The Art of Being Brilliant E-Book

Andy Cope

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 193

Beschreibung

A pep talk in your pocket This short, small, highly illustrated book will fill you to the brim with happiness, positivity, wellbeing and, most importantly, success! Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker are experts in the art of happiness and positive psychology and The Art of Being Brilliant is crammed full of good advice, instructive case studies, inspiring quotes, some funny stuff and important questions to make you think about your work, relationships and life. You see being brilliant, successful and happy isn't about dramatic change, it's about finding out what really works for you and doing more of it! The authors lay down their six common-sense principles that will ensure you focus on what you're good at and become super brilliant both at work and at home. * A richly illustrated, 2 colour, small book full of humour, inspiring quotes and solid advice * A great read with a serious underlying message - how to foster positivity and bring about success in every aspect of your life * Outlines six common-sense principles that will help you ensure you are the best you can be

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Foreword

Jimmy’s Diary

Chapter 1: Fishing for Life

Chapter 2: Shiny Happy People

Chapter 3: Some of the People, Some of the Time

Chapter 4: Glowing On the Outside

Chapter 5: Can God Do a Handstand?

Chapter 6: Busyness As Usual

Chapter 7: Pants on the Outside

Chapter 8: Your Beautiful Mind

Chapter 9: Nellie Breaks Free

Chapter 10: Nellie Breaks Free

Chapter 11: The 90/10 Principle

Chapter 12: Tigger is a Trigger (And Eeyore is Too!)

Chapter 13: Beware of the Garbage Trucks

Chapter 14: Chumbawumba

Chapter 15: Share a Hugg

Chapter 16: Strengthening Your Strengths

Chapter 17: Omnipotent Handstands

Back of the Book

References

About the authors...

Acknowledgements

The 2%ers club...

‘Irreverent, inspiring and engaging. Humour and wisdom drip from every page. If you’re a boring academic look away now. The rest of you read on. You won’t be disappointed. Promise.’

Paul McGee

‘Practical insights on how to make positive thinking work for you. And without any of the pastel-coloured, muzak-themed humourless preachy-ness that so often makes you give up on this useful and important topic.’

Michael Bungay Stanier, author of Do More Great Work

‘The Brilliant philosophy is simple, funny, profound and it gets results. The two Andy’s wonderful down-to-earth book appeals to my no nonsense northern outlook with great practical ideas you can immediately apply both at home and work.’

Steve McDermott, European motivational speaker of the year and best-selling author of How To Be a Complete and Utter Failure In Life, Work and Everything

‘Fun & thought provoking. Love it!’

Andy Gilbert, author and creator of the Go MAD Thinking System

‘Life’s too short folks. We all need a reminder that positive attitudes get positive results so follow the simple advice, be your best self and stand tall.’

Diana Higman, Medallist at World Transplant Games

‘The Art of Being Brilliant has been a major contributing factor to our successes in maximising happiness and creating our world beating team. Deciding to be BRILLIANT can and will change your life for the better!’

Rick Turner, Businessman, entrepreneur and theme park owner, www.thebigsheep.co.uk

‘If you’re informationed out (like me) and just want a result...congratulations...here it is.’

Richard Wilkins, UK Minister of Inspiration,

‘Chin up, chin up. Everyone loves a happy face. Wear it. Have it. It’ll brighten the darkest place. Twinkle. Sparkle. Let a little sunshine in. You’ll be on the right side looking on the bright side. Up with your chinny-chin-chin.’

E. B. White, Charlotte’s Web, 1952

© 2012 Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker

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ISBN 978-0-857-08371-5 (pbk) ISBN 978-0-857-08374-6 (ebk)

ISBN 978-0-857-08373-9 (ebk) ISBN 978-0-857-08372-2 (ebk)

Designed by Andy Prior Design

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall, UK

For Ed Peppitt, without whose vision and enthusiasm this book would never have seen the light of day. Ed, we're truly grateful.

Foreword

Have you ever achieved something in your life that you are very proud of, and then someone else comes along and does it better, like being trumped at cards?

