Shift : 13 Exercises to Make You Who You Want to Be

by Takumi Yamazaki

It's not that you're lazy, and it's not that you lack motivation. No, you have plenty of motivation, but it always seems to fade away just when you need it. This book takes knowledge and inspiration from motivation specialists and distills it into something easy to understand. Thirteen exercises and seventeen techniques illustrate points to help you take the steps to keep, bring back, or find the motivation you need to make the shift into who you want to be.

Genres: Self Help

207 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Takumi Yamazaki is a best selling author in Japan. He has authored ten successful titles in the category of business which have sold a cumulative total of over eight hundred thousand copies. A self-made millionaire, Takumi travels around the world giving seminars on motivation. He presently lives in Tokyo, Japan.

Reviews

[مهنا · Rating 5 out of 5]

قرأت النسخة العربية ..
كتاب مهم و مميز رغم حجمه الصغير . يركز على أن التغيير يحدث في اللاشعور أولاً و في صورتنا الذهنية عن أنفسنا ، ومن ثم ينعكس هذا التجديد على سلوكنا و مسار حياتنا ! و يتحدث عن قانون الجذب بطريقة جديدة و بسيطة من ناحية انتباه العقل لما يركز عليه ، وليس العقل يجذب ما يركز عليه ! الكتاب مليء بالرسومات و الحس الفني المحفز للقارئ على التفاعل بحرية و تلقائية . انا شخصيا ملأت الكتاب برسوماتي التوضيحية مما عزز روابطي مع المحتوى.
أحببت جملتين تدور حولها فلسفة يامازاكي " أروع الأمور تحدث بهدوء " و " الهدف يأتي اولاً و من ثم الطريقة " .

[Majed · Rating 5 out of 5]

زعلان من نفسك ؟
متضايق انك ما بتسوي شي ؟
حاسس الناس كلها احسن منك ؟
شايف انك اسوأ واحد ؟
هذا كتابك !!

[عبدالإله العمار · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب حميل ولطيف للغاية، أفكار مختصرة وواضحة للتغير للأفضل، ثلثي الكتاب حول آلية الخروج من حالك الهمود والرتابة والصورة السلبية عن الذات، والثلث الأخير حول التحرك والسير في دروب النجاح والمثابرة على المسير حتى الوصول وبلوغ الغايات

كتاب حميل أنصح به سيما لمن لم يقرأ كثيراً في هذا المجال..

[jumanahgh · Rating 5 out of 5]

من أجمل كتب تطوير الذات, فبالرغم من عدد صفحاته القليلة إلا انه يحتوى عدد هائل من الدروس والتطبيقات الفعالة ستشعر بالنتيجة سريعاً . ما أحبتته حقاً بهذا الكتاب ان الشروحات تتسم بالقصر لكنها سهلة الفهم ولذلك لم أشعر بالملل اطلاقا اثناء القراءة .

[ريم · Rating 5 out of 5]

قرأت النسخة العربية من الكتاب . أنصح الجميع بقرائته حيث أنه يوضح طريقة تهيئة العقل للتحول و التغيير و أشياء أخرى مفيدة.

[Anfal Almoaibed · Rating 5 out of 5]

كثير من التطبيقات مفيد وسهل مختصر أشياء واجد ويعطيك الزبدة جميييييييييييل

[عيّن الفضلي. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"المسألة ليست أنك كسول ، أو أنه ينقصك الدافع لا ، فهناك العديد من الدوافع، ولكن يبدو أنها تتلاشى دائماً في أوج احتياجك إليها. فالمشكلة ليست عدم وجود دافع لديك ، وإنما المشكلة هي أن الدافع لا يبقى معك لفترة كافية."

الكتاب يحتوي على ١٣ تدريب لبقى هذا الدافع موجودًا معك لأطول فترة ممكنه

..

يستحق القراءة

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A motivational self-help book. Very easy and quick to read. Takumi Yamazaki brings together tried and trusted methods of motivational techniques in a handy reference book for those who want to better themselves. Although the book seems to be geared more towards people who want financial or business success, I think some of the ideas in the book and motivational methods could also assist in general to improve self-confidence.

The idea behind the book is that many people have a poor self-image, and this—combined with natural forces—can hold them back from attaining their goals and dreams. In Shift, Takumi Yamazaki tries to explain the reasons behind a poor self-image and what a person can do to overcome that, he also includes entertaining descriptions of natural factors such as homeostasis and scotoma, explaining how these all blend together to keep people stuck in a rut.

The author has devised 13 exercises to help improve confidence and self-image and thereby increase a person’s chances to reach their goals, the message being that nothing is impossible.
There are also techniques contained within the book for keeping motivation at its peak.

