Breaking the Pattern

Rating:
Summary: Breaking the Pattern by Charles Stuart Platkin
Review: "Breaking The Pattern" is a brilliant new book about an age-old issue: how to stop repeating behavior that is self-destructive. Be it in love, career or even in friendships, this book is very useful for everyone who wants to improve their lives. I found the book both entertaining and incredibly useful, because it made me think about aspects of my life that warrant some introspection. Like many others, I know that even when things are going well, we can all use some helpful hints to get even better. "Breaking The Pattern" is worth reading (and then re-reading six months later) because each time you peruse its easy-to-use instructions, new insights come to mind. Buy it for
yourself, give it to a friend and keep a few more in stock because your family and friends will thank you for getting it for them.
--Tom Allon

Rating:
Summary: Creating a More Fulfilling Life
Review: "I can assure you that the successful people in your life who you admire apply many, or all, of the techniques described in this book. Success is no accident, nor is it unconscious. People who achieve their goals are almost always acutely aware of what directions they take in reaching their destinations." ~Charles Stuart Platkin

If you are tired of spinning in the same circular conversations, walking the same paths to the same unfulfilling destinations or can't seem to implement strategies to reach your goals, "Breaking the Pattern" might encourage you to remodel your life.

Charles Stuart Platkin has discovered five basic principles you can apply to your life in order to make changes, reach your dreams and finally live the ideal life of your choosing. He used the principles in this book to change his own life.

What started as a letter to a friend turned into self-reflection and through writing, Charles started to think more clearly. Through further interviews and discussions with friends and professionals the author started to find real answers:

1. What's a Pattern and How Do I Know What Mine Are? - A study of self-sabotaging and self-paralyzing behavior. Are you choosing the easy path of substance abuse, short cuts or just making bad choices and finding someone else to blame? What are your triggers?

2. Self-Evaluation and Reflection Workshop - A variety of exercises where you answer questions and then analyze the answers. One of the most important sections in this chapter is "Asking the Right Questions."

3. Failure Is an Asset Waiting to Be Discovered - Successful people seem to see rejection and failure as a reminder that they are still on the path towards their goals. Sometimes just having the goal and continuing towards that goal, no matter what, is a formula for success. The author explains how you can overcome fear and move beyond failure.

4. Taking Responsibility Leads to Freedom - An interesting look at blame, being a victim, making excuses, avoiding responsibility and being the martyr. A discussion of why many people surrender their responsibility to a higher power.

5. What Makes a Goal a Goal? - An interesting section on intrinsic rewards.

6. If You Can See It,It Can Happen - Do you have the discipline it takes to reach your goals? Ideas on how to set realistic goals and overcome obstacles in your way. There is a place to write down your ideas for short and long-term goals.

7. Making Change Happen and Transforming Your Life -What are your values? Are you open to possibility? How do you find the positive patterns?

8. Tactics and Strategies for Changing Your Life -In the final chapter, the author explains how our "internal commentary" can change our lives.

I loved all the inspirational quotes and stories, the positive and healing environment this book provides, and the idea that short-term failure is no excuse not to achieve long-term success.

Do you feel imprisoned by the past? Do you desire a more fulfilling future? "Breaking the Pattern" will help to set you free from the disappointments of the past so you can reach for a more positive future.

"Breaking the Pattern" is a well-written and well-organized collection of empowering ideas to help you modify your own behavior so you can finally leave failure in the dust. This is a book to help you reach your personal, relationship and career goals. It is perhaps one of the most important books you will ever read if you want to break free from destructive patterns of behavior.

