I cannot resist books about people who have survived life-threatening situations. Perhaps it is because I can relate to the idea of proceeding onward, against all odds, that kind of thing…which I will not go into, but what this blog is about is regarding a book written by Bear Grylls wrote in 2012 entitled: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR LIFE, How to Achieve Your Goals, Thrive in Adversity, and grow in Character. For the record, Bear’s book has been updated/reprinted in 2014, but the library seemed to have the original First Edition so that is what I am going to blog about.
MAN VS WILD aka RUN TURTLE/SNAKE/GRUB RUN!
In all honesty, when Bear’s first TV series, Man vs. Wild came out, my daughters and I watched Bear’s survival skills in amazement. But after what seemed like in each episode Bear would bite the head off a snake and then cook it, my daughters and I began rooting for the snakes. I won’t go into what happened to a poor innocent water turtle. Let’s just say…turtle meat may well taste like chicken. It was after this particular episode I decided that we were watching way too much TV and began to teach the girls chess. But, I digress.
BEAR NECESSITIES OF LIFE
Besides Bear Grylls’ warrior spirit, he has a strong spiritual side as well. This brings us back to his book, Survival Guide For Life.
Spiritually, and emotionally, I really enjoyed reading this book. Though I am a hopeless perfectionist, I can never seem to get totally organized or thoroughly goal orientated so I thought I could definite use help in that regard. And what better guide than Bear Grylls, a man who has faced his fears and perceived limitations and surmounted all of them. Then there is I, a humble woman who all too well knows her “perceived” limitations and is more than ready to break her inner perception barriers.
Opening the book and flipping through the pages I am immediately struck by how the title of each chapter printed in very, very large bold caps so as to impress upon the reader the importance of the concept that Bear is encouraging the reader to follow; and frankly, it works. For example chapter two reads “2. DON’T LISTEN TO THE DREAM-STEALERS.” Reading this simple chapter title with no other writing above or below it seems to resonate within me that this is really an important concept, and it is. How many of us have dreams, ideas that you know would work, but let others talk you out of accomplishing your idea. Or even worse, there are those (and I am among them) who let sometimes let their fears of the unknown stop them from achieving their goals.
That is why I really like Bear’s Survival Guide For Life. The book encourages us to go beyond what we believe our limitations could very well be. And it does so without a lot of extra words, or pomposity of attitude. Bear tells us, encourages us with hard learned wisdom. And yet he also encourages us to STAY GROUNDED, KEEP GOOD COMPANY, DO NOT JUDGE SOMEONE BY THEIR STATUS, and LET OTHER’S SHINE.
Scattered thoughout A Survival Guide For Life, Bear’s strong Christian positive faith shines and encourages us all to believe in ourselves, work hard to achieve our goals and help others. This is a concept I can certainly appreciate and will be reading this book again and again.
