A few weeks ago I came upon a very interesting book called Wishcraft. I didn’t have a clue what it was about; I was simply caught by the title itself. I had never heard of it before, but it had a sticker on it saying it had sold more than 650,000 copies! (Hey, I am an ADDer – ohhhh Shiny!) Must be good then… right? I had no idea just how good it would be. When a book sells 650,000 copies it’s not a fluke. So I picked up the book and started reading through it. It not only caught my attention, but it held it tightly and led me along as if by an invisible string. This book caused me to hyper focus on it for hours.
Wishcraft is a book about you and about me. It is a book that explicitly suggests, no, (suggests is to light of a word for this), that you become you! From beginning to end Barbara insists that we find out who we are. She helps us to remember our earliest childhood pre – 5 yrs, in order to recapture what our dreams were and to find out what we truly wanted to be – to rediscover who we are. Much like what I have written over and over again on my blog, she explains how the modern world has made too many of us abandon our natural talents and dreams. All well and good, but there was something about this book that was more than what was written, there seemed to be an undercurrent far more profound than the title suggested. I felt like Barbara was writing about me. It was inspiring, motivating and somewhat disconcerting (in a good, but odd way) and I couldn’t figure out why. Therefore, I decided to check out when this book was first published and found out it was 1979. Click! (I will explain in a moment)
Wishcraft is a book of two distinct parts. The first part helps us reconnect with who we are, that person inside each of us who somehow, for whatever reason, has become submerged and neglected for the needs of society and the needs of others etc. The first part of Wishcraft does its job amazingly well. Following Barbara’s advice helped me remember something I have always wanted to do, but had lost in my memories somewhere along the way (that’s for another future post).
The second part of Wishcraft explains how to develop a plan to achieve our dreams. Now this is the part where most reading this review may think ‘oh no, not another plan’. Hold on; let me let you in on another secret. If you have ADD / ADHD this book is not like any other book you have read. First, it was written in the 70’s by a dynamic woman when women were just starting to pave a new path for themselves in the business world. This is not to say that this book is only for women – I am not a woman, obviously. However, it is to point out that the challenges Barbara had in the dynamics of getting things done, even getting a book published, were quite overwhelming from that standpoint. Secondly, the guide presented in the second part of this book is not what you have read before, perhaps copied, but not as well and there is a good reason for that.
When I wrote Barbara a few weeks ago, I discovered the secret sauce of her book that makes it work beyond what I have read in other books: She has ADD! And it seems to me she was writing about our challenges long before many had ever heard of the term. She calls herself a Scanner. I like the term and her description of what a Scanner is. That’s what made things ultimately go Click! for me, because there was something profound about this book that was captivating, inspiring and rationally workable. I have read far too many self-help books that have left me wanting. Barbara’s book not only gets you going, but can get you where you want to go, even if you have forgotten where that is! Check it out for yourself.
There’s a benefit of Barbara writing this book before all the ADD / ADHD books started to hit the market, she had few points of reference. She wrote from her gut, her instincts and from doing things in her own way that she developed, ways that worked! She may have not yet been diagnosed with ADD when she first wrote this book; however, her struggles to get her through the years before coming in to her own will be very familiar to many of us with ADD or ADHD, they are the tell – tell signs we are so familiar with today.
Check out Wishcraft and be sure to share your thoughts about it with me. If you have already read it, did you have an incredible feeling of familiarity? Like the writer had walked in your very footsteps?
Barbara has a new book out called “Refuse to CHOOSE!” and has sent me a signed copy which will be given away on our ADDer World Social Network in the near future!
Are you a Scanner? If you have ADHD, the description of a Scanner will be very familiar to you. You can check out what a Scanner is here.
Barbara Sher’s Official Website
I hope you enjoy Wishcraft and get out of it as much as I have!
~Bryan
