Say Goodbye to Survival Mode: 9 Simple Strategies to Stress Less, Sleep More, and Restore Your Passion for Life

Crystal Paine, I love your book and I think you share a very beautiful life philosophy in it. I just want to start off that way, because I know I'm going to put a bit of a different emphasis on a few things, and I don't want that message to get missed in the body of my review.I purchased this book nearly 3 years ago, but because I am the mom of two beautiful children, one of whom has a rather long list of diagnoses at this point, I haven't gotten around to finishing it or posting this review until now because I needed to prioritize other things more. I'm going to speak a bit to general readers, and then I'm going to share my thoughts on this book as pertains to a particular segment of the potential audience. First off, this book is pretty much geared towards women, which may make male readers a bit uncomfortable, but I still think the information she shares is relevant to both genders. Second, the author's faith and religious convictions are very heavily intertwined in what she writes and encourages. Although I am certain based on a few things she describes that she and I are of different denominations, that presents not a single problem for me what-so-ever, but if you are a-religious (as in, an atheist, or agnostic, or spiritually minded but just plain burnt out on organized religion), you may find it hard to wade through this book. I think she does an excellent job of covering a wide array of topics including goal setting, self-care, finances, relationships, serving others, giving back to the community, and some general life philosophies for being kinder to yourself that I think apply to anybody. But some readers may wish to have a book that does all of that without the dose of religion, and if that is you, heads up.What I would say is that it is possible to find yourself so buried in the challenges that can come your way that many of the suggestions she makes may not feel accessible to you for a time. I do not wish to be a negative Nellie, but as Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Predjudice fame has noted, “I must speak as I find.” At the height of the very worst of the early manifestations of my son's disabilities, I was also facing some health challenges of my own. And because of the challenges his care posed, pretty much almost every single person who offered to come in and help with him backed out once they were made aware of what was involved. I do not issue this statement to pass judgment, because I think it is better for everybody involved if people's limitations in that regard are respected, and I do respect people's right to say this isn't for them. But I am merely saying that I know if it can happen to me, it can happen to others. And I got put on a very restrictive diet that made many others feel like cooking for me or any sort of food swap wasn't really a good fit for them either. My husband was in grad school at the time, and because we knew at that point we were going to need the extra income this degree would afford, we felt like our family's best choice for the long term was to leave him there, and so I dealt with some pretty amazing and often super difficult things all by myself, and while it may pain religious readers to hear it described this way, I can only accurately sat that there was a period of time that felt literally like hell on earth to me. So, because sometimes people have no choice but to be in survival mode for a period of time, and can find themselves without any sort of support network coming in and helping them out (again, no judgement, just describing), I'm going to emphasize and expand a bit on something that Crystal touches on that can help you be an army of one if you need to be.You need to take a page from Elsa of Frozen fame, and “let it go.” Let go of the hold the expectations of others may have on how your home décor looks, your clothes look, your clutter looks, your yard looks. I have come to feel like if someone has not been walking in my shoes and been doing what I am doing, I can not be bothered to care about what they think about my mismatched or cluttered anything. I clean the germs and the gross stuff. The rest of it isn't a fire that's burning down the house, and quite often it can just wait. When someone comes in here and does what I've been doing for the past few years and does it better, I will gladly sit at their feet and take notes. Until then, I've got far more important things to worry about and if you find yourself in similar circumstances, you do to. Forgive me the bluntness, but I believe in being honest, and that's a very honest representation of how I feel about things.I would also say that you may have to tackle the suggestions she makes in this book at a much, much slower pace in order to apply them to your lives. My current de-cluttering goal looks like 1-3 items a day, not a room a week, or even a month. And finding the time to write an exhaustive list of goals for things I want to overhaul isn't happening either, as much as my type A personality would like it to, so what I did is spend a brief moment prayerfully considering what I needed to work on most, and boom. That's what I'm working on, and it may take me longer then a week to implement it. Or even a month. But I am just doing the very best I can, and you are to. So I love, love, love what she writes in here about going easy on yourself. Give yourself some grace. And if you don't have anybody around to do it, give yourself some hugs to. Whatever you have got going on in your life, even if it doesn't feel like it's getting done perfectly, I think you can make your way through surviving it, hopefully with help if need be, but if not, well, take out your butt kicking shoes, put them on, and do the best you can. To be honest, many days I'm still in survival mode. That's what my life looks like right now, but I am so grateful for the blessings I do have, which include two beautiful children who light up my world. And I definitely think this is a book well worth reading, whatever stage of life you are in.

