Book Review: Choices and Illusions By Eldon Taylor

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. ~ Williams James

It’s been a couple of months since I have reviewed a book.  This time I got the opportunity to read and review Eldon Taylor’s book Choices and Illusions.

The aspect of this book that I enjoyed the most was the approach to the way that we choose to behave and what drives our choices.  Here’s a particular quote from the book that fascinated me: ” It would appear that  our need to be accepted, respected, and so forth is weighted as equal or nearly as equal to our drive to survive.”  When you think about your own success and why you engage in bad habits that don’t lead you to success, it’s fascinating to think that we don’t put ourselves out there for fear of rejection.  Ultimately, when it comes to thriving in business, you have to accept the very rejection that you fear at some level.

There is interesting discussion in the middle chapter about specific areas that limit our personal power and growth:

• Thinking that to gain you have to take from someone else
• Holding to opposing beliefs.  (I see a lot of this in the coaching work that I do.)
• The fact that your personality can and does change over time.

You will find a lot of empowering information like the above nuggets that I shared.  Good stuff.

What I typically have a hard time with in books like this are when authors, like Eldon, delve into the spiritual side of life and do so in a matter that distorts the facts and feels half-assed at best.  Case in point, if you are going to reference Jesus and his teachings, then get it right.   Eldon says in the book that the message of Jesus is that of love and that we aren’t meant to suffer.  In fact, this is not entirely true.  A follower of Christianity knows that if they follow God, they will suffer in this life.

1 Thessalonians 3: 3-4: 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know.

Suffering is part of being a Christian, not all time, but it is certainly something that will be experienced.

Overall there are certainly some good nuggets of information to be gained from the book in the areas of limiting beliefs, mindset and what we except as reality.

For more information about Choices and Illusions, check it out here.