Review
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Title: The Twelve-Week Challenge
Author: Sidne O’Reilly
Publisher: Cedar Fort
Genre: Nonfiction
Year Published: 2007
Number of Pages: 155
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-59955-083-1
Price: $12.99

Reviewed by Karen Hamilton


The hardest thing about New Year resolutions is keeping them. I have such great and worthy goals that I fail to keep, because I feel overwhelmed and miss a day or two and then stop trying. This book is a self improvement book that is realistic in expectation and do-ability. At the beginning of the book is the Spectrum Meditation that is the basis of the changing steps. I found this to be encouraging, as well as motivating.

I believe that this is one answer to keeping faith with oneself. The first two weeks lay the foundation for the other ten. It is done with easy to follow steps and assignments. You are given reading assignments that come from the Book of Mormon and are short enough to be read in an hour or less. Individuals are strongly encouraged to get a group of friends together who want to do this along with them and work to support each other. With a group of supporting friends that weekly reports are made to. it is easier to see why this can be so successful.

There are six areas of focus for changing your life for the better. They are: Spiritual Strength, Self-Care, Eternal Family, Purpose, Temporal Stewardship and Service. The order in which the six areas of focus are presented is important because they build upon each other. As you go through the steps or process, your ability to have faith in yourself grows and you realize that life is much easier when you petition the Lord for help.

This book is perfectly targeted for a female LDS audience, but I believe it could have much greater success if it were written to a wider audience since it has many useful ideas for everyone trying to achieve any elusive goal.