Imagine waking up on the subway and realising that you had absolutely no idea where you were going. Not only that, you had no idea where you’d come from, or even who you were! Well that’s the account of Douglas Bruce, a 35 year old, well educated, former stock market trader living in New York, this was the beginning of an amazing, and at times frightening journey of self discovery.

Unknown White Male is a documentary, which charts the process Douglas Bruce went through to re-establish his life after seemingly suffering a extremely rare from of memory loss. It includes video diary style footage taken only a few days after he awoke on the subway, and with the help of an old friend, the film-maker Rupert Murray (who Doug didn’t have any memory of), an in-depth look into what makes us who we are.

There are an array of issues discussed in this film, ranging from the immediate fear and confusion of realising you have lost your personal history, to re-experiencing the beauty the world through child’s eyes.

There is a lot of speculation about Bruce’s story. Whether it’s true or an incredible hoax. You know what? I’m going to suggest that it doesn’t really matter in the context of this as a personal development catalyst. Like great art it seems to inspire people to ask questions they had never considered before. This is its success, not the morality of what is truth and what is fiction, but the core message, which is a celebration of life. This rejection of social and environmental conditioning, brings with it a chance of a new start.

There are real insights throughout Unknown White Male, supported by a dreamy/surreal visual narrative and soundtrack which Rupert Murray has lovingly crafted on what I believe was his directorial debut. In a nod to ‘Fight Club’, Doug Bruce states that he has places no importance on material possessions, despite apparently hoarding them in his pre-amnesiac life. Another interesting observation is that he now saw the world through the eyes of a new born baby, with the mind of an adult. Indeed, re-experiencing rain, snow and the ocean proved to be an emotionally charged event for Bruce.

The film centre’s around the timeless question of ‘Who are we really?’, is our personality simply an expression of our genetics, the result of our life experiences, or somewhere in between? Modern science has consistently failed to find any specific location of memory in our brain, and has come to understand memory of terms of a reconstruction of events, complete with filters and distortions applied at an unconscious level. It seems we do not store exact recordings of memory at all, but activate pointers to components which are re-hashed together to form a recalled event. The human brain truly is an amazing thing.

Having watched this film a number of times, I find it inspires my sensibility to the world around me, and reminds me that in every moment we start afresh. I’ve long contemplated whether the Past or Future have meaning, or if we live through each moment and in doing so establish a time-line to orient ourselves.

This is a documentary that will make you think, and hopefully inspire you to do more. I was left with a deep feeling of possibility, and many questions, many of which I later visually explored in my ‘Identity Art’ Series. Imagine starting life again with a clean slate, but retaining all the learned behaviours that allow you to function in the world. It’s a complex and interesting notion, and one that is worthy of consideration. If you would like to learn some more about the Unknown White Male documentary, you can check it out at the Amazon.co.uk link over at the right.

Think about it, who are we really?

It’s often been said that choosing positive role-models, and learning from their positive traits is a good way to affect personal change. Well if you’re looking to learn about living a life of adventure, and reaching for your dreams, and having the guts to follow that path through ’til the very end, then Aron Ralston should set you in good stead.

The story began on Friday the 25th of April at the Horseshoe Canyon Trailhead, near the Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Aron Ralston, then an experienced 27 year old mountaineer, decided to go solo canyoneering to hopefully get to see the prehistoric artwork that still graced the mountain walls along the trail.

As his journey progressed, and just as he attempted to descend a 10ft deep narrow slot, a huge boulder gave way above him, in a frantic seconds that followed his right hand was crushed and trapped under it’s immense weight, and Aron’s life was to be changed forever.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place tells a harrowing story of survival, yet this is not a bleak book. It’s documentary writing style, puts the reader right into the desperate situation alongside Aron, hoping for salvation with each page turned.

I have come to have a lot of respect for Aron Ralston from what I’ve read and seen of his interviews. Here is a guy that quit his office job to pursue a life of true meaning. Valuing the experiences of his lifetime above the things that he owned. It made me immediately think of Fight Club in which the Tyler Durden states “The things that you own, end up owning you”, rarely are such wise words spoken.

