Matt Burgess

The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life (1984), Robert Fritz

You are the essence of creation, because without you creation is impossible. -Robert Fritz

The Path of Least Resistance is an excellent book and I highly recommend it to all audiences.  Robert Fritz takes readers on a specific path of understanding creativity as it relates to our person.  Starting with fundamentals, Fritz sheds light on concepts that for the basis of self-awareness within the overall creative process that is explained in subsequent parts.  In each section, you will find a perfect balance of scientific explanations with practical examples making the work complete.

Initially, I did not know what to expect and was excited to see the practical application.  In particular, the difference between creativity and problem solving, structural tension and creative choice.  Get the book for more information about these topics.

Wild At Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

John Elderedge's extremely popular book, Wild At Heart, is an objective look at man in his native form and his relationship with God. The underlying concept of the book is to embrace the person God made you and Elderedge accomplishes this through self awareness. The power of self awareness is undeniable, so I was particularly receptive to the self reflection prescribed in this book and moreso in the study guide titled Wild at Heart Field Manual: A Personal Guide to Discover the Secret of Your Masculine Soul. The premise is understanding our innate desires for adventure and our quest for power within the context of our relationship with God.

Wild At Heart focuses on man's identity with epic heroes, competitive nature, power and adventure, and makes a case to find that through our relationships with God as well as our relationships with family and friends. Aware of the alternatives sometimes being promiscuous lifestyles, dangerous addictions and out of order priorities, Elderedge brings to light how our natural tendencies can end up misguided rather than harnessed for what they were intended. In particular, our relationships with fatherly figures, wives (or girlfriends) and God is explored within this context, where understanding our fathers leads to self awareness and our understanding of our relationship to women and God may feel like the discovery.

Chapter after chapter you may find some of the same arguments in favor of the books overall theme, which can seem repetitive and redundant especially if you pick up on the concept early. The authors fanatical love of movies may sometimes feel overbearing, especially if you haven't seen referenced movies. But all in all Wild At Heart is worth reading for two reasons: self reflection and self awareness. Not many books encourage you to explore in these ways, so take the opportunity.

If you pick up this book, please consider grabbing the Wild at Heart Field Manual, too. The additional stories, insights and questions in the Wild at Heart Field Manual will take you much further than the book alone.

La Jolla, Mission Bay and Downtown San Diego, California from April 9 through April 13, 2008 featuring pictures from Paradise Point, the San Diego Zoo, the Gaslamp District and Coronado Beach.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois on April 19, 2008 with Buddy and Matt Burgess.

The Simplicity Handbook (2003), William "Bill" Jensen

The Simplicity Handbook is a refreshingly honest, humourous take on our approach to work.  The introduction rubbed me the right way when author Bill Jensen unabashedly tells his reader that reading the entire book is not necessary.  Interestingly enough this exertion hooked me into reading the entire book and kept me engaged for its entirety.

Consider two approaches to the Simplicity Handbook.  Author Bill Jensen recommends reading only the five chapters that scream at you.  My recommendation is to take your time reading all chapters, but not at once.  Depending on your schedule, speed and retention rate consider either one chapter per day or one per week.

The only criticism I have for the book is its layout.  A few characteristics and special sections are consistently found throughout the book, but overall I felt they could have been organized for more effective reading.  I was often overwhelmed with the number of bulleted and bold-faced items, which is why I recommended a phased approach in reading.

In totality, the Simplicity Handbook is recommened to disgruntled workers, challenged managers and business owners interested in creating mutually beneficial working environments.

Ready For Anything (2003), David Allen

Ready for Anything is the second book by David Allen that I found unengaging in majority. Allen does present some practical ideas for clearing the mind, organization and planning which can be summed up with these four parts found on the back jacket of the book:
-Clear your head for creativity
-Focus your attention
-Create structures that work
-Take action to get things moving

To begin to make sense of the whopping 52 subtopics (mysteriously an equal 13 subtopics per part, but I digress) for the four parts its almost neccessary to do one of two things to make sense of it all:
-Read one subtopic per week
-Read this book at least twice

I recommend the first option because I do not feel Allen's books are worth reading twice. If your experience with his work is like mind, you will find empty treasures with an occassional gem. The real gems I found were in the quotes in the margin luring my attention away from body of the book throughout my experience. Here is a strategy for navigating this book for the best return on investment, which I consider a balance of maximizing learning without wasting your time: Read each subtopic, the italicized summary directly beneath and accompanying quotes while skipping the body.

Prior to opening the book, my already impressed view of David Allen was skewed even more. Using a technique described in 10 Days to Faster Reading, I read the front and back of the book to better understand the context of the book and its author. What I found was a quote by several people used to sell readers like me on the validity of the methods described within. One of the quotes was by Arianna Huffington. Arianna Huffington?!? Please!!! On the book jackets she says, "What a sensible dose of common sense!...David Allen is a master at marrying the sensible with the sublime." Of course I would expect this to fly over the heads of most readers specifically leftfield liberals, but upon hearing Arianna Huffington debate in several forums and considering her biography I wouldn't credit her with sensibility or an expert on marriage. For Allen to use a Huffington quote as a creditable source on this subject greatly defaces his credit and integrity. Following up a mediocre at best experience with Getting Things Done, my overall experience with Ready For Anything is in line with my original sentiments for David Allen's work.

This is what I call the Consecutive Bid Technique on my favorite travel site, Priceline.  Why should it be your favorite travel site, too?  Because you can consistently save around 50% off 3-star and 4-star accomodations.  Priceline tries to make the playing field even by allowing you one bid per 24 hours, unless you change your bid criteria by adding new areas or lowering the hotel rating.  The problem is that we don't want to do either one of those things, but we want to avoid worries and eed travel plans now.  Follow these simple steps to lock in your low price sooner than later:

Step 1: Perform Steps 1 - 4 of the How To Do It Yourself: Get Deals on Top Hotels article.

Step 2: Perform Step 5 once.

Step 3: If your bid is not accepted, then open a second internet browser window and based on your travel criteria go to the Priceline webpage where you select the areas, rating level and bid price for your hotel.  Note that as you select a single area the different rating levels will become active based on the available hotels in the selected area.  Take note of the first area that does not have a hotel at the rating level you desire.

Step 4: As Priceline allows you to modify your bid, select the area you identified that does not have a hotel at the rating level you desire, increase your bid amount and resubmit your bid.  In effect your are making a consecutive bid on the same criteria, because the additional area does not have hotels at the rating level you have specified.

Step 5:  Repeat Step 3-5 until your bid is accepted or you run out of areas that will work with this scenario.

For Example:
On April 2, 2008 I bid on a 4-star hotel in the San Diego Coastal area of San Diego, California.  My first bid was rejected.  I did not mind including the Downtown & Harbor Island area in my bid, so I added this area and resubmited my bid at the same price.  It was also rejected.  I opened a second internet browser and found that 10 areas did not have available 4-star hotels.  These areas included Del Mar, East County, Escondito - Vista, Miramar - Rancho Penasquitos - Poway, Mission Valley, National City - Chula Vista, Point Lomo - Shelter Island - Old Town, Rancho Bernardo, San Ysidro - Mexican Border and Sorrento Mesa.  So one by one I repeated Steps 3 and 4 above increasing my original bid by $5 each time until my third bid was accepted.  I won a hotel at less than half of what it was advertised on Expedia.

Tips:
This may not work with some cities and certain rating levels.
Always start with 4-star rating levels.  You can always go down from there repeating this technique with each rating-level.