Four years ago I found myself at a big turning point in my life. For the first time I looked for a psychologist to help me, and our work together lasted about 5 months. One of the many things I brought with me from this period of my life was this: when you change your attitude, the world around you changes to adjust to you. Throughout those 5 months, and for the years since, I had the chance to see and believe this.
When I read the description of this book on Netgalley, I figured it would have a lot to do with my therapist’s advice. I was right. Kaia Roman was also at a very low point, with no idea how to get out of it when she started the Joy Plan at the suggestion of a friend. Like me, she witnessed how the world around you morphs to match your energy. But while I mostly carry that knowledge around (and sometimes forget to use it), she created a system and turned it into a book.
It’s a very enjoyable book, a lot lighter than the usual personal development books I’m used to reading. It reads a lot like a memoir, which accounts for the lightness, but it has plenty of advice one can follow to improve life.
Along with the story of how Kaia turned her life around, she described the steps she followed, the challenges, the points where she had to reevaluate her plan. Not everything is viable for everyone to implement, but there is good advice in there.
One things I don’t like in this book is that the bits of science added throughout the chapters are very superficial. Of course I don’t expect the book to go deep into research mode, but it felt that the scientific information was there just to fill space and lend a bit of credibility to the points the book makes.
Still, it’s a good, useful read, which I recommend.

*** Amazon review will be posted on publication date

The Joy Plan: How I Took 30 Days to Stop Worrying, Quit Complaining, and Find Ridiculous Happiness
by Kaia Roman (Goodreads Author)
Kindle Edition, 320 pages
Expected publication: July 11th 2017 by Sourcebooks


Goodreads synopsis:
As a mother, a wife, and a businesswoman, Kaia Roman always had a plan. But when her biggest plan, the business she co-founded, collapsed, Kaia found herself crushed by depression. And what felt even worse was that, with a husband and two kids relying on her to get out of bed, she didn’t have a plan to move forward.
Determined to turn her life around and put her ingrained habits of stress and anxiety behind her, Kaia decided to put everything else on hold and dedicate thirty days to the singular pursuit of joy. The results were astonishing—and lasted much longer than the initial month-long project.
In this uplifting and eye-opening memoir, Kaia uses her business savvy to create a concrete Joy Plan get back on her feet fast. Using scientific research on hormones, neurotransmitters, and mindfulness, along with the daily dedication to creating a more joyful existence, Kaia teaches readers how to move past temporary happiness and succeed in creating joy that lasts. 
Complete with advice, exercises, and key takeaways, The Joy Plan is Kaia’s step-by-step guide to how she, and everyone else, can ditch the negative and plan for the joy in their lives.

***

4 stars

This book is about finding and living your joy. Duh, huh?

Well, Kaia Roman does a great job of showing (not just telling) how she found her way to living her own joy. I felt this was half memoir half self-help book. I learned a lot from following along with Kaia’s life journey. I felt her pain when she wanted her husband to live his joy and not stay in the job he dreaded. I felt her joy as she discovered her true path and how to find it on her own from stumbling block to stumbling block.

When her big dream unraveled in the beginning, I was devastated for her. This was her chance to prove she was somebody. But in her failure, she let her husband down, who was counting on this big dream to pay off since they had sunk so much money and time into it. I kept thinking… “how do you recover from that?”

Kaia Roman shows you how. Step-by-step.

Give the Joy Plan a try. You won’t be disappointed.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.

The Joy Plan is part story, part self help book about a woman who has suffered a professional setback and is embarking on a journey to bring more joy to her life. The book had a good layout, with the concept, the story relating to it and then a tip at the end. It was easy to read and follow. I was happy for her progress and especially happy with the afterward because it addressed something that nagged me most of the book regarding her husbands unhappiness in his career.

There are two reasons why I am not a higher star rating. One is simple, it would have been great to have a more concise action plan at the end to wrap up and provide like a page or two starting point.

Second and less simple is that I am not entirely sure how it could apply to someone who doesnt have alot of time. Some things can, like complaining less and trying to worry less, however as someone working 10 hours a day, coming home to two kids at night, barely getting an hour between them falling asleep and me crashing, i dont have a lot of time to necessarily discover what brings joy. I think it would have been great to have more of that, how to apply these concepts to your unique life situation.

Reader, you should start by buying a highlighter, a new one, a big one. Although the author's story is a pleasant read and you will want to become her next door neighbor, this book contains serious ideas you will highlight. You will take notes and make lists for yourself. I expected another "how a one-month experiment changed my life' book but I got so much more. I loved the science and the research and the new terms I learned. I learned so much about the ways we experience joy and the physical reactions that can stop joy. I find myself talking about the book...to everyone. I keep sharing some of my favorite highlights. I sorta want to start over one page 1. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in creating a joyful life!

