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Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life No Matter What!
In Steering by Starlight, renowned life coach Martha Beck, Ph.D., describes the step-by-step process she uses with her private clients to help them navigate the terrain of their best lives.Bringing together cutting-edge research in psychiatry, neurology, and related fields in an accessible, substantive, original way, Dr. Beck offers powerful methods for solving the problems that beset ordinary people. Using her trademark wisdom, empathy, and engaging style, she connects you with proven, effective strategies that have worked for the hundreds of people she has coached. For those who have found your North Stars, this book will be an invaluable tool to stay the course and overcome obstacles. For those who still feel adrift, it will provide a way to find true North and follow the path of best destiny.Dr. Beck identifies three stages along the path to recapturing a satisfying "The Stargazer" helps you understand why it is so easy to lose yourself and offers strategies for sighting your North Star "The Mapmaker" uses this newly clarified perspective to evaluate your situation and plot a course for upcoming years "The Pathfinder" discusses the adventures that may be encountered as you travel along this new life course Whether you are seeking better relationships, a more focused career direction, a more harmonious lifestyle, or the achievement of specific fitness goals, the colorful anecdotes, case studies, and exercises in Steering by Starlight will point the way.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 18, 2008
276 people are currently reading
2852 people want to read
About the author
Martha N. Beck
22 books1,308 followersDr. Martha Beck, PhD, is a New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker. She holds three Harvard degrees in social science, and Oprah Winfrey has called her “one of the smartest women I know.” Martha is a passionate and engaging teacher, known for her unique combination of science, humor, and spirituality.
Her recent book, The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self, was an instant New York Times Best Seller and an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Her latest book, Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose is out now.
Her recent book, The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self, was an instant New York Times Best Seller and an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Her latest book, Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose is out now.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 169 reviews
July 6, 2013
"I have to warn you," said the woman who recommended this person to me. "It's a little woo-woo."
I should not have liked this book. It's mystical and tries to be funny and there aren't nearly enough footnotes and ... I loved it.
The ideas, the stories, the writing style. Excellent. In addition to being a joy to read, the book changed how I think which is perhaps the highest praise I can give.
I should not have liked this book. It's mystical and tries to be funny and there aren't nearly enough footnotes and ... I loved it.
The ideas, the stories, the writing style. Excellent. In addition to being a joy to read, the book changed how I think which is perhaps the highest praise I can give.
October 19, 2018
Probably my favorite Martha Beck, who is always on my re-read cycle
Read
October 11, 2011I'm not much for “self-help.” It's not my passion; because of this, I rarely buy into it. If the girl on the cover really knows what it takes to be a millionaire, why isn't she one? And if that guy is truly happy, why does he hide behind the face of an action figure? Wait, that isn't plastic, that is his face!!! All kidding aside, it's just not my thing. Enter Martha Beck.
Martha Beck has come with high recommendations for years. Her angle, paraphrased: “You probably aren't doing what you want to do in life... why the hell not?” She doesn't tell you what it is you want to do, or how to do it; rather, her method allows for self-discovery. It's a message I like, and one that I, along with everyone I know, struggle with.
I don't know how to rate a self-help book and I'm not going to try. Was it helpful? Maybe. I'll let you know in a year (or five, ten...). Did it change my outlook? Certainly. Beck knows her stuff. No exaggeration, I was going through the steps Beck said I would go through before she said I would. The day following life changing circumstances, I read how the process has begun and how changes were around the corner. Hours after I woke from a vivid dream, heavy in symbolism, I found myself reading about how my dreams would reveal my purpose. Her method for decoding dreams was unique, but so much more logical than other methods. Will I take her advice? I'm going to try to as much as I can. I cannot throw caution completely to the wind, jumping from the ledge of my life and hoping to land in that traveling circus I've had my eyes on, but I'm going do what I can to move in that direction as quickly as possible. And I'm not going to be overly cautious either; I will walk along that edge until the moment I see a tent or an elephant below me, then I'll jump and just hope it all works out. So, yes, I buy into it.
Did I enjoy the read? Not really. Beck ensures the reader that all the examples used are true, but I couldn't help but wonder if some were exaggerated a wee bit (or of gargantuan proportions). Beck tries to be funny and, well, honestly, she's just not funny to me. (Sorry, Martha.) She's also conscious of not bogging down the book with too much jargon, but it felt like too much to me. In the end, it was still a self-help book.
Final Verdict: Insightful? Yes. Helpful? Possibly. Enjoyable? Not really.
Martha Beck has come with high recommendations for years. Her angle, paraphrased: “You probably aren't doing what you want to do in life... why the hell not?” She doesn't tell you what it is you want to do, or how to do it; rather, her method allows for self-discovery. It's a message I like, and one that I, along with everyone I know, struggle with.
