The Compass

Confessions of Shameless Self-Promoters: Great Marketing Gurus Share Their Innovative, Proven, and Low-Cost Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Success! This is a powerful book! People have been waiting for years for this book to come out. Ever since the release of the book The Secret people have been seeking more of this type of enlightened information. The Compass takes you on a journey towards discovering the action steps critical to acheive more success, happiness and abundance. If you want to go from where you are right now to where you really want to be in life ... you MUST read this book. It will guide you and show you the way. Enjoy the journey, Debbie Allen "The Shameless Success Expert" [...]

The Compass is a must read for anyone wanting to take thier life to a higher level. This is for those who are stuck in a rut feeling sorry for themselves or those who know there is more to thier life and are ready to grab hold of it and enjoy the ride. You will come to experience a host of emotions as you get to journey along with the main character Jonathan. You will relate to his trials, his society influenced views and you will be inspired by his discoveries about how extraordinary life can become regardless of what crisis may be thrown your way. This is the book that can pull you up by the boot straps, put your feet to the fire and achieve your true desires. John and Tammy are personal and live development experts and together they show you how you can reach divine destiny as you learn valuable small and large lessons along the way.

Jonathan Taylor's wife and only daughter are involved in a violently fatal car crash at an intersection near their home and after two months of counseling Taylor decides to fill a backpack and head out on a journey of healing that begins in the Nevada desert. "[I] left suburbia for the desert [with] no illusions that I would ever return." Out of water and crawling across the scorching sand, Taylor is found on the precipice of death by a terminally ill psychologist living her final days taking photographs of the desert because that's where her inner compass had led her. Brought back to life with water from her canteen, Taylor travels with his savior to the Adirondack mountains, where he meets the next "angel" who adds another measure of healing and enlists him as a companion on a trip to Europe, where he . . . you get the idea. The Compass (Vanguard Press 2009) is a pleasant metaphor told in first person narrative with enough creativity to hold interest while not falling into an allegorical abyss. You get the feeling that Taylor's travels could be a true story. Taylor is living with the grief of a lost loved one, but the lessons taught by the people he meets could easily apply to loss of a job, a broken relationship or even a mid-life crisis. The characters ever-so-sparingly weave biblical references into their conversation and there is one reference to prayer near the end. The lesson aren't subtle or veiled, nor do they come across as "preachy." The Compass is also part of a multi-faceted self-help program including web sites, videos and personal coaching -- chapter-by-chapter study notes are provided for readers wanting more help in finding their own bearings -- and despite the obvious pop-psychology connection it's a good read with a few jewels of thought provocation sprinkled throughout.

By Kelly Jad'on From: www.BasilAndSpice.com Author & Book Views On A Healthy Life! Book Review: The Compass: From Where You Are...To Where You Want To Be (Vanguard Press/ Jun 2009) by Tammy Kling and John Spencer Ellis A work of fiction, The Compass begins with the main character Jonathan Taylor alone in the desolation of the Nevada desert, unprepared for the elements--without drinking water. He is adrift in his own sea of emotional pain. His wife and child, we assume, recently killed in a car accident, had left him bereft of his own identity and unable to cope with his personal tragedy. Feeling hollow, Jonathan hopes--in Job-like fashion, for "a whole new wife, a new kid, and justify it all by saying there are no accidents...." Self-absorbed with his own internal struggle, Jonathan travels, at the request of new found friends, from point-to-point, in search of the difficult resolution he must finally face when he turns toward home. During the journey, the protagonist encounters pivotal, ethnically diverse persons, not by "accident," but placed purposefully in his path by circumstances greater than himself to lead him forward toward a state of awareness and atonement. Jonathan recalls one saying, "We're not guaranteed anything...Yet we come into this world feeling entitled as if we are. We arrive acting as if we've been handed a manual for life with a certificate that guarantees us a hundred years." Jonathan's travel is not just literally a trip from location to location, but a journey of self-discovery. What pushes each of us to reexamine our lives? Is the unexamined life truly not worth living? Jonathan was pushed to the brink by the car accident, taking his family from him. Through the story we learn from him that life is short and precious. We really are not guaranteed a hundred years. The Compass illustrates the fact that though we all will encounter times of deep sad darkness, there is still hope, a light, which points us in the right direction. Life itself, once we awake from a lack of consciousness, brings about an awareness of a power greater than ourselves. We humans are truly connected to each other. Though we each feel that life is experienced individually, as Jonathan did, we all undergo the joys and storms of life. "The philosophy that we are all connected is a major thread within the story of The Compass." Which way does your compass point? 5 Stars