As a Fitfluential Ambassador, I am often given the opportunity to try out new things, and this time, to my delight, I got to read “Make Success Mandatory – Discovering Your Gift & Giving it Back to the World” by Jeremy Scott. 

If you know me well, you know that I am an absolute learning and personal development JUNKIE! So it should come as no surprise to you that when I got the opportunity to read a book in exchange for a review, I was PUMPED! 

I got both a hard copy and kindle edition, so I decided to read the kindle edition on my flight to Nashville. 

Overall, I would say that it is a good book. Not great, but good! Jeremy Scott’s story is inspiring, in that he started out seemingly on a less than promising or guided path, and then took some risks that paid off, and in the process, ended up finding his passion in fitness, and becoming very successful in it. 

What I love about that is that I hope there are mirrors of his story in mine. The beginnings are somewhat different, but fitness has changed my life and I have taken similar risks in the past couple months and can’t wait to see them pay off – especially now that I have the advice from his book! 

[Tweet “How to #MakeSuccessMandatory via @Mandelicious #JeremyScottFitness “]

I must admit from the start that I am a tough critic – I spent time as an English teacher AND I have read A LOT of books on personal development, so here are my critiques: 

1. If you are already a personal development reader, many of the initial ideas (there are 21 “exercises,” which are questions to ponder or actions to take) are ideas that are probably familiar to you. HOWEVER, repetition can be fantastic in that a different person explaining a concept you’ve read/heard before might “click” with you differently, or your life experiences may prepare you to understand something better the 393845th time you heard or read it, as opposed to the 393844th! 

2. The semantics of the book are unnerving to me. For example, as I mentioned in #1, the initial 21 ideas are called “Exercises,” but they don’t all seem to be exercises to me, in that there’s not a direct immediate thing to do. Sometimes it is to STOP doing something, like making excuses. I don’t know if calling them exercises is a play on his fitness success (the book is to succeed at life, not fitness-specific) or if I am just missing the part where it seems like it is an exercise, but they seemed misnamed to me. In fact, many seem like assessments – soul searching, self-reflection, etc.  Additionally, at the end, there is an “Mandatory Mindset Assessment” that doesn’t seem like an assessment to me at all – it seems like THESE are exercises! 

But if you can look past those things, which I can, then I think you will like this book quite a bit! 

The magic, I think, is in the last part – the “Mandatory Mindset Assessment.” Even if it isn’t an assessment, I think this part made the whole book worth it for me! In fact, I even summarized the points and hung them on my desk for a reminder. 

The last part is a 7-day Challenge (some might call it an exercise?) to do each of the five things above daily and see how it changes your life. I love that! For me, that starts TODAY! 

Feel free to check in on me any time in the next week (or beyond, as I hope to make this a habit!) to make sure that I am following these five principles! 

XOXO, 

Mandie 

P.S. What was the last great personal development book you read? What was your favorite? If I was to host a challenge group revolving around these ideas, would you be interested? 

P.P.S. Did you like what you read? Make sure to check out other blogs on the page, and to subscribe by entering your email below, so you never miss a post! 

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