For me, some of the exercises seem impractical especially if the book is being read by an individual to help themselves, as many of them involve group therapy. Perhaps this book could be useful for those involved in counselling groups of people, where they could incorporate the group exercises into their sessions.
I found one of the suggestions for self-improvement to be slightly odd—the author suggests that if someone wants to live a life of luxury, they should start eating in expensive restaurants, fly first class and stay in expensive hotels. How the average person is supposed to do that without making their situation worse, I am not quite sure.
I did enjoy reading this book; it is certainly a fun read which makes you think about the way we look at life. There are little drawings scattered throughout the book to illustrate the points, which is a nice touch and adds to the feeling that the author doesn’t take himself too seriously, and it is not a book that tells you what to do, but just shows you some methods you could use to help overcome hurdles and self-imposed barriers to success.

I like books like Shift, as I do believe that positive thinking can only help to bring positive results. This book will definitely leave you with a feeling that it is possible to reach your dreams with a bit of will-power.

Reviewed by Maria Savva as a reviewer for Bookpleasures.com

[Mohammed Rashed · Rating 4 out of 5]

قرأت عدة كتب عن تطوير الذات .. عربية وإنجليزية .. وللأسف دائماً ما أملّ منها بسرعة، وأشعر بأنها مبتذلة ومتكلفة، تشعرك بأنك ذكي وعظيم و و ، ولكن للأسف لا تعني شيئاً

ودافعي يقل نحو شراء و قراءة كتب تطوير الذات لأني أشك في مصداقية مؤلفيها، ولأنها سهلة الكتابة والتأليف نسبياً، فتشك هل هم ألفوها فعلاً لمصلحة الناس أولاً أم لجيوبهم أولاً

ولكن على العموم، هذا الكتاب رائع وسهل ومفيد وغير مبتذل
أراه مختلف عن باقي الكتب التي اطلعت عليها، هناك تقنيات في وسط الكتاب، تستطيع أن تعود إليها وقتما تكون محبطاً أو ضعيف الإنتاجية، أعجبتني معظمها
بالرغم أني أرى بعض التدريبات سخيفة عليّ ولا أحتاج إليها، ولكن على أية حال، مجمل الكتاب أعجبني جداً

أراه أفضل كتاب لتطوير الذات

[Lujain · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكتب من النوع هذا يعطيك دافع للانجاز والتغير ومن المهم تجديد حماسنا بقرأة او سماع كلمات محمسة بين فترة وآخرى وكما قال الكاتب " المشكلة ليست عدم وجود دافع لديك وإنما المشكلة هي أن الدافع لا يبقى معك لفترة كافية" وايضا يحتوي الكتاب على تمارين تطبيقيه تدعم نظرياته وتساعدك على معرفه نفسك وتجديد حماسك واهدافك اما محتوى الكتاب النظري ليس بجديد علي ومكرر لكن طريقة العرض والرسومات تشفع له

[Alaa الاء · Rating 5 out of 5]

نتهيت من قراءة الكتاب بيوم واحد، الكتاب اثر بي كثيراً، اكتشفت بعض الاسباب الكثيرة التي اقع فيها واخسر الحماس لفعل اي شيء جديد، نوع الكتاب جداً محفز للذات ومسلي من حيث وجود التدريبات والرسومات البسيطة.

وايضاً بسبب الكاتب الياباني تاكمى يامازاكي سيرته الذاتية تدفعك لقراءة جميع كتبه.

[Alaa Saleh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book latest major change in my personality.
the writer's style is beautiful and convincing
I love it.

[نجلاء · Rating 3 out of 5]

علقان في الحياة وتعاني من الركود و الإحباط؟ ضع عينيك على الهدف والطريق سيسلك.

[Ali Younes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amaiziiiing

[Linda Frieh · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكتاب كان خفيف لطيف ومفيد عميق بنفس الوقت.
يحاول الكاتب أن يجعلك تملك الدافع للاستمرار بالتغير والسعي وراء أحلامك.. الكتاب مليء بالحكم والاقتباسات الجميلة ،يحتوي على عدد من التدريبات الفردية والجماعية المحفزة ❤
"اسمح لنفسك أن تحلم حلماً مجنوناً ،فأعجب الأمور تحدث بأبسط الطرق "
"ألق نظرة أخرى على أجندتك في الأيام التي تبدو مرهقة، دلل نفسك بعض الشيء .فيجيب أن تضع كل يوم شيئاً تنتظره بفارغ الصبر "
أنصح به😇

