Liquid Thinking
Purchase Liquid Thinking: Inspirational Lessons from the World’s Great Achievers
Liquid Thinking: Inspirational Lessons from the World’s Great Achievers
“Liquid Thinking” by Damian Hughes is a book I have been looking forward to reading for some time now. This is for a few reasons; firstly Hughes is from the North of England (as am I) and it’s always nice to see a Northerner doing well. Secondly there is a strong “sports” element to his book, drawing on several sports I am personally interested in such as football, rugby and boxing. Finally, its supposed be pretty good and the remarkable number of endorsements and contributions from famous people that Hughes has been able to gather would seem to confirm that.
“Liquid Thinking” is actually quite a slim book, despite containing 14 chapters, a foreword, postscript, recommended reading list, endorsements and a number of personal stories from “ordinary” people which have been woven into the overall narrative. Each of the chapters is brief, punchy examination of themes such as setting goals and prioritization of activities. They all contain a number of relevant quotations and examples and end with an exercise for you to complete. Whilst a lot of the ground covered in each chapter will be familiar to regular readers of self help / personal development material, Hughes does bring freshness and an infectious enthusiasm to the material. Although the conciseness of the book precludes any in-depth examination of his subject matter I find this works in its favour as you could easily imagine carrying “Liquid Thinking” around with you and diving into it to for a quick refresher from time to time.
Hughes confesses to being a “quotations” collector and does use quotes and anecdotes pretty liberally throughout his book, sometimes in unexpected ways (for instance, it is a rarity that you see an anecdote about former USSR leader Nikita Kruschev in a self help book!) but more often drawing on more conventional sources such as Sir Richard Branson or Angelo Dundee (who was Muhammad Ali’s trainer for many years). He has picked his material well and uses it expertly, although personally I would have liked to have had a few less quotes and more of Hughes speaking to us in his own voice rather than through the voices of others. This is a small niggle though as the overall impression you get from reading this book is one of energy, enthusiasm and a determination to get people “kick-started” into achieving more. There are a number of personal accounts from everyday people talking about their own achievements, be it building their own house, running a marathon or supporting a loved one with cancer. These made for a nice, democratic, counter balance to the contributions from acknowledged high achievers.
Overall, I enjoyed “Liquid Thinking” and would recommend it, particularly to people who are starting to get in personal development or are looking for a portable self help jump starter!
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