It is difficult not to believe in fate when books like Elevate come your way at the right time and the right place. The New Year was approaching, and there were so many things I wanted to change about my life—diet, exercise, spending quality time with family and working harder being the least of them. But I did not know how to go about it. What should I do to make optimal use of my time and energy and live a balanced, content and fulfilled life? In 380 pages, Elevate solved my problem, offering the perfect antidote to a life of indulgence and exhaustion.
The book by Shannah Kennedy, one of Australia’s foremost life coaches, and Colleen Callander, entrepreneur and author of Leader By Design, is divided into three sections: life, leadership and longevity. Each chapter is full of anecdotes, quotes, figures, tables, tips and pointers. And it helps that Shannah and Colleen lavish the pages with stories from their own experience. It is always comforting to follow a path well-trodden. As Warren Buffett once said, “It is good to learn from your mistakes. It is better to learn from other people’s mistakes.”
For example, in the chapter on transforming your mindset, Shannah describes how she always drew life lessons from observing gifted athletes harness their thoughts to perform at their best. “Over the years, I have embraced learning the twenty ways to upgrade my mind,” she writes. “From working in a stockbroking firm at eighteen years old with no prior experience, to being a sponsorship manager to over one hundred athletes, to burnout, to studying coaching twenty years ago when no one knew what it really was, to building the business I wanted that would allow me to safeguard my compromised health and raise a family, positive self-talk has been front and centre.”
In the chapter on elevating your confidence, Colleen talks about transforming from a timid teenager to a self-assured CEO. “I can vividly recall those early days when I would stand outside the Sportsgirl store in my hometown of Geelong, unable to find the courage to step inside as a shopper,” she writes. “Little did I know then that my path would eventually lead me to become the CEO of this very brand, steering it towards remarkable growth and resounding success. However, this transformation did not occur overnight; it was a journey of perseverance and personal growth.”
It is amazing how ignorant you can be about your own ignorance until those like Shannah and Colleen come along to enlighten you. It reminds one of Steve Jobs’s insight that people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. Frankly, Elevate was the self-help book I did not know that I needed. I did not know there could be a method to the madness that is my life. I did not know there was a systematic and proven approach to elevating all aspects of my life and unlocking my full potential.
The best part is that Shannah and Colleen leave enough space for you to customise their advice, thus ensuring that the book is not too prescriptive. For example, they tell you the importance of being led and anchored by values, but they do not dictate what those values should be. Even while they emphasise the importance of success, I liked that they did not define it within the claustrophobic confines of fame or money. Success, according to them, is what brings a sense of joy, accomplishment and fulfilment.
There are sections in the book that seem repetitive. For example, the importance of gratitude makes a recurring appearance on the pages. With the number of tables and charts, at times one gets the feel of rifling through a textbook. Still, the personal touches, the insights and the concrete research make reading Elevate a worthy way to start the New Year. When the waters of life seem too deep to wade through, sometimes a couple of prophetesses come along to part them!
Elevate: Unlock Your Extraordinary Potential
By Shannah Kennedy and Colleen Callander
Published by Penguin Random House India
Price Rs 599
Pages 380
