Make Your SHIFT by Beverly Flaxington - Book review

Make Your SHIFT

The Five Most Powerful Moves You Can Make to Get Where YOU Want to Go

By: Beverly D. Flaxington

Published: November 21, 2011
Format: Paperback, 156 pages
ISBN-10: 0983762023
ISBN-13: 978-0983762027
Publisher: ATA Press







"Think about whatever you are looking to change about your life. Where are you in the process? The key ideas offered in this book can set you on the road to success",writes speaker, seminar leaders and co-founder and principal of The Collaborative, Beverly Flaxington, in her inspirational and achievement oriented book Make Your SHIFT: The Five Most Powerful Moves You Can Make to Get Where YOU Want to Go. The author describes why people fail to achieve their goals, and shares a proven process to transform that intention into very real and tangible change.

Beverly Flaxington recognizes that while people may set seemingly attainable goals, and even follow well established goal setting and achievement processes, they still fail to make those goals a reality. The author presents the concept that what holds people back from reaching their goals is not the process, theory, or instructions. Instead, that barrier to success is an individual's own human nature. Beverly Flaxington writes that people are responsible for their own change, but every change faces the same potential problem of a lack of motivation or commitment. To counter that derailment of the goal achievement process, the author shares her proven strategy for maintaining that required level of commitment and motivation to turn the desired goal into a reality.

Beverly Flaxington (photo left) understands that people experience real difficulty with maintaining their change efforts because they don't know how to achieve the desired results. While people may sincerely wish t achieve positive change, they lack a solid plan of action to make the change effective and permanent.

To establish a workable plan for creating real and lasting change, Beverly Flaxington offers her SHIFT Model of change. The five stages of the SHIFT program are as follows:

* Specify the desired outcome
* Highlight obstacles and categorize
* Identify the human factor
* Find alternatives
* Take disciplined action

For me, the power of the book is how Beverly Flaxington combines a very strong theoretical framework with the practical and hands on strategies for putting that plan into action. The author goes beyond the void found in many transformational books by establishing the critical importance of the human factor in the equation. To overcome the human element, and its derailment of motivation and commitment, Beverly Flaxington shares her tested and proven SHIFT Model of change.

The author also divides the book into two sections, both of which are stand alone books, in and of themselves. The first part of the book establishes the action plan based on the SHIFT formula. This section of the book is designed to guide the reader toward a lasting breakthrough. The second part of the book is less structured, but contains techniques and exercises to facilitate the change established in the opening section in a more effective and manageable way.

I highly recommend the empowering and very hands on book Make Your SHIFT:: The Five Most Powerful Moves You Can Make to Get Where YOU Want to Go by Beverly Flaxington, to anyone seeking a real world grounded book on achieving real change in your life, that also recognizes and accounts for the human element within that change process. This book fills in the gaps left by many personal development books, and offers a plan of action that is both effective and lasting for the individual.

W. H. Auden: As I Walked Out One Evening read by Tom Hiddleston

W. H. Auden: As I Walked Out One Evening read by Tom Hiddleston


As I Walked Out One Evening

By: W. H. Auden

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

Linda Ballesteros: Your Pot of Gold is a Handshake Away - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio

Networking strategist, speaker and author of the transformational and client relationship building book Your Pot of Gold Is A Handshake Away: A Step By Step Plan To Quickly Grow Your Business Through Referrals, Linda Ballesteros, describes how to build an outstanding business through referrals. Linda Ballesteros changes the focus of referrals from the traditional networking style to an approach based on building community. Through the creation of deep and lasting customer relationships, referrals will result naturally and authentically. The creation of community changes the focus of the business person from themselves to the customer. It also transforms the thinking from the client's business to the clients themselves. Linda Ballesteros shares the practical and hands on techniques for building community that leads to genuine referrals.

Linda Ballesteros is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, January 8, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Networking strategist, speaker and author of the transformational and client relationship building book Your Pot of Gold Is A Handshake Away: A Step By Step Plan To Quickly Grow Your Business Through Referrals, Linda Ballesteros, describes how to build an outstanding business through referrals. You will learn:

* Why referrals are so crucial to growing a business

* How to create a community to establish deep customer relations

* Why committed customers and clients provide authentic referrals naturally

* Why traditional networking is no longer effective

Linda Ballesteros (photo left) nspires and empowers others to pursue their dreams and accomplish their goals. A modern renaissance woman, Linda is a motivational speaker, business woman, a coach and leader for women in business, author and radio show host.
As a professional speaker, Linda uses her positive energy to inspire, educate and motivate. She delivers talks and presentations on a wide range of issues such as business, dreams and goals, networking and marketing. Linda also does a lot of work as a motivational speaker in the community.

A successful business woman, banker, small business owner and business speaker, Linda is also the founder of the business women’s networking group, Wine, Women and Wealth. The organization grew to more than 300 members during it’s first year and recently merged with a nationwide organization where she served as the Texas Regional Director.

Linda empowers, inspires and teaches via her radio show, Power Talk with Linda Ballesteros, which airs on the Tough Talk Radio Network. Tune in Wednesdays at 9:00 AM Central Standard Time to hear “ordinary people tell their extraordinary stories.”

When she is not growing Power Talk, Linda can be found working one-on-one coaching fellow women in business. She serves as a mentor, inspiration and friend to women, as she coaches them on how to improve their business through networking, marketing and self-realization.

Linda Ballesteros is also an author. Her book is titled Your Pot of Gold Is A Handshake Away: A Step By Step Plan To Quickly Grow Your Business Through Referrals.

My book review of Your Pot of Gold Is A Handshake Away: A Step By Step Plan To Quickly Grow Your Business Through Referrals by Linda Ballesteros.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with networking strategist, speaker and author of the transformational and client relationship building book Your Pot of Gold Is A Handshake Away: A Step By Step Plan To Quickly Grow Your Business Through Referrals, Linda Ballesteros, as she describes how to build an outstanding business through referrals. Linda Ballesteros changes the focus of referrals from the traditional networking style to an approach based on building community. Through the creation of deep and lasting customer relationships, referrals will result naturally and authentically. The creation of community changes the focus of the business person from themselves to the customer. It also transforms the thinking from the client's business to the clients themselves. Linda Ballesteros shares the practical and hands on techniques for building community that leads to genuine referrals on Blog Business Success Radio.