STUFF NOBODY TAUGHT YOU

McStravick presents a modern motivational guide to personal growth.

This self-help book contains 40 lessons from the author’s own online M. E. School, a place where, McStravick asserts, “everything that’s stuck in your life starts moving again, where everything unhealed gets healed, and new choices and opportunities take shape and begin to blossom.” The transformation process begins with identifying “Weasels in the Road,” or obstacles to evolution. The author urges readers to get out of the “Known Zone” and into the “Grow Zone” and explains why “The Queen” (the emotionally intuitive force that wants to expand one’s world) must trump “The King” (the protective, rational force that keeps one’s world small and safe). Readers learn techniques like “Flowdreaming,” a daydream meditation that inspires positive feelings. McStravick warns of the “Dead Zone,” where “your snap-back ability has been spent” and cautions against becoming a “Backward-Looking Girl,” who has “pinned the Moment of Perfection onto her past, and now nothing in her future is going to match that.” The author directs the reader to identify energy-draining “Power Leaks,” reclaim their agency, and confront resistance. She also encourages brave and inspired action and prompts readers to journal at the end of each chapter (accompanying worksheets and a podcast are also available online). The author’s voice is that of a foul-mouthed cheerleader, down-to-earth yet still authoritative. McStravick makes the idea of transformation fun, using a strength-based approach while acknowledging that there is no one-size-fits-all destination to this journey. She is reassuring in her advice, such as when she shares that “feelings are your mile markers, and it means there’s a turn up ahead,” or insists, “You’ll fix it when you’re ready to fix it.” While some of the concepts are familiar (getting outside one’s comfort zone, prosperity thinking), many more are novel and memorable, like the “Trifecta of Trust” (trust of self, trust of others, and trust in the universe).

A dynamic and actionable self-help book for those seeking transformation.