I don't know how to rate a self-help book and I'm not going to try. Was it helpful? Maybe. I'll let you know in a year (or five, ten...). Did it change my outlook? Certainly. Beck knows her stuff. No exaggeration, I was going through the steps Beck said I would go through before she said I would. The day following life changing circumstances, I read how the process has begun and how changes were around the corner. Hours after I woke from a vivid dream, heavy in symbolism, I found myself reading about how my dreams would reveal my purpose. Her method for decoding dreams was unique, but so much more logical than other methods. Will I take her advice? I'm going to try to as much as I can. I cannot throw caution completely to the wind, jumping from the ledge of my life and hoping to land in that traveling circus I've had my eyes on, but I'm going do what I can to move in that direction as quickly as possible. And I'm not going to be overly cautious either; I will walk along that edge until the moment I see a tent or an elephant below me, then I'll jump and just hope it all works out. So, yes, I buy into it.
Did I enjoy the read? Not really. Beck ensures the reader that all the examples used are true, but I couldn't help but wonder if some were exaggerated a wee bit (or of gargantuan proportions). Beck tries to be funny and, well, honestly, she's just not funny to me. (Sorry, Martha.) She's also conscious of not bogging down the book with too much jargon, but it felt like too much to me. In the end, it was still a self-help book.
Final Verdict: Insightful? Yes. Helpful? Possibly. Enjoyable? Not really.
June 11, 2022
Martha's voice snagged me as I skimmed through an Oprah magazine in a waiting room several months ago. Her humor, intellect and sensible approach to life permeate her writing. I was hooked.
I borrowed this title from my library system and worked through the journaling with a large dollop of skepticism. But again and again her matter of fact, simple (not easy) methods for moving toward my "north star" made sense. Her passing observation about the "empty elevator" rang so true it brought me up short. I laughed out loud as she described her dog's reaction to a garden statue. Before reading to the end I ordered a copy of my own (hurrah for Better World Books!). I want to read it all again and mark up the good bits.
Added in 2022
Ten years later and the reread was as satisfying as the first time through. This time I marked up the good bits and more of the wisdom sunk in. I also realize that much of how I navigate my life now was inspired by Martha a decade ago.
The chapter "Leading Your Life" really resonated on this round. I've met people (am related to one or two) who just are not "amenable to ordinary relationships." I was unable to process this chapter ten years ago; probably because I was hadn't come face to face with practitioners of "dark arts". Or, more to the point, I was too invested in the approval of one or two relations. A few months ago I lamented to my therapist that on occasion I wished I were more able to be okay with the difficult behaviors of certain folks in my life, just be more zen. She basically said the same thing as Martha: "Let go of your hope for normalcy" with some folks (who Martha describes so well it made my skin bristle).
I borrowed this title from my library system and worked through the journaling with a large dollop of skepticism. But again and again her matter of fact, simple (not easy) methods for moving toward my "north star" made sense. Her passing observation about the "empty elevator" rang so true it brought me up short. I laughed out loud as she described her dog's reaction to a garden statue. Before reading to the end I ordered a copy of my own (hurrah for Better World Books!). I want to read it all again and mark up the good bits.
Added in 2022
Ten years later and the reread was as satisfying as the first time through. This time I marked up the good bits and more of the wisdom sunk in. I also realize that much of how I navigate my life now was inspired by Martha a decade ago.
The chapter "Leading Your Life" really resonated on this round. I've met people (am related to one or two) who just are not "amenable to ordinary relationships." I was unable to process this chapter ten years ago; probably because I was hadn't come face to face with practitioners of "dark arts". Or, more to the point, I was too invested in the approval of one or two relations. A few months ago I lamented to my therapist that on occasion I wished I were more able to be okay with the difficult behaviors of certain folks in my life, just be more zen. She basically said the same thing as Martha: "Let go of your hope for normalcy" with some folks (who Martha describes so well it made my skin bristle).
April 14, 2010
I love Martha Beck. Besides being an enviably wise woman, she's very funny. If I could hire a life coach, I'd want her. Though some of the material in this book is not really new, she presents it in her own fresh way. Like many, she advocates visualization meditations and she is indebted to the work of Byron Katie and others, but her explanations and illustrations with her own clients, as well as her own life, and her humorous and unique perspective make the examination of one's psyche less daunting. She has a great way of helping the reader detect their own imprisoning stories and mental constructs. I loved her explanation of the lizard brain, and the inner lizard versus the inner wizard. I'm better at recognizing those fear-based thoughts, now, and realizing, 'oh, that's just my inner lizard talking.' One needs to take time with this book and do the exercises. Not every part may be relevant to everyone (fortunately, many of us aren't dealing with dark arts practitioners, otherwise known as crazies, in our lives), but I think everyone could come away with something valuable from this book. I highly recommend it.