~The Rebecca Review.com

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Summary: BTP: The Five Principles You Need to Remodel Your Life
Review: "Be all that you can Be!" "I gotta be Me!" "Just Do It!" Three twentieth-century cliches take one step forward to be part of the twenty-first lexicon of simple, single sentence strategies of self-discovery. The high- tech world of the future with all its accelerated pace may also portend a dehumanizing of self. This need not happen. Humans are capable of making choices. To do so quite obviously requires physical participation and heightened awareness of common pitfalls. "It's not over until it's over," Yogi Berra tikd us that some time ago. And after that-- who knows?
Why do we become who we are? Can we change? Generation by generation we eros the stage as villain Shakespeare's players. The full range of human performance is acted out. Some individuals truly excel. The common miracle shared by mankind is that the play goes on! We are performances in a grand scale anthropological continuum.
Neurons migrate in our internal universe over the entire life span following the genetic plan. The neurons that accompany us in the slower walk of old age. Questions abound: Do we individually have choice in selection of personal role? Are we at some point of physical maturation, the singular end-product of all he consumate experiencesm measurable and subliminal-- that contributed to the shaping of our own being? Or are we more? Does cellular memory trigger spontaneous reaction? By deliberate design are we able to shape and mold any being?
Given the wonderful explorations into genome contentof our organic make-up, we are now more able to fully appreciate Gregor Mendel's earliest experiments in the study of peas so long ago as the early 1800's. It seems that our ancestors have an "unspoken" say in our perfomance as a player, And it is ongoing. Survival over time in such a cataclysmic universe addresses the durability of the species. Success is certainly attributable--at least in some measure (with a nod to Charles Darwin)--to selection.
For the sake of simplicity, let us say that personal "success" simply means that we are indeed the person we would like to be. If in achieving success we are in truth really striving to find an acceptable plane of self-esteem, then we do not need to find valid methods "to check the mirror of self-image"--if only to aviud self-delusion. Honesty is at the core.
Charles Stuart Platkin's "Breaking the Pattern" might well be the newly positioned blinking WALK/DON'T WALK sign at the curb of each day's beginning. Time spent at the nightside curb might as well sever for introspective review allowing a look at one's day's steps before setting out on a succeeding day.
We must acknowledge the existence of behavioral patterns so well ingrained that they override best intentions. Imprinting on the early years has lasting effect. Platkin tells us that change is possible. We must literally take charge of self. A Berra-like Yogism might be: "In order to play, you gotta have a plan!" We are told to visualize the self that is desired and to work at achieving that persona by daily setting out with deliberate direction and then consistently reviewing each sojurn to be sure to stay on course.
The author would have us realize that we individually write our own life soty. We are further served in structuring that story by also acting as day-to-day editor of the work in process.
That devoted to daily self-appraisal may allow some good book editing in order to develop the plot line we desire. The author posites the importance of individual responsibility. We have seen in the child/parent/adult existing functions that patterns are in place in the very earliest years-- even before-- if we are to acknowledge the geneticists. Cells marked with memory excite neurons. Much of how we behave is the end product of all that has gone before. Our reactions to and the residue from experiences is often conditioned by the growth environment in which we have been nurtured. Filtering is in the mind.
Looking into the family's mirror of self image might also provide a tunnel perspective on geneology. Reflection, introspection, and visualization are useful tools in discovering and breaking patterns in order to be the self we seek.
We need to create an atomosphere of positive influence and to cautiously avoid the opposite. Citing numerous examples, Platkin tells the reader to first and foremost hae good sense in choosing friends who provide POSITIVE INFLUENCE: To many readers books become friends. A book's contribution by content can conceivably cause considerable change in the corporeal creature. From the text (p.248): "Positive thoughts can produce change in the emotional mind and the biological body."
Charles Platkin's call for intensice self-evaluation might well be a contructive mantra in this world so over-whelmed with destruction. If it is true that life is a gift to each living being from an omnipotent creator, then it seems fair to understand that the best measure of the appreciation of the gift of life is the very manner in which it is lived. The author would have us realize that being pleased with self is tantamount to the most valid expression of appreciation..."Be what you want to be in order to be at one with self." With his book, "Breaking the Pattern", Charles Platkin encourages us to work at this if we really care to achieve a sense of worth. Happay as pease ina pod.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking the Pattern by Charles Stuart Platkin
Review: "Breaking The Pattern" is a brilliant new book about an age-old issue: how to stop repeating behavior that is self-destructive. Be it in love, career or even in friendships, this book is very useful for everyone who wants to improve their lives. I found the book both entertaining and incredibly useful, because it made me think about aspects of my life that warrant some introspection. Like many others, I know that even when things are going well, we can all use some helpful hints to get even better. "Breaking The Pattern" is worth reading (and then re-reading six months later) because each time you peruse its easy-to-use instructions, new insights come to mind. Buy it for
yourself, give it to a friend and keep a few more in stock because your family and friends will thank you for getting it for them.
--Tom Allon

Rating:
Summary: Successful Approach
Review: Breaking the Pattern by Charles Stuart Platkin resounds with sound advice on taking responsibility for your actions and inactions. He takes particular note of one's ability to turn failure into successful thinking patterns. By following his recipe for self direction it is possible to understand fully how one can break the pattern or break the cycles of self indulgence. His examples of real life situations underline his theoretical presentation and ensure easy transferral of the powerful information. I would recommend this book to those who are in a rut or those who are trying to make change in their lives. A fast , good read.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking the Pattern was more than I bargained for...
Review: Breaking the Pattern held an added surprise in the sense that while I was prepared for improvements in my approach to professional and personal issues, I was not as prepared for a realization.

By applying the exercises in Breaking the Pattern to my professional life and personal life, the similarities that emerged were significant. The lasting effect beyond the book's positive exercises was the ongoing connections I now see between my work life and personal life.

Also, while I am not usually a fan of "workbooks," the exercises in Breaking the Pattern were well constructed and communicated in a way that made it possible for me to get the full benefit from them.

In general, Breaking the Pattern surpassed my expectations and gave me a stronger foothold in my professional life and personal life.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking The Pattern
Review: I enjoy books that serve as tools for personal growth. This is one of those. Platkin gives useful information and insight concerning patterns of behavior and how they can be changed. The
reader can utilize not only the knowledge given but participate in self-help exercises that reveal techniques for better life management. The book is like a portable therapist.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book-- I read it when I saw that the author, Charles Platkin, would be talking at my local Borders store! I am excited to meet this guy-- he sounds inspirational, motivational, and like he's really got his head on his shoulders! I give this book five stars without hesistation!!

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and personally pivotal
Review: If you can only read three books for the rest of your life...these are the three I recommend:

1.) Breaking the Pattern
2.) How to Win Friend and Influence People
3.) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

If you read all three of these books, you'll be set for life! "Breaking the Pattern" shows you how to reach all the goals you've ever wanted to. "How to Win Friends" makes sure that you wont be alone when you do reach those goals, and Stephen Covey teaches you how to do both most effectively!

With these three books, you can't lose! You won't lose! I've been recommending them to all my dearest friends!

Rating:
Summary: Realizing Negative Patterns Requires the First Step
Review: The first step is buy the book. We all have negative patterns....it's recognizing them, isolating them, and making the conscience effort to CHANGE them that is the challenge.

The first reward can be knowing that you are moving possitively in the direction you visualize that you want to be in - your life, health, and relationships. The next reward is seeing those goals come into fruition. The last is true self-acceptance (which I am still working on) but I see that reward as being immeasurable.

I could really identify with his case studies - I felt there was a bit of me in all of them. I also liked his approach to goal setting and how to break it down on a daily/weekly basis so it is more managable.

The bottom line: if you are looking for some real ephonies in your own life, this is a great tool to get you there.