Be THE STAR YOU ARE! 99 Gifts for Living, Loving, Laughing, and Learning to Make a Difference
Book Excerpt:
There are no dress rehearsals in life and you only get one shot at a scene-why not make it as good as it can be? In Be the Star You Are!, Cynthia Brian proves that you already possess everything you need to be the producer, writer, director, and star of your own life. By recognizing your individual gifts and tapping into your creative energies you can learn to sparkle and soar. Drawn from personal stories of growing up one of five hardworking children on the family farm, Cynthia shares 99 lessons (or “gifts”) that teach you to cherish your past, focus on your assets, dream of the future, and celebrate each moment. From appreciation to devotion, leadership to perseverance, and serendipity to wisdom-each gift will open your heart, inspire you to embrace all experiences, and help you make the most of your life.
*Foreword by Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of Love, Medicine, and Miracles
*Each lesson includes a personal story, a positive message, and a simple exercise that encourages readers to discover their own unique gifts.
*”Cynthia Brian balances style with substance to help you make the journey from success to significance.” Nido Qubein, author of How to Be a Great Communicator and How to Get Anything You Want
Cynthia Brian has shown millions of people how to achieve their dreams through her motivational TV series Starstyle®-Live Your Dreams and her internationally syndicated radio program Starstyle®-Be the Star You Are!®. She has worked in the entertainment industry for the past 25 years as an actor, producer, writer, and set designer. She is the Founder of Be the Star You Are! charity which works to empower families and youth at risk through literacy and positive media. A wife and mother of two and co-author of the New York Times Best Seller, Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul, Cynthia lives in Northern California.
www.bethestaryouare.com
Be the Star You Are! 99 Gifts for Living, Loving, Laughing,and Learning to Make a Difference
by Cynthia Brian
$15.95 soft cover with flaps* 336 pages, 6 x 9 inches * ISBN 1-58761-008-6
Proceeds benefit the charity, Be the Star You Are!® a 501 c3 empowering women, families, and youth at risk through improved literacy and positive media.
www.bethestaryouare.org
Only First Editions/Collectible available from the author.
Author Comment:
This book has changed lives. Since its publication, I have received thousands of letters, emails, and calls thanking me for writing this book. I am humbled by the response and delighted that it can make a positive difference for people. Here is a letter from spring 2009 that is printed with permission from the writer: My name is Neha Patel, and I am truly interested in helping your organization. My mother read your book written in 2001 titled "Be The Star You Are! 99 Gifts for living, loving, laughing, and learning to make a difference", and she absolutely loved it! It has been an inspiration to my whole family to keep on growing and dreaming. My mom would read me stories from your book, and help lift my mood when I would just feel like giving up or quitting. You see, I suffer from depression and OCD, and after I got diagnosed four years ago, my family lost their strength and vigor to keep on fighting because our whole world seemed to have fallen apart. I am not saying that people suffering from mental conditions are curses or problems for society. Quite the contrary, my mother, father, and sister were just so saddened that I had to start living with a chronic illness at the young age of 16, that they almost gave up hope. Thankfully, my mom came across some truly inspiring stories, one of them being your book, and she not only started fighting, but helped me fight as well. My whole family gained courage from the words in your book, and started looking at life's struggles as blessings in disguise. My mom and I would sit down together and laugh at the funny experiences in your book, and every day, we made it a habit to just open the book at any particular spot, and read the story that we came across. Your stories would help comfort me when I was feeling down, and helped encourage me to achieve greater heights. I would love to help your organization in any way that I could. It would be a privilege to work with you and your company. Neha Patel
Topics/Categories:
empowerment, Inspirational NonFiction, Personal Growth, Self Help
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Original Publish Date:
August 15, 2001
Publishing Notes:
Review of Be the Star You Are! 99 gifts for Living, Loving, Laughing, and Learning to Make a Difference by Cynthia Brian REVIEWED by Bud Bilanch, The Common Sense Guy www.SuccessCommonSense.com On November 8, I attended a great event: Amazing Woman’s Day, a Marsh Engle production. And sure enough, I met a really amazing woman, Cynthia Brian. Cynthia is the author of a great book, Be the Star You Are: 99 Gifts for Living, Loving, Laughing and Learning to Make a Difference. Big title, big book, filled with big ideas. I like everything about this book, beginning with the title. Like Cynthia, I believe that we are all stars – we just need to find ways to showcase our brilliance. In Be the Star You Are, Cynthia provides 99 ideas, she calls them gifts, to help you showcase your brilliance. Each gift is explained in a few pages, followed by an exercise to help the reader make the most of it. For example the exercise that accompanies “The Gift of Optimism,” one of my favorite topics goes like this… • Stand up tall. Reach as high as you dare. Stand on your toes, and reach for the stars. Imaging yourself flying to the stars and landing on a twinkling surface of heavenly light. • Now, bend over and fall limply to the ground. Imagine yourself continuing to fall, being sucked deeper and deeper into the earth’s molten core. • Stretch upward again. Make circles in the air with your arms, sweeping them around you as you jump high off the ground. • Which feels better? Do you want to reach and soar? Or fall and sink? In life, you can be an optimist and reach for the stars, or be a pessimist and collapse into the earth. That’s your choice. “Twinkling surface of heavenly light,” “earth’s molten core;” Cynthia certainly has a way with words. More important, she shows her readers how to make the most of the 99 gifts in her book by providing such interesting, fun and useful exercises. I won’t list all of the gifts that Cynthia discusses in Be the Star You Are, but here are a few of my favorites…. I am grateful for Cynthia’s words about the gifts of abundance, acceptance, affirmation, balance, celebration, choice, cooperation, determination, dreams, enthusiasm, forgiveness, friendship, gratitude, hope, humor, joy, knowledge, miracles, passion, perseverance, reflection, responsibility, serendipity, spontaneity, truth, understanding, wisdom and you. Last week I featured President Elect Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope. Hope is powerful. Be the Star You Are is a hopeful book. But with hope comes responsibility. Cynthia challenges her readers to accept responsibility for their lives and success. She says, “You are unique. No one has ever walked the earth with your exact combination of inborn and acquired strengths, weaknesses, skills, foibles, talents, frailties and experiences…I challenge you to become the star you already are…I’ll provide the guidance. You provide the guts.” I like the way she thinks. Do yourself a favor. Pick up a copy of Be the Star You Are. Read it. Savor the writing. Do the exercises. And become the star you are.
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