REVIEWS

CPR for the Soul by Mike Jay takes us beyond the New Age into the Real Age. 

"Chicken Soup" won't get it done.

Here is the substance to handle turbulence; the insight to detect opportunities and threats; and the strength, spirit and courage to act responsibly.

Jay meshes state-of-the-art knowledge regarding human nature with a quiver full of specific strategies and skills to empower self and influence others to fully become what they can become.

This is a bold, unique and creative synthesis of power-driven leadership, in both theory and practice, to be found no where else. 

CPR for the Soul stresses natural design principles and processes to enhance personal resilience.

This is not a simplistic and superficial "airplane" read; it will challenge you to your conceptual depth, to your very soul.

You will be able to map your own strength and blind spots and then construct a world around you that will naturally draw out your capacities.

Clearly the 21st Century will demand the very best we have to offer.

Mike Jay is rapidly becoming the "coaches" coach, and the "leaders," leader.

 He walks his talk in this Real Age.

Don Edward Beck, Ph. D.

Spiral Dynamics Integral Founder

A Paradigm Changing Work, April 13, 2006
Reviewer: Ajai Singh (India) - See all my reviews

My journey with CPR for the Soul began in 2004. The application and utility of the concepts detailed in the book by Mike Jay are some of the most profound and easily applicable. It is a must read and use book for anybody going somewhere wanting to find a path and direction. A must read.

Ajai Singh, Principal, Shamrock Training Consultants, India
 

CPR for the Soul, April 13, 2006
Reviewer: Shirley Schwaller (Dallas Texas) - See all my reviews

Would it be a relief to you to find out that you don't have to be a finacial wizard, a fabulous salesperson, and a management guru to succeed in business? It was for me. I have been a small business owner and business manager and it seemed that success was always one more "learning curve" away.

Mike Jay dispels the mythology that we can all learn everything and, more than that, be excellent at all things. What he gives us instead in CPR for the Soul, is a way to discern our strengths, acknowledge our weaknesses and then build a system that builds on our strengths. It works. The ideas in this book have radically changed my thinking on how to manage my life successfully and I find joy replacing anxiety, expectation replacing worry and opportunity replacing obstacles.
 

We Are Perfect The Way We Are, April 13, 2006
Reviewer: T. Kinnard "Light Traveler" (Denver)

In CPR for the Soul, Mike Jay has put forth the notion that we are perfect the way we are. So often we are driven to scale impossible heights just to be like everyone else not realizing that we are perfect the way we are. It is so refreshing and motivating to read a book that supports the notion that we don't need to change to be like everyone else. Instead, we can really embrace our strengths, live a soul centered life, and build resilience through connection and communication with other people. This book will make you feel good and show you how true community can manifest when you stop trying to be like everyone else.
 

A developmental guide that works on who I am and design what I am not, April 12, 2006Reviewer: Blanca Medina

I want to post a review for CPR for the Soul because it let me take action on personal challenges that I was not able to move on before.

During my life I've been a student, a professional, an executive and now a mom, a wife, a coach and an entrepreneur. I don't have time to do everything I need and want to do and haven't been able to find a balance that works. That's why I was attracted to this book and Mike Jay's philosophy.

I have knowledge and experience in personal and organizational development. I've worked out the purpose and goals for my life, my profession and my business. But some of the planning and knowledge was not totally actionable for me. I have my own limiting beliefs and don't have some needed capabilities and resources.

Creating Personal Resilience by Design, as Mike Jay presents it, gives me a solution that I've sometimes unconsciously used but haven't recognized as a general pattern. He points out the difference between acting on the belief " I can be whatever I want" and the belief "I can be whatever I can." He shows us how to utilize our passions, knowledge, and strengths, and how to develop partnerships or hire out parts of a project to others, so we create a design that goes around what we are not good at. As Mike says we really can find the actionable balance, the equilibrium to live our lives and be lived by our lives productively.

In my opinion CPR for the Soul is a must have book, a good foundation, innovating knowledge, a step-by-step guide for resilience and applicable to personal and business challenges.
 

Re-engineering our lives, April 12, 2006
Reviewer: Robert Schwaller (USA)

Mike Jay in CPR for the Soul, takes a look at patterns of human development--then delivers a sure recipe for Creating Personal Resilience.

In an age promised quick fixes and the Holy Grail-belief that we are all just blank slates and we can with alacrity move up the stages of development that Wilber, Maslow, and many others have defined, Jay makes the case for building a lifetime of personal resilience through intelligent HORIZONTAL development. He talks of going with your strength and your natural motivations--the stuff that GENERATES energy rather than sapping it, and then designing weaknesses out of the system by delegating to others who are strong and motivated where you are weak.

It's a win-win.

Implementing that design is the heart of the book--how through many thousands of executive, business and coaching sessions, Jay learned what works and what doesn't work,and shares that knowledge with us today.

There are no quick fixes or rote formulas. Just intelligent re-design that leverages strengths and compensates for weaknesses through collaboration.

At the very least, following the book's principles narrows the gap of unrealistic expectations, and replaces it with better mental health by following a more natural, ready path towards horizontal competence.

