Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken: Transform Your Life with the Power of Authenticity

I am in awe of this book. Absolute awe! Strong words for sure and words I haven't used before in any of my 80+ reviews, here on Amazon, of the best of the best books I have read in the last fifteen months.I thoroughly enjoyed author Mike Robbins' first book, on the subject of "appreciation." As I wrote in my review for that book, good topic, fine book and an impressive debut for an author of any age, and especially impressive debut for a young author.For his second book, Mike Robbins selected a much tougher, but even more important topic. In a world where -- every day -- we read about the escapades of two-faced business executives, politicians, and sports "stars," a serious book on the subject of "authenticity" is timely and important to each of us, as well as to our society. But, what a tough subject about which to write. Compared to many other personal development areas, books or even articles on this subject are much rarer. Making it even tougher, claiming to be an expert on authenticity seemingly would invite a hailstorm of personal challenges as to "how real are you Mike Robbins?"Mike Robbins' approach is NOT to claim to be the world expert on authenticity, or the world's role model for authenticity. Instead, Robbins has written a heart-warming story of one man's search to understand and constructively use the power of authenticity. There is no preaching at the reader, instead the style is more like a fireside chat with a very close friend...much like the Cheryl Richardson style of writing I so enjoy.Initially, this book was not an easy read for me. The subject of authenticity does not lend itself to easy homilies. My first read through was interesting and worthwhile...but certainly not life changing. But, then the magic started to happen. Suddenly, I was seeing authenticity issues in my everyday live...with my consulting clients, with friends, and even with my own actions. That sent me back to the book to read it more carefully, and to intellectually challenge Robbins' hypothesis as to the five principles that he believes most impact authenticity. Then, I challenged the eight stars in a coaching group in which I participate to a mini-debate about the power of authenticity and its impact on everyday inner peace. Suddenly, the wisdom of Robbins had unlocked an exciting new world for me.As a voracious reader, I am often reading thoughtful books on business and personal development issues. The best add to my knowledge, and do so in an enjoyable manner. A rare few stretch my thinking to delightful and useful new dimensions of life. This book has done that, and much more. I have already seen impressive results from the wisdom of this book, and I have just scratched the surface of understanding the ways that true authenticity can improve one's life.This is the kind of subject you would expect the likes of Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, etc. to be serving up for us, not a relatively young second time author. Mike Robbins, I am in awe of what you have accomplished with this book and of what I expect will be the impact of this book.One final note: Looking to just burnish your image? Be forewarned that this book should not be confused with a marketing or PR primer. This is a Debbie Ford, hold up the mirror to the reader style book...done with beautiful compassion and genuine humility by this author. This is a wonderful primer for a better life, not a quick-fix image makeover tutorial.

Mike Robbins says "We have the `disease to please'-always trying to do or say things that we think will make others like us and think we're `good.' ... constantly trying to do or say the "right" thing so that others will approve of us, like us, and keep us in good favor does not empower us to be ourselves, speak our truth, or live our deepest passions."Robbins' message rang true for me. I liked his suggestions throughout the book on how to be more authentic, and less of a people pleaser. Apparently his message resonates with others, too. On my twitter feed I posted a quote I read from the book, "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." by e. e. cummings. Within one hour I saw 12 people re-tweeted that quote, with comments like "Unbelievably true words...definition of my life", "this is so very true. I fell & got up so many times."While we sometimes can live in fear of what others think of us, Robbins identifies the source of that fear in this insightful passage:"The main person we're scared to be judged by is ourselves. Ironically, we're constantly judging ourselves anyway; there's no need to be scared of it, since it happens all the time. Herein lies the paradox of the fear of judgment: we think we're worried about what others think about us, when we're really most vulnerable to damage from what we think about ourselves."One of my intentions of the New Year is to look for opportunities to step out, to show my authenticity. I find myself referring to Robbins' "Be Yourself" book again and again to help in that quest.

Mike Robbins: Thank you for writing such an honest, dare I say "authentic" book!It is so true, we have been trained since birth to "calm down", "be quiet", and "fit in", whether this was coming from school, family, religious organizations, the media, or all of the above. We start saying these things to our children as soon as they are born, and it is reinforced literally everywhere. What if we said, instead, to ourselves and our children, "MORE! MORE EMOTION! MORE OPINIONS!!" ??It's no wonder then, why we all struggle with sharing who we really are with the world. There are very few examples of people living authentically and we all have so little practice at it.But we want it. I want it.Thank you for reminding me that I'm my own worst critic. I enjoyed going through the exercises, especially, "Why do I want to grow and improve myself" Am I motivated by authentic reasons? What's driving me?I am inspired to be more of myself and to let go of my perceptions of others' perceptions of me. I really see how this is limiting me.

The second book to read by Mike Robbins after ‘focus on the good stuff.’ Very positive impacts on my ways of thinking mostly because he focuses on the qualitative aspects of self-improvements. Like not really using buzz words / short-cut solutions to gain popularity.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. It is not as sentimental as some other book on similar topics (what I don't quite like), but still as inspirational as them (or even better). Very good for self-reflection if life somehow feels messy or you have problem to identify with yourself sometimes. It helps you be more authentic and hear your inner voice--I believe this will help you find where your passion truly lies and be more assertive in living your own way in life. I'm thinking about reading other books from Robbins as well.

The book is wonderful! My only recommendation is that the description of this audio version should have a comment explaining that this is not the correct product to purchase if you plain to download it onto your iTunes account or onto an MP3 devise. The system sees disc 2 as a duplicate of disc one. The audio CDs should be listened to using a CD player.

Some interesting content about being true to yourself, written in a readable style. Might be of most interest to people who have not read similar books. I've read a few and didn't find anything new.

Brilliant book!