Modern society seems to have got itself in a bit of a pickle, we work to consume products, the products that are beamed into our homes through television every night after work. The very same products that are imprinted into our consciousness through billboards, radio waves and social pressure to meet a certain standard of living. We are truly lost.

Between A Rock and A Hard Place  is really a story within a story. We are introduced to Aron Ralston because of the fate that befell him trapped under that rock and his subsequent salvation, but actually more inspiring, also perhaps a touch less dramatic is his honesty, values and determination to squeeze every possible experience out of the life he’s been gifted with.

He speaks of nature’s beauty throughout this book, and provides photographs that he’s taken on his journey across some of the highest peaks on earth. It’s this combination of stillness, juxtaposed with the frenetic battle for survival that makes this book unique. Each chapter taking us from the despair and reality of decay and death, to the liberation of conquering mountains.

Given the path that Aron chose for his life, and all the challenges that he’s faced along the way, it’s a true testament to the man that he looks back with no regrets. That he accepts the journey, and his role his choices played in what happened to him. This outlook that it’s our choices that determine our direction and ultimately our ‘fate’, that make this book such a valuable personal development tool. It’s not about how Aron beat the boulder and survived to tell the tale, there’s so much more depth to it than that. It’s about self-discovery and the power of intention, about accepting the challenges that come our way and seeing them for stepping stones to wisdom.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place is a book of hope, and I defy anyone to read it and not be affected by it’s message. We sometimes forget our dreams, in the chaos of everyday life, when our life should in fact be the dreams. We’re too busy working to notice the beauty of the sunset, and that’s such a shame. Give Aron Ralston a chance to make you question whether your life is all that it could be.

He dreamt of climbing, so he climbed.

You can find out more about Aron’s inspiring book using the amazon.co.uk link (above/right)

It’s not that often that I read a work of fiction that seems to linger in my mind year after year, but Yann Martel’s ‘Life Of Pi’ is one such book. Based around a small lifeboat lost at sea, it charts the 227 days of survival featuring  a cast of animals including a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger and Pi Patel a young Indian boy.

It’s difficult to categorise this book, and I think to do so would be a bit unfair, as it’s really out there on it’s own in terms of it’s quirkiness, and humble charm. I think back about my first time reading it and a little involuntary smile creeps across my face, that’s just the effect it seems to have on people.  I’d be hard-pressed to say why exactly, it just exudes a quality, a sense of playfulness and creativity, whilst still retaining a certain depth of meaning.

To be perfectly honest, I’m half tempted to start reading it again now, and it’s only my focus to finish this review off that’s preventing me from doing just that. You see, it’s one of those books that despite positively beaming about to friends and family, no-one else seems to get enthusiastic about. The usual response received is something like “I don’t like maths, never have, never will”. Given that the book has absolutely nothing to do with maths, I find it an odd statement but true never-the-less! Another common one is; “a boy on a boat with animals? sounds boring”. Well boring this is not! It’s only when you discover someone else that has read it, do you get to share that secret little nod of appreciation for each others taste. It like being in the VW club, it’s a pleasure only known to those who have taken the time to acquaint themselves with it.

At 319 pages, it’s a reasonable read, and took me around 3-4 days to complete. I must admit, I nearly didn’t bother after reading the first 20 odd pages, I just couldn’t get into it. Now I don’t think that’s really a criticism of the actual story, more of my expectations having read the cover blurb.  I was expecting to be straight in at the action, but instead found a lot of build up and scene setting which I found quite difficult to follow at times, mainly because my conscious mind kept butting in and saying “come on get to the boat bit!”. Luckily I’d purchased the hardback version for £12.99 at my local Waterstone’s, so one way or another I’d already committed to reading it fully for better or worse.

Take that last it with a pinch of salt, it’s a beautiful book with a masterly crafted story in which you really find yourself  investing in, and caring about the outcome. Given the nature of the story in ‘Life Of Pi’, I wouldn’t recommend reading to many reviews on this one, just in case they give too much away. It would be like getting a blow for blow account of Sixth Sense or Fight Club before watching them- not a good idea!

