I’m truly delighted that my new book, ‘FLOW: how to turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones’ is now available on Amazon in both the paperback and Kindle versions.   You’ll also see that the Kindle version can be read on 33 different kinds of devices, including iPad, iPhone, Androids etc.  So that makes it versatile and easily accessible.

How to access the book

If you’d like to view the book, please click here or go to www.amazon.com and type ‘Brenda Eckstein’ in the top search bar and the book will appear.  There you can read about the book which has a self-coaching approach with a strong Positive Psychology influence.  It shows how everyday things that are happening around us can be glossed over.  However, if we stop and reflect on what has just happened, we can discover our own meaning.  The next step is to decide what action we should take.  The book is designed so that each story may be read for interest or after each story readers can go through this learning process.  In addition, complimentary downloadable worksheets are available on the ‘EYES Publishing’ page of our website.

The context of this book

This book is the first in a series of five books around my FLAGS theme.  The acronym, FLAGS, stands for Flow, Lead, Advance, Grow and Serve.  These books cover the articles I have been writing on a wide range of subjects for a few years now.  These articles have appeared in the Blog section of the Brenda Eckstein International website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google +.  Every few weeks summaries of the last few articles have been sent out as a MailChimp newsletter to those who have subscribed. 

The people

I’m grateful to my son, Gary Eckstein, a web developer who encouraged me to write regularly and set up the system through Mailchimp whereby the articles became available easily through a variety of media.  By the way, he is listed as a MailChimp Expert and runs excellent workshops on how to get your Mailchimp up and running and make individually effective use of Mailchimp’s many features.  These sessions are held either ‘in person’ for corporates or public in Australia or there is also the option of participating in an Online session.

Yet, keeping this process alive would not be possible without the support of Candice Warr, a freelance consultant, who liaises with Gary and me and patiently waits for articles, prompts me when I forget or am too busy to write, and keeps meticulous records of the articles. She also handles my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ so anyone leaving a message there for me is likely to get an efficient response from Candice.  Oh – she does so much more, too.

However, although Candice and I had carefully sorted the articles (over 190) into categories which would be suitable for the 5 books I intended compiling, I was not a good leader of the team and the whole project lingered on and on and we didn’t seem to be achieving our goals.  Along came my very dear friend, Camilla Singh who was retiring from her role as a forensic accountant, and having just completed her Masters degree in Editing and Publishing was launching forth on a new career.  She became the patient, persistent and effective leader of a magnificent team who completed the project. 

A key player was Wendy Bothma who spent hundreds of hours working until every aspect was perfect.  The high quality of her work, her expertise and her ability to work until all parties were satisfied are admirable. Working with her is enjoyable and such a great privilege. She added great value to the team.  And of course, our designer, Des van Tonder smilingly and flexibly made change after change until we were all happy with the results.

Team talk

This has been a long journey spanning great input from the team and besides all the work that took place individually and electronically there were in-person meetings at a range of venues.

Backwards and forwards

I have given you a preview of some of the work that happened before the book was complete.  Now we are looking forward to the actual launches which will take place only next month when I return from Australia to South Africa.  For example, there is a launch in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday October 5th.  If you would like an invitation, please let Wendy know via e-mail on wbothma@saol.com   

Questions

When you look at any book, I encourage you to ask the following questions:

1. What was the input?  In other words, what were the factors, influences and qualities making this book possible?  For example, what was the author’s background that qualified him/her to write on this aspect of this topic at this time?
2. What does the content mean to me?  We sometimes refer to this as the ‘throughput’.
3. How am I going to use this information, this reflection in the future?  What is the output going to be?

Further information

For more information on executive coaching, leadership development or other services offered by Brenda Eckstein International, please visit http://strategy-leadership.com/