Stop Circling

Steps to Escape Endless Roundabouts

By: Deborah Johnson

Narrated by: Deborah Johnson

Many people over 40 are restlessly fuming, knowing they are sitting on marketable skills, ideas, and experience, yet those attributes are not being profitably applied. Often they feel stuck by circumstances, fear, unproductive mindsets, and limiting corporate structures. Stop Circling is for companies and individuals who need both inspiration and updated business plan designs to escape personal and professional roundabouts and instead to pursue "What's next?" Stop Circling provides both the inspirational perspective and solid tools to design an individual or professional future path and to get individuals there successfully. Johnson has the ability to inspire and entertain while she shares practical and proven principles that are simplistic in their approach, yet extremely powerful in application. She has created a system that can be replicated again and again to free oneself from life's roundabouts.

Stop Circling includes the HALFERS Tool™ assessment model, a practical and simple mnemonic device. The book also includes exercises and journal prompts for application. Learn how to:

•Evaluate your current position honestly and with compassion.

•Quiet the harmful and destructive inner critic.

•Develop healthy mindsets that are productive and creative through setbacks.

•Determine the type of input that will work best for you.

•Create a step by step plan to take the next steps.

•Create or revise a Purpose Discovery Plan.

•Define or reinstate your commitment to your core values.

This is a book that can help you through life's transitions and changes with principles that are easy to understand and immediately applicable to your life. Whether looking to start a new business, lose weight, start a nonprofit, or propel growth with a current position, you will find many applicable principles to help you throughout this book.

©2023 Deborah Johnson (P)2023 Deborah Johnson

The place to start for Emerging Leaders

Deborah Johnson wrote this book in her series of books to help people who feel they are stuck in life, caught in an endless circle. And it surely delivers there. She covers such topics as Health, Attitude, Learning, Finances, Employment, Relationships and Spirituality. She sums these up as her HALFERS model. This book is an in-depth guide to understand each of these areas, assess yourself and embark on a plan of change. Deborah walks the reader through each category step by step to find their way toward greater possibilities.

From my perspective (one who is extensively read in the self-improvement genre, and not feeling stuck myself), I didn't find the exercises particularly helpful to me and where I'm at in life. However, I work with a lot of Emerging Leaders in business. For these Emerging Leaders who are mostly young, I am convinced that this book can be a great entry point to self-improvement. You do not have to be "stuck" to find significant value from this book.

Examples of material pertinent to young leaders are her guide to figuring out your own values. I agree that this is an important step that is needed to unstick people as well as to serve those who are young in life, figuring things out for the first time. The book, as a guide, is easy to follow and (in my opinion) ought to be a resource tapped by the young adults who aren't even experienced enough in life to get themselves stuck (or circling).

At the end, the author again shares insights from behind the scenes in writing the book. This is similar to the bonus content she provided in her book The Summit. One more thing, the audio book includes a 47 page bonus download .pdf. I suggest downloading it and printing it before listening to the audiobook, then following along and completing all the fill-ins as you go; pause and resume as necessary to take the time to do the work to journal as you go through it.