Book ~ "GPS Your Best Life" (2012) Charmaine Hammond and Debra Kasowski

From Goodreads ~ Obstacles and roadblocks can detour us on the way to success, or even prevent us from getting there at all. GPS Your Best Life helps you determine exactly where you are now, and through practical strategies and assessments, helps you clarify what you want in your personal and career life. GPS Your Best Life will help you map your destination and put you on the road to personal fulfillment, happiness, and success.

Bestselling author and transformational speaker Charmaine Hammond teams up with fellow speaker and founder/CEO of the Millionaire Woman Club, Debra Kasowski, to bring you a unique method for getting clear and achieving what you want in your life, your career, your relationships.

GPS Your Best Life gives you simple, practical strategies, accompanied by down to earth assessment tools. This book will put you behind the wheel to guide you from figuring out what revs your engine and what’s blocking your view, and following your unique road map to your desired destination while learning to navigate the obstacles and road blocks along the way.

There are lots of books out there to help you figure out your goals and how reach them.  This one does the same but with a twist ... it puts you in the driver's seat and let's you "GPS your best life".

The first step is to do the GPS checkup questionnaire which helps you get clear about your values, attitudes and wants, as well as give you ideas for where to focus your energies at the start of your journey.  You score yourself using 1, 2, or 3 ... 1 means you are ready to go, 2 means it's an area of strength but something you still need to work on and 3 means it's an area you need to improve.  I scored mostly ones in the attitudes/mindset section and relationships section ... less in the personal growth section.

From there, the book takes you down to path to achieve your goals, what to do when you hit roadblocks and potholes, and staying on track.

There are stories throughout the book to help you relate to the lessons.



I received a copy of this book at no charge in exchange for my honest review. 

Book ~ "On Toby's Terms" (2011) Charmaine Hammond

From Goodreads ~ On Toby's Terms is an endearing story of a beguiling creature who teaches his owners that in spite of their trying to teach him how to be the dog they wanted, it was Toby who laid out the terms of being the dog he needed to be. 

When Charmaine and her husband adopted Toby, a five-and-a-half-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, they figured he might need some adjusting time but they certainly didn't count on what he'd do in the meantime. Turns out that Toby was a holy terror, beset by severe anxiety and destructive behavior that would take a miracle to curb: he routinely opened and emptied the hall closet, turned on water taps, knocked over the water cooler, pulled and ate things from the bookshelves, and spent his days rampaging through the house, knocking down everything in his path. Oddest of all was his penchant for locking himself in the bathroom, and then push the lid of the toilet tank onto the floor, smashing it to pieces. After a particularly disastrous encounter with the knife-block in the kitchen (and when the couple discovered Toby's blood and paw prints on the phone) Charmaine decided Toby needed professional help. Little did she know what they would discover about this dog.

I love dogs and reading stories about them!

This is the true story of Toby, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, who was adopted by Charmaine and Christopher when Toby was five years old.  Toby's original owners were an elderly couple.  When the husband died, the wife couldn't handle such an energetic young dog and put him up for adoption.  Though Toby lands in a loving home with Char and Chris, he's still grieving the loss of his owners and adjusting to his new home.  As such, he has severe anxiety issues which causes him to be destructive when left alone.