Head First! A Crash Course in Positivity: 8 practical Ways to Increase Your Positivity and Improve Your Outcome

by Steve H Lawton

How important is your attitude?

Science has proven that a positive attitude will lead to better results. No matter what you are going through, you will perform better if you bring a positive attitude to the situation. The 8 practical ways to increase your positivity in this book will tell you exactly how to do it.

Steve shares these positivity principles along with the journey of his miracle recovery from a near-fatal skiing accident. During the inspirational journey, Steve’s positive attitude literally saved his life. It all started on a beautiful morning in Breckenridge CO, Steve came out of his skis and slid into a tree at 45 mph…head first. His massive head and chest trauma, broken neck and broken back should have killed him. The surgeon said “He’s as sick as he can be and still be alive…and he’s going to get worse.”

To simply survive the injuries was remarkable, but more miraculous was that Steve made a nearly complete recovery. He is a walking miracle and claims to be living on bonus time. In addition to God, his helmet, his wife, and a giant rubber chicken named Henrietta, Steve’s attitude literally saved his life.

Steve believes he was brought back into the world for a purpose – to share his story and his 8 practical positivity principles. In the book, while you experience the journey of his miraculous recovery, Steve explains positivity principles with each step of the recovery in a way that you can easily apply it to your life.

Steve’s story will make you laugh, and cry. You will be able to apply the 8 practical positivity principles to your life immediately and overcome any struggle in your life.

147 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 13, 2016

Reviews

[Natalie T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this many years ago and enjoyed.
Met the author earlier in 2023 as he is the husband of a best friend from high school. Really enjoyed the second time around and much needed at the start of the new year!

[Elizabeth Cottrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was asked to review this book by its publicist with no strings attached, and the original review was published on my blog. It is both a memoir and a self-help book.

Several years ago, the author had a life-threatening skiing accident in Colorado that would have killed most people and left many others with lifelong disabilities. His almost-complete recovery has been nothing short of miraculous, and he credits his faith, his support network of family and friends, and his strong mental fitness in the form of a “positivity” mindset. The book is part of his dedicated effort to help others by recounting his harrowing accident and grueling recovery with important lessons he learned along the way—lessons he believes will serve anyone when they encounter life challenges of all kinds.

Lawton makes an excellent case for the value of cultivating a positive mindset before you encounter a challenge—like an athlete building muscles and stamina that will serve her well when she has to run a race or enter a competition. He gives practical examples for doing this. His voice is engaging, and Steve Lawton seems like the kind of fellow you’d like to have in your corner when the chips are down.

This story and the author’s encouraging message would be enormously helpful to someone facing an ordeal or challenge. Equally important, it provides valuable insights for family members and friends to help them better understand how to help someone going through a traumatic situation.

The eight practical tools for increasing positivity include:

Remember: Everything happens for a reason

• Focus on what you can control
• Learn to laugh in the midst of your pain
• Take smaller steps to work to a larger goal
• Know when and where to push yourself
• Invest positivity into your network
• Create a personal positivity practice
• Embrace growing pains and learn from your struggles

I imagine this content conveys better in a public speaking format than in a book (see his TEDX talk). While the message is both important and valuable to almost anyone, the book desperately needed more editing to get rid of repetition, too many trite clichés, and the unfortunate use of smiley faces.

In spite of its flaws, this book is a story about overcoming obstacles, and we can all use some help with that.

[Debbie Mandel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What else can I say about this great read except that my brother in law, Steve, has turned his very traumatic experience into a lesson in positivity and made it an easy to understand course. I am biased of course because all of us who have had the pleasure of being in Steve’s family have benefited from his awesome winning attitude! Thank you Steve and Deanna for being my favorite role models!

[Oak · Rating 5 out of 5]

In March 2014, Steve Lawton almost died while skiing in Colorado. He suffered from bleeding in the brain, collapsed lungs, and a torn artery, and he broke his sternum, an arm, three ribs, and six vertebrae. But miraculously, he lived – and he’s thriving. In August 2016, he stood before an audience at a TEDX conference, looking as if he had never been hurt at all.

Lawton’s book Head First! Crash Course in Positivity is all about maintaining positivity and hope. It’s a good book – after just reading a couple of pages, I could tell I was hooked. Positivity and optimism are much-needed things in an often cruel and chaotic world. Obviously there is no end-all, be-all cure to gloominess; life certainly has its ups and downs. But the book does offer a good dose of encouragement. Lawton overcame immense challenges, and his story is certainly a great inspiration.

*I received this book for review*