Review by Eleahy_07 -- Achieve Your Dreams

[Eleahy_07]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Achieve Your Dreams" by Scott Hughes and A. Lynn Powers and Adam Buongiovanni.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Achieve Your Dreams: Why You Don’t and How You Can
By Scott Hughes
Introduction by Adam Buongiovanni
Edited by A. Lynn Powers

As someone who is just starting out chasing her own dreams of being a professional book reviewer, this book was a very real eye-opener about what it means to pursue your passions. In Scott Hughes’ book, he specifically tackles the reasons why people fail to go after what they love the most: we fear our goals and as a result, we often give up on them because we think it takes too much to reach them.

Hughes believes our fear of reaching our goals in implanted in our minds when we’re young. While our parents encourage us to work hard, they don’t think we should be working towards careers that seem too far-fetched; the examples used in this book are becoming a published author, being a professional athlete in the NBA, and breaking out in Hollywood. He encourages us to remember to always be examples to others when we decide to go after our passions; if you keep a positive mindset during your journey, it will then trickle down to every other aspect of your life. If you work hard enough, others will follow and who wouldn’t want to be an inspiration to others? Although those career examples seem pretty generic, when you stop to think about it, getting to the elite stages in writing, sports, and movies take a lot of hard work and sacrifice.

Sacrifice. This was another topic of discussion. We as people fail to realize just how much of our time and energy we have to sacrifice in order to make our dreams a reality. “Every choice is a sacrifice”, Hughes says, and for me, this is where the eye opening happened. Last year, when I was training for my first half-marathon race, I had to literally give up time spent with friends in order to get in the miles I needed each week. It was hard—and somewhat depressing—to fully understand that I couldn’t go out for a few drinks and eat terrible food because I knew I had to run a long run the next day. When we start to realize how much time we have to give to a task, we may want to give up.

Hughes overall message is clear: don’t be afraid to pursue your dreams. The time will pass whether or not you decide to go after them, so why not just do it? Just because there’s a high percentage that you might fail, you can always prove to yourself—and others—that you will not be part of that statistic. Even though there are probably thousands of other professional book reviewers and book bloggers out there, this should not deter me from putting myself out there and making myself heard and respected by other reviewers and readers. At this very moment, while I’m reviewing Scott Hughes’ book, I have nothing to lose.

Well, Mr. Hughes, I hear you! I rate this book a 3 out of 4. My only complaint is that I wish it were longer. This highly motivational book was just what I needed to in order to put into perspective the goal I want to reach. This book is perfect for starters like me who are looking for reassurance. Wish me luck!

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Achieve Your Dreams
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