December 19, 2008
Achieving Your Promises:
How to Reverse Your Circumstances and Realize Your Dreams
Timothy Ryan Patton
Aviva Publishing (2008)
ISBN: 1890427837
“Achieving Your Promises” is book that can change your life if you take its advice to heart. There are hundreds of self-help and inspirational books out there—I’ve read a lot of them, and much of the material Timothy Ryan Patton presents has been presented before, but what sets “Achieving Your Promises” apart from the others is the premise expressed in the title. Patton could have named the book “Setting Goals” but he starts out immediately by explaining the difference between promises and goals.
Patton explains to us that we have all been told to set goals, and we set those goals but rarely follow through on them, letting life get in the way. Instead of setting goals, he tells us to make promises to ourselves. He reminds us that we wouldn’t break a promise to someone else, so if we make promises to ourselves and remind ourselves everyday of those promises, we will achieve what we desire.
To encourage us further, Patton fills the book with writings and stories from others, including famous people like Michael Jordan as well as personal stories from people across the world. Patton also shares some of the personal obstacles he has faced in his own life, notably, being in a car accident, followed by a coma, and then having to retrain his brain basically to perform all the normal functions it should have been able to do effortlessly. Patton also lost his fiancée to a car accident. He retells the story of his relationship with his expected wife Christy, her loss, and how her love has encouraged him to carry on, to achieve his promises for both of them.
“Achieving Your Promises” is not a long book, so I encourage readers not to rush through reading it, but rather to read perhaps just a chapter a day and let its messages sink in. Patton’s voice is one that persuades the reader anything is possible if we only believe and work toward the promise we have set for ourselves. The book may appear repetitive if read straight through, but by reading it in small pieces, the message builds, and the questions Patton asks us to ask ourselves help to replace negative and fearful voices in our heads with positive reinforcement until our thinking changes, and in turn our lives.
I had the privilege to meet Timothy Patton several months before he completed “Achieving Your Promises” and although I had not yet read the book, when he explained the concept to me of making promises to myself, I was instantly taken by the idea and turned my goals into promises. The result has led me down exciting new paths in my life as I keep those promises I made. Any reader willing to make a similar commitment will find that reading “Achieving Your Promises” can be the start to becoming the person and living the life you desire and so richly deserve.
For more information, visit www.achievingyourpromises.com
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., and author of The Marquette Trilogy
