Book Review: "PreMeditated Success in Life" by Scott Jackson

Title: Premeditated Success in Life: The Power of Personal Vision
Author: Scott Jackson
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing (New York)
Pages: 148

Review:

Over the years I have become a great believer in having a personal vision, so every once and a while I pick up a book on the subject.

Scott Jackson in this book takes the reader along from simply understanding vision to actually formulating a personal vision. This is not simply one of those books you read, but one you participate in through identifying your goals and values to redefining your rules for life, Scott takes you on this journey and then gives you the tools to help you get there.

Strengths:
1. More than teaching this book engages you in exercises to further your sense of vision. From discovering what it is that would really make you happy, to defining your values to setting rules and goals, This book gives guidance but then lets you work your way though each issue with exercises.
2. Scott identifies the pitfalls and misconceptions that will hold you back from your vision and gives much food for thought in regards as to how to overcome them.
3. The greatest idea for me was letting your values guide your goals so that your values ultimately define your vision. It was also good that Scott took on the notion of long term goals being discouraging. The idea is to take steps each day, week and month toward fulfilling goals based on values and not to get too far ahead.

Weaknesses:
1. Sadly the one tool that I think was great -- Scott's Integrity Day Planner which has some great concepts and is far superior than any I have seen -- is not available. The book says it is available on PreMeditatedSuccess.com but the site says it is under construction. In short, if you like it as much as I do you have to reproduce some of the tools yourself.
2. There in the end is not a lot of depth to some parts of the book. At times I found myself asking some questions and expecting more but was disappointed. The style is simple and straightforward but not deep.

Rating: 3 and one half stars. I can recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a non-traditional way of looking at personal vision. I plan on using many of the concepts outlined in this book myself for 2011.