November 5, 2010
Wow.
Just ... wow.
This is by far one of the most helpful coaching books I have read. Sociologist Martha Beck, with her characteristic good humor, provides more insight and advice on how to get to your life purpose. She clearly explains the importance of the work, and how to recognize when you're on the right path.
I laughed, I cried, I recognized myself in the pages. Suffice it to say that I found this book so profound that I wrote a thank-you note to Dr. Beck when I finished it. I will be using these tools for a long time to come.
Just ... wow.
This is by far one of the most helpful coaching books I have read. Sociologist Martha Beck, with her characteristic good humor, provides more insight and advice on how to get to your life purpose. She clearly explains the importance of the work, and how to recognize when you're on the right path.
I laughed, I cried, I recognized myself in the pages. Suffice it to say that I found this book so profound that I wrote a thank-you note to Dr. Beck when I finished it. I will be using these tools for a long time to come.
September 15, 2011
The premise is good, but she lost me. Towards the middle I wanted to be done with the book, then towards the end it is all about her. So, I still don't know what to do with my life!
March 25, 2022
As you take in these words, your mind becomes interwoven with the tapestry of my life. We are standing on either side of a night vision that led me to meet you here, on this page. Your attention, in this moment, is the continued unfolding of my Dreaming.
How can I not believe in magic?
______________________
"Tell me, what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
- Mary Oliver
______________________
Steering by Starlight is a follow up volume to Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live. I'd never heard the term "woo-woo" until exploring Martha Beck's books. Some readers report Beck's work as having too much woo-woo, while others say there's not too much woo-woo. You'll have to decide for yourself where this one ranks on the woo-woo scale, but in my opinion Steering by Starlight is a great guidebook. There are interactive exercises throughout the book and if you get the audiobook, it is read by the author.
Related titles: The Secret, Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith, Follow Your North Star
Favorite Passages:
Introduction
My goal in writing this book is to help you find your deepest sense of purpose - to give you back to yourself, since you are the ultimate arbiter of your fate. You don't need a book to do this. Whether or not you're consciously following your destiny, your destiny is always following you. But this book may well make the process quicker, cleaner, and easier.
_____
"My mission in life is to help people bridge the gaps that separatee them from their true selves, from one another, and from their destiny."
_____
The very fabric of reality will seem compelled to help you when you set out toward your North Star, and the more time you spend Stargazing, the more magic you'll experience.
_____
You are a natural mystic. All humans are.
The End
If you're ready to make your journey to happiness easier and much more pleasant, know that the observatory door is always open. You can skitter on in for a peek through the telescope any time you're willing to visit the end result of your destiny rather than wandering blindly around the beginning. And the more you do this, the more you will notice something very odd: You'll feel yourself aging backward.
_____
"The contrarian strengthens social norms by standing outside them, embodies the balance between custom and innovation, blah blah blah."
_____
. . . I've found that the contrarian instinct, the "wrong" reaction, the socially unacceptable statement is often the seed of destiny struggling to germinate.
_____
Then he touches me gently on the head ("Like a butterfly landing," he says), and I fall like a sack of wet sand. Lying there on the floor, seeing stars, it's hard not to wonder where this whole way of thinking is going to take me next.
Wizard versus Lizard: The Battle for Your Brain
"Lack is here! Attack is near! Be very, very afraid!"
______
"I've been poor," says Alyssa, "so I'm relaxed about it. Running out of money is like getting in the deep end of a swimming pool. It's scary until you realize you can swim out of it, that there are multiple ways to solve every financial problem."
______
"I'm going to end up a bag lady!!!!" "I need at least $20 million to be safe!!!!" "People are after my job!!!!" "Sycophants are trying to bleed me dry!!!!" We all have our favorite fears, refrains we sing to ourselves over and over and over and over, until we literally form synaptic "ruts" in our brains.
______
No matter how many ways I looked at it, no matter how many times I decided against it, writing the book always felt more like my best destiny than not writing it.
Digging out of the Dungeon
It was time for him to stop telling his old stories and start writing a new one.
______
How true it is that denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
______
His next step was to turn his mind on itself by really, truly examining the belief that drove him to hard labor in the dungeon of his life.
______
It's easy to see through erroneous beliefs if they're very different from your own set of biases.
The Ring of Fire
Adopting the perspective of the Stargazer not only leads us toward our future best destinies but actually transmutes past unhappiness into treasure.
