Unlocking Your Potential

The subtitle of this book is 'How to master your mind, life and destiny' - quite some claim if it works. Peter Marshall's thesis is that even the brightest individuals will not fulfil their potential on intellect alone because we are all held back by our own limited expectations and those imposed on us by others. In other words, if you're to forge ahead you have to liberate yourself from the memory of past conditioning - such as parents who were (are'?) forever telling us things like 'Don't get ideas above your station' or 'Speak only when you're spoken to.' Marshall, member of the Applied Psychology Group of the University of London, provides abundant user-friendly advice on such topics as how to be assertive, how to think positively, how to recognise your own worfh, how to deal with stress, emotional blackmail and lack of confidence - and above all how to accept that we all have the ability to change. Many post-16 students under-achieve because their horizons -and often those of their families - are limited. Although it is not specifically aimed at school and college students, Unlocking your potential could make a useful 'textbook' for, say, a half-term PSE module aiming to raise students' awareness of their own potential and the control that they can - if they wish - have over its development. Susan Elkin The School Librarian Journal