Now don’t worry, I won’t go into the plot. I just want to try and convey the positive impact it has had on my life since reading it. Immediately after finishing the book, I felt like a veil had been lifted and that somehow had opened up a new level of creativity,  a new concept of what was possible.  Since then I’ve had time to reflect on the story and on how that fits with my own experience and understanding  of the world. I’ve come to realise that it’s through committing ourselves to fully engage in this type of creative work, that we grow and learn more about ourselves.  We develop new perspectives in ways that are perhaps not even connected to the original work. This is the true beauty of Life Of Pi by Yann Martel, it captivates the imagination in ways that few books do. It’s a catalyst for original thought, and that warm feeling that you’ve just experienced something that will always be with you.

To find out more about this book, click the book cover (right) to view it at amazon.co.uk.

I remember the day I bought the book ‘Unlimited Power’ by Anthony Robbins distinctly. It was the day after my 18th birthday from a local Waterstones bookshop. You see, I been kindly given some vouchers as a present, and with £40 burning a hole in my way-to-baggy jeans, I decided to go and blow the lot on a selection of books.

At that time I was really into Eastern philosophy, and the whole Zen Buddhist vibe. So naturally I went straight to the Mind, Body & Spirit section, and picked out ‘The Beginners Guide To Meditation’ and ‘An Introduction to Zen Buddhism’ and another title that eludes me right now. With about £15 left and all out of ideas, I started randomly looking around other sections, now fully confuzzled with information overload, I scanned the last shelf before leaving. Like a full moon on a clear night, something shiny caught my eye. That something was the big gold lettering of ‘Unlimited Power’ with a picture of a cheesy looking yuppie chap called Anthony Robbins on the front cover.

I hadn’t heard of Tony Robbins back then, and to be fair hadn’t really been explicitly aware of the personal development movement either. It was before the world-wide-intraweb and mobile access, so I only had my own wits to go on. At £12.99 it was a gamble of sorts, but that gold billboard font looked so impressive I knew I was going to be taking it home!

Ironically, despite being initially impressed, I didn’t start reading the book until about 3 years later. However as soon as I stared reading I knew that it was a match made in heaven, it just seemed to summarise my own feelings of disillusionment, and the nagging doubt that I wasn’t making the most of my abilities. Not only did it fill me with feelings of empathy, it had the solutions written down in black and white!

Every page I turned, opened up a new set of possibilities, of directions I could go in. ‘Why didn’t I come up with that!’, ‘That makes total sense now’, Must sleep, eyes heavy’ were some of the reoccurring thoughts that flittered through my mind over the next few days of intensive reading.

I think it’s important to realise that this book is over 10/15 years old now, so upon re-reading it can sound a little dated in places, especially when discussing NLP, or NAC (Neuro-Associative Conditioning) as Robbins like to refer to it. But despite it’s maturity as a product, it’s still has bags to offer to the first time reader. It’s witty and compelling to read, inspiring throughout and laced with great one-liners and examples of how the techniques actually work. It’s written in a really down-to-earth conversational style that leads you into each chapter nicely, and keeps the pages turning long after it was time to stop.

For those that like to know the specifics, the chapters in this book are as follows:

- How to find out what you really want
- The Seven Lies of Success
- How to reprogram your mind in minutes to eliminate fears and phobias
- The secret of creating instant rapport with anyone you meet
- How to duplicate the success of others
- The Five Keys to Wealth and Happiness

Unlimited Power was a breakthrough work for Tony Robbins, it managed to compress all that he was teaching in his seminars, and living by as a dedicated member of the personal development club, into one 448 page book. There’s a part where Tony talks about the writing process for Unlimited Power, and describes how he forced himself to write chapter after chapter late into the night whilst touring the country doing his energy filled, fire walking seminars. The lack of free time to write and the tight deadline set by his publisher, pushed Tony up a gear… The result, is nothing short of a concise personal development classic.

In closing, I’m not really one for over-hyping, at the end of the day it’s just a book, but it’s a book that I can’t really fault in terms of content, especially for someone looking to take a cheap entry point into the work of the multi-talented personal development king Anthony ‘Tony’ Robbins. My copy has been read at least 6 times, and hasn’t lost any of it’s appeal over the years. It’s an easy read and one that can give you a good sharp burst of inspiration and motivation to get your life on track when you need it.

If that floats your boat, you can get more info on Unlimited Power using the amazon.co.uk link (right)