Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One

Giordano, R., & Caistor, N. (2018). Your second life begins when you realize you only have one. G.P. Putnam’s Sons.Raphaëlle Giordano is an author, group coach and founder of Emotone. She collaborates with creativity/innovation, communication, team cohesion, and stress management companies.This book is for the person who feels stuck or disappointed that life simply isn't what they imagined. Giordano begins, "My dream is that everyone should take full advantage of their talents and responsibility for their happiness." This is the story of Camille, a thirty-something woman who has a car wreck and meets a stranger, Claude, a "routinologist" who diagnoses her as having "routinitis." Routinitis is a "sickness of the soul," characterized by a "lack of motivation; chronic dissatisfaction; feeling you've lost your bearings and everything meaningful in life; finding it hard to feel happy . . . disenchantment; and world weariness." The book is about her journey using techniques introduced by Claude designed to change her focus and inner thoughts. Assumptions are that we can choose the way we think and perceive if we pay attention and practices. The story includes several practices a person can use to facilitate change. Examples include: (a) Write down everything you want to change about your life. (b) Carry out a complete spring-clean, inside and out. Identify everything about you that seems toxic, negative, that hampers your relationships and the way you organize your life. In your home, throw away at least 10 useless objects and tidy up, sort out, and refresh your surroundings in every way possible. Take photos of the effort. (c) Write a list of your best qualities, everything you're good at, all the successes you've had in your life. (d) Draw a portrait of the you'd like to be. (e) Fill your day with humor and cheerfulness. (f) Train yourself to be on the lookout for beauty. (g) Find room every day for moments of gratitude. Giordano noted, "Claude's advice is a mixture of advice I've heard and strategies I discovered." An appendix is included describing all the practices.I have no memory of who told me about this book or how I found it. The story arc is simple - girl has a wreck, encountering a stranger who gives language to her lived experience and then directs her towards practices to change her life. In doing the practices she re-calibrates, finding inner joy and direction. It's a story that can be read in a sitting.What's more profound are the tasks he shares to help facilitate transformation. In 2022, I spent a year focusing on exercise which included finding a mantra of the day, some observation or task that helped me to rise above myself or focus my attention towards gratitude, interconnectedness, or beauty. This practice was life changing, it was work at times but the benefit and the discipline were extremely helpful. This book shares one woman's journey. The appendix listing all the practices is worth the price of the book. I can imagine some of these practices showing up as I strive to coach students and leaders.

Very very very good book! I can’t recommend it strong enough! Changed my life!

It’s a great book, I have received it with little damage and they gave me another new one 👍🏻.

Buen libro para practicar y perfeccionar tu inglés

great book, really good. consigliato