cover image Life Without Limits: Clarify What You Want, Redefine Your Dreams, Become the Person You Want to Be

Life Without Limits: Clarify What You Want, Redefine Your Dreams, Become the Person You Want to Be

Lucinda Bassett. HarperCollins Publishers, $24 (282pp) ISBN 978-0-06-019658-5

Motivational expert Bassett follows her successful From Panic to Power with a smoothly written if unoriginal self-help book that aims to help readers achieve their dreams. As founder of the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety, Bassett (now in California) claims to have helped more than 100,000 people overcome feelings of stress, depression and anxiety through programs, seminars and a popular infomercial. Now she seeks to bring her fans to a higher level of fulfillment by encouraging them to find and pursue their dreams of satisfaction in many areas of life (e.g., personal development, physical appearance and spirituality). The tone is uplifting and accessible to a mass audience, but on the page lacks the dynamism of a personal performance. While her advice is broad and encouraging, readers of the genre will find her points familiar: defining a personal vision of success; keeping a journal (for which she supplies specific questions); allaying fears of success by finding a ""power partner"" and composing an ""empowerment mantra."" Bassett is most engaging and sympathetic when she reveals some of her own history: of conquered childhood fears and deprivations, and instances where she bravely acted on intuition in critical business deals. She concludes with a strong statement of her belief in the power of miracles, prayer and faith and ultimately in God. Agent, Al Lowman. (Jan. 9) Forecast: Bassett's infomercial will most likely kick-start sales, which may be fueled by her author tour and other media appearances, although some readers may be disappointed that her book lacks the fresh ideas of other similar titles, such as Harold Bloomfield's Making Peace with Your Past (Forecasts, June 5).