Book Review: How Much Joy Can You Stand

"How Much Joy Can You Stand? How to Push Past Your Fears and Create Your Dreams": by Suzanne Falter, is a book about the creative process, the engine that drives one's dreams.

If one is trying to pursue any kind of dream, one can't help but get run over by obstacles once in a while. Hopefully, armed with enough information and clarity, one can dodge those and, this book in an attempt to prevent further road kill.

'We're basically a doubting, disbelieving breed', the book tells. People cling to more lies that render them absolutely powerless, believing these lies will keep them gloriously afloat. Forget this and start being creative. There is joy available to all of us, forever and ever, says the book. All great success stories through history, every one of them came about because someone was dreamy enough to think they could actually do something in their own weird way. 

Some of us may not know yet what our dream is. And may think that if we don't know exactly what we want to do in life, we're doomed to failure. To locate our dreams, we just have to drop the histrionics and self-criticism for a while, and allow ourselves to simply explore, says the book. That is, there are going to be impulses, some of which lead to major discoveries and successes, others of which lead to nothing. We need to choose to act on those impulses and craft dreams from them.

Book then talks about commitment, not some coat one puts on and take off as desired, but, a promise one need to make to oneself that must be renewed every single day, and always in the context of work. About failure, the book says, "There really is no such thing as failure. There is only the rearrangement of plans, and the surrender of ego. There is only the twist in the road we never expect. As long as we remain true to our vision and ourselves, we simply cannot fail. That is all we have to remember."

This is an isnspiring book, whatever one might have experienced, failure, success or, indifference, this book can give one loads of arguments as to why, one must go ahead with one's dream. As the author mentions in the beginning, "If this book does its job properly, you'll be up and running in no time".