______
She wasn't good at dying; no part of her outer-limit ego had ever died.
Dreaming Your Star Chart
How to Fully Enjoy Losing Touch with Reality
______
I don't believe that dream objects always symbolize the same thing. For example, I disagree with Freud's assertion that snakes or skyscrapers - or for that matter, anything longer than it is wide - are necessarily phallic symbols. Sigmund seems to have been a tad preoccupied by everything going on inside his underwear, but perhaps you are less so.
_______
"Write to the people," she said. "Not to your critics at Harvard. The people. Dineh. Dineh."
So this humble person went home, ate a massive portion of crow, and started trying to write like a human being again. Which is the only reason you are reading this now. As you take in these words, your mind becomes interwoven with the tapestry of my life. We are standing on either side of a night vision that led me to meet you here, on this page. Your attention, in this moment, is the continued unfolding of my Dreaming.
How can I not believe in magic?
North Star Mapmaking
You won't just be steering by the light of the stars. You'll be flying between them.
______
When Einstein contradicted Newton's physics, he wasn't branded a blasphemer and drowned in a pond. Modern nations don't wage "holy wars" designed to impose their version of "rightness" on unwilling others - oh, wait, yes, they do. So there are still a few bugs in the system. But at least I can sit here in my Arizona home and write that last sentence without being denounced as a witch or threatened with prison or accused of consorting with demons. To get that reaction, I have to go to Utah.
______
Then, simply adopt several habits of highly successful people and badabing, badaboom! You're well on your way to becoming an assistant inventory clerk at the local Shop-N-Struggle, with possibilities for advancement in less than 5 years!
Leading Your Life
There are two red flags that will start to wave when real love disappears and spider behavior begins. The first is the deception, by which I mean saying or doing anything at all that is not honest for you. The second is the word make. When you do something even slightly dishonest because you're trying to make someone do or feel something, love is no longer running the show.
The Beginning
During my last trip, I dreamed that I woke up in a thatched African house, and I knew I was waiting to be visited by the Ancestors. This terrified me because I anticipated a group of seriously ticked-off Mormons bursting through the door. Then I thought no, these are the real ancestors, the ancient Africans from whom (scientists tell us) all humans have descended. This gave me a moment of relief until I began wondering if they'd want me to kill a goat.
How can I not believe in magic?
______________________
"Tell me, what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
- Mary Oliver
______________________
Steering by Starlight is a follow up volume to Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live. I'd never heard the term "woo-woo" until exploring Martha Beck's books. Some readers report Beck's work as having too much woo-woo, while others say there's not too much woo-woo. You'll have to decide for yourself where this one ranks on the woo-woo scale, but in my opinion Steering by Starlight is a great guidebook. There are interactive exercises throughout the book and if you get the audiobook, it is read by the author.
Related titles: The Secret, Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith, Follow Your North Star
Favorite Passages:
Introduction
My goal in writing this book is to help you find your deepest sense of purpose - to give you back to yourself, since you are the ultimate arbiter of your fate. You don't need a book to do this. Whether or not you're consciously following your destiny, your destiny is always following you. But this book may well make the process quicker, cleaner, and easier.
_____
"My mission in life is to help people bridge the gaps that separatee them from their true selves, from one another, and from their destiny."
_____
The very fabric of reality will seem compelled to help you when you set out toward your North Star, and the more time you spend Stargazing, the more magic you'll experience.
_____
You are a natural mystic. All humans are.
The End
If you're ready to make your journey to happiness easier and much more pleasant, know that the observatory door is always open. You can skitter on in for a peek through the telescope any time you're willing to visit the end result of your destiny rather than wandering blindly around the beginning. And the more you do this, the more you will notice something very odd: You'll feel yourself aging backward.
_____
"The contrarian strengthens social norms by standing outside them, embodies the balance between custom and innovation, blah blah blah."
_____
. . . I've found that the contrarian instinct, the "wrong" reaction, the socially unacceptable statement is often the seed of destiny struggling to germinate.
_____
Then he touches me gently on the head ("Like a butterfly landing," he says), and I fall like a sack of wet sand. Lying there on the floor, seeing stars, it's hard not to wonder where this whole way of thinking is going to take me next.
Wizard versus Lizard: The Battle for Your Brain
"Lack is here! Attack is near! Be very, very afraid!"
______
"I've been poor," says Alyssa, "so I'm relaxed about it. Running out of money is like getting in the deep end of a swimming pool. It's scary until you realize you can swim out of it, that there are multiple ways to solve every financial problem."
