The entire book is summed up on page 221: “In this book, I offer four strategies intended to quite literally reshape the way we see the world. A narrow focus. Materializing. Framing. A wide bracket.” (Italics from original) Of course, to get to the summary, you have to wade through the other 220 pages of somewhat meandering writing. The author uses her own musical goal to detail how the four strategies might work in real life. Honestly, I just skimmed those portions and went to the meat of the book where Dr. Balcetis writes about different studies demonstrating the validity of the four strategies.
The book was not life changing per se but I have changed some of the things I do in life because of it. I use narrow focus to get through my morning run and have looked at my calendar with a wider bracket to get the most out of my time. So, if you have the time and are interested in how your view of goals might be tweaked, read the book. If you don’t have the time then I suggest you listen to the Hidden Brain Podcast episode “You 2.0: The Mind’s Eye” where Dr. Balcetis summarizes her points in 47 minutes under the focused mediation of host Shankar Vedantam.
Review by guest reviewer A. Thrift
Book It Babe 