Well, there I was, thinking I had achieved that elusive magic element in ‘The Naked Leader’ books – simplicity. Simplicity in stripping down to the essentials, and then stripping them down even further, until you end up with pure common sense, which in this age of information overwhelm is, sadly, not so common.

Then along came Andy Cope’s first book, Being Brilliant. Full of the blindingly obvious, stuff we can make happen in our personal as well as business lives, and with bags of humour thrown in.

And, to add insult to injury, he even had the bare-faced cheek to ask me for an endorsement! How was I supposed to endorse a book that does what I set out to do, but so much better?

Still, I wrote an endorsement, consoled myself that this was a one off, a true one book wonder, and relaxed.

Then one day – THUMP – a large envelope hit the mat. And, guess what? It was now two Andys with this book – The Art of Being Brilliant. And this time they didn’t just want an endorsement, they wanted me to write a foreword!

No way. How am I supposed to write about a book that is written with such easy-to-follow language, in such a clear and practical style, and which has at least one simple idea on every page that you can make happen straight away?

And with illustrations!!

No, it’s all too much.

Sorry Andys – the answer has to be no.

Now, will you please stop writing such great books, and go get proper jobs!

David Taylor

David works with world-class leaders and organisations, is author of the best-selling ‘Naked Leader’ books, the Honorary Professor of Leadership at Warwick University Business School and a Business Ambassador for The Prince’s Trust.www.nakedleader.com

Jimmy’s Diary

He hadn’t been up there for years. Probably decades! In the faint light of the attic, the old man shuffled across to a pile of boxes that lay near one of the cobwebbed windows. Brushing aside the dust, he began to lift out one old photo album after another.

His search began with the fond recollection of the love of his life – long gone. He knew that somewhere in these albums was the photo he was looking for. It was the black-and-white one, when she had that smile. Patiently opening the long lost treasures he was soon lost in a sea of memories. The old man wiped away one or two happy tears. Although the world had not stopped spinning when his wife left it, the past was more alive than his present emptiness.

Setting aside one of the dusty albums, he pulled from the box what appeared to be a diary from his son’s childhood. He couldn’t recall ever having seen it before – or even the fact that his son had kept a diary. Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over the entries and his lips turned up at the corners in an unconscious smile. His eyes shone and he chuckled aloud. He realized he wasn’t just reading the words, he could hear them, spoken by his young son who’d grown up far too fast in that very house. In the utter silence of the attic, the earnest words of a six-year-old worked their magic and the old man was carried back to a time almost forgotten. The spidery handwriting reflected on important issues for a six-year-old – school, football, holidays, arguments with his big sister – entry after entry stirred a sentimental hunger in the old man’s heart. But it was accompanied by a painful memory that his son’s simple recollections of those days didn’t tally with his own. The old man’s wrinkles became more deeply etched.

He remembered that he’d kept a business diary. He closed his son’s journal and turned to leave, having forgotten the cherished photo that had triggered his initial search. Hunched over to keep from bumping his head on the beams, the old man stepped down the wooden stairway to his office. He wasn’t sure what creaked most, the stairs or his knees!

He opened a glass cabinet door, reached in and sought his business diary. He placed the journals side by side. His was leather bound, his name embossed in gold. His son’s was tatty and frayed with a hand-drawn picture on the front. The old man ran a bony finger across the name ‘Jimmy’ scribbled on the cover.

He opened his business journal and read some of the entries. There were notes from meetings, often very detailed. Every single day had been crammed with business appointments. Sometimes the evenings too. He remembered back to those times... he sure was driven in his career. It was for the love of his family that he’d chased success so hard. The old man was drawn to an entry much shorter than the rest. In his own neat handwriting were these words, ‘Wasted a whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn’t catch a thing!’

With a deep sigh and a shaking hand he took Jimmy’s journal and found the boy’s entry for the same day, 4 June. Large scrawling letters pressed deep into the paper read, ‘Went fishing with my dad. Best day of my life.’

Chapter 1

Fishing for Life

In which we finally get the point of fishing! We find out we already have all the answers, discover happiness isnt for sale and that its certainly not out there. We peep at academic porn and get a cool quote from Groucho Marx.