Paper Dreams Review on Holistic Wealth by Keisha Blair
I received Holistic Wealth – 32 Life Lessons To Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity, And Happiness by Keisha Blair, Canadian author, from Keisha in exchange for an honest review. As soon as she contacted me and I read the synopsis about the book, I was really excited to read it. I love discovery and creating more balance in your life kind of books and knew this would be right up my alley. It did not disappoint!
Synopsis (from Goodreads)
Build a better, richer life by following thirty-two lessons that lead to happiness.
Imagine a life where you are financially savvy and independent, living with purpose and generosity while inspiring others. Holistic Wealth will teach you to master these tenets of a happy and joyful life, giving you a greater sense of wholeness and resilience in times of difficulty.
By expanding on the teachings shared in her viral article My Husband Died at 34. Here Are 40 Life Lessons I Learned From It, author Keisha Blair presents revolutionary strategies that will help you find balance and success. By following actionable, comprehensive steps from experts in a wide array of fields, this engaging book will guide you on your path to serenity.
Holistic Wealth teaches you how to find prosperity in key aspects of life, from financial stability and physical health to your emotional and spiritual connections with others. Cultivating these strengths will build the mental toughness and grit you need to weather life’s inevitable storms and setbacks.
Layout
The book is written into 4 parts – Intentional Life Purpose, Financial Independence, Physical and Spiritual Movement and Goodwill and Strong Relationships. I appreciate the bundling of topics into separate parts. I especially enjoyed the whole part on finances as I find that to be a topic that is not often talked about and is most certainly a huge aspect in creating Holistic Wealth. Each part is further broken down into topics that fall appropriately within that part. At the end of each part there is a portfolio section that asks questions and has action items on how you’re going to move forward with the information and knowledge you’ve just read. I really enjoyed this part – encouraging me to further think about what I read and how I could apply certain aspects to my life.
Background Info
Before I get into more of what I loved about this book, some more background on Keisha Blair. Keisha’s husband Garfield died unexpectedly eight weeks after she had given birth to their second child (nine years previous to this book). She published an article on Arianna Huffinton’s Thrive Global about the forty life lessons that she learned after her husband’s death and it went viral leading into the creation of this book. Keisha has a way with words and really laying out the facts on how to create a better sense of balance in your life, I’m not surprised it went viral!
Sections that spoke to me
There really wasn’t much that I disagreed with. So many sections resonated with me and I found myself nodding my head and saying, yes, of course I need to do that or that’s a good idea!
Part 1 – Section 4 – Goals, With Wisdom
From this section I want to share a quote here,
“Also, be wise in your thoughts and confident in your unique path, so that if your colleague makes partner an you don’t, you can celebrate with her and not feel like a failure. Your path will be different – it’s supposed to be so. From a standpoint of holistic wealth, the obstructions to our goals hold considerable value, too.”
I think this is so important! Yes, you will have goals and you’ll have setbacks to those goals and if a friend or colleague has a similar goal to yours and it works out for them – it’s so important that you separate your hard feelings about it not working out for you and that it did work out for them! It’s hard. I’ve definitely been there- watching from the sidelines, many, many times and I’ve caught myself having negative thoughts but give my head a shake and remind myself that I genuinely am happy for my friend and colleague as they have their own battles to fight too. Practicing selflessness is so huge and can really the shape the kind of friend you’re going to be. That’s what I took from this anyways!
Basically all of Part 3 – Financial Independence. Some of the sections titled are A Plan for Financial Longevity, A Solid Long Term Investment, Freedom from Debt among a few others. Again, I appreciate authors who dive into this topic as someone who went to school and grew up learning hardly anything about finances and how to spend/save smart these are great to read and have further conversations about.
The only one I was a bit skeptical about was Part 1 – Section 6 – A Sabbatical. It’s so so so important for people to take time to discover what they want out of life and how they’re going to take the steps to get there. Taking time off of work may not be an answer that a lot of people can afford to do. Although, I think the overall message is that you should take some time off work/the daily grind whether it be a month or week or two, especially if it’s not really causing you to thrive and to seek the answers you need to keep you going. Keisha also makes note of an article she wrote on how to prepare to take a sabbatical – linked here.
These are just a few sections that spoke to me, there were many more that resonated and these give you a snapshot of what’s inside.
Additional Resources
Throughout the whole book, each part and each section, Keisha has taken careful measures and really added to the wealth of the knowledge by including many, many other professionals she has interviewed for advice on certain topics in her book, linking back to other books or other articles. I thought this was so wonderful!! I looked up a few people that have been mentioned and have been inspired to read more books suggested to my ever growing to be read pile!
For example, she added quotes from Shakespeare and C.S. Lewis and includes advice from many different authors, entrepreneurs, and CEO’s from around the world. This kind of range of varied professionals was very valuable and I was impressed with the lengths Keisha went to pull this all together!
Overall Rating
*****/5
Recommend?
Yes! There is so much more to this book than I can even write in this one review! It’s one I’m going to keep coming back to for sure, making notes and reflections where I can. I would most definitely recommend. There is so much valuable information, knowledge, holistic wealth in this book. If you’re needing redirection or a pick me up or just to read a good self- discovery book, this one is for you!!
*I have already had people commenting on it from seeing it on my Instastories and I have been recommending it to people in my life!
If you’re further interested in being inspired, check out Keisha Blair’s fantastic website – click here!
Happy Reading!