______
"I'm going to end up a bag lady!!!!" "I need at least $20 million to be safe!!!!" "People are after my job!!!!" "Sycophants are trying to bleed me dry!!!!" We all have our favorite fears, refrains we sing to ourselves over and over and over and over, until we literally form synaptic "ruts" in our brains.
______
No matter how many ways I looked at it, no matter how many times I decided against it, writing the book always felt more like my best destiny than not writing it.
Digging out of the Dungeon
It was time for him to stop telling his old stories and start writing a new one.
______
How true it is that denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
______
His next step was to turn his mind on itself by really, truly examining the belief that drove him to hard labor in the dungeon of his life.
______
It's easy to see through erroneous beliefs if they're very different from your own set of biases.
The Ring of Fire
Adopting the perspective of the Stargazer not only leads us toward our future best destinies but actually transmutes past unhappiness into treasure.
______
She wasn't good at dying; no part of her outer-limit ego had ever died.
Dreaming Your Star Chart
How to Fully Enjoy Losing Touch with Reality
______
I don't believe that dream objects always symbolize the same thing. For example, I disagree with Freud's assertion that snakes or skyscrapers - or for that matter, anything longer than it is wide - are necessarily phallic symbols. Sigmund seems to have been a tad preoccupied by everything going on inside his underwear, but perhaps you are less so.
_______
"Write to the people," she said. "Not to your critics at Harvard. The people. Dineh. Dineh."
So this humble person went home, ate a massive portion of crow, and started trying to write like a human being again. Which is the only reason you are reading this now. As you take in these words, your mind becomes interwoven with the tapestry of my life. We are standing on either side of a night vision that led me to meet you here, on this page. Your attention, in this moment, is the continued unfolding of my Dreaming.
How can I not believe in magic?
North Star Mapmaking
You won't just be steering by the light of the stars. You'll be flying between them.
______
When Einstein contradicted Newton's physics, he wasn't branded a blasphemer and drowned in a pond. Modern nations don't wage "holy wars" designed to impose their version of "rightness" on unwilling others - oh, wait, yes, they do. So there are still a few bugs in the system. But at least I can sit here in my Arizona home and write that last sentence without being denounced as a witch or threatened with prison or accused of consorting with demons. To get that reaction, I have to go to Utah.
______
Then, simply adopt several habits of highly successful people and badabing, badaboom! You're well on your way to becoming an assistant inventory clerk at the local Shop-N-Struggle, with possibilities for advancement in less than 5 years!
Leading Your Life
There are two red flags that will start to wave when real love disappears and spider behavior begins. The first is the deception, by which I mean saying or doing anything at all that is not honest for you. The second is the word make. When you do something even slightly dishonest because you're trying to make someone do or feel something, love is no longer running the show.
The Beginning
During my last trip, I dreamed that I woke up in a thatched African house, and I knew I was waiting to be visited by the Ancestors. This terrified me because I anticipated a group of seriously ticked-off Mormons bursting through the door. Then I thought no, these are the real ancestors, the ancient Africans from whom (scientists tell us) all humans have descended. This gave me a moment of relief until I began wondering if they'd want me to kill a goat.
July 5, 2013
This is, up to now, my favorite of Martha's books. She trained me as a life coach, and I think she is brilliant and hilarious. I have read almost all of her books. I am reading her latest, Wild New World, right now, and I like it even better than this one. Full of practical wisdom and steps to take to master your thoughts and change your life.
December 30, 2008
I skimmed this one as a comparison for my own work interest. She is coach of more then a decade. She works from a very "scientific method" mode; if the five senses are not involved neither is she.
Starting here she moves into talking about things like "abundance,""manifestation,""intuition" with out using any of these words. So it is informative and wordy at times due to not wanting to use any spiritual key words to thus sound more business-like.
Her methods and techniques are very good for opening awareness and understanding of conceptualizing goals in order to attain them. Old stuff for anyone around "spiritual law" concepts. Yet she develops them in a a great means of potential building which leads to the top of the roller coaster which of emotional impact to being open to feeling your experience of manifestation. If you are not used to feeling things, which folks picking this up probably will have difficulty with, she tries to take you to the top hill of the to roll down...you will still be scared stiff as you feel your life making changes. So there' the warning label for you. If you don't want to change...don't read.
blessings,
kc
Starting here she moves into talking about things like "abundance,""manifestation,""intuition" with out using any of these words. So it is informative and wordy at times due to not wanting to use any spiritual key words to thus sound more business-like.
