Through my newfound obsession, Net Galley, I received a free ARC copy of Ron Kardashian’s upcoming new book on my kindle for review. The full title of this work is “Ron Kardashian’s 30-Second Solution: Transform your Body, Business, Relationships, and Life in Just Seconds at a Time”. It is due to come out in early October.

According to Ron’s premise in this book (which I would consider “self-help”), most of the decisions we make in a day are made in 30 seconds or less. Do I order the donut or the low-fat muffin? Do I wear my seat belt? Do I sign on the dotted line? Ron focuses on the power of positive thinking, the power of making good choices and actions, and the power of words. What am I saying? Thinking? Doing? According to Ron, you can make positive changes in your life by keeping these thoughts and actions positive and healthy. “If you believe it, you can become it” is the type of thing he is espousing. Ron also inserts some research on brain studies showing the power of positive thoughts and actions. “You can change your brain!” kind of stuff. I will admit, I was less impressed with this type of data (I’m one of those people who need to read the whole original study in a medical journal – period – before I take incredible results to heart. But that’s just me!). Ron is a “life coach” by day – and I found on the internet that he is also a pastor (I’m not sure of what denomination if you are wondering). Ron “coaches” his readers to make a better life by focusing on what they are thinking, saying, and doing each day.

To be honest, when I put in for this book I missed the fact that Ron’s last name was Kardashian. When the book arrived I thought: “Wait — not Kardashian like that family on tv??” I will admit: I don’t want much reality tv (though I confess to a fondness for America’s Got Talent), and I wasn’t sure who or what this guy was – but his last name made me wonder. A little internet searching showed me that Ron is a relative of the well-known sisters and a pastor. He is a life coach and seems like a really positive and healthy person. I enjoyed reading his book. I have to agree with Ron, too: much of the decisions we make each day are quick, yet can yield long-term consequences. How many times do we say “If only…”? If everyone thought more positively and acted healthily and positively, the world would probably be a kinder, gentler place. However, while I agree that negative thoughts and action can only hurt, I have to stop short of thinking that positive thoughts always yield results. If everyone was able to say: “I’m going to get this job!” before an interview and it yielded direct results, well – I think our employment rate would be much lower. I can’t tell you how often I’ve gone into an audition thinking “I’m going to nail this song!” and did – and then thought “I did great! That part is mine!” and I didn’t get it. Sometimes there are things in life that we can’t control. It’s good to just accept that gracefully.

Ron’s Christian faith does shine through in this book. His earlier work was an exercise book with “God” in the title. This one seems toned down – I never saw Ron listed as “pastor” in this book, but did on the internet. This is fine to me – as a Christian it never turns me off when people work God in to the equation; however, I could see how some people might not like that element. For some reason, this book reminded me of Dr. Oz. I don’t watch his show (unless  it’s on when I’m on the treadmill at the gym) but an incredible amount of people quote Dr. Oz to me. People will say (often they are women friends of mine) “Well, Dr. Oz says…” or “I heard Dr. Oz say…” like they know him. Dr. Oz has that friendly, personal quality. To me, Ron Kardashian falls in the same category. You feel like you’ve been coached by him in a session once you’ve reached the end of his book. You really feel like he has your best interests at heart. I’ll be curious to see if some of my friends start quoting him to me…

Thanks, HCI, for my review copy!