Best Self
By Mike Bayer
Rating: 4 Stars
“Ask yourself…are you truly who you want to be? Is this the life you really want? Are you living each day as your best self? What can you change, today?”
Best Self is a self-help book intended to help the reader change some of the aspects of their life and their own behaviors that could contribute to not being happy, not achieving goals, not changing unwanted behaviors and in short, not becoming their Best Self.
Initially I picked up this book because my husband expressed interest in reading it for himself. He had seen Mike Bayer on the Dr. Phil show where he is often brought on as a Life Coach and liked what he saw of him in that environment.
Since you don’t know my husband I’ll let you in on something…he NEVER expresses interest in reading books so I told him “sure, I’ll get you a copy”. What he doesn’t know is this…in my excitement; I nearly broke a land-speed record in order to obtain a copy of it for him and also got a copy for myself that I could read. Naturally, I told myself I got a copy of my own so I could know where he was at in the book and be able to support him in this endeavor. But really I also wanted to see what Mr. Bayer had to say and perhaps even learn how to become my Best Self…stranger things have happened! But I digress.
Right up front Mr. Bayer lets the reader know he is not a degreed Psychologist or Psychiatrist. He is simply sharing knowledge and techniques he has gained over his 17 years as a Life Coach. How does he know they work? He has used them himself in his own personal life and he has helped many other individuals as well. Does he claim to have developed these concepts and techniques himself…no, he does not.
Are these new and revolutionary ideas/techniques? No, they are not. I have read other self-help books that have very similar concepts and have sometimes even used much of the same language…but that’s not really the point here is it? Anyone can read other books that discuss the same ideas/concepts but if those ideas/concepts are not delivered in an effective manner they won’t get through to the person reading the book and therefore that book is essentially… a paperweight. That’s what is different about Mr. Bayer’s book, his delivery method. I actually enjoyed reading this book.
Mr. Bayer is approachable in his method, not clinical. I didn’t have to slog through paragraph after paragraph of dry clinical psycho-babble. Instead Mr. Bayer’s voice comes through clearly as someone who has been there done that himself and has come out on the other side.
I don’t know about you but before I make purchases these days I read reviews. In particular, I read the bad reviews. One review that jumped out at me claimed Mr. Bayer was saying “you are not good enough as you are”. Let me be very clear….he never says that at all. He doesn’t even come close to saying that. The message he clearly conveys is that he wants to help you be your Best Self, help you change things in your life you already want to change or maybe…someone else has told you needs to change. That is not saying “you aren’t good enough as you are”, that is saying “let me show you how to get where you want to go.” If you find yourself saying what that other reviewer said then you are speaking from a place of ego and need to re-read the book and refer back to the exercises.
Speaking of exercises…this book comes with plenty of those and you should know that if you download this book through Audible there is a pdf file that accompanies the audiobook. In order to get the pdf you will have to go to your library in Audible from a laptop or desktop computer, you won’t be able to see or download it from the Audible apps.
So, would I recommend this book? Yes, I would. I give it 4 out of 5, mainly because via Audible I think they should automatically e-mail you the pdf supplement and not make you have to figure out how to obtain it. But, the subject matter was easy to read. Mr. Bayer has an easy writing voice that is approachable and non-clinical which I appreciated. And, I liked many of the exercises. They weren’t easy to do, but it’s rarely easy to take a really close look at yourself now is it? I don’t think I could ask for more from a self-help book unless of course it could somehow magically remind me to be mindful of my reactions…but I think I have to do that work myself.
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