Her methods and techniques are very good for opening awareness and understanding of conceptualizing goals in order to attain them. Old stuff for anyone around "spiritual law" concepts. Yet she develops them in a a great means of potential building which leads to the top of the roller coaster which of emotional impact to being open to feeling your experience of manifestation. If you are not used to feeling things, which folks picking this up probably will have difficulty with, she tries to take you to the top hill of the to roll down...you will still be scared stiff as you feel your life making changes. So there' the warning label for you. If you don't want to change...don't read.
blessings,
kc
November 22, 2009
I listened to this book on my conmute and I liked it a lot. It has a very structured approach to working through your ego and connecting to your Higher Self in a very workable format (at least for my brain). The metaphor of the Stargazer is very symbolic and helps to keep the focus on the Higher Self... The second chapter on the Reptilian Brain brought a lot of light into my primal fears...
It is definitely a book to "work through", not a book to just read... the information without the exercises would be just more junk for the left brain... She has a nice way of integrating other authors as Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle and making a reasonable path... sort of a step by step de-cluttering and disarming of our ego and personal stories so we can connect to our Stargazer... very, very nice...
I have actually enjoyed very much listening to it, as she is a very capable and enticing story teller...
I will definitely buy this book to keep for my own study...
The story at the end about her trip to South Africa is completely mesmerizing... another very good reason to read this book, if only for this!
It is definitely a book to "work through", not a book to just read... the information without the exercises would be just more junk for the left brain... She has a nice way of integrating other authors as Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle and making a reasonable path... sort of a step by step de-cluttering and disarming of our ego and personal stories so we can connect to our Stargazer... very, very nice...
I have actually enjoyed very much listening to it, as she is a very capable and enticing story teller...
I will definitely buy this book to keep for my own study...
The story at the end about her trip to South Africa is completely mesmerizing... another very good reason to read this book, if only for this!
February 22, 2010
One of the best self-help books I have ever read. Martha Beck is such an amazing writer and life coach. She does not disappoint with this gem. Lots of practical advice on how to steer your life by starlight.
"If you move toward freedom by saying and doing what is most honest for you, the result may be a beautiful, magnificent life of petting the dog, waiting tables, getting your teeth cleaned. This can be mind-bogglingly wonderful. "ordinariness," which our culture tends to see as disappointing, is considered the highest manifestation of enlightenment in many other belief systems."
"If you move toward freedom by saying and doing what is most honest for you, the result may be a beautiful, magnificent life of petting the dog, waiting tables, getting your teeth cleaned. This can be mind-bogglingly wonderful. "ordinariness," which our culture tends to see as disappointing, is considered the highest manifestation of enlightenment in many other belief systems."
April 19, 2017
I wasn't able to finish this book. I think it is an interesting book, but I have too much self help on my hands right now and can't focus on the exercises the way I would like to. I am not a self help book reading kind of person, so in some ways I can't believe I even attempted to read it. I think that there are some excellent exercises. They seem to be easy, but when I tried them, they were harder than I thought.
Read
June 11, 2021DNF at 50%. Some really great stuff in the first few chapters, but she turns to the mystical/woo way too quickly. You could spend your whole life on the psychological work of the first few chapters and still be gaining from that work when you die, so like, why bring dream analysis and 'miracles' into it at all? Much less after just a few, not-super-detailed chapters on the psychological stuff. First several chapters are worth a read though.
September 8, 2011
I got a lot out of Steering by Starlight. It made me feel that my inner impulses are important, that I have them for a reason, and that the way to reach my potential is to follow my intuition instead of what others say I should do (or what those negative voices in my head say I should do). A very supportive book for those who are trying to move forward in their lives.
October 9, 2012
This is an inspiring and truly helpful book full of insight, humour and new skills to help anyone navigate their way in this challenging journey of living every day. It broadened my awareness and made me look at things in a new way, or rather in a way I'd always known about but hadn't trusted enough.
November 17, 2010
I really like Martha Beck. She makes some great points and provides good ways to reframe negative thinking. Her stories are interesting and funny too. However, nothing in the book is terribly earth-shattering and I could do without all the star metaphors. I found the metaphors kinda annoying.
September 19, 2009
I listened to this book on tape. It was really wonderful to hear Martha Beck read the book herself. She is so smart in communicating how to make such important changes and to do such important work. I will purchase the book for my own library.
September 11, 2016
While the author can often get carried away with her metaphors to the point of distraction, underneath are some really great messages! She is also relatable and doesn't take herself so seriously, which helps with this sort of book.
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February 7, 2009An invaluable companion to Finding Your Own North Star.
March 9, 2010
You know that tingle of inspiration that warms you from the inside out when you read something AMAZING? Get ready to feel it throughout this entire book.
February 1, 2015
Absolutely adore Beck's sense of humour. But this all feels like hokum. I can see where some would find the value, but it's not for me. Guess I don't believe in magic.
