Earlier this year, Allison Maslan visited my blog to tell us about her Blast Off! Dream Career Questionnaire and her new book, Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality. At that time I said I’d be posting my review of the book, and today I’m going to make good on that promise.

Maslan’s book is based on the Blast Off! Coaching Program which she developed to help others achieve their goals, after turning her own life around, both personally and professionally.

The first chapter provides an outline of the program and describes the tools that you will use as you work towards your goals. The remaining chapters are each dedicated to a specific goal area, including career, relationship, health, and prosperity. This is a real time-saver, because you can choose to read only the chapters that pertain to your specific goals. I do, however, recommend reading the whole book when you have the time, because it’s full of nuggets that you may find helpful, even in areas of your life where you generally feel satisfied. Some are real eye-openers, some may be difficult to accept, and others are simply reminders of things we already know but aren’t putting into practice for one reason or another. For example, here’s an excerpt from the chapter Blast Off! to a Life of Passion and Meaning:

Four Ways to Build the Back End of Passion

1. Establish good nutrition. It’s easy to fall into fast food or snacking when you are so engrossed in your passion that you’re not taking the time to eat right.
2. Eight hours of sleep each night. Sleep is one of the most healing, energizing medicines, and it is absolutely critical for a creative mind. Did you know that sleep deprivation is used as a brainwashing technique? Without sleep, you are living in survival mode, which is the opposite of a passionate life.
3. Take a passion break once a week. Most of my creativity comes when I’m not working. When my mind is clear and I’m exploring or having fun, the ideas have room to appear. Turn off your phone. Shut down your computer. Go spend the day outdoors in nature, go to a movie, take a bike ride, or visit some friends. Talk about things other than your passion. (For a few minutes, anyway.)
4. Get physical. Especially if your passion is of the intellectual persuasion, you must get into your body. If you’re living from the neck up, your body needs to be enlivened. Choose exercise that you can sustain by doing activities that you will enjoy, such as dance, running, swimming, biking or boxing. Mix it up! It’s more beneficial to incorporate more than one activity to stimulate various muscle groups in the body. You will also stimulate the serotonin in your brain for more creativity and mood enhancement. You will prevent fatigue and burnout as you stimulate your cardiovascular system, get your blood pumping, and your billions of cells moving. Ahhhhhhh.

I ask you, do you know anyone who couldn’t benefit from taking this advice?

What I liked best about the book is that it doesn’t just tell you what to do. Instead, each chapter includes a series of practical exercises to help you identify the changes you want to implement and the steps you need to take to reach your ultimate goal. Furthermore, the exercises are unique for each chapter, and not just re-worded to suit the topic. A lot of people may resist doing the exercises because they require effort, but I’m a firm believer that the more you put into something, the more you’ll get out of it.

Readers can follow the program independently, with a partner, or with a Blast Off! Group. Guidance around forming a Blast Off! Group is provided in the book.

If you’d like to try out Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality for yourself, you can order a copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.