Level Up! 50 Game-Changing Life Skills for Young Adults+
Master a Growth Mindset, Productivity Tools, Healthy Eating, Biohacking, Brainpower, People Skills, Money, Financial Independence, and More
Covering skills ranging from healthy eating to planning for retirement, Level Up! is an encouraging self-help guide that suggests a systematic method for achieving personal success.
In Level Up!, father and diplomat Steve M. Scott converts personal letters into an accessible guide to living a balanced, rewarding life.
Before leaving to join the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) efforts in Ukraine during the Russian invasion, Scott wrote missives filled with advice and love to be shared with his children should he not make it back. While the letters were never needed in that context, they became the basis of this compendium of “game-changing life skills.”
Covering skills ranging from healthy eating to retirement that can be approached in a methodical, balanced manner to improve one’s life, the book begins with a focus on mental well-being, encompassing self-esteem, emotional intelligence, and self-reflection. Each successive topic builds from this basis, with the book encouraging productivity and good habits, nutrition, exercise, and attending to one’s cognitive skills. In its final pages, it addresses skills related to relationships, healthy money management, and leadership. And while it shifts from big topics to granular advice, fostering intentional growth and learning, the book has clear throughlines: There is a recurring emphasis on the importance of balance. Indeed, each skill is explored with the caveat that balance is paramount to its implementation.
The book’s variety of material is staggering, yet each subject is covered in sufficient depth, resulting in a text that holds interest and is informative throughout. For instance, the coverage of meal preparation includes sample recipes; the logic behind each choice is also explained. And each section also begins with self-assessment tools that the following chapters refer back to, fostering self-reflection throughout. This gentle level of interactivity keeps the book accessible and malleable to different needs. Footnotes appear throughout as well, attesting to the book’s expertise on the various subjects.
Distinguishing this text from other comprehensive self-help guides is its introduction of the COPE method. This standout framework for productivity involves Capturing or naming one’s goals, Organizing to achieve them, Producing results in an efficient, effective manner, and Evaluating the outcomes of one’s work. Its rubric is applicable in both personal and professional settings, and its steps reinforce the overall theme of balance. It also complements the book’s tone; in its adaptation from notes from a father to his children, the advice proves more generally encouraging, like depersonalized coaching. Sans judgement and negativity, the book focuses on teaching its audience to live well-rounded lives by establishing achievable, healthy goals at each step.
Level Up! is an engaging self-help book that suggests skill-based methods for achieving fulfillment with boundaries, balance, and practicality in mind.
Reviewed by
John M. Murray
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