June 25, 2018
I have enjoyed this book enough that I renewed it at the library twice and am planning to buy my own copy. Martha has clear exercises and examples to help give you direction, and also advises on how to tune into your gut in order to help determine whether an activity or job is "shackles on" or "shackles off" for you. By working through these things and tuning into yourself better, you'll be able to slowly chart a path to greater personal freedom.
September 22, 2021
This was a book I had to read at the right time and place. I tried to read it a number of years ago, and found it somewhat opaque and hard to follow. With a greater understanding now of the concepts expressed in the book (albeit written in somewhat fantastical language) and being in the midst of a life transition, I found some of the processes she described helpful. Don't imagine this book will resonate with everyone, but I'm glad I read it.
September 9, 2017
This is a self-help book that will really get the reader into their own orbit.
Smart, funny and engaging, MNB is never patronizing or self-inflated.
Simple, but not simplistic, and easily comprehensible even for a reader like me, unfamiliar with her work. Having enjoyed this book, I am now eager to read the earlier volume as well as her two memoirs.
Smart, funny and engaging, MNB is never patronizing or self-inflated.
Simple, but not simplistic, and easily comprehensible even for a reader like me, unfamiliar with her work. Having enjoyed this book, I am now eager to read the earlier volume as well as her two memoirs.
October 24, 2016
If you are content in your work and relationships you don’t need this book. If you feel a need to push through with your shackles rising and a heavy heart, or feel ‘hopelessly stuck’ or lost, Steering by Starlight holds the keys to setting yourself on the right path again, and staying on it.
From the outset, Martha Beck (Expecting Adam, Leaving the Saints) warns this will be no ordinary process of seeking knowledge, setting goals, and analysing performance. You will need to suspend disbelief, although this is no book of fiction or fantasy. If you fully commit to the sometimes unbelievable ride, you are likely to find yourself equipped with the practical skills for deep, lasting and soul-liberating re-alignment, with the life that feels right for you firmly in your sights.
Replete with lizards, dungeons, star-charts, miracles and protagonists from the Dark Arts – it may sound too far out if you feel uncomfortable with everyday magic. But far from having her head in the mists of fantasy, Martha Beck has vast experience as ‘America’s best known life coach’ (USA Today), backed up by a rare intellect, and decades of study and research. Beck’s own extraordinary life, in which she has overcome obstacles that most of us would believe impossible, is a testament to both her courage and the efficacy of her process. To help her readers along the unique path that waits for each of them, she sets them up to expect to manifest those things in their lives that they believe are out of reach.
Those willing to ‘bracket’ what she has to say long enough to reap the benefits will soon realise that embarking on the course to their right life may feel a lot like how Harry Potter must have felt, as he stood at Platform nine and three-quarters. But once through to one’s Stargazer-self the corpus of wizardry translates to the familiar challenges of navigation: replacing fear with love; challenging false beliefs; grounding one’s self in one’s inner core of peace; developing and trusting our intuition; and knowing when to bail out when confronted by intractable nutters.
“Whenever outer-limit rewards escape us – when our hearts are broken, our trust betrayed, our health compromised, or our dreams dashed – [the] process of grieve-or-disbelieve is triggered, and our attachment to the shallow, material shell of life weakens. The gravitational pull of the Stargazer self draws us inward, trying to get us to the place where our hearts can heal once and for all and our real dreams comes true,” says Martha Beck.
The alternative is to live out our days in the never-enough, lizard-eat-lizard, material land of the shallows with ‘the devil you know’. I know which I would prefer.
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Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What!
From the outset, Martha Beck (Expecting Adam, Leaving the Saints) warns this will be no ordinary process of seeking knowledge, setting goals, and analysing performance. You will need to suspend disbelief, although this is no book of fiction or fantasy. If you fully commit to the sometimes unbelievable ride, you are likely to find yourself equipped with the practical skills for deep, lasting and soul-liberating re-alignment, with the life that feels right for you firmly in your sights.
Replete with lizards, dungeons, star-charts, miracles and protagonists from the Dark Arts – it may sound too far out if you feel uncomfortable with everyday magic. But far from having her head in the mists of fantasy, Martha Beck has vast experience as ‘America’s best known life coach’ (USA Today), backed up by a rare intellect, and decades of study and research. Beck’s own extraordinary life, in which she has overcome obstacles that most of us would believe impossible, is a testament to both her courage and the efficacy of her process. To help her readers along the unique path that waits for each of them, she sets them up to expect to manifest those things in their lives that they believe are out of reach.
