Nicholas Brealey Publishing Defining You: Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential *SELF DEVELOPMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR*

I began reading this book solely to review it, yet early on I became an active participant in Fiona Murden’s system outlined in “Defining You.” Hopefully, my personal experiences will help you decide that this book will be helpful.Early on, I was able to see that this was not going to be a common, everyday self-help book. Not only are the exercises more in-depth and require you to be extremely introspective, but Ms. Murden has achieved her goal of giving each participant a virtual psychologist to help with understanding their personal data (I use the word participant rather than reader in this review, as readers will gain some knowledge from this book while participants will achieve a great amount of personal insight).Early exercises help reveal how our childhood and then early adulthood has helped to fashion us into the people we are today. Ms. Murden encourages documenting both positive and negative events on our personal timelines, and she follows this exercise with additional questions to help us probe deeper. I found these exercises to be of great worth, revealing information about myself that has impacted my life in ways to both promote me while at times holding me back. The negatives are “beliefs” which I had reinforced over the years and believed to be true.There is an opportunity to take a psychometric measurement, another tool in ascertaining more about yourself. In this case, it is a personality measurement. There are multiple methods the company offers to achieve this (I chose to complete it online), and I liked that I had the ability to protect some of my personal data, as well as requesting for it to be deleted.Once you have collected and reviewed your personal data the author shows you how to put it all together in a way that makes sense and will become a platform upon which you can construct your future goals and accomplishments.The book is broken into logical sections and chapters (which Ms. Murden refers to as “sessions”). Knowledge and insight are shared, although the author (perhaps recognizing the difficulty for anyone to make changes) allows a flexibility in the tasks. I see the value in this technique, as it would be better to perform a lighter version of a task than to become frustrated and set the book aside. And, as the author reminds us, we can always return to the harder tasks at a later date.Over the years, I have read well over 100 books dealing with self-development and “Defining You” is by far the best of the lot. Ms. Murden’s writing style makes you feel as if she was there, giving guidance whenever needed, and helping you to establish your purpose and achieve your goals. If you are willing to put in the time, using the book as a textbook/workbook, I guarantee you will walk away with a treasure trove of personal knowledge that will aid you in your efforts to live a challenging and fulfilled life. Five stars.

I rarely write reviews but can't recommend this book enough. If you've ever wondered about why you are how you are, where your strengths and gifts are and where you might be getting in your own way then this is a brilliant read that finally begins to help you understand all of that and more.Practical, informative and well written, I genuinely found this to be one of the most accessible and impactful books I've read in a long time and shone a light on many areas of my behaviour that didn't make sense to me before, even though I've done tons of personal development and self-enquiry work. If you've ever considered coaching, psychometric testing or working with a psychologist you'd be as well to work through this first and save yourself a few quid.I found the first section particularly revealing and then later parts were useful in putting it into practice. I see that some people felt the psychometric tool is a little limited however if you take it for what it is - a free tool that provides general insight and patterns for you to work on and with, then I thought it was more than adequate. I'm a professional coach with a background in HR by trade so I've come across many of these things in my time. Defining You is a book I wish I'd read 15 years ago and I now recommend it to nearly all of my clients who've consistently found it incredibly helpful in different ways.

This book is incredibly valuable for anyone who wants to understand their blind spots better. I initially heard about this book after reading a glowing review, and I wanted to get to the bottom of some situations I found myself getting stuck in again and again. The insight I got from this book completely helped illuminate patterns about myself I could apply to my professional and personal life. The online resources are thorough and helpful, really an amazing value given the cost of the book. Highest recommendation!

Really well written, engaging, accessible and invaluable to everyone for both non-work and work contexts. Loved the “my story” approach’ and the exercises that fed into this - fascinated by the results and got some real confidence about possiibilies going forward. Having had a fair bit of experience of psychometrics, I was surprised by how much additional insight I got from Credo - and gave me food for thought in both work and home life. More importantly it wasnt at all intimidating to complete and the results were interesting rather than a cause for concern! My only criticism is that the dust cover of the book arrived with sticky fingerprints on it and already looks a tiny bit dog eared....!

The best book .I have ever seen and it’s best .Its not an average book which you read everyday