I was a young mom at the time when I first read this book, I had 4 children under the age of 5 and worked part time outside the home. This book helped me to stop just surviving day by day, making my no’s no’s and my yes’s yes’s, to help me start to thrive

I love this book.Currently, I am using it in my Health and Wellness Group. There is so much information and so many great tips. Crystal even has a free 7 day challenge on her website that goes along with this book.

In Say Goodbye to Survival Mode Crystal Paine doesn't simply give women strategies for using time more wisely, setting goals and reaching them, clearing clutter, and improving finances. Sure all of that is in this book but Crystal shares her story and that is why her tips reached me more than any other personal management book that I have ever read. This is not a clinical assessment with statistics regarding productivity or stock options but instead honest, heartfelt advice from a woman who has lived through survival mode and dug her way out of it.Although our experiences are different, I was able to relate to Crystal on a very personal level. I could feel the emotion in her stories because I have lived with those emotions also. Crystal opens her past wide open and lets the reader see her as her imperfect self. She also acknowledges often that these are the strategies that have worked for her and that not every strategy fits every person because we are all at different points in our lives. There are no "one size fits all" strategies but instead ones that can be adapted to work in your life.Crystal's book truly helped me see things in a different light. Now I approach activities with a different mindset, asking myself if this is a good use of my time and energy before I commit. I ask myself if something will move me closer to my goals and if it doesn't then I may choose to pass on that activity or purchase. It feels a lot different to not get the dishes done because I made the conscious choice to play a game with my girls rather than not getting them done because I spent an hour flitting around on social media sites. This year I am investing in myself and my family more than ever. My activities and financial goals need to reflect that commitment.Thank you to Crystal Paine for giving me tools that can help me along my path and for sharing her story to encourage all of us. I highly recommend this book to pretty much everyone.

Was worth the wait as it was a couple of days late. It came signed by the author! Very happy. Thank you

So pleased that I got this book, pure motivation for all no matter what season you are in your life. Always found goals quite daunting but this has helped simplify this for me and I shall now be practicing this to help me live a more productive lifestyle.

Crystal Paine writes in a personal conversational style with encouragements, facts, and illustrative stories and examples. Each chapter is interesting enough and short enough to read whenever you have a bit of time. Each one has questions and ideas to apply or experiment with. She makes prioritizing something that can be done, and therefore, doing what matters and leaving the rest becomes something that can be done. Good book. Even in survival mode, there is time to do a chapter a day, because each chapter applied gives more time and more hope of getting out of the rat race that any of us, especially women, can find ourselves in.

I stopped reading this because I felt the author still has a lot to learn. I hoped to gain insights but feel I have already travelled further in my own journey away from survival mode than this author. I felt the suggestions were unrealistic and still promoted a workaholic, supermum attitude that is not sustainable. I read this time time ago, but I think the author recommended allocating 30min a day with the spouse - this is simply not enough to sustain a happy marriage. Nor is leaving the husband with the kids to on weekends to go away for conferences. This to me is survival mode!

I will give no less than 5* to this book for it has inspired me to the core. So much positivity and so many options to keep one's mind open. I was amazed how the author keeps pushing good things into your mind. So many instances were bang on seemed like talking to me directly. Her inspirational thoughts and words are constantly reflected in my blog. Time and again I refer to the tidbits to keep myself afloat in this sea of chaos. Thank you Crystal Paine.