Review of The Angel Inside by Chris Widener

The Angel Inside is a fun, yet thoughtful book that you can read in about an hour. This book is in the form of a fable, which makes it very easy to read. While readingThe Angel Inside, I was processing the information presented and looking at ways to relate it to my life. The book is about finding that person of power and beauty, which is within every one of us.The book starts off with a very disillusioned 30-year old Tom Cook, who travels from the US to Europe to find himself - to look for a new direction for his life. Back in the US, Tom was living an unfulfilled life. He was working in a job which he hated, trying to make his father proud of him. He was desperately trying to please his father. We can relate to Tom because we want the approval of our parents, if we are honest with ourselves.The day before his return to the US, he is sitting on a bench in Florence feeling forlorned because he hasn't found what he was searching for. A stranger, who looks to be in his seventie
s, and much later revealed as Mr. Bounarroti, enters his life and changes it forever. This stranger parachutes into Tom's life and uses sculpting and Michelangelo's David - Il Gigante to teach him lessons in life and help him to find his way.The stranger takes Tom to the Galleria dell' Accademia to view Michelangelo's sculpture of David. Tom learns the following life lessons:Find the angel inside you
Follow your own passion
Be confident in your strength
Pay attention to details, you'll discover beauty
Your hands can create what your mind conceives
Plan and prepare
Every accomplishment starts with one swift action
Embrace the stages of chipping, sculpting, sanding and polishing
Be content because success sometimes takes years
No one starts with the Sistine Chapel (Small successes lead to greater successes)Chris Widener uses sculpting as a metaphor for life in his fable. To expand on lesson eight, first, you have to chip away or get rid of what doesn't work in your life. Second you have to sculpt or mold your life the way you want it to be. Third, adversity and negative circumstances often sand away the rough spots in our lives, which strengthen us and allow us to grow. And fourth, polishing allows our power and beauty to shine through.The stranger instructs Tom and tells him "The tools of a sculptor are few, but the tools for sculpting a life are many. We are a product of the things that we allow to shape and influence our lives. Everything that we interact with will shape and mold whom we become. This includes both what we choose to involve ourselves with as well as what we choose to not involve ourselves with... Our business associates and our friends are people who we can choose at will. We sho
uld choose these people wisely for what they will help us become."Five Great IdeasPeople often have so much invested in what they are currently doing that they cannot start to live and fulfill their dreams
Fear often prevents us from taking the first step. There is truth to Lao-tzu saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step
Books give us the ability to converse with the author. Books also mentors us
Have a network of people around us who act as a springboard to a better life they comprise your personal board of advisors
Most people cannot create or accomplish great work that's lasting until they have gone through the process of growing and learning from their experiencesThe beauty in this book, is the simplicity of its message. I recommend The Angel Inside.

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