The Little Book of Clarity by Jamie Smart
Capstone £9.99, USA $16.00, CAN $19.00
‘Imagine what you could achieve if you had a clear head.’
It is amazing how a very simple sentence can instantly get your mind running over the possibilities. Less stress, quicker results and better results for that matter. After reading this sentence on the blurb, I was instantly intrigued. I originally stumbled upon this book by accident at Waterstones. Although The Little Book of Clarity is considered as a self-help book, Jamie Smart explains how his book is different to other self-help books. ‘Most business and personal development books aim at giving you the things to think, change and do so you “act” in a certain way to get the results you want.’ Smart explains this concept to having a cold appose to acting like you have one. Acting like you have a cold is hard and at times, unconvincing. However, ‘when you catch a cold, the symptoms emerge effortlessly because they’re real. This book is designed so that you can “catch” an understanding that results in the “symptoms” of increasing clarity, resilience and peace of mind.’ Therefore because everyone already has clarity, the results of the book will come naturally.
At first I was a little skeptical too. How can this book know my way of thinking? After reflecting on
my university grades, commenting that I lacked clarity, I decided to give it a go. I can honestly say that this was one of the best decisions I had made. As I read the book I could feel the ‘a-ha’ moments appearing more regularly. After reading the first part of the book I decided to edit some of my essays for university. When I looked back at them I was confused. How had I wrote such rubbish! I could not believe that I could not understand my previous trail of thought. The changes however didn’t stop there. I started to realise that I didn’t comfort eat anymore. I learnt the difference between association happiness with an object, in this circumstance, food.
Each chapter contains a thought exercise or experiment for the reader to partake in. This really helps with understanding the process of this book and I would recommend doing these exercises, before pursuing with the next chapter. Although The Little Book of Clarity, is as it suggests, little, it does not scrape on content. Each chapter also has a web link for additional material incase the reader may want a deeper understanding. Furthermore the book is also available as an e-book. It truly is as handy as it suggests. This is the first time that I have reviewed a non-fiction book and a self-help book at that, which suggests how useful I found this book. So to any students that may have been in my situation, or to anyone who wants to get better results and peace of mind. I urge you to read this book. I can guarantee you will not be disappointed.
my mind, is whether they actually work. Will using this product be more beneficial than a stroll to clear your mind? I understand that some people may conjure up a plot from a writing exercise, but are these writing tools and exercises worth relying on? I have attempted to create a plot from several of these writing gadgets, yet my most worthy ideas have came from travelling or just as I was about to go to sleep. After my attempts with the supposedly writing tools, I began to question whether the thought of using one of these strategies was actually better than using one. At Waterstones there is a book called, Get Ready, Get Set, Novel! At first glance it sounds really exciting, by completing the book you should be ready to start writing a novel. Then it dawned on me. Procrastination was what this book truly was. So after reflecting on this incident, could writing gadgets just be a way for writers to procrastinate. I m
ean going to a creative writing workshop is different as ideas are generated among the group and people come out inspired to write. However these books and gadgets that tell us how to write, appear to simply be there for us to procrastinate with. With that in mind, how do you start a novel? Do you begin with procrastinating (because we all need a tidy desk, a clean room and a cup of tea by our side before we begin), do you just write down whatever comes to mind as your ideas generate over the page, or do you wait for the idea to come to mind before you begin. This is just a brief thought about writing a novel, because obviously no one said it was going to be easy. However how do you start when you do not know how to begin?
Charlotte Anne Barker 