Not a Life Coach: Are You Ready to Change Your Life? From the Sunday Times No.1 Bestselling Author

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If your looking for that book to help you plan your next step or looking for the push to chuck the traditional life in a follow your dreams this ones for you! The book is part self development, part stories about James’s own development and part him adding definitions to words or phrases. Personal trainer James Smith’s new book, Not a Diet Book, offers frank advice on getting in shape and busts some major diet myths. This book was recommended by a sober group I am a member of, probably because the author is into health and fitness, and understands the psychology of behaviour and behaviour change. this book is more like a condescending, smug, patronising life guide from a middle class boy who has made money from an early age.

Found a few interesting ideas such as James' philosophy on social media use but the majority of this book can be summarized as poor regurgitation of original personal development bestsellers such as "4-hour workweek", "Atomic Habits", "The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck" etc. He doesn’t narrate it that well, bit stilted but I do like him and imagine he’s bringing some of these concepts to a new audience. Since cutting it out, I've been a little better and also tells you how even though things may be against you now, the "future you" will have your back because it would know how to deal with it so there are some great bits of information to take from reading this. With the utmost respect, to even see the people who reviewed this take it literally and stop reading his book because of it made me feel like they may have missed the point.Would recommend to anyone who wants to change their life, whether minor or majorly, but is sitting in the fence/living in fear. Instead you are getting a crass account of the life of someone living in dreamland on the other side of the world, who has cashed in on the vanity trend of Instagram and travelling.

Let me start by saying I've followed JS for years, love his fitness content, loved his first book and love his general approach to health and fitness advice. This book is useful as an accessible version of the material it references for those who can’t be bothered to read the underlying sources. It’s a really easy read - it’s over 250 pages but actually there’s a huge amount of white space, the font is relatively large and you could easily read it in a day or two. Not everyone can understand the laws of physics, martial arts and mathematics, all 3 hobbies that Smith definitely shares a lot of knowledge about and I percieve it he is passionate about all subjects too. It felt a bit self-centered a lot of the time, but I understand his point, just not something that I found particularly useful.

I also don't agree with the author asking on Facebook to give him good reviews because someone has given him a one star review! I didn't find this book anywhere near as good as his first book, and I think that is probably because it is abundantly clear that he is not at an accomplished level of most of the topics of the book. Thank you, James, for unknowingly being the person spouting the words I need to hear at just the right time in life. Time to stop sleep-walking through your life; to challenge the status quo; and to truly ask yourself if you're on the right path to success, happiness and fulfilment. You’re gonna be told what you need to hear, not what you want to hear so approach it with an open mind.

I agree with him on most basic fitness related issues such as obesity and how individuals should take ownership of their health and their life. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. It is particularly infuriating when a reference page is constantly mentioned in the footnotes but said page is actually on a different page number. It reads more conversationally than I personally like from a non fiction book but I can see how this would be helpful for people who don’t normally read non fiction.

a communication chapter and how to talk to people just seemed to bang on about social media following, not hugely useful for the average person looking to sort their life out. All in all an incredibly bland listen from a stereotypical personal trainer, providing absolutely no original thoughts or highlights. I purchased this title based on Jame’s Instagram content, which was mostly good humoured, punchy advice about wieght loss and approaches to life, these 1-4 min videos are entertaining yet informative, I have now learned through 6.