Those willing to ‘bracket’ what she has to say long enough to reap the benefits will soon realise that embarking on the course to their right life may feel a lot like how Harry Potter must have felt, as he stood at Platform nine and three-quarters. But once through to one’s Stargazer-self the corpus of wizardry translates to the familiar challenges of navigation: replacing fear with love; challenging false beliefs; grounding one’s self in one’s inner core of peace; developing and trusting our intuition; and knowing when to bail out when confronted by intractable nutters.
“Whenever outer-limit rewards escape us – when our hearts are broken, our trust betrayed, our health compromised, or our dreams dashed – [the] process of grieve-or-disbelieve is triggered, and our attachment to the shallow, material shell of life weakens. The gravitational pull of the Stargazer self draws us inward, trying to get us to the place where our hearts can heal once and for all and our real dreams comes true,” says Martha Beck.
The alternative is to live out our days in the never-enough, lizard-eat-lizard, material land of the shallows with ‘the devil you know’. I know which I would prefer.
http://bredit.com.au/
Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What!
March 27, 2015
SUCH A GOOD BOOK. I can't recommend it enough. If I had picked up this book a couple years ago, I would have been incredibly skeptical of the whole notion of extreme coincidence... but last year I was subjected to a week of increasingly unlikely coincidences for which there was no real explanation, but the repercussions of that week follow me very closely to the present moment. It was the first time in my life that I ever felt like there was at least a 20% chance that I was dreaming despite the fact that I was almost certain I was awake. It's very frightening and unsettling when it happens.. you have no choice but to lift up your hands from the wheel and stop trying to control things while you're in this so-called dreamtime. It is highly disturbing to the rational mind. Sometimes I feel like I accidentally saw past the fourth wall of real life because of how indiscreet and unlikely the "coincidences" were. I felt like a character in someone's novel. My point in saying this is... she isn't making this stuff up and she isn't necessarily exaggerating. Stuff like that really does happen. I'm an extremely scientific person, an athiest. But that shook me cause it seemed to defy pure chance. I wouldn't fight for this belief... But it made me much more open to the idea that what she is saying is true because I have experienced it myself.
My most commonly spoken phrase during that time was "I don't know what's going on" because my rational mind frantically looked for explanations and could find nothing.
My most commonly spoken phrase during that time was "I don't know what's going on" because my rational mind frantically looked for explanations and could find nothing.
May 19, 2024
Ms. Beck writes clearly and with a hilarious, sassy tone.
She certainly has credibility (3 Harvard degrees) and lets the reader into the Harvard viewpoint (unofficial motto: 'If you're not smart, just kill yourself.') She explained how she courageously shifted perspective for what she was supposed to be doing with her Harvard degrees; very aware of how she was being perceived as a self-help writer by her Harvard colleagues: in their estimation, '...about six rungs lower...than a pole dancer.'
I enjoyed her life experience examples and her clients, each taking note along the way of how stunningly surprising life's 'coincidences' are, which are now happening too often to be considered as such. But mostly, the examples demonstrate the courage required to allow life to take you where you need to be. You do the work, WITH life. Life flows once you get out of your way.
This means: that when you open yourself up to steering by the voice inside you (Starlight, God, a Higher Power, etc.) life opens up to amazing options and people. It becomes magical.
When you let it.
She certainly has credibility (3 Harvard degrees) and lets the reader into the Harvard viewpoint (unofficial motto: 'If you're not smart, just kill yourself.') She explained how she courageously shifted perspective for what she was supposed to be doing with her Harvard degrees; very aware of how she was being perceived as a self-help writer by her Harvard colleagues: in their estimation, '...about six rungs lower...than a pole dancer.'
I enjoyed her life experience examples and her clients, each taking note along the way of how stunningly surprising life's 'coincidences' are, which are now happening too often to be considered as such. But mostly, the examples demonstrate the courage required to allow life to take you where you need to be. You do the work, WITH life. Life flows once you get out of your way.
This means: that when you open yourself up to steering by the voice inside you (Starlight, God, a Higher Power, etc.) life opens up to amazing options and people. It becomes magical.
When you let it.
May 29, 2011
This book offers a toolbox of various techniques for looking at the world and more specifically at your own corner of it and how you want to move forward. I've had her other book about the North Star on my shelf for a while and have never got past the first chapter, perhaps only the intro, which is about Dante and some tough patches in his life. However, this book was a CD and I was on a road trip, so I persevered. The format precluded the homework/exercises part of the book, although I did stop the CD and thought about things for a few minutes before proceeding. Some of the suggestions have a simplistic, this-will-cure-all feeling to them, but she is quick to introduce alternative language for some of her techniques that allow one to see the links between what she suggests and what one might find in more conventional self-help books.
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