The Bottom Line
The First 30 Days by Ariane de Bonvoisin is a refreshing approach to change, and any reader is sure to gains something from it. This book doesn't concentrate on changing just one part of your life, it encourages you to change the way you think, so that you can use the principles again and again to shape your life.
I could do without some of the terminology used in the book, and any reader will certainly need to keep a pen handy to make the most of the principles, but overall, this book is an excellent read that I recommend to anyone and everyone.
Pros
- Engaging tone
- Entertianing stories, inspirational quotes, etc.
- Text is broken up well with various sidebars and subheads
- Book can be paired with the First 30 Days website
Cons
- Principles a bit broad
- Needs to be referenced frequently
Description
- Title: The First 30 Days: Your Guide to Any Change (and Loving Your Life More)
- Author: Ariane de Bonvoisin
- Publisher: Harper Collins, Copyright 2008
- Length: 220 Pages
- Price: $24.95 (Hardcover)
Guide Review - The First 30 Days - Your Guide to Any Change
For a reader who is typically skeptical when it comes to self-help books, I found this guide to be a refreshing change of pace. Ariane de Bonvoisin's The First 30 Days is not a 12-step type book, nor is it a day to day breakdown of what you need to do. Instead, a reader follows the principles outlined and applies them at his or her own pace, making it possible to use the principles for any change - be it chosen or not.
The friendly, conversational tone de Bonvoisin uses in her book is both compelling and encouraging. By using stories of her own and her friends and including inspirational quotes and relevant advice, the author turns The First 30 Days into a book anyone can, and should, read. Even if this book doesn't inspire you to go green (which it will if you've got just the tiniest inclination), it will certainly have a positive impact on some other part of your life.
I would have liked to have seen an outline of sorts, so that referencing this book, or a specific principle, could be done a bit more efficiently. The First 30 Days has one or more Take Action sections in each chapter and ends each principle with a What to Remember section, but these sections didn't seem to be quite enough considering how much information the author presented.
I also disliked the introduction terms such as change guarantee and inner standing. Not only does the reader need to grasp all of these new terms as he or she reads, the use of said terms seems to set those who have read this book apart from those who haven't.
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