Reviews: Twentysomethings on the Road to Self-Improvement

Twentysomethings on the Road to Self-Improvement My Reality Check Bounced by Jason Ryan Dorsey Broadway Books 236 pages Reviewed by Christine Hall

Most of the self-help motivational books I see are aimed at the midlife crowd – the folks who wake up one morning in crisis and realize that a lifetime of faulty decisions have come to roost and that they have made a mess of their lives. Life coach Jason Ryan Dorsey has chosen to take a different approach, aiming his book, My Reality Check Bounced, at young adults in their twenties, the fresh scrubbed and wide eyed who are just out of college , or even still going to school. He offers advice that promises to help them to turn their lives around before years of bad habits can make things seem hopeless.

In the book, he introduces us to a litany of young people who've managed to find a vision for their lives before falling victim to the nightmare of normalcy or doing-what's-expected-of-me. Some of these examples are pretty awe inspiring, like the story of Ben, a seventeen year old who dropped out of high school and ran away from home to live in a cockroach infected windowless room in the basement of a sleazy Manhattan bar.

Ben found inspiration when an older friend took him to the United Nations headquarters. This began a three month process of research and study which led to his proposing to the United Nations the creation of a United Nations Youth Assembly. Although the UN rather rudely turned him down, Ben kept at it. The result: 2002's Global Youth Service Day, one of the largest international youth led initiatives in history.

Self-help books often make it appear that the road to self improvement is much too easy. While writer Dorsey doesn't concentrate on the difficulties and roadblocks that will inevitably arise, he does constantly point out to his young readers that these problems are sure to surface, and that it will take courage and strength to overcome them.

He also avoids the use of New Age catch phrases which might be a turn-off to youngsters who've watched Mom go through her bouts with yoga, creative visualization and meditation. All of these tools are here – how could they not be as they're an essential part of the self-improvement process – but they're presented in a way that avoids the baggage associated with the New Age movement. Early in the book, for example, he has the reader work on three visualizations, but he calls them “snapshots.”

One of the reasons why Dorsey might so successfully avoid the pitfalls that might alienate younger readers, is that he is only twenty-seven years old. To an oldster like myself, it might seem amazing that someone so young could even dare to give life path advice. But to his targeted audience, he is a peer who understands them, not some old and stodgy sage advice giver who long ago forgot what it means to be young.

My Reality Check Bounced is well organized and offers workable solutions. But like any good self-help book, it requires an honest effort. Those who merely read this book and lay it aside will be wasting their time. But those who put Dorsey's ideas into practice will find some measure of positive results. The greatness of the measure will depend of the greatness of the effort.

©Copyright 2007 by AlternativeApproaches.com