[Afnan ☁️✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"لا تخدع نفسك وتعتقد انك لا تملك القوة لتحقيق أحلامك, تذكر ان الهدف يأتي أولاً ثم تتبعه الطريقة, وبإمكانك أن تحدث التحول في أي وقت تشاء.🌟"
كتاب جميل يحتوي على تدريبات مفيدة مع شرح مصغر لكيفية القيام بهذه التدريبات ،ايضاً هالكتاب من الكتب اللي ترجع تقراها من جديد اذا حسيت بإحباط 👌🏿 جداً جميل ويخليك تتحمس للفكرة اللي تتمناها او اللي ودك تسويها💕

[Fatma · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you already now the law of attraction this is a usful book to push you out of your confert zone
اذا منت على دراية بقانون الجذ فهذا الكتاب هو مجموعة تطبيقات عملية لتساعدك على الخروج من منطقة الراحة والانطلاق

[Jwana · Rating 5 out of 5]

من أفضل الكتب عن تطوير الذات.. قرأته ولم اشعر بالوقت لأنه كان ممتع بنفس الوقت.

[Ghaliah mohammed · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب رائع وخفيف ويعطي دوافع واقعيه وقويه للنجاح

[Ace · Rating 5 out of 5]

أجمل كتاب قريتو في مجال تطوير الذات
الكتاب بسيط وغير ممل لسببين
1- الكاتب طبق مقولة (ماقل ودل)
2- تدريبات الكتاب ممتعة ومفيدة بنفس الوقت وتطبيقها سهل

[Oumaima · Rating 5 out of 5]

ليس كالكتب التي اعتدت أن ألقاه أمامي في هذا المجال، له أفكار خاصة، مختلفة و واقعية.
أرغب في قراءته مرات عديدة، ممتنة جدا لكوني لوجدته.
حمدا لله.

[Osama · Rating 5 out of 5]

الكتاب رائع لكشف بعض الحقائق النفسية الغائبة لمن يريد النجاح والتطور

[AbdulAziz Ibrahim · Rating 3 out of 5]

جيّد، لغته بسيطة وخفيف جدًا.
قد تجد الكثير من المعلومات/النصائح التي تعرفها سابقًا، لكن مجرد التذكير بها، وإعادة صياغتها مفيد.

[Ahmed Kamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last 25% of the book finally talked in logical thinking. And provided real technics that I have experienced myself before during my work career.

I liked the book more to its end.

[Saif · Rating 4 out of 5]

" أروع الأمور تحدث بهدوء " و " الهدف يأتي اولاً و من ثم الطريقة"
كتاب جميل ومفيد.

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where I got the book: won from LibraryThing as an Early Reviewers giveaway.

As I worked my way through Shift, I kept wondering if Takumi Yamazaki had read The Secret. There are some definite echoes of The Secret in this small tome, Yamazaki's debut in the Western self-help industry (he is, apparently, "a best selling author in Japan").

Or maybe he hasn't read The Secret. Maybe this style of self-help philosophy is just in the zeitgeist, a result of a generation that has been told, and told, and told that its wishes can come true.

The premise of Shift is that you can, by the power of thought, shift yourself up to where you want to be. Get that promotion, that house, that car (isn't it funny how these books are so often about getting money, as if money really solves problems?) You are impeded from reaching your potential by homeostasis (the idea that things find their own level, i.e. we are all much more comfortable in our comfort zone) and scotoma, which is a blind spot or mental block.

Shift is punctuated by little exercises, to be done alone or in groups, mostly in the form of writing down your goals and telling them to other people. It is a 200-page book, but contains an enormous amount of white space because it needs to pad out quite a small amount of writing into an acceptable format for publishing. To this end, it also contains a whole lot of little drawings featuring the guy usually seen symbolizing "Men" on a restroom door. Restroom Man gambols through the book supposedly illustrating the Deep Thoughts contained therein, but I frequently found it hard to make the text square up with the drawings.

All this could be a problem of translation; I get the impression that the text was translated fairly closely from the Japanese, instead of being rewritten with a Western audience in mind. In editing non-English speakers it's sometimes necessary to insert an extra sentence here and there to show thinking steps that are left out in the original language; I'm no linguist, but what little contact I've had with Chinese has taught me that a lot more meaning can be derived from context than is possible in English speech. Could be that the same is true for Japanese, and this makes Shift a very easy book to read if you don't pay much attention to logical sequence, but frustrating for those of us who like to dot our i's and cross our t's.

The fundamental message of Shift, as far as I could make it out, is similar to The Secret: Think positive and all things are possible. You can make things happen. I also spotted some of the same unfortunate advice: For example, if you want to be rich you should live as if you are rich (which is fine until you realize you just blew a month's salary in a day) and you should hang around with the kind of people you want to be (also an expensive proposition if your goal is to be a multi-millionaire).

