so happy to participate in their great project, which is helping the maximum number of people that need their help so much.
Also, I am sure I would love to read Tim’s book, no doubt!
Thanks Sandi for your great review and nice spotlight, I like it a lot 🙂
Have a great week end!
Thanks Karim! You’d love the book and I could see you really using the tools Tim shares!
Not sure what was happening before Sandi, but the comments were all running into each other. Maybe it was a problem at my end.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks a lot for reviewing HTBRAH and the kind words, I really appreciate it.
@Karim – Glad you added the lol then mate 😉
It’s been some time since procrastination tripped me up like this! Good thing I had the insight while reading the book or who knows when I would have gotten here 😉
Thanks again Tim. Love the work you do!