Life-Changing

This may be the most straightforward, practical, effective self-empowerment book I have ever read. Well-written, logically presented and downright revelatory! If you have any interest at all in significantly increasing your ability to perform at an optimal level in every conceivable situation, I give this book the strongest possible recommendation.

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Outstanding!

Based on his notion that performance outcome is influenced by seven sets of factors (determination, energy, perspective, courage, focus, poise, resilience), the author elaborates on how we can arm ourselves with mastery in the above seven areas to undertake challenge in any field. That's quite the normal setting in any self help book. However, I do like the author's clear, logical and straight to the point writing, without the excessive and tedious examples anonymous commonly found in most self help books. The five page Chapter Eight, so named a synthesis: putting it altogether, (the seven set of factors were grouped into seven individual chapters), simply tells how "to the point" the author had been. In a word, a very good read.

p.s. I like the saying in front of each chapter much. They do tell much of what the chapter is talking about, especially chapter eight Resilience:

"Inside the ring or out, aint nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong."

- Muhammad Ali

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The technique of mastery: an Actor's perspective

As a professional actor I have searched the dusky shelves of libraries across the states studying the writen record of the craft of acting... and there are thousands of books offering endless advice about how to cultivate one's performance skills. The books are often esoteric and require some strange practices bordering on the mystical. From lying on the floor doing primal screams to over-analyzing the script as if it were a lab animal as opposed to a wild thing... these books always begin with promise and then lead me further and further into a labyrinth of confusion. Finally, I have found the book which contains a precise yet playful process which addresses the fundamental concerns of acting. Don Greene's book presents a technique for Mastery. As human beings we are constantly learning new skills and we rarely ask ourselves about how we learn. Don Greene gives a clear and practical account of how to cultivate not just 'skill,' but rather, the skill of developing skill, the mother of all skills. Prior to working with this material, I would come off stage after a good performance and have no idea how I entered into a creative state. Vice/versa, sometimes I would give a bad performance and despair that I couldn't act. I felt like I was at the whim of some unseen forces, the 'theatre gods' perhaps. Now I am discovering that my creativity is entirely within my control. I create my own states of creativity or blockage based on how I process the information coming to me all the time. How I interpret this information is largely responsible for the quality of my experience of life and how I perform in my own life. Whether I am performing Hamlet, dealing with an agent, auditioning, or enjoying liesure time at home, I find the new skills I am cultivating from Don Greene's book to be of immense value. Although the book is always scientific, precise, and practical, it suggests a profound transformation in the way we view what is possible for human beings. It challenges us to push the limits of the known and discover the vast resources within ourselves. Furthermore, Don's free online performance test helped me see clearly what my strengths and weaknesses were and thereby, focus my efforts on those particular skills which would improve my performance as effectively, efficiently, and economically as possible.

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