I felt very sad when I read that if a friend comes to you with a problem, the solution is to say "Oh hey, that should be no problem for you!" and then start chatting about something else. In
other words, you shouldn't really listen to problems, because you should be too busy chatting up successful rich people instead. I'll be sure to do that the next time I see a friend who has cancer or whose husband just dropped dead. Yeah.

I've said it before: I have nothing against positive thinking, and nothing against people who are willing to work on their attitude to achieve their goals. I think that having goals is a good thing. But becoming the person you were intended to be goes a whole lot deeper than reading books like Shift. I wouldn't recommend it, even for the sake of seeing the Restroom Man drawings.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The easiest thing to change is yourself…’

The motivation we each need to effect change can sometimes be difficult to find. In this self-help book, Takumi Yamazaki provides thirteen exercises and seventeen techniques aimed at enabling you to obtain, retain or maintain the motivation you need in order to change (shift) your self-image so that you can become the person you want to be.

So, how does Takumi Yamazaki address the issue of motivation, and what insights does he offer? He begins by discussing perception and the roles of the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious in the way in which we see the world. Takumi Yamazaki discusses the status quo (homeostasis) and blind spots (scotoma) and how to recognise and overcome the limitations that both can impose on your desire (and capacity) to change.

‘Live as though you already have what you want. Until it happens, just live as though it already has.’

Having identified barriers to successful change, Takumi Yamazaki provides thirteen exercises (some of which you need two or more people for), and seventeen techniques for increasing your perseverance.
The book is easy to read, and contains some good information and useful techniques for effecting change. Not all suggestions will appeal to for everyone, but I think that the real key is to consider the suggestions made and explore the possibilities that appeal at a personal level.

‘All the answers are within you.’

For me, the best part of the book is within the seventeen techniques included to assist with perseverance. Many of these techniques could assist those who are seeking to increase their self-confidence. It isn’t possible for an individual to completely follow each of the exercises in the book: some of the exercises require two or more people. This may be a drawback for some who prefer to work alone.

Note: I was offered, and accepted, an advanced reader copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of receiving a copy of this to review & distribute in a giveaway (so I wasn't able to keep it).

The book has several great points to it that are sure to help out many people searching for a way to improve themselves overall. I have to admit that I'm not always one for self help books because many times they tend to get a little condescending and/or use all sorts of psychotherapy lingo that can't help but distance you from the book. (I know that's usually the case with me.) What drew me to this book & made me want to review it was that the author didn't really pull either of those things with his writing.

The only issues I really had with the book is that (like another reviewer on goodreads put it) many of the exercises were more for those doing the exercises in a group and that sometimes the perspective that the author has is a little strange. Overall though, the author made a lot of sense- even when I didn't really want to admit it. (I initially was a little resistant to the "you choose not to do things" passage, but eventually I had to admit that he had a huge point.)

This book isn't going to be for everyone, but it is definitely worth checking out. I almost hate to give it away, as my mother & I both found things that we liked in this book!

(Book provided by publisher)

[Wendy Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Motivation. I have it but sometimes I have a hard time finding it or retaining it. Takumi Yamazaki has written an easy to read and follow along book about how to Shift - make yourself into what you want to be, how you want to be. He talks about our subconscious and our consciousness - what you perceive and what really is. He talks about self-image. Act like you are what you want to be, and you will be that person.

There are thirteen exercises in the book that will help you change the place you are in your life and motivate you to take control. But once you have the courage and have shifted your self-image to get you on the right path, you don't want to fall off. You want to reach your goal and to do that, you need to stay motivated and approach the obstacles in your path in a different way - exercises that you will learn about in SHIFT.

I found this book to be very inspirational and easy to follow along. I did many of the exercises and I definitely need to work on my approach to different obstacles to get where I want to be. Did it motivate me? You bet! This is a great tool for any adult or young adult to better themselves and to help them stay motivated.

[Britni · Rating 2 out of 5]

The full title of the book is Shift: 13 exercises to make you who you want to be. I was expecting 13 written out, well-defined exercises for me to do to get some motivation and put my life back on track. It started out well; at first I thought the book was going to be about shifting my perspective and teaching me to think about things in a different way, which is where the first half was leading me. But around the middle of the book I got lost and couldn't figure out again what the purpose of the book really was or how I was supposed to use it. The last half of the book is full of what Yamazaki calls techniques (there's 17 of them), and I'm just not sure how those were different than the 13 shifts. Or again how I was supposed to use them.

I think overall there is a lot of good information in this book, but the way it was organized and laid out left me feeling more lost than I was before I started reading it. In short, this book just wasn't for me. It had potential but I need clear, concise instructions and a structure that's easy for me to follow. And I didn't get that in Shift.