"Resilience" Jay defines as "the differentiated power to persist when things do not work out at first, the capability to navigate ambiguity and uncertainty, the motivation to transcend common problems and barriers and to collaboratively anticipate the future in sustainable ways."

CPR is a thoughtful book that maps a new, more healing and helpful path. I'm following its teaching and finding more productivity and peace of mind. CPR offers a sound solution to much of the mental struggle and disappointment in the 21st century.
 

Integral Sweat that Drives You to Your Passions, April 12, 2006
Reviewer: Mark Ita (Bern, Switzerland)

If you really want to learn to walk your talk, to feel at ease with yourself, to get to know your passions and to utilize all the differences that exist between you and the world to grow and find fulfillment, then this is the book you need to buy!

It's not for everybody, because it means work and sticking at it - it's not a quick fix! But right from the first pages you experience the invigorating force of Mike Jay's concept: You needn't change, but through learning the way you function and make meaning of the world and by being open as to how other folks function differently, you learn to see and appreciate yourself in a fresh light - and thus you change in the way you move in the world. Call out for a hand and take it where you need it and give others a hand where they need it, is the natural principle of our interconnected world.

In these days of individualism many people entertain the (erroneous) idea that they can be whatever they want and get miserable trying to do so in vain. It is like wanting to make a cake with only an egg, or only flower, or only sugar. You cannot as you well know!

"CPR for the soul" makes you see this fact. But it doesn't just tell you and give you a nice theory that makes you have a wonderful illusion of enlightenment. No! The author shows you step for step what you can do to live up to your full potential, to be what you really have been designed to be. He shows you how to make a cake by finding and adding the ingredients that you haven't got - and eat and enjoy it at the end!

"CPR for the soul" is a very practical book guided by deep philosophical insights, carried by solid knowledge derived from years of practical coaching as well as making use of academic research and driven by Mike Jay's passion to awaken people.

Mind you: it doesn't just make you wet but actually sweat! It's an excellent book and has the potential to be the remedying key to many of our current mental health problems.
 

"In partnership, toward happiness;" Designing Your Path of Resilience, April 8, 2006
Reviewer: Richard Freis (Jackson, MS USA)

In the July 8, 1991, New Yorker, William Steig published a cartoon in which I recognized myself. A solitary, vaguely Victorian figure, wearing a morning coat and disheveled cravat, heroically climbs a flight of stairs. The treads are covered with spikes. His brow is resolved, his gaze fixed upward on a star (which probably recedes with every step) at the top. Steig titles it "The Self as Something to Be Improved."

Everything about the figure says, "I'm not good enough yet, but I'm really serious and putting 101% into getting there! " It was the first time it occurred to me that life-long, self-absorbed stair climbing might not be the way to be happy and make the most valuable contribution to the world. In fact, for a minute, I saw my compulsive self-improving as short sighted and maybe, well..., even sometimes silly.

Mike Jay, who is one of the world's most innovative developmental theorists, has written CPR for the Soul: Creating Personal Resilience by Design to remind us that there can be what I call a "pathology of aspiration" in the relentless focus on climbing higher on the developmental stairs.

It is often more resilient and productive and of greater service to stop at a floor the staircase has brought us to and create a design for fruitfully engaging there. When we do this, when we accept ourselves and flourish as we are, we release into our lives all the energy that has been wrapped up in the relentless effort to climb. This is not to become stagnant but to become fertile---and to continue to grow into whatever higher level capacities we have obliquely as a natural emergence.

There have been a number of recent books about resilience. Jay's definition is framed within a larger context than others I am familiar with, situating resilience within the horizon of accelerated planet-wide change. He defines resilience as "the differentiated power to persist when things do not work out at first, the capability to navigate ambiguity and uncertainty, the motivation to transcend common problems and barriers and to collaboratively anticipate the future in sustainable ways."

By knowing your existing strengths and motivations and those of others you may be working with you can create an effective design which does not depend on changing the persons but aligns their strengths with the requirements of a task. The design creates a path of resilience that through practice, feedback, and reform becomes even stronger over time. Jay's book contains instruments which enable you to discern your strengths and motives and the requirements of a task and shows you how to craft a resilient path. It also identifies and explains the behaviors that allow you to work the design and path most productively.

Jay's vision is deeply wise and sharply practical. I believe that no matter where you are in your journey CPR for the Soul will make your life happier and more fruitful.

A Book for Personal and Professional Use, April 11, 2006
Reviewer: Bob McAllaster (Kailua, Hawaii)

Mike Jay's book is essential for anyone who is serious about results in their life. In today's over saturated world of quick fixes and self-help guides, Mike approaches things from a grounded and research-based foundation. If you are interested in learning about yourself and designing more of what is important to you, into your life, I would highly recommend reading this book.

This book has multiple audiences. As someone who has been involved in personal development work for over 18 years, CPR for the Soul challenged my own thinking. As a developmental coach who works with new and established leaders, I can utilize this work with my clients as well.

"Mike is one of the most amazing people I have met - and CPR for the soul - is the path of the future - and also the ancient path. I wish and pray that many people connect to their souls out of this fascinating book. I believe that this is a contribution of a planetary proportion- one that holds promise to transform the way we think about evolution- personal and collective."

- Kirron Gulrajaani, CEO, Eternale Learning, India