This title should give you pause.  Should it not be something like “How to Make Your Dreams Come True”? or “See Your Dreams Fulfilled”?  But then, how often do you see such titles?  And does such thinking really ‘work’?

Some might disagree, those who are always reading self-help books yet never seem to help themselves. Meanwhile, it is the above that occurs most often, the aspiring individual who just gives up.

As a child I wanted to be many things; I wanted to be a minister, novelist, as well as a CEO of my own book company, an actor, musician, baseball pitcher, I wanted to draw and paint, and more than anything, I wanted to be a writer.  I had so many dreams I couldn’t keep track of them.

At one time or another you’ve probably asked yourself, “What is the purpose of my life? What is its meaning? Why am I here on Earth, and what am I supposed to be doing?” Chances are, you work hard, whether you take care of a household or have a job outside of the home.

Your days are filled with seemingly endless chores and tasks like getting the oil changed in your car and going to the grocery store. Perhaps sometimes, when you get tired or stressed out, life can seem like just one long and meaningless “to do” list with a bland retirement and a gold-plated watch at the end of it.

There are plenty of learning curves to choose from. Traditionally, many of us have used pain and suffering and sacrifice and failure as our chief learning curves. If this is true for you, you have probably attended the school of hard knocks, and you have employed grief and heartache as your teachers.

It is well to remember, however, that you can also choose from a range of more pleasant learning curves, such as love as a learning curve, authenticity as a learning curve, and success as a learning curve.

You choose your learning curve. No one or nothing else makes this choice for you.

The first part of the book, “The Quickening,” sets the scene. It opens with the increasing pace of life we are all experiencing today. I show how this trend is not limited to modern times, but can be traced back through history all the way to the beginning of creation. What we are experiencing today is the culmination of billions of years of ever-accelerating development.

Why does evolution accelerate? The answer lies in the fact that new evolutionary breakthroughs often facilitate future advances. Multicellular organisms, sexual reproduction, and the emergence of nervous systems have each done their part to hasten the pace of evolutionary change. Now, with the emergence of human beings, two new features are speeding development yet further.