I received an e-copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love reading inspirational self-help books, and The Joy Plan is my top pick of 2017. The author's former life is like the rest of us--some good, some bad, plenty of stress and worry, and going through the motions of life without feeling truly fulfilled. She experiences that pivotal moment of hitting rock bottom, prompting her to change things. And instead of changing jobs, locations or relationships, she realizes she'll make the most impact by changing how she thinks. Her plan to follow a path of joy for 30 days amidst the anxiety of daily life has plenty of ups and downs but the self-discovery she experiences will inspire every reader to adopt at least some of the changes she suggests.

I love when an author can marry science and a little woo-woo and make it fit into everyday life. She offers plenty of research to back up why her exercises work and why they're worth the time and effort. She also makes it clear this isn't a quick fix for whatever ails you. What it will offer is a better understanding of what you want, what you need, and most importantly, how to focus on what you feel to guide you along your path.

Quick fix or not, I plan to adopt many of her suggestions because I see the value. I recommend grabbing a friend (or three!) and working through the book together. Follow the discussion questions at the back of the book to help find and follow your joy.

I'm really grateful to get an advanced reader copy of this book from Net Galley. I didn’t know how badly I needed to read this book! I recognized a lot of myself and my journey in the story of how Kaia Roman lost her joy, confidence and sense of self, and how she went about regaining it one step at a time.

There were moments while reading the first couple of chapters where I wondered whether this was just another self-indulgent, privileged person trying to be happy and writing about it. But the book surprised me - and I found myself racing to complete it and then wanting to talk to everyone I met about it. I learned a lot about myself from reading this book, and realized how much I could benefit from the advice in the book. I decided to start to apply some of the principles and could immediately see changes. I am excited to see what else I can implement, and have already shared some of the insights with my family and friends.

What I enjoyed about the book is that the author not only shares her own story, she presents lessons from psychology and research into happiness, and provides a step-by-step plan, that while doesn’t guarantee a total transformation, can set you on the path to finding your own joy. I highly recommend getting a copy for yourself (and all your friends) and starting your own Joy Plan today!

I tend to avoid books like this, and admittedly it was because I thought they might be silly or preachy, and that was likely the cynic in me that doesn't want to trust.

This book, in which Kaia Roman so eloquently and truthfully shares some of the struggles she has gone through in life, and how she decided to change her outlook made me realize how much I need to change myself.

The Joy Plan is something that excites me, and is something I look forward to trying for myself. I am so grateful to be given the opportunity to read this book that has inspired me so. I would recommend it to anyone who is ready and willing to let joy into their lives.

The Joy Plan is a book that I think everyone should read. It tells us the difference between happiness and joy. It guides us, through the authors personal experience, to creating a joy plan for ourselves and living a life of joy. This book is both inspiring and experiential in scope. I would recommend this book to everyone who wants more joy in their lives.

What a great read. This book made me jump happily jump out of bed each day!

I really enjoyed this book it was very uplifting. It started off a little academic and I did think it was going to be a bit tedious with all the scientific experiments carefully quoted but it softened into the authors heart and I didn't want it to end. Despite the cultural differences I loved hearing about the authors lifestyle and the wonderful place she lives. The feeling of failure struck a chord but her determination to rise up from the ashes and give something positive to world from it all was very inspiring. I also loved the length of the book and was glad it wasn't cut short or summarised. It was a nice easy read, very well written. Books like this do so much good for the world as they make everyone feel better and help raise the global happiness levels - Thank You

I have read a lot of books on finding joy and peace and this one was just ok. There wasn't a lot new here but I did appreciate how the author used her own personal story to show how she was able to put more joy into her life. I personally thought the book spent too much time on focusing on yourself the entire month. While taking time for yourself is important I think it is even more important to not think about yourself so much and do things for the people around you. I find I am happiest when I am not thinking about myself and am doing things that will make other people happy. While the author does talk about volunteering I felt it was not as important to her as focusing on what makes her happy. I did find some useful ideas in this book but I feel there are better books out there on the topic of true joy.

Maybe it was just I didn't connect with the author for whatever reason. Reading it felt like a job. Hard to follow and clinical.
For that reason maybe I really enjoyed the last half of this book more. When it was more about a list of things to do to find joy rather then information about the author's life. I wish I had seen the discussion questions at the back before I started reading. That might have helped me connect with the first half better.

I found this book to be a little too much of pseudo-psychology but I did glean from it the basic premise to be joyful you must think joyful. Overall, I liked her story into depression and then back out by finding joy in everyday things. I'm not sure that would work for someone with clinical depression but for mild depression definitely going out into nature and thinking positive will help.