Take Control of Your Life

Penny Mallory

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

A thoroughly inspirational book that will help you to Take Control of your life! Based on Penny Mallory's experience, from an 'out of control' young person, this book tells how she Took Control and became a champion Rally Driver, TV Presenter and Motivational Speaker. Her life's lessons form the basis of her message to you, and how you can make your unimaginable dreams come true. This is a real and practical book, full of energy, hope and inspiration... it's a 'must have' book if you are feeling that you have lost your purpose or direction in life.

Penny Mallory was an 'out of control' young person, who eventually hit rock bottom. Thanks to a 'defining moment' she managed to Take Control of her life and became a champion Rally Driver, TV Presenter and Motivational Speaker and Author.

See www.pennymallory.co.uk for all you need to know.

Review by Jams Davies (300410) Rating (9/10)

Review by Jams Davies
Rating 9/10
Self help books? Get a Grip!

'Is it me?' I ask myself as I sit down to read Take Control of Your Life the first book by one time World Rally Car driving, TV presenting, life coach Penny Mallory. You see I'm definitely part of her target market. I'm mid forties, I've had success and my life is full of complexity in both relationships and career. If you were to ask me if I felt 'lost' at forty I wouldn't really hesitate for more than a nano-second before giving you a resounding 'YES'.

Trouble is I'm a cynic. I'm a person whose glass isn't half empty, half full or even an actual glass. Mine's a cheap plastic tooth mug with bits bitten out of it and a small hole in the bottom. I don't view this mug as anything other than another thing I'll get round to worrying about when the list of twenty-more-important-things-to-worry-about have been resolved.

How then, can a book by a woman I only know from the telly (who is far more successful than me, a woman who has no doubt a beautiful house, a perfect family and a wardrobe full of Harvey Nicks clothes) have any idea of what I'm going through, and how to get me back on track?

Let's face it books can't change your life can they? And as a professional writer I have to choose my words carefully here, and obviously I hear the cry 'of course they can' go up. I'm fully aware that people out there will be quoting the whole gamete of 'life changing books', from the Bible, the Qur'an to even The Petit Prince and Where's Wally?' but sorry, surely it's one thing to read... and another to do?

So with my cynics head firmly screwed on, I start to read Ms Mallory's first foray into the self-improvement market. It's full of life and colour, not like anything else in the genre that I've ever seen. That's a good start.
Now here's the thing, I've given myself a week to get it read, and possibly 12 minutes to listen to the attached CD too, and I'm going to give her half an hour before bed every day of that week to finish it. So when I sit down and read it in two hours I'm more than a little shocked. Not because it was such a quick and easy read but, because I immediately want to read it again.

I was convinced that this book wasn't for me, but turns out that it is. OK, panic is setting in, she's talking to my very psyche, she's actually motivating me to change, she seems to understand me to my very core. I have to check my wardrobe to make sure she's not been hiding in it in the six months it took her to pen this book.

Let's get down to the nitty gritty. Penny starts the book (she won't mind me calling her Penny - she's part of me now) by telling us of her own upbringing and start in life. It's candid, frank, open, shocking in places. A middle class kid bought up in the leafy Kent suburbs who was so off the rails by the time she was twenty that you'd have been more likely to see her on Jeremy Kyle or Crimewatch than presenting Channel 4's motoring show 'Driven'. When I say 'off the rails' I mean like she'd left the station and was pretty much drowning in the middle of the English Channel when she had a defining moment that would 'Change Her Life' (to quote those chaps that present Masterchef). It wasn't much of a defining moment but it was a real one, a believable one. It was enough to set her on course to success, and it was enough to keep her feet firmly grounded as she rose to the dizzy heights of a weekly prime time TV show and the first woman to compete in a WRC World Rally Car.

I'm not going to go into too much depth here as it's for you to discover, but what Penny has done is learn all the way along her journey and the knowledge she imparts in Take Control of Your Life has been hard won. She writes in a way that you'd expect her to drive, she's brave, she's decisive, she indicates her intentions and she does it with an economy of words that lets you get the point... fast!

Set out in nine special stages that mirror the stages of a World Rally event she'll take you through these stages to the ultimate goal of achieving that for which you have been striving for all time. Now as peoples goals vary I won't use emotive words like 'success' or 'happiness' here. My goal is to finish a script and make that the most beautiful thing I have ever written and the nine stages Penny has mapped out have already set me on the way to doing that. Listen to me! I sound like a Penny Mallory evangelist. I'm the guy who doesn't believe in self help books remember?

Don't even get me started on the CD. Well OK since I've mentioned it, again. This is Penny telling you how to prepare for 'your journey' then reminds you of the direction you should be travelling in, and how to deal with any knock backs along the way. It's 12 minutes long and I listen to it a lot. In fact I listen to it more than the new Paolo Nuttini album. It works, it de-stresses you and leaves you confident in your own abilities then leaves you with feeling of complete calm yet a completely reinvigorated determination. It's witchcraft I tell you. Under no circumstance should you listen to this CD while driving (it says so clearly on the label) as you could end up winning this year's F1 championship in your sleep.

OK, the motoring analogies might not be for everyone, but then again they're only there to add structure to the journey and whether you're walking, strolling or smashing through country lanes in a Subaru Impreza, then you're still on a journey, and it will have a goal. With Penny's help (and I'm honestly surprised I'm saying this) you're got a much better chance of getting there.
Jams Davies (30th April 2010)